Freeview cheating me of my channels...

[admin_exported]

I'm sure this has come up before in a thread but I couldn't see it from looking.

I'm staying in a rented house for a year and had Virgin+ before. I can only use Freeview here and I am constantly amazed and frustrated that Freeview has scaled down channels like Virgin+ and encrypts UK Gold, eurosport etc.

Does anyone know why Freeview customers don't get the full channels? Do I have to upgrade with a CI card to get the full output as seen on Virgin in their most basic TV packages? Not possible at the moment as I don't have a CI slot on my DVD PVR so I'm up a creek without a paddle until we move back next summer.

Would still like to know if anyone has an explanation.

Cheers

 

[Anonymous]

This is not Freeview's fault. well, not entirely.
Some of the channels you miss are not 'free to air' and so can't play on Freeview, which is by its very nature of no cost to the viewer. They may be 'basic tier' on Virgin, and appear as part of your basic package (for which you pay an access fee) but that's a different set of rights. This is why you need a card reader for some channels (Top-Up)
In addition Freeview requires VERY LARGE amounts of cash to carry a channel. Lots of naughts. It's not financially viable for some channels to be carried on Freeview given this extraordinary cost to market. They may well be free to air but they sure as Hell aren't free to broadcast.
The carriage terms are financially more attractive on Virigin, FreeSat and Sky.... There are other negative issues with these carriers, but they are cheaper, which is why you have more on those platforms.