Free satellite channels in Ireland

Every evening, a satellite parked 36,000 kilometres over the equator beams BBC One, ITV, Channel 4, Film4 and a few dozen other channels across these islands, free, to anyone with a dish pointed at it. No subscription. No card. No account. Most people in Ireland have no idea, and quite a few have the dish on the wall already.

What’s free, and why

The UK’s public service broadcasters are required to be available free-to-air, and they broadcast unencrypted on the Astra 28.2°E satellite. That satellite is the one Sky uses, which is why the dish Sky fitted in 2011 is pointed exactly where it needs to be.

The line-up is what the UK calls Freesat. It’s a British service and it doesn’t market itself in Ireland. The channels themselves are broadcast unencrypted, so a generic free-to-air satellite receiver, or a combo box that also takes your Saorview aerial, picks it all up.

What you don’t get is anything Irish. RTÉ, Virgin Media and TG4 aren’t on the free satellite line-up. For those you need a Saorview aerial; the Irish side is on our Saorview channel list. Hence the combo box. RTÉ and TG4’s own free satellite service, Saorsat, closes in early 2028, so it’s no longer worth installing; Saorsat and the other satellites explains, and covers the German and European satellites too.

The channel list

This is the Freesat line-up as reviewed in January 2026, grouped by what you’d actually use it for. Numbers are Freesat’s own; a generic box will list them in its own order.

Things that are not free: Sky’s own channels, TNT Sports, and anything that needs a viewing card. Some channels on the satellite are pay-only or excluded from Ireland by rights; Times Radio, added in 2026, is one of those. If a channel asks for a card, it’s not part of this.

What changed in 2024, 2025 and 2026

Satellite line-ups used to sit still for years. They’ve been busy lately, and the changes are why some older boxes suddenly “lost” channels.

November 2024: Channel 4 went HD-only. Channel 4 ended the standard-definition satellite broadcast of its main channel at the end of November 2024, leaving it on the HD slot. At the same time, E4, More4 and Film4 moved to a newer transmission standard called DVB-S2. Older boxes that can’t handle HD or DVB-S2 lost all four. If your box is from the first generation of Freesat receivers, that’s what happened to you, and the fix is a newer box.

January 2025: ITV1 finished going HD everywhere. ITV completed the move of all its regions to HD on satellite. Some Irish viewers needed to retune or reboot their box to see it.

January 2025: BBC Four and CBBC stayed. Their planned closures were postponed, and big changes are considered unlikely before the BBC’s charter renewal in 2027.

2026: minor tidying. Nat Geo +1 closed in June 2026, TNT Sports dropped its standard-definition channels in July 2026, and Times Radio arrived as a pay service excluded from Ireland. None of these affect the free line-up above.

The long view. The current Astra satellites are expected to reach the end of their lives around 2030 to 2032, according to an industry report from February 2026, and the UK broadcasters are leaning towards internet delivery in the long run. Sky has renewed its satellite contract to 2029. So a dish is good for years yet, but it’s not a forever technology. Nothing in TV is.

What kit you need

A dish. 60cm is the common size in Ireland. Satworld sells a 60cm dish with a quad LNB for around €59 and describes it as the most commonly used dish here for this satellite. An installer’s size guide says 60 to 80cm is enough in Dublin, Cork and Limerick, and 80cm or more in rural and coastal parts of the west.

An old Sky dish will do. One Irish satellite retailer’s FAQ says you simply replace the Sky box with a free-to-air box. The exception is Sky Q, whose LNB needs swapping for a standard one first.

A box. Either a free-to-air satellite receiver, or a combo box that also takes your Saorview aerial. We’d go combo every time, because the Irish channels matter and it’s one remote instead of two. Our picks are in Combo boxes.

Or a TV with a satellite tuner. Some TVs have a built-in satellite tuner alongside the Saorview one. Check the back for a second round socket labelled SAT or LNB. If it’s there, you don’t need a box at all. LG’s 2026 C6 OLED, from our TV picks, is one that has it.

Doing it yourself, or want to know what you’re paying the installer for? These are the three parts: a dish with its LNB, the combo box, and a quad LNB if you want to feed more than one room or box.

Getting the dish fitted

Aligning a dish by eye is a special kind of frustrating; it needs to point within a degree or so. Most people get it done. Irish installers’ published prices as of September 2026:

• Dish install from around €165, or dish plus Saorview aerial from around €185, at a Dublin installer.
• Dish install €180 to €249, or a complete combo system with box for €250 to €340, on a national installer’s price page.
• Dish replacement around €120 in Dublin.

More installers’ prices, including Cork and Galway, plus questions to ask and red flags, are in aerial and satellite installation costs.

Planning permission and apartments

One dish on a house is exempt from planning permission under the Planning and Development Regulations, if it’s the only dish, no more than 1 metre across, not on or forward of the front wall, and not on the front roof slope or higher than the roof. That’s from a county council copy of the regulations, and the DLR council FAQ repeats the same four conditions. A 60cm dish on the side or back wall is fine.

The exemption is written for a house. If you’re in an apartment, the wall isn’t yours, and the management company decides. Ask first. Many blocks already have a communal dish feeding every apartment, so check for a satellite socket on the wall before assuming you need anything.

Freesat-branded boxes

Freesat-branded boxes are sold in Ireland and work for the broadcast channels. They are built for UK homes, though: one Irish satellite retailer’s FAQ notes that the box’s UK catch-up apps won’t function here. Those apps are UK-only, and that isn’t something to work around. A generic free-to-air or combo box is the simpler buy. Watch the broadcast channels, use the Irish catch-up apps on a streaming stick for on-demand, and everyone’s happy.

Putting it together

A combo setup, aerial plus dish plus one box, gives an Irish household somewhere north of forty free channels across the two islands, in HD where it counts, with no subscription and no monthly reminder that you’re paying for something. For the things that aren’t on it, the finder will tell you the cheapest legal way to add them for the months you want. That’s the whole strategy: free foundation, paid extras only when they earn it.

If it’s specifically the BBC and ITV you’re after, BBC and ITV in Ireland covers every legal way to get them.