Saorsat, and which satellite for what

Saorview reaches the vast majority of Irish homes from masts on hills. The rest live behind a hill, down a valley or around a headland where the signal gives up. Since 2012 their answer has been Saorsat: the Irish channels by satellite, free, from a dish on the wall. That answer has an end date. 2RN says Saorsat will close in early 2028.

This page covers what that means first, then the wider question people ask once a dish is going up anyway: which satellite is for what?

Saorsat: closing in early 2028

Saorsat is run by 2RN, RTÉ’s transmission company, the same people behind Saorview. It launched in 2012 as the “infill” for the 1 to 2% of homes that Saorview’s masts can’t reach. It carries RTÉ, TG4 and Oireachtas TV, but none of the Virgin Media channels.

It doesn’t use the Sky satellite. It’s on KA-SAT at 9° East, a satellite built mainly for broadband, with a spot beam aimed at the island of Ireland. That satellite is the problem. In 2RN’s words, it “reaches end of life in 2028 and is not being replaced”, there’s no alternative satellite, and so Saorsat will be discontinued in early 2028.

Don’t install it now. 2RN recommends that no further Saorsat installations are carried out. If anyone offers to fit you a Saorsat dish, that’s a dish with little more than a year in it. Put the ladder down.

Already on Saorsat? Nothing changes yet. 2RN says existing users will be told through the Saorsat and Saorview websites as the date gets closer. Saorsat’s own site lists where the same channels carry on:

• Saorview, through an aerial, if one can be made to work at your address. Get an installer’s opinion on a proper rooftop aerial before you assume it can’t. A second opinion costs less than a new dish.
• The pay TV platforms: Sky, Virgin Media, eir TV and Vodafone TV.
• Online: the RTÉ Player, the TG4 Player and the Oireachtas TV website, on any streaming stick or smart TV, if your broadband is up to it.

If you’ve questions about your own house, the number on 2RN’s notice is 0818-21-22-21. 2RN’s Saorsat notice (official source, opens in a new tab)

Which satellite for what

Satellites sit at fixed points above the equator, named by their position in degrees east or west. Point a dish at one and you get what’s broadcast from it; the free-to-air part is yours with no card and no subscription. Here’s the map that matters from Ireland.

Astra 2 at 28.2°E: the UK channels

This is the one most Irish dishes point at, and the one Sky uses. The UK’s public service channels broadcast here free-to-air: BBC One to Four in HD, ITV1 to ITV4, Channel 4, E4, More4, Film4, Channel 5 and friends, CBBC, CBeebies, Talking Pictures TV and more. A 60 to 80cm dish is enough in most of the country. The full list, and the 2024 to 2026 changes that caught out older boxes, is in Free satellite channels.

Astra 1 at 19.2°E: German-language TV

The home of German-language satellite TV, with more than 100 free-to-air channels aimed at German-speaking countries. Useful if German is spoken in your house, or if you’re learning it and want the news every night. Expect a bigger dish than the UK channels need; your installer will know the size for your area.

Hot Bird at 13°E: the multilingual one

Hot Bird carries around 900 channels, about 300 of them free-to-air, for audiences across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. For Irish homes where another European, North African or Middle Eastern language is spoken, this is the satellite to ask about. It sits close to 19.2°E in the sky, which is why the two are often received together.

The rest of the sky

Other positions carry smaller free line-ups: Hispasat for Spanish and Portuguese channels, and other European positions such as 16°E. These are specialist territory. Tell an installer which language or country you’re after and they’ll tell you which satellite and what size dish.

A word on what “free” means: if a channel asks for a card, it’s encrypted and it’s a pay service. That’s not part of this, and there’s no legitimate way round it. The free-to-air channels are the whole offer.

One dish, several satellites

You have three ways to watch more than one satellite, and an installer will pick the right one for your wall and your sky.

Two LNBs on one dish. A second LNB mounted beside the first picks up a satellite a few degrees away. A “monoblock” LNB does the same job for close pairs like 19.2°E and 13°E in a single unit.

A switch. A small DiSEqC switch lets one receiver choose between several LNBs. Most modern satellite boxes support it.

A motorised dish. A motor turns the dish to whichever satellite you select, so one dish covers the whole arc. Slower to change channel, and more to go wrong, but the hobbyist’s choice.

Multi-satellite setups need a bigger dish; an Irish installer’s size guide puts it at 100 to 120cm for reliable reception from several positions.

Planning. One dish on a house is exempt from planning permission if it’s no more than 1 metre across, not on or forward of the front wall, not on the front roof slope or higher than the roof, and it’s the only dish. A second dish, or one bigger than a metre, falls outside that exemption, which is another reason to get two satellites off one dish. Apartments: ask the management company first.

Is satellite old tech?

A fair question, and we’d rather answer it straight.

The direction of travel is the internet. Sky launched Sky Glass in Ireland in 2022 and Sky Stream, which needs no dish at all, in July 2023. UK broadcasters would, by one industry analyst’s reading, rather not pay for satellite at all in the long run.

But the satellites aren’t going anywhere yet. Sky renewed its contract to broadcast from the Astra 28.2°E position until 2029, and the Astra 2 satellites there are expected to reach the end of their lives around 2030 to 2032. That’s a working life of several more years for a dish fitted today.

And a dish still makes sense in 2026 because:

• It costs nothing to run. No broadband data, no subscription, no app that stops being supported.
• It works when the broadband doesn’t, which in parts of rural Ireland is a real consideration.
• A dish already on the wall costs almost nothing to repurpose.

The honest summary: satellite is a mature technology with a known horizon, not a dead one. Buy a sensible dish and a decent HD box, don’t spend a fortune on exotic kit, and it’ll pay for itself long before anyone switches anything off.

What to buy

If you’re doing it yourself, or want to know what your installer will be fitting, these are the parts. None of them is for Saorsat, and with the service closing we wouldn’t buy Saorsat kit now.

Aiming a dish at the right satellite to within a degree or so is the hard part. For a two-satellite setup especially, an installer is money well spent. Prices across the country are in aerial and satellite installation costs.