19/01/2013 00:00
TW
0

Palma.—Sean Connolly of Ocean TV, who recently wrote about the pending changes and possible consequences, admitted this week that some British residents in the north east of the island - the Pollensa area - are getting extremely concerned that they may even lose BBC and ITV and removal company sources have also reported that some residents are even considering leaving the island if that occurs once the new satellite is operating. Sean admitted that Channel 5 has already switched to another satellite and as a result some people have already lost Channel 5 and its sister channels and Channel 4 is about to follow suit at the end of the month which could lead to the same result. “Basically, if you draw a line from Soller to Palma, anyone living to the left will not be affected by the changes at all, however those living to the right will experience the loss of certain channels, including some pay per view ones. From Campanet to Sa Coma is the line across which the problems will begin and they will gradually get worse as we get nearer Pollensa and Minorca. We've already been called out to Pollensa by clients who have lost Channel 5 and it's very difficult to restore the signal, in fact impossible in some cases unless people up grade the size of their dish to 1.65 or even 1.8 metres but the latter is too heavy and strong to go on a wall so it needs its own separate mount and in some apartment blocks, that is very complicated. “ Sean said.

But, for the time being, there is no need to panic.
The new satellite, which is a sister satellite built at the same time and in the same place as the current satellite in operation, is not going to be launched until May because it is stuck in the queue of satellite launches and Sean stressed that full effect of the new satellite will not be realised until July or even August. “There are numerous possibilities, the strength of the satellite signal may remain the same, it may become even stronger for BBC and ITV or, in the worse case scenario, weaken and that will mean problems for people in the Pollensa area and in Minorca. “However, until August, I would advise people to just wait. You can restore Channel 5 channels by subscribing to Sky or switch to a box top Internet connection which will not need a satellite dish at all. “We have been approached by people already for bigger dishes but as we don't know what is going to happen this summer, we'd rather not install a bigger dish which, at the end of the day, may make no difference at all,” Sean admitted. “It all depends on how the engineers tweak the satellite, if they tweak it to a more northern point then some parts of the island are going to have problems, but if it remains pointing south, then we're all safe,” he added. “But, there is no need for people to start planning on leaving sunny Majorca for the cold and wet of the UK just because they can not watch BBC or ITV at the moment or ever, to be honest, because we don't know what is going to happen until the new satellite comes into operation,” was Sean's advice.