'Astra 2D' is one of a group of satellites operated by
SES Astra, located at 28.2° East in the
Clarke Belt. It is a
Hughes HS-376 craft, and was launched from
Centre Spatial Guyanais,
Kourou in
December 2000.
Most of the
transponders are used to provide television channels available on the
Sky Digital satellite service to the
United Kingdom and
Republic of Ireland. Although the satellite's beam is tightly focused on the
British Isles, surrounding countries have the ability to pick the signal up (dependent on suitably sized satellite dishes). However some channels on 2D are encrypted with
Videoguard (a proprietary encryption method by the
NDS Group) and only
Sky Digiboxes with valid cards, or standard hardware with non-approved (with respect to the Sky/NDS end-user contract) "Dragon", or "T-Rex"
Conditional Access Modules can decode these channels.
The
BBC broadcasts all of its domestic television channels (including
BBC HD and the
regional variations of
BBC One and
BBC Two) unencrypted from the Astra 2D satellite.
ITV also broadcasts all its television channels (including
regional variations of
ITV1, as well as
STV and
UTV) unencrypted from the Astra 2D satellite.
Channel 4 also broadcasts its additional channels—
E4,
More4 and
Film4 along with their timeshift variants from this satellite, the former 2 are encrypted, the latter is
free-to-air. However, Channel 4 itself comes from
Astra 2A.
Although primarily a television broadcast satellite, other services such as satellite internet can be carried.
External links
★
Astra 2D page on SES Astra
★
Satco Frequency List
★
Lyngsat Frequency List
★
The Astra 2D Website
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