I am looking to install a Sky dish in postcode 33570.
I am looking to stick with Sky (just £13 per month so cheap)
Can someone please advise of the correct dish size.
Hi Mat,
Might be worth giving these people a call. They are based in the Tarn (I used to see their van regularly in Mazamet) but I believe they will travel far and wide. Never used them so can’t recommend.
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We watch rugby European challenge and champions cup matches on Beinsports (subscription) via a dish pointed at Eutelsat on a French Samsung smart TV equipped with a Fransat decoder module CI+ that gives the French TNT bouquet. Six Nations rugby is always on France 2. Beinsports has lots of stuff - handball, football, rugby, basketball - not just French - see their website. Cycling is on France 3 and France 2. Commentary of course is in French. Good for picking up specialist sporting vocabulary. For documentaries I recommend Arte, channel 7, often BBC productions voiced over in French.
For Astra 2E probably 90cm but you’re a good bit south of the footprint so you might need some local knowledge - I don’t see why a decent anteniste shouldn’t help.
For 2F and 2G you’re in the middle of the footprint so shouldn’t need anything special.
As Simon says if you have good broadband IPTV might be an option and Mandy’s link looks interesting.
If possible I just want yo stick with our existing Sky decoder and cheap subscription for simplicity and recording functionality.
Our broadband service is not great.
Understandable.
In may case I was lucky as the house already had a dish so all I needed was to get it realigned which cost me 60€
It should be trivial to find someone to install the dish - or maybe even DIY Mike Kearney seems to have been happy with this approach for picking up Eutelsat.
I have just received a quite insulting price from a local installer of nearly 500 euros to put up a dish. I questioned the price and it was 100 euro parts and 400 euros labour! Truly laughable.
I have now ordered a full dish kit (Inc twin lnb, bracket, cable and signal tester) from UK for £105 including delivery. I will be installing it myself.
Only 4 screws, …£20 for 100m of aerial cable. Maybe it was chasing the cable through, filling the holes and redecorating the lounge 
I haven’t felt the need to reply to find out anything further from him.
How hard can it be?! (I am about to find out)
Ouch!
I know artsans in France are expensive but that is starting to take the biscuit.
Too little competition, I suspect.
I felt much the same way about a devis we got to mow the garden - 34€ per hour, taking the cuttings away on top and he expected me to tell him how long the job would take (err… you’re the professional gardener).
I think they have your number Matt!
Local dish fitter spent about 3 hours trying to find BIL’s Astra satellite channels. Finally I brought round sat finder took about 10mins, got a Galic curse and they left. It’s not that hard. Recommend you invest in at least a basic sat finder.
All well and good a basic sat finder. They only tell you there is a satellite not which one. Best is a portable tv and a sat box, point the dist to 19.2 E and go by trial and error. I installed the dish and everything else and got a local Sat guy to do the final tuning. 50 smackeroos and i have a reception better than any cinema.
I’ve always installed Sat dishes like that too, small portable tv & a compass
fully agree with all that from Jonathen. Suggest you don’t get the smallest dish recommended but go up a size …. 110cms?? to ensure a good signal in bad weather.
I am in the south near Aix en Provence and have a 130cms dish. Works great except in thunderstorms or very heavy rain.
True but the satellites ID comes up on the TV so just have to check.
The slightly better units are half the price they were a couple of years ago.
KKmoon WS6906 3.5in LCD Display Data Digital Satellite Signal Finder Meter Amazon.co.uk
Mat,
With respect (as my old boss used to say when he was about to insult you!) you are thinking like an Englishman. You are already paying 25% more for the parts you have ordered from England than your installer has quoted. So he doesn’t sound like a rip-off merchant. There are considerable costs in running a business here in France and if he is employing people to work for him, they will be decently paid and have job security and pensions. None of your zero hours contracts here! He will also have to compete with the cash-in-hand cowboys who will offer to do it at half price. So that seems to be about the right price to have the job done properly by a qualified installer.
But for many of us, DIY is the way to go. As some of the poorest pensioners in Europe we have more time than money. But do remember that any work involving ladders comes with a risk of serious injury. I am reminded of Hilaire Bellocks little poem -
Lord Finchley tried to mend the Electric Light
Himself. It struck him dead: And serve him right!
It is the business of the wealthy man
To give employment to the artisan.
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Hi Mike
I would have been happy to pay what I consider to be a fair price for the job of perhaps at most 150 euros labour for the 1 hour job - but 400 euros for 1 hours work is not due to the costs of running a business here, it is plain greedy.
I cannot afford, and would not pay 400 euros for such a job as I have the time, tools and knowledge to do it myself.
Having recently refurbished 1 house and about to start on another I know it is expensive to use contractors - but that was just taking the p**s.
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If it was a genuine quote presumably he felt it fairly represented the value of the work to be done and the overheads he would have in doing it, would have been deemed reasonable by a prospective customer and not undercut by local competition (if any).
Or he could just have been taking the piss.
Sometimes artisans do a devis dissuasif, ie they don’t really need or fancy the job but for eg 5 times the going rate they will tolerate doing it.
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The thought had crossed my mind, I suspect it crossed Mat’s as well