BBC-SATBACK

intelsat907-spot2
Intelsat 907 at 27.5° West

The main PSB channels from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are available on Intelsat 907 at 27.5° West.
This service is a backup for Freeview and carries PSB channels from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
It is often referred to by its network name BBC-SATBACK.

It is a backup of Freeview multiplexes PSB 1 and PSB 3, it is not intended for direct-to-home (DTH) reception.
All the channels including radio are encrypted using the BISS encryption system. Many cheaper satellite receivers cannot find the channels as they are transmitted as data services, the video and audio PIDs need to be added manually on some receivers.

Icecrypt receivers work very well and the S1600CHD and S1600CHD SE are quite cheap and available from many stores including Maplins.
These will also automatically add the correct Pids for the various channels.
The Symbol Rate used 44100, is rather high and unusual, though even the cheapest DVB-S2 satellite receivers these days, can handle the unusual Symbol rate used by the service.

There have been reports of problems with the HD channels, video can be viewed, though no audio is available.
STV HD and UTV HD are not currently viewable.
To obtain audio on HD channels, AAC sound codec must be Switched on or a plugin installed. 

If you are using a Sat PC S2 DVB card, only update plugin AAC sound codex, that said, many HD receivers work without any audio problems.
Screen resolution is reported to be either 544 x 576 or 720 x 576 for standard definition channels in MPEG-2 and 1920 x 1088 for high definition channels in MPEG-4.

The service uses Spot 2 on the Intelsat 907, this covers most of northern Europe, the Iberian peninsula, and some areas of North Africa (Morocco). Reception may also be possible in the Canary Islands. It is operated by Aquiva.

BBC-SATBACK can be found on:

Intelsat 907 at 27.5° West
Transponder 74
11.495 Vertical
SR: 44100
FEC: 9/10
DVB-S2/MPEG2/MPEG4
Modulation: QPSK
Encryption: BISS
Sptbeam: Spot 2 (Europe)
Network Name: BBC-SATBACK

Satellite receivers that can  be used for BBC-SATBACK:
Galaxy Innovations
IceCrypt S1600CHD
IceCrypt S1600CHD SE
Technomate HD 5402 HD CI
Note that these satellite receivers may need to be “upgraded or patched” with custom firmware/software before they can be used for BBC-SATBACK service.


 

BISS Encryption

4HD on Intelsat 907

BISS is a rather weak and old encryption system, this is not really a problem for the PSBs. However weak the system is, they are not breaking any copyright issues and there is no overspill. BISS keys do change from time to time, though not too often.

BISS (Basic Interoperable Scrambling System) is a simple scrambling system to be used in DSNG, Satellite Contribution and Primary Distribution applications.
Using the DVB-CSA (Common Scrambling Algorithm), BISS is an encryption standard that was agreed upon in January 2000 by a group of professional codec vendors and the European Broadcasting Union.

The system enables operators to transmit and receive scrambled signals to and from different encoders and IRDs. BISS requires no expensive and complicated CA system as a password is directly entered into the encoder and the IRD.

BISS uses a fixed Session Word (SW, 12 digit hex) and DVB-CSA for encryption. The Session Word is used to derive a Control Word (CW 64 bit) for DVB-CSA.
Programmes like ProgDVB and MultiDec have DVB-CSA builtin. Others use a CSA or SoftCSA plugin DLL.

The BISS key consists of 16 digits (8 x 2 digits). Some programmes or receivers may require a 12 digit key.
To obtain a 12 digit key, remove the 4th and 8th groups of digits, these are checksums. Then press Set.
The channel should now be open. Repeat the process for all channels if necessary.

The current BISS key used by BBC-SATBACK is:

D581F94F24112D62 (16 digit)
D581F924112D (12 digit)


 

Legal and copyright issues

This information is provided for educational purposes only, neither the author nor www.astra2sat.com condone any illegal use or misuse of the information provided.

Is it legal or illegal to view these channels? Well, the answer has to be yes, viewing encrypted copyright content without permission is illegal.

It is not possible to purchase a legal subscription for the service. Any company or individual offering the service is doing so without permission from the broadcasters and is breaking the law.
There are companies or individuals selling receivers overseas who fail to inform customers that hacking into encrypted channels is illegal.

Although the BBC BISS keys are available on the internet, some unscrupulous satellite installers charge their clients for them.
It is also common for some installers to change the receivers PIN number, allowing only them access to the receivers menu.


 

 Intelsat 907 – TV & Radio Channels

The BBC-SATBACK service on Intelsat 907 satellite is used as a backup service for the UK’s Freeview system, should the Freeview mast relay service lose its feed from their parent transmitters.
In a deal signed in April 2007, Arqiva uses BBC-SATBACK to feed the signal to 90 main transmitter sites around the United Kingdom.

Screen resolution is reported to be either 544 x 576 or 720 x 576 for standard definition channels in MPEG-2 and 1920 x 1088 for high definition channels in MPEG-4.
All the channels seem to be ‘flagged’ as data, this is confirmed using DVB Dream software.
Please note that UTV HD, STV HD and BBC Alba are data channels, and are not currently available.

There is no EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) available on any of the channels,

Transponder 74 11.495 Vertical (DVB-S2)
SR: 44100
Modulation: QPSK
TV Channels (SD)
Encryption
SID
VPID
APID
BBC One London
BISS (MPEG-2)
4164
101
102 E
BBC Two England
BISS (MPEG-2)
4287
201
202 E
CBBC
BISS (MPEG-2)
4608
301
302 E
CBeebies
BISS (MPEG-2)
4672
401
402 E
BBC Four
BISS (MPEG-2)
4544
401
402 E
BBC News
BISS (MPEG-2)
4352
501
502 E
BBC Parliament
BISS (MPEG-2)
4736
601
602 E
BBC Red Button 1
BISS (MPEG-2)
7168
901
951 E
BBC One Wales
BISS (MPEG-2)
3101
3101
3102
BBC One Scotland
BISS (MPEG-2)
4220
4101
4102 E
BBC One Northern Ireland
BISS (MPEG-2)
5101
5101
5102 E
Film4 +1
BISS (H.264) 20352 7501 7502 E
TV Channels (HD)
Encryption SID VPID APID
BBC Two HD
BISS (MPEG-4 HD)
17472
6101
6102 E AAC
ITV HD (London)
BISS (MPEG-4 HD)
17608
6201
6202 E AAC
Chaannel 4 HD (London)
BISS (MPEG-4 HD)
17664
6301
6302 E AAC
Channel 5 HD BISS (MPEG-4 HD) 17728
6401
6402 E AAC
BBC One HD (England)
BISS (MPEG-4 HD)
17540
6601
6602 E AAC
CBBC HD
BISS (MPEG-4 HD)
17920
7001
7002 E AAC
STV HD (not viewable)
BISS (MPEG-4 HD)
17856
6501 
6502 E AAC
UTV HD (not viewable)
BISS (MPEG-4 HD)
20096
6801
6802 E AAC
Radio Encryption SID VPID APID
BBC Radio 1
BISS
18496
N/A
1002 E
BBC Radio 2
BISS
18560
N/A
1102 E
BBC Radio 3
BISS
18624
N/A
1202 E
BBC Radio 4 FM
BISS
18688
N/A
1302 E
BBC Radio 5 Live
BISS
17920
N/A
1402 E
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra
BISS
17984
N/A
1502 E
BBC 6 Music
BISS
18048
N/A
1602 E
BBC Radio 4 Extra
BISS
18112
N/A
1702 E
BBC Radio 1Xtra
BISS
18176
N/A
1802 E
BBC Asian Network
BISS
18240
N/A
1902 Various
BBC World Service Europe
BISS
18304
N/A
2002 E
Data Streams Encryption SID VPID APID
SIPSI In-band configurations Data 3 N/A N/A
Fat CSI Data 50 N/A N/A
BBC Alba Data 4860 N/A N/A
BBC Radio Scotland Data 6204 N/A N/A
BBC Radio Nan Gael Data 6248 N/A N/A
BBC Radio Ulster Data 6333 N/A N/A
BBC Radio Foyle Data 6397 N/A N/A
BBC Radio Wales Data 6462 N/A N/A
BBC Radio Cymru Data 6526 N/A N/A
301 Data 4416 N/A N/A
302 Data 7232 N/A N/A

 

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