How To Receive Polish Satellite TV In the UK

Ever since the end of the second world war and certainly in the 1990’s and 2000’s, huge numbers of Polish people have up sticks, moved abroad and now call the United Kingdom their home. It is said that there are now close to 1,000,000 polish people in the UK at the time of writing this (2018). Obviously one of the downsides of moving abroad is that it’s not always easily to receive TV from your native country and all the fish and chips or cups of tea in the world won’t help. Fortunately, because Poland, in relative terms is actually very close the UK it is actually possible with a satellite dish to receive Polish satellite TV here in the UK. If you’re interested in receiving this, let this article be a guide to you.

What is required to get Polish TV in England, Scotland, Wales & Ireland?

To receive polish TV in the UK you will need:

1x 80cm satellite dish

1x satellite set top box (including CAM and Smart card for subscription services)

1x LNB

1x coaxial cable

Recommend Satellite Dish For Polsat

The satellite dish you will require should be around 80cm. I usually use a Triax 78cm for this task, but any dish around this size should be okay. On the south coast here where we are, certainly below London. Although it’s not recommended you can get away with a 65cm satellite dish if you’re concerned that the satellite dish is going to be too large. If you’re in Scotland and the north of England then you should not try a 65cm satellite dish.

Where to Install the satellite dish

The satellite dish should be installed on your south facing wall or have a clear view of the satellites at 13E. So, your satellite dish could be installed on a satellite dish that is not your south facing wall but it must have a clearance so that the building itself doesn’t block the incoming satellite signals.

The LNB you will need

A universal LNB will need to be installed on the end of the satellite dish, the coaxial cable that connects to the satellite set top box will connect into this. When you buy your satellite dish you will usually need to buy this separately. If you intending to install a recordable satellite receiver (PVR) then you will need to install a LNB with more than one output, like a twin or quad LNB as two satellite cables will need to be installed for the recording facilities to work properly on the PVR. You will also need to install a larger output LNB if you intend to run Polish satellite TV to multiple rooms. You can get Octo LNB’s that have eight outputs so you could potentially have Polish TV running to up to eight rooms. If you require more than this, you could either install a second satellite dish or install a multi-switch amplifier. Please note that satellite signals can’t simply be split, you will need to install cables back to the satellite dish.

The Satellite Set Top Box For Polish TV

You will also need a satellite set top box or satellite TV. If you just want the free to air TV services that Poland has to offer then you can get away with any generic satellite receiver. You will just need to connect the satellite receiver to the satellite dish and perform a blind scan and your free channels will be there. There is only a hand full of free unerypted polish satellite channels, so it’s possible that you would want one of the polish packages like, Cyfrowy Polsat, NC+, Orange Polska and Telewizja na karte. All of these use the same satellites so the satellite dish wouldn’t need to change the satellite dish if you wish to change the service. You will need to make sure you have the correct set top box, Conditional access module (CAM) and smart card for the package you wish to receive.

Recommended Cable For Installation

The final piece of the jigsaw is the connected cable between the satellite dish and the satellite set to box. I recommend WF100 or similar as the cable of choice, however if you are running two cables to one room you may want to opt for something like a WF65 twin cable for ease of installation and these will actually fit through the same 10mm hole that you use for a single coaxial cable, with a little bit of wiggling.

What satellite for Polish TV?

The satellite dish almost certainly should be aligned to the Hotbird satellites at 13 degrees east of dues south. Again, this satellite dish should be around 80cm for good reception. If you are trying to find it using satellite dishes that are aligned to 28.2E for UK TV like Sky, this would be right a little bit, heading West and up a bit.

You can actually get some Polish services from all of the following satellites:

Astra 4A (4.8E), Eutelsat 7A (7E), Eutelsat 9B (9E), Eutelsat 16A (16E), Astra 1L (19.2E), Astra 3B (23.5E), Astra 5B (31.5E), Eutelsat 33C (33E), Hellas Sat 2 (39E), Intelsat 904 (45E), Belintersat 1 (51.5E) Thor 5, Thor 6, Thor 7, Intelsat 10-02 (0.8W), Amos 3 (4W), Eutelsat 7 West A (7W), Telstar 12 Vantage (15W), Intelsat 35 (34.5W) and Intelsat 35 (34.5W)

Please note that many of these satellites only contain one or two Polish TV services and may require a larger satellite dish so I strongly recommend that you use the Hotbird satellites for Polish TV. Also, the further of due south you travel east or west the more difficult obtaining reception can be as the satellites would appear lower on the horizon.

Polsat – 13E

The most common satellite TV service for Polish TV in the UK would be Polsat which is transmitted from Hotbird at 13E. For subscription services this would need to be registered to a Polish address. So, if you have family or relatives in Poland now is the time to ask them a favour.

Often it is easier to get all of the equipment abroad and bring it over as it can be more difficult to do this part here, obtaining the satellite dish itself and getting someone to install it is actually quite easy. However the satellite viewing equipment can be purchased online, usually at a small premium.

Polish Satellite Installations in East Sussex

If you’re based in East Sussex and need help with your Polish satellite dish installation or alignment, then please do get in touch as we can help you. We are a small company based in Eastbourne and regularly help the residents of Brighton, Bexhill, Hastings and Uckfield with the installation and setup foreign satellite systems.

I hope that this blog was of some help to you. If you have any questions or would like me to clarify any points please do leave a blog below and check back for more blogs from us.

Bye for now,

Tom Smart

Home Entertainment & Connectivity Specialist

Aerial & Satellite Extraordinaire