My brother lives near Perpignan and reports that since Christmas various Freesat channels including the Channel 5 family, ITV1 and last weekend even BBC1 have made a comeback albeit on an intermittent basis.  I couldn't replicate it here and was wondering if anyone else had had any joy.

A while back before we lost our BBC etc We all followed skyinmadrid re the best info and not rumour.Another good souce is the sat and pc guy re help and news.

http://www.satandpcguy.com/

ASTRA 2E AND 2F SIGNALS AT THEIR STRONGEST FOR THE YEAR
It's not entirely a coincidence that the winter solstice, Christmas and the strongest satellite signals on the UK-only beams are at the same point of the calendar. Whilst viewers in the UK and near continent enjoy good reception all year round, those in fringe areas of Europe trying to view BBC & ITV suffer seasonal variations. Probably due to the attitude of the satellite's solar panels, signals peak at this time of year. From February onwards, levels decrease, with a low point in the hot months. Whilst in part this is caused by an increase in background electronic noise from the ground and your own device in warm weather, the rest is down to the satellite's orbit.
On the ground, this means that many who lost their BBC in February have found pictures returning over the past three months. Sadly, the gain is temporary.


Astra 2G has now been handed over and will be the new pan European beam (UK and Europe)It is likely to go into service in late February or March 2015.It also contains X channels/frequencies (Military)reaching over Africa/Middle East etc.The powers that be have not explained anything about the X factor part of the satellite.Keep up with progress and details of the spot beam below.This may or may not result in smaller dishes as we had before We shall have to wait and see.

http://skyinmadrid.com/pages/news.html

I have got my new dish up and running Just about to start on the Casa...... Planning permission granted 

Satellite: Reduced footprint for ITV3 HD
The high definition version of ITV's classic drama channel ITV3 has switched to a UK spotbeam, reducing coverage outside of the UK.For expats, it means reception of ITV3 HD becomes as difficult as reception for the free-to-air ITV3 standard definition service and the other main UK television channels. 

http://www.a516digital.com/2015/02/Reduced-footprint-for-ITV3-HD.html