August 2008 - the start of the 2008/9 Barclays Premier. There’s also the England qualifiers and pre-season friendlies.

If you’ll be watching the action on Sky - we’ve found a handy offer - Get three months of Setanta Sport for just £6.50.

To take advantage, use the special promotional code of 3650 online at www.setanta.com - Offer code expires at midnight on 6th August 2008.

Freesat, the BBC and ITV service, finally launched today, the 6th of May.

Freesat offers 80 channels TV and radio without subscription. To get the service, you’ll need a satellite dish and a special Freesat receiver.

Channel lineup offers few surprises. Many of the channels available on Freeview are present, including Channel 4, E4, More 4, ITV2, ITV3, BBC3, BBC News, CBBC and CiTV. Five, Fiver and Five US are missing from the lineup, but are apparently expected soon. Other channels include Film 4, True Movies, Movies4Men, Euronews, Men & Motors, Wedding TV, Chart Show TV and Al-Jazeera. You can find the full list here.

High Definition: Freesat is also offering HD content. At the moment, this is the BBC HD service, but this will soon be joined by the ITV’s new HD service. Irritatingly, ITV’s HD content won’t be available to Sky’s almost half-a-million HD customers, and Channel 4 HD won’t be available to Freesat customers.

The cost: To get Freesat, you need a dish pointing in the direction of the Sky Digital satellite (Astra / Eutelsat). If you don’t have a suitable dish, installation costs £80. As for boxes, there are two types at present - a Standard Definition box (from £49), and a High Definition box (from £120). A receiver with a built-in recorder (to rival Sky+) is reportedly due in July this year.

Launch “issues”: Today’s the official launch day, but no-one’s able to actually get a receiver. There are four authorised retailers selling boxes, but anyone looking for one today may be out of luck. After a ring-around, here’s what we found:

• Argos: Five boxes listed on their website, but all out of stock. Some branches appear to have stock, especially the Bush receivers, but they’re under instructions not to sell them. A call to Argos Customer Services (0870 600 3030) revealed that the Goodmans and Bush models weren’t being sold for “Quality Control reasons”, with one online forum reporting an issue with channel reception on the Bush model. Argos are only able to sell the Humax FoxSat - but no stock in London or the South East.
• Currys: No stock. Nothing on the Currys website. We checked in with a Central London store, and were told 4-6 weeks
• Comet: No stock. Calling Comet’s customer service line (08705 425425), we were told 7 days
• John Lewis: Nothing on their website. Rumours that the Humax receiver may be due “later today” in Oxford Street

Alternatives? Free-to-view satellite TV’s been around for a while. If you fancied Sky, but not their hefty monthly fees, they also offer Freesat from Sky with 200 channels for a one-off £150. Sky also had their Sky Pay Once, Watch Forever service - 200 free-to-view channels and free hardware for a one-off £75. Neither offer free HD though

We’ll be following Freesat with interest, and covering this in our next show - don’t miss out - sign up for show alerts.

Later this year, we can expect to see FreeSat launch in the UK. This is a joint free-to-view satellite TV service that’s due to offer 80 free TV channels, plus some high-definition content.

It’s due in “Spring 2008″. What we know so far can be found on our FreeSat UK page.

In November, the Disney Channel announced it’s joining the Picnic TV lineup. If you’re not sure what Picnic is – this is a proposed pay-TV service backed by Sky.

Picnic is pending approval from Ofcom. If it gets the go-ahead, the service, that can be received via a TV aerial, will offer subscribers premium Sky content, including Sky Sports 1, Sky Movies, Sky One and Disney. Sky’s current Freeview channels, Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Three, will vanish to make way for this new service.

Are you pro-Sky One coming to Freeview, or anti-Sky’s plans for TV dominance? Ofcom are after public opinions on this, but hurry as the consultation ends on 14th December - See http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/dtv/. We’re also after your thoughts, so please add your views which may feature in the next show.