Satellite visibility and channel availability varies throughout the world; these notes are mainly relevant to viewers in the UK, western and central Europe, north Africa and near east countries.
Yes. There are many "free-to-air" channels transmitted by broadcasters in various languages. You can receive free-to-air channels with a basic receiver and without paying any subscription.
If instead you wanted to receive specific encrypted channel/s you would need to pay a subscription, obtain a viewing card for each and a have receiver that can handle the viewing cards. Please consult an authorized installer/supplier about the specific channels to make sure you get a compatible system. This website only covers free-to-air channels.
No. The digital satellite receiver used to receive foreign language channels described on this WLTV website can usually be plugged into your existing TV and VCR using a 'SCART' lead and you will be able to select the foreign channel by using the remote control that is supplied with the satellite receiver.
Yes. Sky offers some Asian language programming aimed for example at speakers of Urdu and Panjabi living in the UK. TV5 (French), DW-TV (German and English) and some Portuguese channels are also available. TVEi (Spanish) was also available until recently.
Sky also offers EuroNews which is transmitted in several languages but to switch from one language to another may involve adjusting the installation settings. It also is more convenient to be able to switch language instantly via the remote control without going into the system set-up. EuroNews is also available free-to-air in a wider range of languages on Astra 19.2E and Hotbird 13E satellites.