NICE AND EASY: What channels require the international dish for DIRECTV?

DIRECTV has maintained a satellite at the 95 degree location for international programming for over a decade now. This satellite broadcasts international programming for US customers as well as providing programing for Latin America. While a lot of Spanish-language programming is available without a separate dish, most other languages will need a special dish to get this programming. This generally means two dishes, one for regular programs and one for non-English.

Why two dishes?

You need two dishes for a pair of reasons. First of all in order to reach all of DIRECTV’s satellite locations including the 95 location, a dish would have to be larger than 39″ wide. That would create some problems with homeowner’s associations. Federal law says you have a right to put up a dish on your private property if it’s 39″ or smaller.

More importantly, the satellite that is there uses a different technology and requires special aiming that could interfere with the aim you need for the other satellites. This all boils down to the way the satellite was originally built and is currently used. It’s one of the few satellites operated by DIRECTV but not owned by them. Back in 2002 it wasn’t a problem, but today I have a feeling they would have done things a little differently.

Mo’ dishes, mo’ problems?

Absolutely not. Once the two dishes are installed, you don’t have to do anything special to use one or the other. You just tune the channel and the right satellite is chosen automatically.

Channels on that satellite

According to FCC filings, the following list tells you what channels are on the 95 degree satellite in July, 2018. Special thanks to the crew at iamanedgecutter.com who maintain this list.

 

Country of Origin Channel Name
Brazil TV Globo
China Phoenix TV 2050
China Phoenix Info News 2051
China CCTV-4 2052
China CGTN 2053
China Jiangsu Satellite TV
China Charming China
China CBO
Italy MediaSet Italia
Korea SBS 2080
Korea MBC 2081
Korea KBS World
Korea YTN
Korea SBS Plus 2084
Korea MBC Every1
Korea TVN
Korea EBS
Korea MBN
Korea TAN
Korea National Geographic Korea
Korea CTS
Korea Radio Korea
Philippines TFC – The Filipino Channel 2060
Philippines GMA Pinoy TV 2061
Philippines ABS-CBN News Channel 2062
Philippines Cinema One Global 2063
Philippines ABS-CBN Sports + Action 2064
Philippines MOR 101.9
Philippines DZMM 2066
Philippines Myx 2067
Philippines INCTV
Philippines GMA Life
Philippines Lifestyle Network
Philippines Kapatid TV5
Portugal PFC (Portuguese)
Russia C1RW 2140
Russia RTR Planeta 2141
Russia Dom Kino 2142
Russia M1: Music Entertainment 2143
Russia Vremya: Retro Channel 2144
Russia Carousel
Russia NTV America
Russia Rossiya 24
Russia RTVI
Taiwan CTI 2056
Viet Nam SBTN
Viet Nam VGN TV
Viet Nam TViet Network
Viet Nam VietFace
Viet Nam S Channel
Viet Nam Vien Thao
Viet Nam VIETV
Viet Nam Film 24H
Viet Nam HONVIETV
Viet Nam Little Saigon Radio Channel

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.