How to Watch the FA Cup: on DStv and Free-to-air

Every year, football’s oldest competition, FA Cup, comes around to give fans the much-needed excitement they crave. As a knockout tournament, every match you watch is more than likely to deliver its own surprise.

england ~ fa cup livescore

If you’re a DStv customer, you will want to know if and where you can watch an FA Cup match. While knowing that DStv will broadcast live matches is not an issue, finding out which package and channel you’ll need to get live FA cup events can be an issue.

These are the kind of questions we answer thoroughly on Dish Portal. We’ll also discuss how you can watch the FA cup on Free-to-air.

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Which DStv Channels will show the FA Cup?

Based on careful observation of DStv’s football schedule, most of the FA cup matches will be aired on Supersport Premier League, while the rest will be shown on any of the available Supersport Variety channels.

Why Supersport Premier League? Isn’t that the dedicated channel for EPL matches? Yes, it is. But there’s a lot of respect for the FA cup in English football, so most games are played during EPL breaks.

This means that when the FA cup is played, there will be no Premier League matches to interfere with it.

But in the later stages of the competition where you may have only one or two FA cup matches on a matchday, the governing body may allow some Premier League matches to be played on the same day.

On rare occasions as mentioned in the previous paragraph, you may not be able to view the FA cup on Supersport Premier League.

But this is no problem for DStv. They will simply move the live FA cup event to any of the Supersport Variety channels, or OTT, while they leave Supersport Premier League for live EPL matches.

Which DStv Package do you need to Watch the FA Cup?

Judging from the channels preferred by DStv for live matches, you’ll most likely need a DStv Compact subscription to enjoy the FA Cup.

You can watch the FA Cup on a lower package such as DStv Access or EasyView. But you’ll surely miss out on many high-profile games.

The best you’ll get from packages lower than the DStv compact will be highlights and matches involving lower league teams.

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How to Watch the FA Cup on Free-to-Air

If you have a working satellite dish and set-top box (or decoder) installation, you can watch the FA Cup for free.

How is this possible? It’s simple!

We’ve shown how you can modify your default settings to get FTA channels on your decoder. To watch the FA Cup, you only have to repeat that process using new parameters.

All you need to know is an FTA channel you can connect to that will give you live access to the events. We have good news for FA Cup fans.

According to Radio Times, ITV, a Free-to-air TV network was given the rights to air the 2022-23 FA Cup. Yes, that’s correct!

Now that you have an FTA channel that broadcasts live FA Cup matches, let’s see how you can connect and watch live matches.

Recommended article: Free-to-air sports channels.

You can do this if you have a dedicated FTA setup or a satellite TV decoder you can modify. Any one will work just fine.

1. Connect to the ITV channels: ITV1, ITVX, or ITV4. These are the channels that will give you high-profile FA cup matches. I recommend starting with ITV1 or ITVX.
2. Adjust your dish and decoder to connect to a satellite that relays ITV signals. (You will need the help of an installer for this step.)
3. Use the right settings to connect to the satellite and watch the FA cup on ITV.

Satellite Parameters for ITV channels:

• ITV1 on Astra 2E: 28.5°E; 10906 V; DVB-S; 22000; 5/6. (Source: Lyngsat)
• ITV4 on Astra 2E: 28.5°E; 10891 H; DVB-S; 22000; 5/6. (Source: Lyngsat)
• ITV4 on Astra 2G: 28.2°E; 11068 V; DVB-S; 23000; 3/4.
• ITV4 on Astra 2G: 28.2°E; 11608 H; DVB-S2; 15480; 5/6. 
• ITV4 on Hotbird 13C: 13.0°E; 11526 H; DVB-S2; 29700; 2/3.

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