BET HD has launched in the UK, specifically for the BET Awards, which will be shown at 8:30pm on Saturday, July 4th. The broadcast is being marketed as exclusively available to Freesat viewers.

“Being able to broadcast this year’s BET Awards exclusively on Freesat in HD is a real coup and we hope Freesat viewers will really enjoy watching some of the world’s biggest entertainers like Beyonce and Jay Z with amazing HD picture and sound quality," said Freesat managing director Emma Scott as reported by Digital Spy. BET is The Black Entertainment Television network, and their awards promote the best African American talent in the fields of TV, film, sport and music.

Ms. Scott is clearly living in a utopian marketing bubble however, because BET HD is also available to anyone who has a Sky+ HD receiver.  Adding the channel is achieved in exactly the same way as adding ITV HD, with just a couple of minor differences.

Firstly, follow steps one to five in our guide, ITV on Sky HD.  Then enter the following details, as shown in the screen below:

Frequency (GHz): 12.730
Polarisation: V
Symbol Rate (Mbaud): 27.5
FEC: 2/3

After pressing the yellow button to “Find Channels”, BET HD will be listed as Freesat HD F6U as in the screen below.

Simply store the channel as detailed in our ITV HD guide, and viewing it is exactly the same too; go to “Other Channels” under the “Options” menu (the same caveats about EPG listings and recording apply).  Currently the channel is showing a ident card, but come Saturday night, fingers crossed, Sky HD viewers will also be able to view the BET Awards... with amazing HD picture and sound quality. Thank you Emma! 

BET HD, a Freesat “exclusive” that's also available to Sky HD customers (the dodgy colour is their fault, not ours). The SD version of BET can be found on the Sky EPG at channel number 191 and on Freesat channel 140. Both are free to air.