other channels i'd be interested in tuning to if at all possible are Fiver & Dave

I understand that I wouldn't be able to record from these channels.

I can get them on freeview but the sky sports news signal strength is so low the picture keeps breaking up.

No fraid not Sky Sports News, Fiver And Dave are 'free-to -view' and not 'free-to-air'.

Sky Sports News is pay on satellite (part of the News pack).

But it's on "Free"view

Yep jzee is right my mistake it's via subscription on sky but available for free on freeview.

But not for very much longer probably- Ofcom is expected to give BSkyB the go-ahead next week for a pay TV service on DTT (Picnic?), which will probably start in August and will replace their existing free channels.

Would anyone willingly PAY for SSN?

Soccer Saturday presented by Jeff Stelling on Saturday afternoons , which is broadcast simultaneously on sky sports news and sky sports one, is one of the most popular programmes on $ky. It can get viewing figures in excess of 1 million (which is a lot for $ky).

I regularly watch on Freeview (probably the only time i switch from freesat to freeview viewing).

It would be a great loss if $ky were to pull the plugs on it on freeview. (and viewing figures would plummet for Soccer Saturday as a result)

But would i pay for Sky Sports News ? No.
I would of course miss Jeff and the gang but i would get over it.

SSN won't go Pay TV on Freeview. The current Sky channels may be replaced by other Sky offerings that will form part of a mini Pay TV platform on Freeview. Sky have however told Ofcom they aren't interested in doing that, they were 4 years ago when Ofcom turned them down but the market has changed and they are no longer interested in such a venture.