New Sky cards (for paying Sky viewers)

Tech, TV, Mobile, Internet and Geek Corner
21
10 years ago Multiroom did not exist but now it does, so I mentioned it so the OP can be prepared to answer this if the question is raised.

22
My personal opinion is that Sky are trying to tighten their control on subscriptions. The hacked/programmable cards may be part of this. Is it a coincidence that they are also pushing the Sky+HD boxes and making it harder to get the standard boxes? HD boxes were on sale for around £200.00 not long ago.

I have seen Sky+HD boxes advertised in UK free, including a £25.00 Tesco voucher and installation reduced from £45.00 to £15.00

Standard boxes have increased from around £60.00 to around £200.00

I suspect that with all the Freeview boxes etc. the only way they can make money is from subscriptions. HD boxes and updated cards is a way to achieve this.

It may also be that HD is not taking off as anticipated and they have other oblgations to meet relating to this.

23
I too was concerned when I saw the message pop up on the sky box. But this morning (re)searched the issue and found out:

1) Sky have to do this every 5 years (they got an extension for 1 year this time).

2) More mainstream channels are now free to air, so in fact am not concerned anymore if I lose the few listed channels in a post above.

Here is a list of all channels on Sky, and all the ones in a light colour with an F icon are free to air. Amongst the list is all I want - BBC news, BBc 1-4, ITV 1-4, Channel 4, Five, Men & Motors,Travel Channel, Film 4, Sky News, CNN, Euronews, Cbeebies, BBC One Regions, BBc Radio 2, BBC Radio 4 ( etc etc

http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/skyuk_chno.html

3) If you are really bothered about the few that are freee but require the card you can buy a Sky viewing card for £20 - what about registering at a friend/relative's address. Not sure if it needs a phone line, but also I have a UK geographic number here so when I phone out it appears as If I am from a UK phone region. http://www.sipgate.co.uk/user/numbers.php

4) If all that fails and you still want the few extra channels, what about just buying a freesat box in UK say from Argos /Comet etc - or do they insist on you providing a UK address?

Note any friend/relative/caravan/holday home address used should have a TV licence as the details are passed to TV licensing I understand.

24
We are going to speak to the parents back in the UK today and warn them about us chaning address to them.

After that we will call (with our phone number hidden) Sky and change the address.

So hopefully we will not get any messages popping up on the screen and/or get cut off before we have the new card.

25
You don't have to provide a UK address to get Freesat.....however, I picked up my box in the UK. They may well exist, but I didn't find anyone to deliver overseas (on account of the fact that the broadcast is only UK licensed).

I have the HUMAX Foxsat HDR and am relatively happy with it for those considering dropping SKY on account of the address problems. If you can live without the subscription channels then the payback period for a Foxsat HDR vs SKY+ HD is less than 5 months.

Chris

26
Sky replace all cards about every 5 years. As for Sky not doing well, see this .

27

you do know that you can block your number from a regular land line too, don't ya??

28
Now to get people paranoid.

Just to make you aware, blocking numbers (caller ID) is not guarenteed. Your number can still be displayed at the recieving location if the recieving telecom operator chooses not to take notice of your block request.

Basically when you block your number, the number is actually sent as part of the call, to the receiving telecom provider along with a flag that says "please hide number", the telecom company decides if they take notice of the flag or not. Example - India, they simply don't care about the flag and display the number of all calls incoming, number withheld or not.

This seems to be happening with more and more countries at the moment.

29
Credit cards don't need to be on a UK bank or associated with a UK address.

30
Has anyone received one of these new cards yet?

31
can you give sky a foreign mailing address? for instance people with vacation homes their using sky, would they be able to use a different mailing address for billing purposes?

32
Sky only have the rights to broadcast within the UK, therefore they can only issue a card to a UK address.

33
Hi,

probably very naive question. moving to the country soon and do have a spare sky box that could take with me and set up an account here, but how do I install it all? and do I have to have a dish?!

I am a girl, so please forgive me... thanks!

34
Even girls are allowed to use the forum's search function...

35
I'm still connected despite using the old card. Has anybody been disconnected yet?

36
Last time Sky changed the cards it took a full year to do so, it will probably be the end of this year, or early next year, before all the cards are replaced.

37
Haven't received a new card yet?

38
Likewise, still waiting for the new card to come.

39
They won't post to a Swiss address

40
Any update on this as we started to get the message a week ago too