Sky Dish As Aerial?

[goodgoalie]

My elderly neighbour wants to end her Sky subscription, but is worried that as she has no other aerial she wouldn't be able to receive any stations. Am I right in thinking that if she ends her subscription, the dish could still be used, and act as a 'normal' aerial? Do Sky take the dish away if you end subscription?

[Old_Geezer]

May need to be repointed towards a free tv channel satellite.

[Mexican18]

She will still get all the Freeview channels through thedish.

[Tuvok]

She will effectively turn her Sky into FreeSat.

She will get all the free to air channels.

Freeview is the name of the suite of channels through an aerial.

[Old_Geezer]

Yeah but she won't get many naughty channels on freesat !

[RichieNorwich]

A Sky dish can pick up 'ordinary' tv if the tv set is capable of receiving what is called 'FreeSAT'. I hate to disappoint you, but MOST tvs do not receive FreeSAT, but Freeview instead. Your neighbours are correct that for Freeview, you need an ordinary tv aerial, instead of the SKY dish. If they live close to a tv transmitter they can use an indoor set-top tv aerial, available on eBay for £12.99 including postage, or if they need a loft aerial kit, about £14.99 (including postage). I hope this answer is helpful, Richard in Norwich.

[ToraToraTora]

no need to do anything, she'll get the normal free view stuff via the sky box. They won't take any hardware away shwe wont have any record/sky + features etc.

[goodgoalie]

Thanks for the replies. From what I can see, it seems that she would really need to purchase a Freesat box, which would give her access to all the usual channels, plus catch-up TV if she has broadband.

[ToraToraTora]

no, the sky box will do that. Do nothing at all.

[bluemoon1]

Cancel the subscription, see what you're left with and then take it from there.

[Giggsie]

They will still have free sat tv off their sky box just cancel sky and still have loads of channels..sky do not remove dish or sky box.

[carrot99]

I cancelled my sky subscription last year. I made a one off payment of £25 to sky for a freesat card to replace the card I had in the box. So I use the existing equipment to receive the equivalent of Freeview channels with no further subscription.

[Buenchico]

Sky normally permits people to keep their set-top boxes when they cease to subscribe. (Indeed, I've never known anyone who's been required to return their box).

A Sky box without a subscription becomes a generic 'free-to-air' satellite receiver, which can actually get MORE stations (in it's 'off the shelf' state) than a Freesat box can. (Freesat provides a subset of all available free-to-air satellite channels, although its possible to add the more obscure ones that are available manually).

Assuming that your neighbour is able to keep her old Sky box, there's very little point in her purchasing a Freesat one. (A Freesat box might offer a better electronic programme guide, or some other type of 'add-on' service, but it won't get any extra channels).

So, simply by keeping her old box, your neighbour should be able to receive all of the channels listed here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free-to-air_channels_at_28%C2%B0E

As Carrot99 has mentioned, Sky offers a 'Freesat from Sky' card (which is NOT the same as 'Freesat') for a one-off fee of £25. However it's actually a waste of money for most viewers, as all it adds on to what you can get without it is access to a a VERY small number of 'free-to-view' channels (which, unlike 'free-to-air' channels, are encrypted). Apart from local TV stations, the only 'free-to-view' channels currently transmitted via the Astra satellites (which Sky uses) are 4Music and Yesterday+1.

[goodgoalie]

Thanks for that, Chris. Will pass that on to her - I think it'll cheer her up