Sky tv abroad

[Mr D Black]

Hi
I am going to live in Poland, and I wondered if I could get Sky TV over there with the same channels as I get on my uk Sky package? If so, how much does it cost over there.

Cheers in advance

[Rock'n'Roll]

Our next door neighbour is a Polish lass and she gets Polish TV channels. Had to have a slightly larger dish and probably some other fiddling about with direction,not sure. So,I guess you could do the same in Poland

[KebabMeister]

Officially speaking Sky is only licensed to be received in the UK so you can't apply for it in another country. Of course there are ways around this and there maybe a local provider in Poland who can arrange this. The other way is to keep your account going in the UK with a UK address & bank account and do it that way. I live in Germany and I... cough.... do it that way ;)

[Mr D Black]

Thanks for the answer. Great help. But doesnt your sky in the uk have to be connected to a phone line? I have sky and multi-room subscription in the UK.

[Narolines]

Sky is freely available in Cyprus, so I don't see that Poland should present a problem. I wasn't aware of any licensing restrictions (that doesn't mean they don't exist!) and it's ceratinly easliy and, as far as I know, legitimately over there - or here, depending on whether I'm in the UK or Cyprus at the time you receive this posting!

[electricblue]

Apparently no,too far north!!

[KebabMeister]

If it's normal Sky then it doesn't need to be connected to the telephone line (mine isn't). If you have SKY HD then you need a telephone emulator which you can purchase and it basically gives the impression that it's connected to a telephone line.

[KebabMeister]

As for the legality -
Sky only licences the material (movies, sports, etc.) they buy for re-transmission into the UK and Northern Ireland. If they were to permit viewing outside of this territory, not only would they be in conflict with the redistribution rights that they have bought, but also programme providers in other countries may get upset that their territory is being infringed. The same is also true for the free-to-air channels - the BBC for example makes a healthy living out of selling home-made material to other countries, and would not want to lose this source of revenue by allowing it to be freely available in other countries. It has been suggested that additional restrictions imposed by the BBC have caused Sky to tighten up their own distribution system to further enforce UK-only viewing.

[KebabMeister]

UK Sky systems are also subsidised for UK use only. There's probably some terms and conditions that it's for UK use only. So keep the system registered, paid for etc., (and phone calls!) in the UK or go through a third party in Poland.

[Narolines]

Thanks for that info, KebabMeister; I was just reporting back what appears in the Cyprus press. I don't have satellite or cable TV in either the UK or Cyprus, so I've no personal experience. There's enough junk and dross on half-a-dozen analogue & 20 or so free digital channels, without having to wade through another lord-knows-how-many to find something worth watching when I'd rather be doing sometyhing else anyway! It'll be something to think about if I ever do consider it, though.

[KebabMeister]

@Narolines, I sometimes wonder whether it's worth having it here but since my German is so poor I would struggle to watch German TV (I have German cable as well but 99.9% never watch it - comes with the place). I have Sky to watch football and the odd movie, I really don't watch the news though I perhaps should! :)

Is the Cypriot TV in English or Greek/Turkish?

[Narolines]

We have only common-or-garden terrestrial analogue in Cyprus - unlike most ex-pats and a large number of Cypriots! Most of the programming is in Greek, though there is a bit of Turkish and a regular daily dose of English news & other odds & ends(partly the legacy of having been a British colony and partly because there are now so many ex-pats here), together with a fair quantity of English-language films & (usually old) series with Greek subtitles. Does wonders for improving one's conversational Greek!