Free Sat

[1944screen]

I am finishing with sky tv.I have been told that with the box they provided I can get free sat.Is this true,and if so what happens when sky does finish.

[pauln90]

I stand to be corrected but I think you will need a freesat box to receive Freesat. You could always get a card from Sky (one off payment of £20) to receive the free to view channels

[Ankou]

do you mean freesat, or free to view ?

with the box and dish, you will be able to receive free to view channels, but freesat is something different.

[Whickerman]

if you just take the card out of the box you will see what channels you would be left with.
Also, as mentioned, you can get a freeview card from sky to increase this list

[Buenchico]

Any Sky box should be able to receive 'free to air' (FTA) channels. Such channels aren't encrypted, so you don't require a valid viewing card.

Nearly all of the free satellite channels are 'FTA' but a few are 'FTV'. (Free to view). Such channels are encrypted, so you need a valid viewing card to watch them. Sky used to offer a suitable card for a one-off payment of £20 but I believe that this has now been discontinued. (When Sky initially sold the cards, lots of channels were 'FTV' but most have switched to 'FTA', making the cards largely redundant).

At the present time, only Sky3, Fiver and Five US require a viewing card. If you can live without those channels, you can use your Sky box to receive all the stations listed here:
http://sam-radford.me.uk/ftv.htm

Freesat is slightly different. You can use your existing satellite dish but you would require a new digibox. You can choose between standard definition (SD) or High Definition (HD) models, depending upon whether you'll be using an HD-ready TV set. Details are here:
http://www.freesat.co.uk/

Chris

[Postdog]

Just wondering if this is the source of any confusion. Sky have their own "freesat" service which differs from the freeview/freesat platform. Stop paying for sky, and you will still be able to get channels from the same satelite, and that's why you need a card.