Why is SKY Changing its viewing card?

The_One_2

Im getting the process of having the Sky Pay Once Watch Forever package installed http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/pay-once.aspx

I received the viewing card yesterday and its a blue one with a yellow house....so is this out of date?

Will the installation guys have the new white cards ?

dougz_2

Fifer wrote: »

What I'm wondering is, will my Sky box still get the FTA satellite channels if my card expires and will I only lose the FTV (Fiver, Sky 3 and a few others). Or will I lose more channels?

You will get what you get now with no card inserted, so yes you will lose those you named (obviously unless they also go FTA in future).
Also, I think you will likely get moved to the english defaults in place of your regional programmes.

almillar

I've got 2 Sky boxes with 2 Sky cards that I very occasionally used. I won't be paying £40 for new cards! This is going to have a massive effect one people's 'bedroom TVs' where the spare box/card has been put to good use. What a waste, typical of Sky.
Fifer - yes you've currently Freesat from Sky (not Freeview - it comes through an aerial). Freesat from Sky includes the encrypted channels that you need the card for, which you will stop getting when Sky disable them, and as you rightly say you'll lose just the encrypted channels.
And this has no effect on Freeview or Freesat boxes, only Sky boxes.
HTH

dougz_2

The_One wrote: »

I received the viewing card yesterday and its a blue one with a yellow house....so is this out of date?

No, it will work fine until sky eventually kill it. You will be posted a new one before that though, free of charge because will be within Pay Once Watch [STRIKE]Forever [/STRIKE] For 5 years

Fifer

dougz wrote: »

You will get what you get now with no card inserted, so yes you will lose those you named (obviously unless they also go FTA in future).

Why didn't I think of that. :doh: Whip the card out and see what I lose.

dougz wrote: »

Also, I think you will likely get moved to the english defaults in place of your regional programmes.

That's mostly what we use it for, to get stuff that isn't shown up here (or sometimes, to avoid what is ).

dougz_2

almillar wrote: »

This is going to have a massive effect one people's 'bedroom TVs' where the spare box/card has been put to good use. What a waste, typical of Sky.

They will only actually lose a couple of channels, but the regional variations will be a big annoyance to many. You would think the government should be bothered about that since its supposed to assist 'social inclusion'.

GaryS

I have Sky + in the lounge with monthly sub, and 2 x Sky boxes upstairs with Free to View cards in.

Sky have confirmed to me today that these will also be replaced at some time in the next few months.

aMIGA_dUDE

It ture BSkyB has contract with NDS for encryption system. The need to change cards is down to fact they are flash memory devices. As with all flash memory devices they can only do so many reads and writes until it can not be done anymore. Just for you information the encryption keys on BSkyB are being changed very often. And each time it happens data is being written to card. Each time you change channel it being read and also gets read again if encryption codes change even if you do not change channel. It is in BSkyB interest to change to card before they develop a fault.

Pssst

jamesb1239 wrote: »

Sky have to change their viewing cards every 5 years in their contract with NDS (the people who provide the encryption), basically anyone with a valid subscription will receive a new card but all those using it for Free to View viewing with an old card will lose their viewing. Also its a bad time to go abroad as whenever the cards change the bars over there lose their sky until they can manage to get a new one (as sky dont allow subscribers out of the uk!)

hope this helps

Anyone who goes on their hols and watches sky is sad. I wouldnt watch it over her in the UK if they gave it to me for free.

All that med culture,sun sea and nice restaurants etc and the Brits sit in crummy bars wearing their football shirts watching sport whilst ignoring their football widow wives.

jamesb1239

Pssst wrote: »

Anyone who goes on their hols and watches sky is sad. I wouldnt watch it over her in the UK if they gave it to me for free.

All that med culture,sun sea and nice restaurants etc and the Brits sit in crummy bars wearing their football shirts watching sport whilst ignoring their football widow wives.

I dont think its very fair to call everybody who watches tv abroad sad, a holiday is for rest and relaxation. Some people may class watching sports as relaxing so why shouldnt they be able to do it wherever they are