Sky Replacement Card

alexeix

Hi,

Thanks for the replies.

I'm aware that you need a big dish to get all the Freesat channels, but they're very expensive in Spain and my folks are interested.

I <think> they only have a 'standard' Spanish satellite dish, so I suppose it's comparable in size to a UK one - 45cm?
Possibly slightly larger, but as I say, they don't want a bigger dish.

Regardless, it seems you've answered my question - I need to order a Sky Freesat card (I know the difference between that and Freeview Freesat), and send it to them.
Hopefully it will be successfully activated when they insert it into the decoder and they'll have their handful of channels back!


Thanks again for the assistance guys!!

Inactive

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

2.4 metres is a belt and braces solution but rarely implemented in Spain because it is not affordable and/or aesthetically pleasing. In practice dish sizes used to get UK channels tend to be no more than 1.5 metres and receive programs on most channels 90% of the time. 2.4 metres is more like the dish size you would need in the Canary Islands. I imagine the OP's parents had a dish size that was suitable before most UK channels were shifted to transmission on Astra 2D. Perhaps their dish is say 90cm?



Both I and my mother have received replacement Sky Pay Once Watch Forever viewing cards in the last three months and neither of them had to be activated. Insertion in the Sky box was all that was required.

A 90cm dish in some parts of Spain is almost useless, it will get less than 50% of channels.

A 3 metre dish is required for all channels in the Canaries.

I wasn't talking about " replacement " cards, I was talking about FresatfromSky cards that certainly do need activating via a phone call to Sky from the UK.

Inactive

alexeix wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks for the replies.

I'm aware that you need a big dish to get all the Freesat channels, but they're very expensive in Spain and my folks are interested.

I <think> they only have a 'standard' Spanish satellite dish, so I suppose it's comparable in size to a UK one - 45cm?
Possibly slightly larger, but as I say, they don't want a bigger dish.

Regardless, it seems you've answered my question - I need to order a Sky Freesat card (I know the difference between that and Freeview Freesat), and send it to them.
Hopefully it will be successfully activated when they insert it into the decoder and they'll have their handful of channels back!


Thanks again for the assistance guys!!

Sadly, it will not, it must be activated here in the UK by inserting in to an active Sky receiver and then phoning Sky on a UK phone.

Trust me, I have gone through this process a few times for friends that live in Spain.

NonGeographicalMan

Inactive wrote: »

Sadly, it will not, it must be activated here in the UK by inserting in to an active Sky receiver and then phoning Sky on a UK phone.

No the card can be in the box in Spain when it is activated but the Sky call centre staff must not perceive your call as having originated outside the UK and also the card has to be sent by Sky to a UK address.

Trust me, I have gone through this process a few times for friends that live in Spain.

A poster living in Spain said she had success calling Sky to activate her viewing card using Skype from Spain as no doubt even UK originated calls on Skype look as though they are from overseas and Sky can probably only tell that it is a Skype call and so has to give the caller the benefit of the doubt. But at the end of the day it is far better to have someone actually sitting in the UK make the call as if Sky do not believe the caller is UK based then they will not just refuse to activate the card but will also permanently cancel it.

We have a family summer holiday place on the East side of Mallorca and all the satellite installers who work on the island assure us that a 1.35m dish correctly aligned will be adequate to receive the full range of Sky channels. In the far south of the island a dish size up to 1.7m may apparently be required.

Unfortunately it appears that in four years time Astra are bringing in new technology that will allow their satellite beams to be even more tightly focused meaning that huge dishes may be needed in order to continue to get a signal out of area.

I assume that in the long run some kind of ability for UK expats to get UK programs legitimately via an IPTV broadband setup will be allowed in return for a suitable UK licence fee or other similar payment. It must only be a matter of time before legislation is changed so that you have to have a tv licence to watch a Uk tv channel that is streamed live on the internet (or at least if the computer you are watching the program on is also based in the UK).

ioscorpio

longtimelurker54

If you take the old card out, it will retain your regional settings for BBC1 and ITV, that's why you have lost ITV. If you take the card out and switch off the box, then switch it back on, it will search for channels, then you will get BBC1 London and ITV Central, then you only need to access C5 through Add a Channel.

karmacookie

For a couple of years we didn't pay for sky just had the free channels. We were very surprised that sky sent us a new viewing card for 1 of the boxes. Since then we have got sky+ and now pay a subscription for downstairs.

My son has a sky box in his room with free channels only, he has now lost Ch5. I gave him the new viewing card we had but it says it is the wrong card for the box. So, ok, i thought I'll give him the old box from downstairs that the card had originally been in. Still no CH5 and still getting the message that it is the wrong card for the box.

any ideas what I can do? don;t really want to pay £20 when we have a new viewing card. Any suggestions? Thanks!

will-in-estoril

See post #34: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2135509&page=2

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

will-in-estoril wrote: »

See post #34: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2135509&page=2

Not sure what you've done with the link there will, but it doesn't work. :huh:

This is a direct link to the post will has mentioned.

karmacookie wrote: »

Still no CH5 and still getting the message that it is the wrong card for the box.

any ideas what I can do? don;t really want to pay £20 when we have a new viewing card.

The other option is just to add FIVE manually into 'Other Channels.' The only issue here is that there's no EPG for it.

NonGeographicalMan

karmacookie wrote: »

So, ok, i thought I'll give him the old box from downstairs that the card had originally been in. Still no CH5 and still getting the message that it is the wrong card for the box.

any ideas what I can do? don't really want to pay £20 when we have a new viewing card. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Power off the Sky box by pulling the plug and waiting five minutes then turn it on again. Then insert the card and leave it in that box with the box turned on for at least two to three days and at some point it may start working when Sky send out a new smart card authorisation signal. Failing that call Sky and explain about the problems getting the card to work. The worst that can happen is that they say no. As you are current Sky+ customers for another box its not that unlikely that they will be willing to help.

But anyhow a new working Sky viewing card will also give him access to Sky Three, Fiver and Five USA as well as to Five and also BBC1 and ITV on 101 and 103 will be returned to being the correct local regional variants too.

Did the Sky+ box already come with its own new white viewing card that did not need replacing when it was first installed?

dougz_2

According to their website Nollywood is now only 1 month minimum cost £5.99, not the 2 months previously reported in this thread, so is a bigger saving.
https://nwd.appletree.co.uk/new_sub.php

Their website requires an existing viewing card number. I already have Sky subscription and want a second card, so I don't want to give my working card obviously.

Does anyone know if I can enter my old blue card number here? This is the card that was supposed to be binned when Sky sent me the white card to replace it, and currently says card not authorised when inserted. Will they then reactivate this blue card, and/or get me sent another new white card? Or might something bad happen, like Sky work out I already have a white card replacement so I end up with them activating Nollywood on that instead?