Sky TV ending - what now?!

davemurgatroyd

InsideInsurance wrote: »

It certainly didnt used to be identical but there were only a couple of channels difference hence saying the 25 quid may not be worth it. Things may have changed in recent years though.

EDIT: Looking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freesat_from_Sky it would suggest that they have changed since last time I looked

All Sky digital viewing cards (issued by Sky) since they started have continued to decrypt the FTV (Free to View encrypted) channels after cancellation of a subscription thus acting as FSFS cards. AFAIK this also applied to cards for non Sky channels (such as Cinemoi and several others) have also continued to act as FSFS cards after cancellation of subs and at one time was a cheap way of getting a FSFS card by subscribing to such channels, getting them to issue a card and then cancelling after one month.

The only differences between FSFS and cancelled sub cards are firstly cancelled sub cards are not subject to the automatic free replacement available to some FSFS cards when encryption changes and new cards are issued and secondly that cancelled sub cards are deleted from Sky's databases aproxiamately one year after cancellation and cannot be reactivated or usually activated for services from other providers such as BT Sports etc although they will continue to act as FSFS cards. This leads to confusion over what is an "active" card - an "active" card is one that is still on Sky's database and NOT just one that can decrypt the FSFS channels.

davemurgatroyd

almillar wrote: »

NO! As Kurtis_Blue and macman say, when your subscription stops, your 'subscription card' inside your box effectively becomes a FSFS card. Don't waste £25.
Unless you can find a channel InsideInsurance that's available on one and not the other?

He won't because there aren't any such channels.