Freesat with sky+?

Dan Mac

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If i buy a sky+ box off ebay and grab a sky freesat card, will i be able to use full sky+ capability for all free channels provided i pay sky £10/mth for the priviledge?
 
Usually they only seem to allow ex-subscribers to do this, ie, those ex-Sky+ users who've cancelled the subscription channels and just want to keep the recording facility. Its a lot harder to persuade them if you've not been a Sky customer before.
 
Different people have had different experiences with this, some have found Sky customer service reps deny all knowledge of this, whereas some have been successful. You may have to insist on going "higher up" than the first level of CS rep you get on the phone.

This is pure speculation by me and being cynical, but I'm guessing that if you are an existing subscriber, ie you are seeking to pay Sky less than you do now, they will say you can't, whereas if you don't subscribe, ie you are giving Sky extra income they don't currently receive, they will be more inclined to let you do it. :rotfl:

EDIT - I see I am saying exactly the opposite of neilmcl. As I said, my theory is pure speculation!
 
neilmcl said:
Usually they only seem to allow ex-subscribers to do this, ie, those ex-Sky+ users who've cancelled the subscription channels and just want to keep the recording facility. Its a lot harder to persuade them if you've not been a Sky customer before.

It may be that for technical reasons (either physical or administrative) a 'Freesat' card can't be activated to support Sky+ but that a standard Sky card can, even without a subcription for the encrypted channels. Just a guess.


Gav
 
You still have to call sky for the inital activation of the freesat card, so I'm not too sure about what you're saying there Gavan is correct...

But then again you might be correct.

Anyone out there who uses a freesat card with SKY+ functionality?
 
I had a long conversation with sky customer services yesterday afternoon posing my questions about all sorts of options. The answer when i asked about sky+ with freesat was that it could be done for £10/mth but he warned me about using a box sourced from elsewhere. I'd told him my brother was upgrading to HD so would have one going spare. He said without a warranty it was risky as the subscription to sky+ was 12 mth minimum but my box might fail and i would either have to buy a new one or tuff.

Unsurprisingly he was pushing the other packages for new customers, but it did sound like i could probably get this freesat sky+ solution if i pushed hard enough.

Thing is, having never been a sky customer before, i could get multiroom sky+(with skysports for 6mths free, way-hey for cricket) for £100 for the boxes and £300 in subs.

If after a year i thought i wasn't getting good value i could sell my equipment on ebay for about £100 (low estimate due to HD etc emerging), so then i would have had the Ashes plus brilliant PVR and happy girlfriend for about £300.

Of course, telling my mrs (and myself for that matter) after the 12 mths are up that it's all going back to just 4 channels and a VCR might be tough!!:devil: :rotfl:
 
Dan Mac said:
I had a long conversation with sky customer services yesterday afternoon posing my questions about all sorts of options. The answer when i asked about sky+ with freesat was that it could be done for £10/mth but he warned me about using a box sourced from elsewhere. I'd told him my brother was upgrading to HD so would have one going spare. He said without a warranty it was risky as the subscription to sky+ was 12 mth minimum but my box might fail and i would either have to buy a new one or tuff.

Unsurprisingly he was pushing the other packages for new customers, but it did sound like i could probably get this freesat sky+ solution if i pushed hard enough.

Thing is, having never been a sky customer before, i could get multiroom sky+(with skysports for 6mths free, way-hey for cricket) for £100 for the boxes and £300 in subs.

If after a year i thought i wasn't getting good value i could sell my equipment on ebay for about £100 (low estimate due to HD etc emerging), so then i would have had the Ashes plus brilliant PVR and happy girlfriend for about £300.

Of course, telling my mrs (and myself for that matter) after the 12 mths are up that it's all going back to just 4 channels and a VCR might be tough!!:devil: :rotfl:

You could keep the Sky+ boxes and revert to just 'Freesat'. You'd still get a reasonable selection of channels.

If you really liked the Sky+ functionality you could pay a tenner a month for it. Alternatively you could pay between 130-250 quid and get a 'Freeview' PVR. It would offer an additional range of channels over the current 'Freesat' and you could use the old Sky+ box in 'Freesat' mode to supplement the channel lineup (you couldn't record the satelllite channels onto your PVR though). I think that would be a good compromise.


Gav
 

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