Cancelled Sky sub now reduced to BBC 1 & 2 please help !

The problem with Sky boxes is, as as nice as they are, they're designed in such a way that unless you have an active subscription they become near enough useless for anything other than watching TV - even the Sky+ functionality goes out the window.

You getting another Sky box probably won't change the availability of the service you get now as everything on the Sky boxes is dependent on the viewing card being active. Your viewing card should, in theory, let you get the FTA channels so there should be nothing to tune in. However this is UK experience so how it works with an ROI address I can't say.

Think it's FTV across the UK - but only EPG mapped to cards in the London postcode. Think you can probably add it to view via other channels if you have a FTV (or active Sky) card but are in another region. I was able to add the STV Local services that way to have a look ISTR.

Depends on your Sky box model - but the Add Channels option is in Services. On a Sky HD PVR it is in Services->Options. You add them in 'Add Channels' and watch them in 'Other Channels' ISTR. You may not get an 'Other Channels' option until you've added some.

This might be helpful : https://elfknowsit.com/sky-channel-codes-all-you-need/

You won't be able to get the Irish PSB channels that way though - as they are pay-TV only on Sky I believe. (I don't think there is a FTV option for them in the Republic).

If you want RTÉ - then presumably you can watch via their web-based RTÉ Player, which has a watch live option I think? It will be on DTT FTA in Ireland (aka Saorview), and so any cheap DVB set top box you can get in a supermarket for a tenner or two should receive it I think via a reasonable aerial feed.

In the Republic Saorview is DVB-T (though it uses MPEG4 not MPEG2 so don't expect a basic UK Freeview SD box to work), in the North the RTÉ channels are on a DVB-T2 Freeview HD mux (though in SD)

As for Sky - what you wanted from them was a 'Freesat from Sky' card (it used to be called a 'Solus') - though that may be UK only and not available in the Republic (for the same reason the Irish PSBs aren't FTA or FTV)

Sky don't like to shout about 'Freesat from Sky' - but here's the info about it. A viewing card is £25, though as others have said, it probably requires a UK address (and then you'll get the local BBC and ITV services for that address).

It's understandable they don't stand on the rooftops and shout about Freesat from Sky, as it probably generates them bugger all in comparison to Sky+HD/SkyQ, but that price £254 is expensive compared to options on the Freesat site but I understand you get more channels through it than Freesat.

The extra channels aren't worth the considerable extra cost in my opinion. Also because the Freesat EPG mapping uses your (or whatever ) postcode, you can choose (and change as often as you wish) whatever region for BBC and ITV,
Freesat from Sky will be tied to whatever address you used to register with, and the FTV card is tied to that.
Without any card in a Sky box, Ch 101 will default to BBC 1 London and 103 to ITV Central West

I think many FSfS customers are ex-Sky subscribers, so their existing equipment will provide the service without the £254 outlay.


Furthermore, Sky+HD boxes are available on t'interweb for far less than £254 (usually less than £40), so they just need to pay out the £25 for the FSfS card, although not required if you have an ex-subs card.

to be fair, the £254 does include installation too.

There are not many channels left on the sky card for Freesat customers, I think the Sony movie channel was one of them but that's now on Freeview.

It only cost £95 with Freesat.

Freesat is definitely a better bet for DSat these days. You can buy a subscription-free Freesat PVR.

A Sky+ without a subscription will NOT record, even if it has a Freesat-from-Sky card.

Do Sky still offer the choice of paying £10 a month for a Sky+ subscription to FSFS customers to rewind, live pause and record FTA/FTV channels only?
We've just recently cancelled our Sky subscription but I still want to be able to access all of my FTA channel recordings and record FTA channels without changing my equipment.

You can but that's £120 a year every year ongoing and there's no guarantee you can still see your recordings but FTA should be okay. FTV channels may be different. Personally I don't think its worth paying £120 a year just for the basic Sky+ recording but its up to you.