SKY card change over

You may have heard about changes Sky are making.  Anyone that watches Sky TV through a Sky Viewing Card (be it in the UK or abroad) will eventually need to change their viewing card.  Sky are doing this to replace the chip on the card and to make updates to the system for the future.  For all of you watching Sky outside of the UK you need to be issued with a new white sky card (providing it is being paid for through a SKY contract).

You have been warned.

I have just been told by a "reputable" SKY installer that the only cards that Sky are changing are the subscription cards. So if you pay for any of the packages like sports, movies, music etc you will have a new card sent out.

If your subscription card is registered to an address other than yours (many installers bulk supply the cards and register them at one address), then you need to contact Sky and have them re-register it at an address (in the UK) that can then have it forwarded on to you in Spain. Never tell Sky you are in Spain or they will cut you off straight away. You will need to contact your original card supplyer and find out what addresswas used to supply your card.

Sky at present do not have any plans to replace the "free to air" Sky cards.

My father has just purchased a FREESAT box whilst back in the UK. This works fine over here, simply disconnect the Sky box and replace with freesat. The freesat box does not require a viewing card so negates the card problem altogether. Prices are approx £50 for basic box, £160 for a High Def box or £250 for a Hig def box with built in hard drive recorder (simliar to sky+).

Hi firsteuro,

Thanks for the info, I shall bear that in mind in the future.

PS. Your avatar encouraged me to upload mine. By the way, my next door neighbour and friend here in Spain, who has a holiday apartment, is a Director of SWFC and his responsibility is Finance. I don't know whether you want me to shake his hand or throw him of the balcony!!!!

£26 million in debt for the last few years at SWFC, but things are very slowly turning around.

As a young 'un I used to live in Chester and used to go and watch either Liverpool or Chester depending on who was home. Jan Molby used to live just down the road. Nothing stranger than a Dane with a scouse accent!

I was born and bred in Tranmere on the Wirral, and for many ,many years, used to go to watch Tranmere on Friday nights, play football Saturday morning, over to Anfield to watch Liverpool, and play football again either Sunday morning or afternoon. Great days they were.

I know Chester very well, lovely part of the world,  I used to go there a lot usually shopping, or playing football at Sealand Road once or twice. A far cry from living in Spain!!!!

Hi Firsteuro,  Can I just clarify something.  Are you saying that a freesat box purchased in the UK will work in Spain and get the UK channels?  Do you need a large satalitte dish for this?  I have a spanish digibox at present (no dish).  We are told no dishes in our resort, but sure I could discreetly place a small one if the freesat worked.

Ted

Hi Ted,

I am afraid that you will need at satellite dish. I am in Costa Blanca South about 30km inland from Alicante and we need a 1.9m dish.

The freesat box is an alternative to Sky and you should simply unplug Sky box and reconnect leads to Freesat box. The box will boot up and ask you to input your UK postcode (this is so you receive your regional news etc.) and away you go.

The more expensive Freesat boxes give you free HD if you have a HD ready TV and HDMI cable for no subscription costs.

I understand that Freesat which is owned by the BBC & ITV broadcast on the same satellite as Sky, so you may have problems with BBC2 & Ch4 in certain areas.

www.freesat.co.uk/

Regards

Steve.

Hi there!

I previously obtained a Sky viewing card through a company in mainland Spain which has now stopped trading.  I have now taken out a new "white card" subscription through another supplier but need to cancel the original subscription with Sky.  Does anyone know what information they will ask for when I call them to cancel?  Obviously, I do not want them to find out that I have obtained Sky through third parties and that I live in Gran Canaria, in which case they would cancel both subscriptions.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi,

 You do not make it clear if you are using Sky with a free to air card or are paying for sports, movies etc.

Free to air cards cost about £20 and you will need a UK address for them to send to. You can only activate the card by inserting into sky box , pressing services then 4 then 5 and ringing Sky and giving them the info on the screen. This allows them to pair the card with the box and sort out the regional news etc.

I am not sure about subscriptions. You will need a UK address unless the card was supplied by 3rd party.

The first thing to do is make sure you call from Skype or an English mobile (Called ID could give you away otherwise). Sky will make you all sorts of offers to stay onboard, that you will just need to turn down.

Sky at present do not have any plans to replace the "free to air" Sky cards.

This may have been correct in July, but certainly isn't the case now. I had to renew my FTA Sky card recently, it was due to expire at the end of this month (tomorrow). Use this link https://mysky.sky.com/replacecard/get-a-card to check if you qualify for a free replacement (under 3 years) or if you have to pay for a new one.

Mark

we do have the new white cards in stock 679874294 is this spam or common sense lol

WARNING...WARNING...WARNING

Please Note

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Your sky card can be done under your own name you must not pay a yearly CHARGE

there is no such thing as a maintinence charge for your sky card.

DO NOT GIVE YOUR CREDIT CARD DETAILS FO ANY MAINTINENCE CHARGE

WARNING ON SKY CARDS

regards Ian

Thanks to everyone for the information which I would never have known about otherwise. I have renewed my  Sky  card so hopefully when we got out at New Year there wont be any nasty surprises like no TV! (Can't guarantee there wont be any other problems though,  there usually are...!!!)

Regards, Poppyseed

I am sure I read or told that if you do not use your sky box and/or card for a long period, when you go to use it you may not get some of the channels. You need to leave the box on for 24/48hrs in order for the box to reset.

Perhaps Ian at fortunasat could let us know.

Steve

Just wanted to give my personal experience on this subject.  I bought a free to air card £20 for both myself and a neighbour using UK address last October.  We recently started getting a message on the screen that we need to update our cards, so I went online to renew them and they were sent free of charge to me in UK.  We are both now watching the free channels in Spain with our new cards.  If you are subscribing that will be different case.  If you are only getting the free to air channels, better to change  to non Sky receivers and get them free now in Spain unless you have got a UK contact who can get your new Sky cards free.

IF you have the message on channel 5 to upgrade to this channel contact sky .

first leave the box on channel 5 it will normally come on at 4.30 pm

if not leave on over night if anyone has lost channel 5 or channel 4 we will put the new freq on this forum and how to add the channels

We got our Freesat card replaced by Sky recently and I wondered if it will work ok in Spain.

The old one was activated/twinned with the box in the UK before we took it out to Spain.

I have the new SKY card and it was working okay with my SKY HD Box (Tomson) but the level of service has deteriorated to the extent that now I have no signal. I have checked the quality of output from my 2.4 m dish and it is fine, so I presume the box is at fault. This is where the problems start as the supplier in the UK needs to check the box and replace by leaving it connected to a dish for up to 24 hours, but we can't do this as we don't have such a dish in the UK!

I've been told there is a new HD box by Samsung which is more reliable than mine but how do I get it without paying a fortune in Spain (North Alicante)?

there is a serious problem with the HD boxes its the psu that needs changing its the capacitors sending an ac signal to the lnb wiping low band channels out this can be done using new panasonic parts which are good for about 3/5 years.

ian fortunasat