# Sky TV



## northwestlads (Sep 19, 2010)

sorry i keep asking things but you lot are so knowledgeable
i want to have skytv when i come out and someone told me to keep my subscription in the uk and use that card is this legal? does this work?
is it true that i will need to buy a huge dish or can i bring my sky dish from home? it is all paid for and out of contract etc etc
i have sky hd at the moment, if i keep this subscription will it work in spain? thanks ppl


----------



## xicoalc (Apr 20, 2010)

northwestlads said:


> sorry i keep asking things but you lot are so knowledgeable
> i want to have skytv when i come out and someone told me to keep my subscription in the uk and use that card is this legal? does this work?
> is it true that i will need to buy a huge dish or can i bring my sky dish from home? it is all paid for and out of contract etc etc
> i have sky hd at the moment, if i keep this subscription will it work in spain? thanks ppl


I am not 100% sure on the legality of "receiving" the sky signal in Spain, what I do know is that Sky are only licenced to transmit to the UK. I believe there will be something in your contract stating that you must only receive the signal in the UK, but that is more of an issue between you and Sky rather than you and the law I suppose!

Your UK mini dish certainly won't pick up the signal here. In order to get a signal you will need a big dish (I have a 2.4m which _discreetly _sits at the side of my house bolted to the wall on a huge mounting bracket!). The size you will need depends on the exact area you are. I have a friend who lives half an hour away and gets a great reception on a 1.8m. Having said that, he looses some channels after 8pm. I get pretty much full viewing 24 hours. I believe I loose chanel 4 and BBC2 late evening but the rest I get 24/7 no problems. I guess, the bigger you can afford the better! Obviously Sky are well aware of the amount of expats watching sky abroad and I have heard they are trying to work to concentrate the beam more on the UK only. If ths is the case then maybe we will all need 5m dishes soon - I don't know. From a business point of view I guess Sky will want to keep the subscriptions. 

Many people do exactly what you have said and continue their UK subscription. If you buy a viewing card from a company out here they simply register you at a UK address and obviously charge a fee for this.

Sky require in the UK that your box is connected to a phone line. They tell you this is something to do with updates but the installer who put my dish in here told me that it was so they can check the geographical location of your box (big brother syndrome again).

When I had sky installed in the UK I had just moved to a new house and we were told we would have to wait a few weeks for a BT line. Consequently sky set my box so it doesn't need a phone line... probably something worth changing on your box _before _you come out.

My box is HD and works perfectly in HD. Just like in the UK you will need two cables bringing from your dish and a different kind of receivermibob (is it an LNR or something?). This will of course add to your instalation costs. My dish is some distance from the house so I had to pay for double the cabling etc.

It won't come cheap to get a decent dish but worth it if you love your corrie! Having said that, apart form corrie I try to watch more and more spanish TV now and do question whether it was worth paying all that money for the big dish.

I console myself with the thought that if it becomes surplus to requirements we can use it for a huge paella pan and invite the entire village!!!:clap2:


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

It is not 'illegal' in the sense that you will be carted off to prison for watching 'Law and Order'....or Premier League footie games. Sky don't have a licence to transmit outside of the UK and ROI. We are in our sixth year of Sky watching out of the UK...it's unlikely you'll be deyected and cut off but I suppose it could happen...
Supplying British immigrants with Sky tv is big business all over the EU. We had Sky in Prague, supplied by an enterprising British immigrant who set up a Company to do just that.
Keep your UK address if you can or if not ask a friend for the loan of an address. 
I'm not sure about dish size....we had excellent reception with a 60cm dish in Prague but I suppose it depends on relative angles of the earth/satellite?????
Whatever, we have a dish larger than 60 cm but not enormous.


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

mrypg9 said:


> It is not 'illegal' in the sense that you will be carted off to prison for watching 'Law and Order'....or Premier League footie games. Sky don't have a licence to transmit outside of the UK and ROI. We are in our sixth year of Sky watching out of the UK...it's unlikely you'll be deyected and cut off but I suppose it could happen...
> Supplying British immigrants with Sky tv is big business all over the EU. We had Sky in Prague, supplied by an enterprising British immigrant who set up a Company to do just that.
> Keep your UK address if you can or if not ask a friend for the loan of an address.
> I'm not sure about dish size....we had excellent reception with a 60cm dish in Prague but I suppose it depends on relative angles of the earth/satellite?????
> Whatever, we have a dish larger than 60 cm but not enormous.


Satty will know & I dare say he'll be along later


I have heard of people getting cut off - if Sky discover that you are in Spain they WILL deactivate your card


of course they have to find out.........


----------



## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

Cannot receive Sky or anything else here, we are too far away. I have gone for Imagen through Telefonica, but the only UK TV is BBC world service and that is crap. However on some of the Spanish channels if they are showing a U.S. film if I press the yellow button it reverts to the original language.

Having said all that, I did not come here to watch English T.V. and I have more or less mastered the Canarian news, but how I wish they could forecast the weather...............


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Hepa said:


> Cannot receive Sky or anything else here, we are too far away. I have gone for Imagen through Telefonica, but the only UK TV is BBC world service and that is crap. However on some of the Spanish channels if they are showing a U.S. film if I press the yellow button it reverts to the original language.
> 
> Having said all that, I did not come here to watch English T.V. and I have more or less mastered the Canarian news, but how I wish they could forecast the weather...............


we can get sky here but don't bother - especially now with TDT - we do the button thing too if we want to watch something in English


can't get Corrie or Eastenders - but who cares!!!


----------



## sat (Jul 20, 2008)

Some of this has been mebntioned before, some of this is more clarification...but hope it helps



northwestlads said:


> someone told me to keep my subscription in the uk and use that card


It is best to get the card account transfered to a UK address you have access to - a freind or family member - it helps when they needs to send you details about your account and in 4/5 years time when they issue another new card.



northwestlads said:


> is this legal?


Grey area. Its in the T&Cs that you cannot use a Sky card outside the UK and ROI. But many do.
Is using a Sky card outside the UK and ROI "illegal"....not too sure.
Could it be classed as fraud by claiming the card is at a UK address but not being used there?
But then as it is a contract between you and Sky, I understand the onus is on the parties to that contract to prove breach, not the police.

Although, be warned if you use your card in a public place - liek a bar. Sky have been sending commands that display numbers on the screen. these number correspond to ( but are not actually) your card number. From this number they know where the card is being used and who is using it, and can swicth it off. This is being used in the UK to see whoich pubs are using their residential subscriptions for commercial premesis...and can, i would htink, be used to see which cards are being used in the bars in Spain, if they have spotters in spain also..!!!


northwestlads said:


> does this work?


Yes.



northwestlads said:


> is it true that i will need to buy a huge dish or can i bring my sky dish from home?


All depends where you are going in Spain and which channels you want to receive.
In the north east of Spain an 80cm dish works well for all channels.
The further south you do the signals for the main UK channels gets weaker, and so thats when bigger dishes are required.
But even on an 80cm dish in most of Spain, 50-60% of the Sky Pay channels are available.
And you can also access ITV1 on a small dish - if you have a Sky card...but not BBC1,2,3,4,ITV2,3,4.
Only for BBC1,2,3,4,ITV2,3,4, the C4 group and FTA Five, do you need to consider going large.




northwestlads said:


> if i keep this subscription will it work in spain?


Yes.









steve_in_spain said:


> I believe there will be something in your contract stating that you must only receive the signal in the UK,:


No. There is nothing about RECEIVING the signal, just using your Sky card outside trhe UK and ROI.



steve_in_spain said:


> Your UK mini dish certainly won't pick up the signal here. ,:


Yes they can.
It depends where you are and which channel you want!
Many channels, mainly those on the Astra 2 south beams can be received on a sky minidish, or slightly larger 80cm dish.



steve_in_spain said:


> In order to get a signal you will need a big dish (I have a 2.4m which _discreetly _sits at the side of my house bolted to the wall on a huge mounting bracket!). *The size you will need depends on the exact area you are*.,:


Exactly. In some areas of Spain ALL channels can be received on an 80cm dish - ie the north east of Spain.
In other areas most of the Sky Pay package can be received on an 80cm dish.
Its just for the Astra 2d free to ari BBC ITV C4 and Five that you may require anything from a 1.4m, 1.8m, 2.4m, 3.1, dish.

UK satellite TV is transmitted from 4 satellites, each with their own reception characteristics....hence why Sky News and Sky One can be received even on a 60cm dish in many areas of Spain , but then BBC2,3,4 are not available 24/7 even on 3.1m dishes!



steve_in_spain said:


> Sky are well aware of the amount of expats watching sky abroad and I have heard they are trying to work to concentrate the beam more on the UK only. If ths is the case then maybe we will all need 5m dishes soon - I don't know. From a business point of view I guess Sky will want to keep the subscriptions. ,:


Makes no difference in the case of BBC and ITV - they have nothing to do with Sky.



steve_in_spain said:


> Sky require in the UK that your box is connected to a phone line. ,:


For Multriroom contracts and for installations under 12 months old that have been done as a discounted Sky agreement. 
Over 12 months and not part of multiroom, no phone line is not a problem.



steve_in_spain said:


> They tell you this is something to do with updates but the installer who put my dish in here told me that it was so they can check the geographical location of your box (big brother syndrome again).,:


All updates are done via satellite not by phone line.
The phone is part of the Sky contract about Interactive services - ie when you want to vote on ZFactor, order from QVC, or to check the location of the multiroom card.




steve_in_spain said:


> When I had sky installed in the UK I had just moved to a new house and we were told we would have to wait a few weeks for a BT line. Consequently sky set my box so it doesn't need a phone line... probably something worth changing on your box _before _you come out.)


They sometimes allow you to pay an extra £25 on installation to forgoe the phone line for new installations - there is nothing you can do yourself on the box.




mrypg9 said:


> Sky don't have a licence to transmit outside of the UK and ROI.


Its a bit more complicated than that.
Dont think "SKy" think "UK broadcasters".
Dont think "licence" think"broadcast rights"
UK broadcasters buy the right to programmes and events for the UK market only.
Spanish broadcasters buy the right to programmes and events for the Spanish market only.
Its not down to "Sky", but the channels, and what they buy and for what market, as per the programme makers and governing bodies who control those rights.
For example, the FA have the rights for Premier Legaue football. They sell broadcast rights to broadcasters in different countries. Sky ESPN and BBC in UK, GOL TV and D+ in Spain, Sky Italia in Italy.



mrypg9 said:


> ...it's unlikely you'll be deyected and cut off but I suppose it could happen...


Unles you call sky and say "my card number is 123456789 and I live in Spain".
It is also advised not to call Sky using a Spanish landline number, try Spyte of UK mobile, or other VOIP system


----------



## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

My apologies if I have missed this in other replies but if you just want some UK television i.e. BBC, ITV Channel 4 and Five and a few others you do not need a Sky card or even a Sky digibox. You can get all of these channels on a generic free to air satellite receiver, freely available in Spain, with no subscription whatsoever.


----------



## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

It aint illegal to receive SKY in Spain

Its breach of contract it seems which isn't exactly the same

But they dont do anything, they just cut you off if they find out


----------



## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

An advantage of free to air is that short of putting all of the BBC and ITV channels on a much tighter footprint centred over the UK (a not impossible scenario with the next generation of satellites) they cannot cut you off.


----------



## xicoalc (Apr 20, 2010)

Beachcomber said:


> An advantage of free to air is that short of putting all of the BBC and ITV channels on a much tighter footprint centred over the UK (a not impossible scenario with the next generation of satellites) they cannot cut you off.


HI Beachcomber... so you are saying that the box standard satellite systems available, for example in the supermarkets are capable of receiving Uk terrestrial TV?

What chanels exactly can you pick up? Do you get them round the clock or jstu a few hours a day?


----------



## sat (Jul 20, 2008)

steve_in_spain said:


> HI Beachcomber... so you are saying that the box standard satellite systems available, for example in the supermarkets are capable of receiving Uk terrestrial TV?
> 
> What chanels exactly can you pick up? Do you get them round the clock or jstu a few hours a day?


BBC1,2,3,4, ITV1,2,3,4,C4, C4+1,e4,e4+1,m4,m4+1, and Five are all available free to air on satellite.
Free to air means that they require NO viewing card.

There are some free to view versions of ITV1 C4 and Five that are stronger than the FTA versions, but these requrie a sky card and are nt available on a FTA receiver.

The last time I did a scan a FTA receiver picked up about 260 FTA channels on the UK TV satellites - most of those are the BBC1 and ITV1 reginal variations, many text and sex channels, etc

You can receive and watch the FTA channels on Sky boxes (yes even without a card!), Freesat boxes, darkboxes, and just about ANY OTHER digital satellite receiver - yes - even those sold in SPanish stores (but i would avoid Silvercrest ones - too many of them have a very short lifespan)

So if you want to know what channels you can receive on a generic FTA receiver, just remove your sky card from your Sky box.....

Basically a Sky box with no sky card gets the same channels as a Freesat box, and a generic FTA receiver - the advantage of the Sky box and Freesat boxes are their EPG - the generic boxes will just have Now and Next programme information. Advantages of generics are that some of them allow recording onto USB sticks, and playback via USB ports....

So ANY FTA digital satellite receive will do.

Obviously, like cars, some receivers perform better than others, so some may lose some channel during the day, others may hold them 24/7 (although that really depends on dish size, location, cabling and LNB etc also)
Some FTA HD models are better performers than the SD versions.

Note with FTA revceiver you cannot use a Sky card, and so you will not be able to receive the strong versions of: ITV1 on 12402, stronger irish C4s on 12480, Fiver Five USA, that can be received on a small dish in most of Spain. So you will be stuck with the FTA version of some channels like C4 and Five that may not be available 24/7 even on 2.4m and 3,1m dishes.


----------



## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

I have a Silvercrest receiver which cost me €30 three or four years ago. It has been switched on permanently since then as it receives Radio 4 or Heart 1062 according to the time of day and fed into a low power FM transmitter so that I can listen to it on any radio anywhere within about 200 metres. I bought a Silvercrest for a friend at the same time and his is also still going strong.

I also have a Humax Foxsat HD Freesat receiver with twin tuners, a one week EPG and a hard drive which works in in the same way as Sky Plus but, again, without the need for subscription.

If, like me, you have no interest in films or sport free to air is definitely the way to go.


----------



## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

Beachcomber said:


> An advantage of free to air is that short of putting all of the BBC and ITV channels on a much tighter footprint centred over the UK (a not impossible scenario with the next generation of satellites) they cannot cut you off.


I have heard that this might happen. Anyone know what's the chance of it happening ?


----------



## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

It is certainly technically possible. This was the type of satellite from which the British Satellite Broadcasting channels were transmitted in the 1990s and they could not be received in Spain even with a 5 metre dish.

The new Astra satellites 2E, 2F and 2G are equipped with spot beams. See here for details:

2E, 2F, 2G 5B


----------



## northwestlads (Sep 19, 2010)

Sorry, now I am confused.. so if I bring my existing box, cancel subscription, no card etc and when i am there buy a 50cm dish i will get bbc itv etc? i think i will be needing the help of the satman!


----------



## sat (Jul 20, 2008)

Beachcomber said:


> It is certainly technically possible. This was the type of satellite from which the British Satellite Broadcasting channels were transmitted in the 1990s and they could not be received in Spain even with a 5 metre dish.
> 
> The new Astra satellites 2E, 2F and 2G are equipped with spot beams. See here for details:
> 
> 2E, 2F, 2G 5B


but people dont realise that 3 of the current satellites, astra 2d, 2a and 2b are all classified as spot beam satellites also....!!! one has even a beam for nigeria - so who is to say the new sats "spot" beam will not be used for that or other purposes (internet)...until the footprint specs are released its all speculation about the new sats reception


----------



## sat (Jul 20, 2008)

northwestlads said:


> Sorry, now I am confused.. so if I bring my existing box, cancel subscription, no card etc and when i am there buy a 50cm dish i will get bbc itv etc? i think i will be needing the help of the satman!


No - read the post again.
Depending what channels you want to watch and where you are in Spain determines the size of dish requried.
In some areas of Spain an 80cm dish receives all 24/7.
In others of Spain even with a 3.1m dish you cannot receive all 24/7.

As you have not said which part of spain you are moving to noone can advise you of the dish size you required.

If you cancel your sky card with sku correctly, ie call them up and cancel rather than just cancel the DD at the bank exsubscription cards become freesatfromsky / free to view cards, and so useful to receive the FTV versions of ITV1, C5 and Five that can be received on small dishes...unlike the free to air versions of ITV1, c4 and Five that may not be available 24/7 even on 3.1


----------



## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

sat said:


> ..until the footprint specs are released its all speculation about the new sats reception


Maybe so, but I don't think people should be left unaware of the fact that the availability of UK television channels in Spain could diminish from 2012 onwards. It depends on the determination or otherwise of the broadcasters to prevent their programmes from being received outside of the United Kingdom.


----------

