helen52

Please someone help me once and for all, as I have asked this question many times and not got a straight answer,
am going to be living in France and am bringing my sky box and card from home, have heard that I can give someone else's address in the UK even if they already have sky and ask sky not to come to install as I am doing it myself, as there already is a dish at the property. I have broadband included in the UK but must cancel that, so is this right, I keep paying my direct debit to sky, they don,t know I am not in UK and I can watch all programmes I had in the UK, the property in France has a dish, or can anyone please enlighten me if this is not the case Thanks Helen

Jerseygirl

As the Welcome Inn is purely for new members to introduce themselves...I have moved your thread over to the Le Rendez-Vous forum. Someone will probably be along shortly to help you.

dennerlymum

Yes that is the case. However, most french providers offer the option to watch all uk/us programmes in English today. Also many of our friends have changed to freeview, which they say is better.

Just a note of warning, I heard on the wire that the signal strength is being reduced in England over the next while (I think I have it correct) and that this could affect the ability to use a uk satellite service in France... this could be a reason why we no longer get channel 5 after 9pm??

Good luck with the move!

helen52

was thinking of buying a freesat box and bringing that can buy on Amazon for £94

catsanddogs

we stopped paying sky in the uk and brought with us the sky box and card which along with a dish gets us lots of uk free channels, then we also have a cheap french ariel which gets us 16 french channels sometimes the programms like NCIS the Mentalist & greys anatomy are in english

helen52

All I want is bbc1 bbc2 itv and sky one if poss can you get these

catsanddogs

we dont get sky 1 but as well as bbc & itv we also get a selection of news channels and plenty of radio stations as well

helen52

I I had a freesat box would I get sky one and can you get any boxes so you can record programmes

Garonne

No and don't know.

MillieF

I bought a Freesat box from Argos, I can't remember how much it was but not a great deal, and yes, depending on the model you can record on them. If you google Freesat their website is most informative. My husband installed ours and it was simple. I loved Freesat, it's all the Free to Air Channels and there's no messing about with regard to where you may or may not be.

grannybunz

We gave up Sky three years ago but continued to use the box minus the card to access Freesat.

If you want to record you need is a Freesat plus box then you can, providing your dish is correctly aligned, record 2 programmes while watching a third.

For the plus option you need a second cable from the dish to the box. Our wonderful local TV man did it for us as our house is a three storey one and anyway we are fairly useless with things like that but a friend who installed his on a first floor terrace did so himself with no problems.

The box came from Amazon UK via a friend who was visiting. I think the whole setup cost us about €250.00

Peabrain

Helen,
This sort of question has come up loads of times, and I'm surprised you haven't already found the answer. Or perhaps you have and I'm too late.
However, if you go down the path you describe, no one will come and bother you, put you in jail or whatever else you may fear. What you would be doing may not be above board, but then you're handing over cash to BSkyB, not exactly paragons of virtue themselves. So if previously you had a card and a standing order to Sky, keep it, if you think Sky television is worth it. They are not to know that you've moved. Or ask someone else to lend you their address. The only snag arises if ever the card is changed and a new one has to be activated over the phone, since the phone number has to be a UK one. If you can't be in the UK to do it yourself, choose a friend to do this who's a good actor, quick-witted and who knows what pages and what information are supposed to be showing on the blank television screen he's looking at.

Another solution which has also been described would be Freesat, which gives you all the terrestrial channels you could wish for, but not Sky, apart from Skynews. This involves a one-off purchase of a set-top box, an aerial pointed at the Astra satellite located at 28.2° east, the same satellite as Sky but no contract, no credit card payments, no nothing. Again, since you aren't paying the licence fee but are getting all of the BBC's channels, it isn't exactly licit, which is why the satellite footprint is being progressively reduced. If you're living north of the Loire, then you won't have a problem.
If you want a Freesat box, one of the very best comes from Humax (Foxsat) containing a large hard drive (500 giga) to record on and high definition reception. Cost around £250; Amazon UK probably has the best prices and delivery is cheap and quick. Should you choose Freesat you'll have joined a club with hundreds of thousands if not millions of delighted members.

All the best
PB

cjm

Peabrain is spot on. I have two Sky boxes in UK, nicely tucked away, though they can be used to access Freesat, but not record. So, tad worthless.
I have a new Humax Freetime 500 gig box for UK use (£249 you need to shop around) and an earlier Humax 300 gig in France. Both need a satellite dish as PB says. I also have an antennae in France and I use that cable to the TV for French TV (often you can get sport on French TV that otherwise you would have to subscribe to Sky). Same TV gives the Freesat using an HDMI cable to the Humax PVR (Personal Video Recorder).
As grannybunz says, you can record and watch at same time, but some channels do clash, so not a totally perfect system, even with a double coax from twin LNB. If you want Freesat in another room via other TV get a quad LNB, use the two extra fittings either singly or separately to two TVs; you won't be able to record, but kids can watch their favourite while you watch yours on the main Humax linked box.