British Expats - New Sky Cards and possible issue with Multicam receivers

With the introduction of new sky uk viewing cards, that have already been issued to sky employees, there is a worrying impact for those that currently use a generic receiver reprogrammed to read current sky cards.

i was reading this morning that the lastest sky italia viewing cards, that use the same encryption company as sky uk, have been proven NOT TO WORK on generic receivers such as Darkboxes or Dreamboxes. And they have also been proven NOT TO WORK with card sharing networks!
(source: HERE)

We may not know if this is indeed true until sky start to issue the new card in march / april, but it may mean that those that bought "multicam" receivers may no longer be able to use a sky card...until someone manages to come up with some software for the generics again...

According to sources, Freesatfromsky cards bought from Sky inthe last 3 years and registered at your own UK address, should be replaced. If you bought on "over the counter" from your installer you may not get a replacement, unless you specifically asked for one in the event of a card change. (This is assuming that FSFS crads will be actually produced given that the channels they were origianlly produced for are now available for free without a sky card in the uk!)

New Sky subscription cards will also be sent to the UK addresses that the cards are registered at. If you currently use an agent who supples you with a UK addres, you may want to check that you will get a new sky card. if your installer has gone "walkaputs" then you may have a few months of no sky pay tv channels.

If the process is as it was 5 years ago, a message will be displayed on the screen (sky boxes only!) saying that your existing vieign card is due to expire and you should get a new one shortly. in theory all you need to do is take out your existing sky card and insert you new sky card.

It is expected that the current cards will all stop working, even for freetoview channels like five and five us, in May 2009.

I will try to keep you updated as much as i can, but as ever things can change.