I currently spend 99% of my time in Spain, and would like to subscribe to UK Sky TV. I have a dish already installed and it is capable of receiving the free-to-air satellite channels perfectly.

I do own a small flat in the UK, and could subscribe to this address, alas things are not so simple:

First problem is that there is no phone line installed at this flat and the sky website indicates i need one in order to complete the installation, not an insurmountable problem but obviously an unwanted/unnecessary cost to have a phone line fitted and pay line rental just for this.

Second is that there is no dish fitted at the flat, and the owner of the building will not let me have one installed. As such, if a sky engineer were to come round it's likely he would suspect something and refuse to complete the install.

There are a number of websites which appear to offer sky cards for people living outside of the uk, however they usually charge a significant premium. I assume they have some method of getting around the phoneline and engineer-visit requirement imposed by sky?

If you buy your own SKY box off ebay then you dont have to be connected to a telephone line

My UK address is a flat, no SKY engineer has been to my flat. There is no dish there.

If you have a subscription in the UK, then you can keep it running (as if from your UK flat) and just buy a new dish here in Spain and use your box. So just buy a card from SKY. Stick it in your box in Spain. Ring them on SKYPE from Spain to pair it, but obviously dont let them know you are in Spain.

I have a sky box already, how do i get them to send a card to my UK address?

All of the signup options on the sky site seem geared towards activation via phoneline and an engineer coming to do the physical install.

A telephone connection is generally only required for "Multiroom Contract" cards, and for NEW Sky TV installs, where Sky provide a new box and dish.

If you just want a card, then a telephone connection is not required.

Contact Sky by phone and tell them you just require a card...no install, and you have a box already. The card will come in the post within a few days.

The issue is activating the card. Either get the card sent over to Spain, pop into your box, and call Sky on a UK mobile or Skype. Or take the card and box to someone in the UK who has a dish, contact Sky, and get the card activated that way.

What he said ...

Thats exactly what I did. They will, however, charge you a one off payment of 25 pounds if you cant connect to a phone line.

When we downsized in UK to come out here 99% of the time I told SKY I was moving in UK and that being retired I could no longer afford a new landline and was just keeping my mobile, they removed my old land line No. from my account and substituted my mobile No.

I brought my old box and card out here and also bought a SKY + box on ebay told them about the purchase and they paired the old card to the new box and I bought a Freesat from SKY card for the old box. All this I did on my registered mobile phone and they have sorted other problems as well. On one occasion when the connection was bad I apoligised for the quality and the SKY operator said don't worry a lot of customers did not have a land line and called me back and we were on the line for 30mins + at their cost.

Depends on who you speak to, and how you talk to them.

Normally for a card only NO phone line is required and they do not charge anything extra. They normally only charge if you have a new box and dish install and dont want a phone line.

Hi Bert

Just to clarify, that you do not need a land line and you will have to pay 25 pounds, insist when you call up that all you need is a card, sometimes you may need to hang up and call again, And say that you will go with Virgin media if you have no luck with them.

They are not all trained in all aspects of the system, when calling as already been suggested you can either use skype or just add 067 before the 0044 then this will hide your caller I/D.

The card will have to be sent to a valid Uk post code and then onto Spain, you are allowed 9 cards to one address! so no worries if someone there already has a sky account.

kindest regards,

Carl.

(SNIP)

Normally you are only allowed ONE Sky account at a UK address. On that account you can have a number (5 being the max last time I asked them) of cards - ie Multiroom.

You can , sometimes get two or three Sky accounts at one address, but it does get tricky explaining to them why there are multiple accounts at one address, as they will try their hardest to get you all onto a Multiroom contract.

In addition to your "Sky subscription" cards, you can have around 5 "freesatfromsky" free to view cards. These FSFS cards are totally seperate to the Sky subscription cards process and database.

In my dealings, not once has Sky asked for £25 for a card not to be connected to a phone line. This is only required if you do not want to be part of the "Sky Interactive" agreement, which is the 12 month part of a NEW Sky installation, and is part of the deal where Sky offeres"free installation and sky box" that applies in the UK only. Telephone line connection for a single card IS NOT required if you already own a Sky box and dish. The box and card are yours and are not being "discounted" by Sky.

I do know of people who have tried to get a second discounted subscription card on a Sky Multiroom contract, and then they have paid £25 for the "no phone line" connection...something not really covered / mentioned in the Multiroom T&Cs

They didn´t charge me.

What for?

Hi
Ive just upgraded to a skyhd + box bought for 40gbp from ebay

Im on costa Blanca, and now get all the 5 terrestrial channels 24/7 on HD, which i am very pleased about
i paired the card to the hd box while i was in the uk, i left the hd box and card turned on in spain, and the n called sky while in uk, think they only needed serial number etc, which they had told me about via email, so no need to be in front of sky box at the time of calling

so i now have HD, 24/7 ,, very happy

rob

Would of been easier plugging a Spanish ariel into the tv and got HD channels that way.

Well, BBC1HD, BBCHD, ITV1HD and C4 HD dont need a viewing card to watch anyway, as they are free to air.
Neither is it essential for reception of Five HD either, as ANY Sky card in ANY Sky box will get Five HD.
You really only need to pair the card tot he box for Sky Sport, Sky Movies and the recording functions of the Sky+ boxes.