If you have a
Sky receiver but don't have a viewing card, the
Sky electronic programme guide (EPG) will not load Channel Four or Five, the default behaviour is to load BBC London, BBC2, ITV Central W, then
Sky One, and so on, even though C4 is free to air.
The way to get round this is to insert any card, such as a supermarket loyalty card, credit or debit card, or driving licence into the viewing card slot.
Re- boot the
Sky box by switching off at the mains, when it restarts, it will show default behaviour- 101, 102, 103, 106 etc.
When the guide has fully loaded, take out the card and re- insert it.
The
Sky guide will re-load, but it will show the missing 104 and 105, as well as C4+1.
The BBC and ITV regions associated with card the box was last paired with will instead be loaded, from the receiver's memory, in place of the default behaviour.
(tested on Pace
Sky+ V3, Thomson HD, Pace 2600 CI)
* edit- if the debit or loyalty card is re- inserted the box will revert to the BBC & ITV regions on the card the receiver was last paired with, not from the last viewing card inserted, as I wrote earlier. Tested on two more receivers. A Pace 2600 CI standard
Sky box behaves differently, it's not necessary to take the bank card out and re- insert it. Either way up will do, EPG from the last card paired will load*