BBC, ITV etc abroad - is it possible?

[Deep Joy]

I have a house in the South of France with a 1m dish, Sky Digibox and up to today, a £12.50 value pack subscription to Sky. Ive just come back from there, and got to watch nil telly at all as the card was up the spout - that story could be another post all in its own right! I have now cancelled the subscription, as im not there often enough, and ive got one eye, sort of, on this BBC v Sky thing.
My question is, how can i get the channels again at the house(technical problems, ie the card, permitting).

Shall I, subscribe again, or can i get any of these channels free to air?

Is there a bit of a waiting game on, as far as ITV , 4 and 5 concerned re FTA?. Are BBC still issuing thier own cards, and if they arent, how do people who watched BBC through a dish going to watch it? Buy a Freeview digital box? This last question doesnt apply to me in France of course but it does make me wonder.
This is my first post here, looks like a good forum, all the best

 

[PoloMint]

Welcome to the forum Deep Joy,

Channel 5 has just signed a new contract with Sky so will be staying encrypted for some time, there is no sign that ITV or channel 4 will unencrypt their channels in the near future. This means that you will need a card to view these channels, at the moment the only card you can get to it is a Sky card, like you had. Again it is unlikely that this is going to change in the near future, but someone (either channels or government) mat pay Sky to issue free to view cards, or Sky themselves may charge a one off fee to issue you with a FTV card, these are just rumours, so don’t get your hopes up.

As for BBC, when they broadcast free to air anyone with a dish within the footprint can watch their channels without a card, so you shouldn’t have a problem getting BBC in France.

One other thing, do you have a Sky subscription for your house in the UK? If so, if you take your viewing card to France and use it in your box there you will get ITV and channel 4+5 (and indeed the basic family package, if you subscribe to it) without changing anything, or calling Sky, just by putting the card in the box.

 

[PaulR]

Suggest that you go to the "Sky Digital Platform: Fringe reception & Tech" section immediately above this one and have a look there especially at http://www.satellites.co.uk/php-bin/forum/showthread.php?threadid=5586 which is specifiaclly for France.

The biggest problem you'll have is keeping the box up-to-date if you switch the electricity off when you're not there.

I'm in a similar situation (although with an FTV card) and left my spare dodgybox switched off about 4 months once. When I came to use it the card needed re-initialising. I had to make the phone call from France to the UK - fortunately they didn't seem to mind.

PaulR

 

[Deep Joy]

Suggest that you go to the "Sky Digital Platform: Fringe reception & Tech" section immediately above this one and have a look there especially at http://www.satellites.co.uk/php-bin/forum/showthread.php?threadid=5586 which is specifiaclly for France.

The biggest problem you'll have is keeping the box up-to-date if you switch the electricity off when you're not there.

I'm in a similar situation (although with an FTV card) and left my spare dodgybox switched off about 4 months once. When I came to use it the card needed re-initialising. I had to make the phone call from France to the UK - fortunately they didn't seem to mind.

PaulR

reception is ok, i have a 90cm dish. Im similar to you in the respect that i had the electric turned off for 4 months as well. Even a couple of calls to sky couldnt sort it out - reason being i had a bad card. I did subscribe to the value pack , but ive now stopped thinking i could still get BBC, ITV, 4 and 5. It looks like i will have to subscribe again ,unfortunately until this has all been settled.

 

[dishdoctor]

A couple of questions,did you have a new dark blue card,or the original card?.Did you leave the digibox on for a couple of days to let the card re-initialise,as it would have worked ok after a couple of days.If you had a new card the software in the box would have been old and therefore the card would not have worked,let us know....brian

 

[Deep Joy]

A couple of questions,did you have a new dark blue card,or the original card?.Did you leave the digibox on for a couple of days to let the card re-initialise,as it would have worked ok after a couple of days.If you had a new card the software in the box would have been old and therefore the card would not have worked,let us know....brian

i have been issued the new one, which i took with me. With the old card in, it give me the full channel listings but told me i needed to up date the card - fair enough. With the new card in, the channels started at 181!!! - even sky couldnt suss that out and put it down to a duff card, thus i was never able to fully prove that i could/couldnt get BBC, ITV, 4 and 5. I was at the house for one day only, then went off for 5 days, turning the power off, therefore never giving the digibox/card much of a chance. Similarly on my return, was only there for 12 hours, then turned the power off and went home!
Either way, its looking like i need to subscribe again to receive the BBC, ITV etc, i think?

 

[dishdoctor]

If you have returned to the uk i hope you brought the box back with you,it will be much easier to sort out.With the old card in,the epg loads all channels,then put in the new card,what does the epg say,you should still see all channels on the epg,but anyway as sky understand the card is faulty they will send you another card,but if you have cancelled,who knows?,if you ever got itv before,you should get bbc with no card..............Just one thing,and sky would have asked you,you do have the latest version software in the digibox? 3.1a5,as the new card will not work without it...........brian

 

[dishdoctor]

I think the quick answer is that as the box had been turned off, the card had lost its memory and needed to be in the box for about 48 hours to remember.The new card was trying to work with the old version software so would never work..............brian

 

[Channel Hopper]

Just a thought about the BBC on 2D, it may be that a 1m dish is not sufficient in the very South East of France - near the mountains bordering Italy

Have you tried retuning to the frequencies that are now used by the Beeb ?

 

[Old Fred]

Just a thought about the BBC on 2D, it may be that a 1m dish is not sufficient in the very South East of France - near the mountains bordering Italy

I'm not so sure. If you look at this footprint you can see that it should be fine:


In fact I have friends there who use an 80cm dish without problems.

Fred

 

[Channel Hopper]

http://www.ses-astra.com/satellites/footprints.php?sat=15

Seems to be in line with what I suggested

 

[rolfw]

The only trouble with the SES-Astra official footprint, is that it doesn't seem to take any sidelobes into account.

Strange though, I know that plumbers are increasingly expanding their skills, but this is a big step out of the box.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Even though a sidelobe can be used in a lot of instances to receive signals where they would not normally be found, the aberations on the transmission equipment in space that causes them cannot guarantee the signal is stable along the lines drawn within the unofficial footprint offerings

The receivable signal around the coast of Portugal going south can vary by as much as 3dB on a town by town basis, some get clear signals, some dont. The build of the satellites own antenna(s), waveguide edges of the TWTA equipment, mating flanges and the highly accurate distances between the functioning components are all affected by the launch stresses, deployment in space and the continuous wear of travelling at high speed through space (with its lethal radiation, rarified molecules, debris from other objects) that its any wonder these things last the ten or so years we have the pleasure of seeing their downlinks

 

[Channel Hopper]

By the way the last plumber we employed did everything but repair the system, so I suppose they are likely to dabble in TV, satellite and reception