Beginner question

tomweir

I live in North Leitrim. Ordinary terrestrial reception is very poor. MMDS misses our village by a few miles. Sky seems to be our only option at the moment.

Frankly all we really would like is the regular five channels but with good reception. Throw in a news channel and I won't object but I don't really want the rest.

Can I do this by just buying the dish and decoder? And not subscribing? I hate the idea of subscribing to yet another thing I don't really want. How much is the gear unsubscribed so to speak. And what happens in terms of validation of card.

Are all the beeb channels available free in Ireland? I have a mate in the North who has a spare NI card and has offered to swap. Would that help? How do i validate that card? Or does he do it?

sceptre

Originally posted by tomweir
Frankly all we really would like is the regular five channels but with good reception. Throw in a news channel and I won't object but I don't really want the rest.

Can I do this by just buying the dish and decoder? And not subscribing? I hate the idea of subscribing to yet another thing I don't really want. How much is the gear unsubscribed so to speak. And what happens in terms of validation of card.

If you mean the four Irish channels, they're only available by subscribing to Sky's Family Pack @ €27 per month

If you mean the five UK channels, only BBC1 and 2 are currently available using an Iirish subscription. The BBC are going FTA (free to air) at the end of July so at that time using a dish and decoder with no subscription and no card you will be able to get free BBC. ITV/C4/5 will not be available without some kind of card, though ITV may go the same route as the BBC when their contract with Sky runs out in about a year. They won't be available on the Irish subscription for some time (if ever), meanwhile the deadline for getting an FTV card is running out quickly (details in recent FTV card threads)

This info is all available in recent threads on the subject btw.

tomweir

Thanks. I just spent an hour going through the threads and my head is spinning.

So it looks like this....

I have to pay to get the four Irish ones and the more expensive package at that. And RTE have no active policy which will see this change any time soon.

All the Beebs are free. If i had the gear and no sub I could get them no bother.

To get ITV, CH4 I have to get a mate to order a card and then I have to authorise it in my digibox using the methods outlined in Clarity on UK FTV cards. But this situation may change in about a year when they may or may not take the same approach as the Beeb.

Is that correct?

sceptre

Originally posted by tomweir
I have to pay to get the four Irish ones and the more expensive package at that. And RTE have no active policy which will see this change any time soon.

You don't have to get the most expensive package - RTE is available on the Family Pack or higher. The Family Pack is the €27 a month one (everything except Sky movies & Sky sports)

Should really be available on a lesser pack or heaven help us, even free but it's not going to happen any time soon as RTE have a contract with Sky for the next few years (they didn't have to pay any carriage charges so thay thought it was a good deal - no-one else thinks so)

All the Beebs are free. If i had the gear and no sub I could get them no bother.

Free from the end of the month. If you decided to go with the Family pack in order to get watchable RTE you'd get BBC1 and 2 as part of this anyway. Basically, free, yeah - no card of any kind required (and it'll include all the BBC channels)

To get ITV, CH4 I have to get a mate to order a card and then I have to authorise it in my digibox using the methods outlined in Clarity on UK FTV cards. But this situation may change in about a year when they may or may not take the same approach as the Beeb.

Correct.

No-one really knows the approach ITV and C4 will take. ITV's delivery contract with Sky runs out next year. Chances are that they'll take the same steps as the BBC though - it would be fairly surprising if they didn't. Channel 4 might be a different kettle of fish but that's only speculation.

The phone number to ring is presumably in the "Clarity on FTV cards" thread. Reportedly they aren't sending out any more cards after July 1 though as the BBC have been paying for this scheme all along - now they're going free for all there's no reason from their point of view to continue the scheme (in other words, get your mate to ring and order the free card very quickly, at least thet's done).

Obviously it would be much simpler if RTE had kept their viewers in mind and organised some method of allowing us to watch their channels on satellite without having to buy a particular pack (it would at least have prevented some head-spinning - I found it prety confusing a year ago when considering Sky & it wasn't until the gang at home got it in that I realised how much sense it made over our local cable provider)

Creamy Goodness

so will all the BBC channels at the end of july go into the irish EPG?

sceptre

Almost certainly not. The beeb would have to pay extra for that.

Using "Other channels" is highly likely.

tomweir

Thanks very much for the clarity and advice!