Getting Irish Sky Digital in France

petetls

Hi,

I really hope some of you can help me out here. I've checked the FAQ, and see it is possible, but it didn't clear all my doubts.

I currently live in south-western France (after 10 years in Spain). I have always dreamed of being able to get Irish TV abroad, but though it was impossible, and now with my first child born I'd certainly like a bit ofIrish Tv influence for his English!
Anyway on a recent trip to the Costa del Sol an Irish friend told me that with an Irish ski digibox and card it is possible to get Irish TV (RTE, TV3 etc) in Spain, and probably also in France. Have checked in France and seems so, I've contacted a few installers who are all more familiar with installing Sky for British residents, and saying to me "yeah sure we should be able to get you Irish TV", but not sounding very convincing yet wanting to charge relatively high prices!
Anyway, I'll be in Dublin shortly visiting the family and would like to sort this out, so what should I do?
Do I have to register with Sky directly giving for example my parent's address (they don't have sky or a satelite dish and are planning on moving soon). My sister has sky (via cable I think) at her place. Could we just get a second digibox and card saying it's for her house and bring it to France.
Really, I'm very eager to do this but don't have a clue how to go about doing it.
Thanks for any help you can give me.

Mossy Monk

get a 2nd hand digibox and apply for a card off Sky. you dont need to sign up to any contracts

petetls

Mossy Monk wrote:

get a 2nd hand digibox and apply for a card off Sky. you dont need to sign up to any contracts

Thanks for the quick reply Mossy Monk! More silly questions though (sorry)

* Can I apply online just for the card on sky.com (Rep. of Ireland)?
* Will I be able to view Irish channels (RTE1, RTE2, TV3...) without singing up for one of their packages as all the Irish channels seem to be in their "variety" package?

Thanks again.

Mossy Monk

petetls wrote:

* Can I apply online just for the card on sky.com (Rep. of Ireland)?
* Will I be able to view Irish channels (RTE1, RTE2, TV3...) without singing up for one of their packages as all the Irish channels seem to be in their "variety" package?

to be honest with you i don't if you can do it on Sky.com but a quick call to Sky and they will send out the contract to the Irish address

the Irish channels arent free so you will need to get is it a minimum of 2 packages?

petetls

Thanks again Mossy Monk!

And now my final question (I hope... sorry they just keep occurring to me).
So they send out the contract to the Irish address, can I just say I'm doing the installation myself, birng the digibox and card over to France and install it, or will I need to connect to a telephone line to install (the French installer said something about that) and when applying on sky.com they ask if you have a fixed land line?
Again thanks for all your input

jesus_thats_gre

Mossy Monk wrote:

get a 2nd hand digibox and apply for a card off Sky. you dont need to sign up to any contracts

You do. Yuo have to get a 12 month contract even if you do not get a box of them.

Mossy Monk

when i signed up with just the card i was told i could cancel within 12 months as i didnt get any subsidised equipment

watty

You need a minimum of two mix packs, the Variety for RTE and the Knowledge is the next best value pack.

MenloPete

Let's just make this very clear...I don't think it is from the thread so far.

There is no way to receive Irish TV (RTE, TV3, TG4) via satellite without a Sky contract.

Pal

MenloPete wrote:

Let's just make this very clear...I don't think it is from the thread so far.

There is no way to receive Irish TV (RTE, TV3, TG4) via satellite without a Sky contract.

I agree. the thread is all over the place. You need a subscription.

petetls

Thanks all for the input.

I imagined I'd need a subscription. But the problem is that "in theory" it is not allowed to use a sky digibox outside the Rep. of Ireland of GB, yet it is very common especially in both Spain and France with abundant ads in local English language newspapers for installations. The only thing is these ads seem to be aimed at the British living here, and no installer I've called was 100% sure about getting Sky Ireland, and the cheapest offer to set it up was €580!! I have friends in Spain who told me that with a subscription using an Irish address it is possible to bring your digibox and card to Spain/France and it works. So I'd like to do it cheaper and ensure it'll work. You see the whole problem is I can't ring sky and say I want to subscribe for my home in France (where I permanently live). So I can give my folks address in Dublin as they don't have Sky. My worry is one installer told me something here about having to get somebody to call Sky from Dublin when he's installing to get it working, and I see when applying for Sky on their website they ask if you ahve a fixed line, so my question is, what do they want the phone number from, I mean when I'm installing it do I have to connect the digibox to my telephone line so they can activate the card or something, as if that is the case, surely they'll cop on and it wouldn't work if I'm connecting my digibox to my French telephone line????

zuutroy

Let me post my understanding of things, as I'm moving to Belgium shortly and thinking of doing the same: Sky stipulate that your system must be connected to a fixed line only if you are availing of their free equipment offer.
I believe I'll just be able to ring them up and say that I already have a dish and box and want a subscription only to the Variety Pack or whatever, which costs €21.50 a month, which you are tied to for twelve months. The billing address I will give is my mother's house, which currently does not have Sky in any form. I hope they will then send the card out, and I'll get my mother to post it to me in Belgium, where I'll pop it into my second-hand digibox, and away I go.....

Is this all plausible?

petetls

I like your thinking zuutroy as that's exactly what I'm hoping to do myself, I think it's possible, just want to get confirmation (if possible) before committing for 12 months and it not working!

zuutroy wrote:

Let me post my understanding of things, as I'm moving to Belgium shortly and thinking of doing the same: Sky stipulate that your system must be connected to a fixed line only if you are availing of their free equipment offer.
I believe I'll just be able to ring them up and say that I already have a dish and box and want a subscription only to the Variety Pack or whatever, which costs €21.50 a month, which you are tied to for twelve months. The billing address I will give is my mother's house, which currently does not have Sky in any form. I hope they will then send the card out, and I'll get my mother to post it to me in Belgium, where I'll pop it into my second-hand digibox, and away I go.....

Is this all plausible?

Greenman

zuutroy wrote:

Let me post my understanding of things, as I'm moving to Belgium shortly and thinking of doing the same: Sky stipulate that your system must be connected to a fixed line only if you are availing of their free equipment offer.
I believe I'll just be able to ring them up and say that I already have a dish and box and want a subscription only to the Variety Pack or whatever, which costs €21.50 a month, which you are tied to for twelve months. The billing address I will give is my mother's house, which currently does not have Sky in any form. I hope they will then send the card out, and I'll get my mother to post it to me in Belgium, where I'll pop it into my second-hand digibox, and away I go.....

Is this all plausible?

I'm in Belgium with $ky since it started its Irish service.I activated the card with a mobile with the ID switched off, did it on a saturday morning at 9am got straight through.
You need the card number and the digibox number.
Press services system setup,system deyails and thats it.
Feel free to ask more info.

zuutroy

Greenman wrote:

I'm in Belgium with $ky since it started its Irish service.I activated the card with a mobile with the ID switched off, did it on a saturday morning at 9am got straight through.
You need the card number and the digibox number.
Press services system setup,system deyails and thats it.
Feel free to ask more info.

Excellent....fancy a trip to Leuven in a couple of months in case I get into trouble?! Just to clarify...did you bill it to an address in the ROI?

petetls

Greenman, as zuutroy offered you may also be welcome to come visit Toulouse and help me out if I have problems.

So from what you're saying, which now makes what the installer I spoke to in France make sense, I won't need to connect the digibox to the phone line, just call either from an Irish mobile, a mobile with ID off or talk to somebody at home as they talk to Sky and provide the card and box numbers... is it really that simple?

watty

yes. Basically My Irish install. No phones ever and my phone system was not accepted by Western union as it couldn't do ID and showed up as someplace wierd. No problem to Sky.

dubmick

my brother in law lives in Munich and he is getting Sky this week. He is getting it installed in his parents house and then he is going to just grab the digibox when he returns home. He is going to get it billed to their address but and use his credit card for the direct debit.

It suits his parents grand as they are using one of those massive dishes for the free to air so when he takes the digibox they can just use the new dish for the free to air.

Greenman

zuutroy wrote:

Excellent....fancy a trip to Leuven in a couple of months in case I get into trouble?! Just to clarify...did you bill it to an address in the ROI?

I'm 40k from Leuven would be happy to help in anyway. PM me if you like, you would be welcome at the homestead to see the system up and running.

St Senan

petetls wrote:

Hi,

I really hope some of you can help me out here. I've checked the FAQ, and see it is possible, but it didn't clear all my doubts.

I currently live in south-western France (after 10 years in Spain). I have always dreamed of being able to get Irish TV abroad, but though it was impossible, and now with my first child born I'd certainly like a bit ofIrish Tv influence for his English!
Anyway on a recent trip to the Costa del Sol an Irish friend told me that with an Irish ski digibox and card it is possible to get Irish TV (RTE, TV3 etc) in Spain, and probably also in France. Have checked in France and seems so, I've contacted a few installers who are all more familiar with installing Sky for British residents, and saying to me "yeah sure we should be able to get you Irish TV", but not sounding very convincing yet wanting to charge relatively high prices!
Anyway, I'll be in Dublin shortly visiting the family and would like to sort this out, so what should I do?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Why dont you check out satellite.ie they supply sky digital tv for irish people living abroad. also they are based in Dublin so you could contact them when you visit Dublin

petetls

scaller wrote:

Why dont you check out satellite.ie they supply sky digital tv for irish people living abroad. also they are based in Dublin so you could contact them when you visit Dublin

Thanks Scaller, I'll check them out!

byte

Just to finalise:

Get your hands on a Sky Digibox (either buy new or second hand. I currently recommend the Pace 430N digibox which for some reason is also nicknamed Pace Cobra)

Then, call Sky, tell them you have equipment up and running but need a viewing card. They refer to this as a "second hand contract" and they will post it to your ROI address. Choose to pay your monthly subscription either by Credit Card, or from ROI Bank Account.

When the contract arrives at the home address you fill in the contract (or get your parents to fill it in) and ship it back to the Sky address. Afterwards, Sky will issue the viewing card back to DUblin.

Once you have the card in France, ring Sky with blocked number again, and ask to get your viewing card initialised. They'll ask to confirm all your name and address details (Dublin of course) and then, job done. Card should be active in a few hours.

Note: An alternative to expensive mobile with ID blocked, is Skype if you've got broadband. That's what I use when I'm changing my UK sub.

Another Note: I'm not sure how strong Astra 2D signals are in France, but these MUST be able to be received, as that's where the RTE's are.

watty

80cm OK in West of France. Not sure about extreme East or Med. But All France is covered with AFAIK up to 1m.

Some areas work fine on 60cm.

zuutroy

Greenman wrote:

I'm 40k from Leuven would be happy to help in anyway. PM me if you like, you would be welcome at the homestead to see the system up and running.

Yeah thanks, I might give you a shout if I cant get my head around tuning it in etc....never had Sky Digital. Not heading for a couple of months yet.

Sin e an Fear

byte wrote:

Just to finalise:

Note: An alternative to expensive mobile with ID blocked, is Skype if you've got broadband. That's what I use when I'm changing my UK sub.

Better still, use blueface and you get a Dublin number as your Caller ID, which makes it cheaper to call 0818 numbers ((€ 0.063/min vs (€ 0.184 with Skype) and gives the impression you're in Dublin.

superdudeman007

If you find someone in Ireland that already has Sky, they could get a second box and card (but they'd have to subscribe). Then you could bring the box and card back to France and use any satellite dish (I think - that's what I do). BUT if you stop paying the Sky sub, they cut off the Irish channels as well as the premium ones. (You still get 8 BBCs, 6 ITVs, Sky News, CNN and a load of others if you can find out how to tune them in)

watty

Yes but they sell excellent Sat receivers in France that work fine on BBC/ ITV. The ONLY useful things a cancelled Irish Sky card on Digibox does is Sky3 and Interactive (which it will do on ANY sky Digibox)

petetls

Thanks all for all your input.

Had a few family health probelms recently thus haven't been able to continue with this even though I've been back in Dublin quite a bit. Will try to sort it out now (an early Christmas present for myself!) and will let you know how it works out.

culabula

There is another route that you could go down.

Get yourself a Sony LocationFree player and watch Irish TV in France over broadband.

watty

Or swap subscriptions with the guy here on Foriegn Sat forum in Irland that wants Canal+

Neither Slingbox or Sony player is a viable solution. Need at least 512K UPLOAD in Ireland for a poorer picture. Also any much at that and you would hit cap.

culabula

My upload speed is around 300.

In practice results are near-perfect. I use it all the time watching Sky either on my PSP or MacBook. Watched the Podge and Rodge special the other night in a MacDo(nalds) in Paris using their splendid free wifi. The only hitches I ever really have is some slight delay changing channels.

At home, the reception in the bath is flawless. 'Twas a splendid purchase.

petetls

Well 2 months later they're finally here installing my new dish. I went with Scaller's suggestion and contacted www.satelitte.ie and they sorted out the whole digibox and getting the card activated for me. I asked for it about a week before a short visit to Dublin, and the guy there, Tony, did his best to sort it out in time so it could be delivered to my parent's home in Dublin and thus avoid an extra €50 or so to send to France, I didn't think he'd have time, but he did, and I received the digibox and activated card the day before my return to France. They are an excellent company, very efficient, and quickly responded by email to any question I sent them.

So got back to France and went straight to my local satelitte dish/French TV subscription TV installation guy. This was 2 weeks ago and I could only get an appointment for today at 2pm, and he arrived on the dot! I wasn't sure he'd be upto scratch with Sky, but talking in my local café the other day which is run by an English guy who has Sky there said I should have asked him and he would have recommened a great guy... which turned out to be the fella doing the installation here.

He's just gone off to get a bigger dish, as he tried with a slightly smaller one but it was too small. He's also managed to keep my other dish without any major work so that my wife can still receive her Spanish channels on Astra.

Fingers crossed it'll all work and by this evening I'll be watch Irish TV again! Will let you know!

Tony

Thanks for the kind words, hope it works out for you.

Sponge Bob

the card may not work exactly for a short while but if BBC 1 (London) shows up in position 101 just make sure the card is in the right slot, pushed well in, and leave the sky receiver on for a while and the subscription channels will eventually appear .

At least you know the dish is aligned to astra2 where ITV/RTE/BBC broadcast from. Your next test will be reception in heavy rain

antkeane1980

Hi

I live in the UK and have RTE, TV3 etc.

As the guys pointed out it is fairly easy to get the Irish channels abroad.

1) Get your hands on the sky digital set top box, have a look on eBay, you should be able to get one for £50 easily.
2) You’ll have to get the box and dish installed in your house in France. This will probably require some research, determine what size of dish you need and where you need to point it. This is not an easy task for an armature, might be an idea to get a proper dish installer to help your out.
3) Set up an Irish sky contract in Ireland. I went to my local sky dealer (an independent installer who didn’t mind what I do with the card, if you phone sky HQ they will!) and told him what I wanted to do, he set up the contract and activated the card in Ireland for me.
Points to Note:
I signed up to the variety mix and the knowledge mix, RTE, TV3 are on the variety mix only.
I am not connected to a phone line. – I paid the sky dealer an extra €50 he had to tell sky HQ I did not have a phone line. The €50 covers sky advertising losses I believe.
4) Make sure the Irish sky guy activates and sets up everything, DD from your Irish a/c, activates the card, everything. You do not want to have the hassle of contacting sky again, plus you might get found out if you contact sky from France.
5) Take the card with you and slot it into you newly installed box in France, works perfectly.

These guys might here might be able to advise you on the Dish size etc.

Good luck

petetls

Well the installer was here for about 3 hours, he insisted on me keeping my original satellite dish so the wife can see Spanish TV. He put up a fairly large dish for Sky (I think 90 but not sure), anyway, it all worked no problem and immediately got my dear RTE, TV3 etc. Must say there's an awful load of rubbish on Sky as well!
Was a bit more expensive than I had expected, with the installation (dish + a few other items) coming to €367. So by getting the dish through satellite.ie and getting it installed by a local here I saved about €100 on the cheapest quote I got fm any firms here in France offering to set up the whole system for me. Had hoped to save a bit more, but I can't complain. After so many years abroad I finally have Irish TV in my livingroommaking me feel a bit closer to home!
Thanks to all of you for all your advice, and many thanks to Tony for his very efficient service.

petetls

Sponge Bob wrote:

the card may not work exactly for a short while but if BBC 1 (London) shows up in position 101 just make sure the card is in the right slot, pushed well in, and leave the sky receiver on for a while and the subscription channels will eventually appear .

At least you know the dish is aligned to astra2 where ITV/RTE/BBC broadcast from. Your next test will be reception in heavy rain

A few people have mentioned the rain thing to me. At least the climate is fairly good here in Toulouse. Rain was forecast for today so I thought I'd get to check out the reception in rain, but alas, sunny skies in the end!
As I said, the bar just down the road from me has Sky and they never seem to have problems even in rain... fingers crossed.

Greenman

petetls wrote:

After so many years abroad I finally have Irish TV in my livingroommaking me feel a bit closer to home!

I know that feeling. I find I really appreciate the homegrown RTE 1 TV progs. Don't forget the radio section and consider hooking your digibox up to your hifi if you have one.

Tony

petetls wrote:

Thanks to all of you for all your advice, and many thanks to Tony for his very efficient service.

My pleasure

qwertplaywert

OKAY,IN OUR 2 villas in portugal[both near eachother] ,my family has irish sky in both:
we just bought sky boxes,rang someone to install them[in the local english newspaper[we are in a samll village in the Algarve],their are alot of ads for installers] and then ordered sky for our own houses at home[we have 3,ordered for 2].........[apperently its either illigial to take a card and use it abroad or sky dont allow it so we had to lie] and then took the cards out to portugal and they work.
but since then we have gotten sky in our houses,and we are paying full price,and we know you can get multi room with the second account onnly 15 a motnh..........can we do this/?1?

Greenman

qwertplaywert wrote:

OKAY,IN OUR 2 villas in portugal[both near eachother]

Well for some,enjoy them.

qwertplaywert

we dont use them much,they werre an investment by my dad like 7 years ago,we rent them out for like 40 something weeks a year and go out for 2 weeks each oyear