Sky Box dead.

vectra

As title says. My mothers Sky box died there last week.
She has the basic subscription (Soaps etc):P

Have been told a replacement box from sky is expensive,
Was also told the cheapest way is cancel subscription and start fresh but this only saves a few euro and not worth the hassle.
Is there any other option?
could she buy a box somewhere and get her card matched to it or something??

is there any new system where she could get Rte 1-2-Tv3 etc among uk channels with no subscription?

Cheers

Kristopherus

Is she out of contract? If not, then Sky should replace free. If she is, play hardball with them,i.e threaten to cancel, play the loyal card, etc and see where you get.

watty

vectra wrote: »

is there any new system where she could get Rte 1-2-Tv3 etc among uk channels with no subscription?

Cheers

Not yet with guaranteed working support. There are combo boxes, but they may never support Irish Digital TV properly. The Digital Terrestrial soft launches 31st Oct 2010. Public launch with Satellite maybe 2011. TV3 might be on the system then.

Till then the only reliable method of all four Irish Channels including TV3 on one Setbox is a Sky or UPC subscription. About 80% of country can get all 4 channels via Analogue TV. 95% all except TV3.

vectra

Kristopherus wrote: »

Is she out of contract? If not, then Sky should replace free. If she is, play hardball with them,i.e threaten to cancel, play the loyal card, etc and see where you get.

How do you mean out of contract?

I assume you mean over 12 months?
If so then yes, She is out of contract as she has it with around 3 years or so.

watty

Only premium channels need paired to card. Also if you can't get a free replacement (it's not an entitlement), then Sky will re-pair a card to any replacement sky box with a phone call.

Likely they will only give a "free" box on upgrade to Sky+ or SkyHD.

It might be less than 2% of what your Mum watches is actually pay TV. A lot of channels on Satellite (all BBC & ITV) are free.

steveon

Upgrade to sky plus, it will cost you €159 at the moment...and with the added benefit of being able to record and watch something else at the same time...

snaps

Personally id go with the tv aerial and UK FTA setup as im sure all the soaps your mum watches is on FTA/Irish channels.

A combo box would do that job paired with a decent UHF aerial.

Try ebay for 2nd hand sky+/Sky boxes.