Tv3 From Satellite.

Sir Arthur Daley

I was speaking to a sky representative earlier as i was changing packages on my own Sky and asked him was there a basic Rte package as my parents have Sky and making no use of the channels expect Rte and Tv3.
He said oh why dont you just get them free from satellite, i said i would only no tv3 to which he replied 100% that Tv3 is available from satellite.
We ended the call with me disagreeing as i am of the belief that the only ones available are what Saorsat are carrying and that it don't carry Tv3 or 3e.
My parents cant get Saorview.
Is Tv3 being broadcasted via satellite free? is the rep i was talking to earlier correct?

Thanks in advance to all replies.

The Cush

WikiHow wrote: »

Is Tv3 being broadcasted via satellite free? is the rep i was talking to earlier correct?

The rep is incorrect, TV3/3e are only available via satellite with a Sky subscription.

WikiHow wrote: »

I was speaking to a sky representative earlier as i was changing packages on my own Sky and asked him was there a basic Rte package as my parents have Sky and making no use of the channels expect Rte and Tv3.

Sky are not allowed to offer a separate subscription package of Irish-only channels as per the Broadcasting Act even though they did offer it to my brother a few years ago for €5 pm. Others were offered it also at the time according to posts here on boards. They could do a FTV package (encrypted but free with a valid card and receiver) but this would be of no benefit to Sky.

muffler

If they have a Sky subscription then they will get all the Irish channels including TV3 and 3e - unless they live in N.I.

Sir Arthur Daley

The Cush wrote: »

The rep is incorrect, TV3/3e are only available via satellite with a Sky subscription.

That is what i was saying to him too, i even asked him was he mixing it up with Itv and he said no.

Apogee

FYI some time back Sky were offering a significantly reduced subscription rate to selected customers who wanted the Irish channels:

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Sky have an unpublished customer retention offer. When a full sub €22 a month or higher threatens to cancel they are offering a €5 a month RTE TG4 only sub in certain cases. It may also include tv3/c6/setanta ireland for all I know

This would mean the box continues to pick up the Irish and the Free channels only but with the Irish channels in EPG positions 1-4 ...OTOH you only pay €5 a month and for many with marginal reception a decent aerial would cost many years of the Sky sub.

Might be worth getting back to them and threatening to cancel your subscription?

muffler

Apogee wrote: »

FYI some time back Sky were offering a significantly reduced subscription rate to selected customers who wanted the Irish channels:



Might be worth getting back to them and threatening to cancel your subscription?

This has to be read in context. The quoted post was from a 2009 thread and can be seen here

Things have changed a lot over the years.

Apogee

Yes, but there was an additional post in 2011 by another poster confirming he had availed of this offer. Worth PMing him or at least mentioning it to subscription team at Sky.

Hannibal wrote: »

I cancelled Sky a few months ago and got offered the Irish channels for €5 a month, you can also get BBC1,2,3,4, UTV/ITV1,2,3,4, C4, C5 etc and theyre FTA.. then Sky rang me a month later and offered me my previous subscription for half price for 12 months which was sports/movies/ 1 multiroom and 3 other packs working out at about €44 per month. A friend of mine works in vodafone and she tells me that they can offer certain discounts only to certain customers. So the longer you've been with them and the more you spend comes into account with vodafone which I can only presume Sky and other providers have a similar policy

muffler

Apogee wrote: »

Yes, but there was an additional post in 2011 by another poster confirming he had availed of this offer. Worth PMing him or at least mentioning it to subscription team at Sky.

Anything is worth a shot and even a call back 10 minutes later to a different Sky agent can yield different results. However I have read dozens if not hundreds of posts over the last couple of years regarding the wide range of discounts and offers made by Sky and i have never seen this offer of "Irish channels only"

But back to the OP. He can of course try Sky again to see if they can do anything for the Irish channels only but I cant see it happening.

Next best thing is to ask for a discount and failing that his folks would have to "threaten" to cancel. That may or may not yield a discount on their package.

If that doesn't work out then bear in mind that most of the TV3 content is shown on UTV/ITV and BBC and perhaps freesat is the best option.

But despite all we complain about Sky they do provide a very user friendly box for recording and all the other bits and bobs. The ease of use of the Sky digibox wont be found on any FTA receiver/pvr which can be the deciding factor at times.

Sir Arthur Daley

My parents are on a reduced rate at the moment, think they called it "happy days" they gave two free months and reduced rate of €22 for 4 months so was good value, they love the ease of sky and recording. I will ring them again tomo and interrogate them again, its going back to the normal €27 euro next month which is alot considering they are not getting the value out of it.

The Cush

muffler wrote: »

However I have read dozens if not hundreds of posts over the last couple of years regarding the wide range of discounts and offers made by Sky and i have never seen this offer of "Irish channels only"

My brother was given the €5 option about 5 years ago when he was cancelling, he declined saying he could get them through the aerial and was going the Freesat route.

STB

The Cush wrote: »

My brother was given the €5 option about 5 years ago when he was cancelling, he declined saying he could get them through the aerial and was going the Freesat route.

As you said earlier, Sky cannot charge for the FTA channels it has availed under the must offer/carry rule.

To specifically place such a charge would contravene the Section 77 of Broadcasting Act 2009.

basill

Perhaps they used to bundle in Sky1 to keep it legal? Or some other similarly next to useless "pay" channel so that the customer still gets bombarded with Sky adverts and reminded of what they are missing out on...:)

watty

Sky1 and all Sky Sports together are the MOST watched pay TV channels. With about 1.5% viewing time each.
92% of viewing time is FTA channels.