Getting Irish Sky Digital in France

petetls · 01-08-2006 03:37PM #1

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 · 01-08-2006 03:46PM

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

petetls · 01-08-2006 03:56PM

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 · 01-08-2006 04:22PM

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 · 01-08-2006 04:32PM

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 · 01-08-2006 04:38PM

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 · 01-08-2006 05:01PM

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 · 01-08-2006 06:49PM

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

MenloPete · 02-08-2006 09:52AM

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 · 02-08-2006 01:04PM

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 · 02-08-2006 02:24PM

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 · 02-08-2006 02:30PM

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 · 02-08-2006 02:34PM

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 · 02-08-2006 03:16PM

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 · 02-08-2006 03:22PM

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 · 02-08-2006 03:41PM

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 · 02-08-2006 04:14PM

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 · 02-08-2006 05:13PM

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 · 02-08-2006 05:39PM

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 · 02-08-2006 06:37PM

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 · 02-08-2006 08:30PM

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 · 02-08-2006 08:31PM

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 · 02-08-2006 08:53PM

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 · 02-08-2006 09:51PM

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 · 03-08-2006 07:46PM

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 · 20-08-2006 06:06PM

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 · 20-08-2006 07:49PM

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 · 17-10-2006 12:15PM

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 · 18-10-2006 07:51AM

There is another route that you could go down.

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

watty · 18-10-2006 08:34AM

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 · 18-10-2006 08:42AM

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.

Getting Irish Sky Digital in France

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