Can I use my ex-contract sky digital satellite receiver to get Freeview channels?
You can get the following Freeview channels on with an ex-contract digital satellite receiver (once it is connected). Items marked with a star require either a Freesat from Sky (fSfS) card, or a expired Sky subscription card to view.
Click here for the list of questions
Click here to ask a new question
Your comments
First comments 
Earlier comments ◊ Later comments
Latest comments
Your comments are always welcome. Please use the form below to add your thoughts or questions to this page. We will get back to you as soon as we can.
SallySaturday 19 February 2011 11:46PM
Q:I have a sky dish set up from an old sky connection, but no aerial is it possible to connect the sky dish to a new tv with built in freesat will it work as an aerial? Or what do a need to receive a signal? All explanations very appreciated! Sally: Yes, you can connect a Freesat TV to an old Sky dish, or you can use a Freesat box with the dish.
Just connect the cable to the correct input point on the TV or set top box. TS BradleyMonday 21 February 2011 12:56PM
Just left sky, can I get the documentaries elsewhere?IanMonday 21 February 2011 10:56PM
After one year my HD Sky contract can be cancelled.
The box and the installed dish I can keep.
Can I continue to watch BBC, ITV etc? Can I watch them in HD through the box? Can I record them in SD or HD on the box? Ian: Yes, you can watch them.
But no, without a subscription your box will not play/record/pause.
If you want to play/record/pause, get a Freesat+HD box and swap this for the Sky+HD box. These require no ongoing payment to play/record/pause.
Channel 4 HD is coming to Freesat HD in April. Ed: No, you can't do that. EdThursday 24 February 2011 4:20PM
Wounded. Do you know if there is anything about anytime+
I need to set it up wirelessly but do not want to be paying £60 for the wireless connector?EdThursday 24 February 2011 4:43PM
My thought was I might be able to do something clever with my wii but if not use a router as a bridge?EstherThursday 24 February 2011 9:03PM
Hi - my mum has quite an old sky dish and has bought a humax sattelite freesat recorder box, would this have worked with the sky ariel leads? The electrician said they would not work and snipped the wires off - but i think he may have been wrong and now she has a box with nowhere to plug in. Esther: Yes, it would have worked perfectly. RonTuesday 1 March 2011 5:21PM
Hi, Can I run freesat through the bt vision box instead of the freeview arial and still get sky sports that I set up with Bt Vision through the ariaiRon: No, you can't do that. RonTuesday 1 March 2011 8:45PM
Can I use it instead of the arial thenRonTuesday 1 March 2011 8:58PM
THank you .... RonEstherThursday 3 March 2011 8:47AM
Hi Brian, thanks for the previous reply, just realised that there is only 1 wire running out form the satellite, will this still work with the Humax FOXSAT? or does there need to be 2 wires out for the satellite to connect to this recorder? CheersEsther: It will still work, but you need two connections to the dish (and a quad-LNB) if you want to record one thing whilst watching another, or record two things whilst watching a recording. EstherThursday 3 March 2011 9:04AM
Okay thanks - it simple to fit? Or would we need to get someone round to do it?Esther: it's a little tricky, but not complicated.you have to take care not to move the dish. Jim ThomasFriday 4 March 2011 3:53PM
Liverpool Hi!.
I am on SKY HD at present,hate the monthly payments. My sky dish has 2 co-ax cables.It also has a seperate aerial.
Is it possible to purchase a freeview/freesat HD recorder/receiver that would enable me to get ALL the channels I receive at present? Would I be able to record and pause live tv?
GinoTuesday 8 March 2011 11:08AM
Bedford Hi, curently the strength of my freeview signal is only around 5%. The "normal" not Hi-gain aerial is in the loft. Would a signal booster attachment help?Mike DimmickTuesday 8 March 2011 12:26PM
Gino: boosters rarely help unless you have (just) sufficient signal at the aerial, but it drops too much in the cable.
Is this a change to the expected signal level, or has it always been this way? You're reasonably close to the Sandy Heath transmitter, so although your aerial is sited in the loft, you may still get enough signal to be usable. See 
http://www.wrightsaerials.tv/articles/whatsat-201007.pdf for some thoughts on siting and positioning loft aerials. You will normally get better results from a roof aerial.
If this is your first Freeview box, your aerial may be a Group A type, which doesn't pick up very much at the higher frequencies used by the current low-power digital services. You'll probably have to get a wideband type to receive all the multiplexes.
The Sandy Heath transmitter switches over in about three weeks, so it may be best to just wait and see what you get before changing anything. The Public Service Broadcasting multiplexes (PSB1-3) will use the low frequencies currently used by three analogue channels: Channel 4, ITV1 and BBC Two. The commercial multiplexes will be on higher frequencies, so you'll still need a wideband aerial. (RG47SH) CandiceMonday 14 March 2011 6:47PM
Hi, I have a sky satellite dish at the house I've just moved in to, I am not with sky but my tv has built in free view, will I still be able to watch the freeview channels with a sky dish or do I need a special freeview ariel? Many thankshejabMonday 14 March 2011 8:34PM
hi ,i have a sky box and view card.can i use this to watch some extra tv channel in my lg led tv if yes then how and what extra bit i need to watch.i dont have any sky dish.please let me know.JanMonday 14 March 2011 8:47PM
Fort Augustus Hi
Our aerial is sited in the loft. We do not get all the freeview channels, even through BT Vision. Our other problem is BBC1 and BBC2 are of very poor quality. The picture breaks up and a cracking sound is heard as it breaks up. Do you think the aerial is at fault?ALLYMonday 14 March 2011 9:26PM
My digital Freeview set top box has just packed up and i have looked out an old sky receiver and card and have connected it to my old sky dish but im getting much less channels and cant even get five!! can anyone tell me why this is? thanxTerry BradleyTuesday 15 March 2011 1:44PM
Morpeth Hi
Can I use HDMI cable splitters to connect a BT vision box and my Sky (no contract) together? My aerial is roof mounted but pretty close to very tall trees which is why I went to Sky originally.
Thanks
Terry Bradleyclaire BUSSWednesday 16 March 2011 7:29PM
Hi my dad just bought me a freeview hd tv for the bdroom, i used to have an old tv which i watched sky(no subscription) on buthave no outside aerial apart from the front room.I can't get any tv on the new tv i understand that without an aerial in there i won't get freeviw but i want to watch my sky box on the nw tv??? pls hlp!! xxLornaThursday 31 March 2011 9:11PM
I have left sky but took my HD box and 2 other standard boxes to my caravan. I want to purchase freesat cards from sky - will my record, pause and rewind work or do you have to have a monthly subscription?kdFriday 1 April 2011 2:47PM
hi ;i have freeview built in tv, can i watch free channels from sky ,if i connect my tv to old sky dish,or do ineed sky box
thanks STAN Friday 1 April 2011 4:52PM
if i cancel my contract with sky,will my sky+hd box still receive channels inc.hd,record etc.
i have my present card and a spare white card
if requiredMike DimmickSaturday 2 April 2011 4:01PM
Stan: I'm afraid Sky require you to keep subscribing to keep time-shift and recording features. You can't even play back programmes you've previously recorded. You can cut back your service to just a basic entertainment package, though.
You should still be able to watch all free-to-air HD channels. Sky say BBC One HD, BBC HD, ITV1 HD, 4hd, Channel 5 HD and Luxury Life HD - see 
FREESAT from Sky - What can I watch? for a full line-up of what should still work if you cancel your subscription (this is what you get if you buy just a viewing card without subscribing).
As Brian says, if you want recording and time-shifting without subscribing to Sky, you can replace the Sky box with a Freesat+ HD box. Channel 5 HD is not available through Freesat yet, and 4hd is due to launch shortly. You might find you get a different regional variant of ITV1 and ITV1 HD depending on your location, because some variants are only available encrypted.
For a list of channels available on Freesat, see 
Free Digital TV Channels - freesat . Some channels listed on Sky's free service are free-to-view: encrypted, so only watchable with Sky's hardware and viewing card. (RG47SH) ginaSunday 3 April 2011 4:58PM
hi there i hope some one can help, we have installed a sky dish and have an old sky box but the card we have from sky is a white card but have been told by sky it is disabled as it was from when we was going to have sky installed in a new property but didnt move in, in the end. but now when we tried to use it in our new property it has been disabled as i said before.
now what i want to know is is there a way we can receive a signal from the dish to the box with out a card, sky said we need to purchase a freesat from sky card which i dont mind but if there is another way i would rather that lol as it costs money, if i was to buy a blue sky card off some one are these likely to work or are these disabled once the user who last owned it has received the new white card??
i hope this all makes sense.
thanks in advance.paulSunday 3 April 2011 5:25PM
i have been given a bt vision box do i have to contact bt to useginaSunday 3 April 2011 5:40PM
paul, as far as im aware u need to be connected to a bt broadband homehub for this to work as i purchased one for a £1 at a car boot once and i couldnt get it to work, but i may stand corrected.KevTuesday 5 April 2011 6:58AM
I have new 1tb box and still have previous hd+box. I understand i can get free channels eg BBC on old box but want to record them. you say you cant without subscription - do yo need subscription on both boxes? I Suppose im looking for multiroom without all channels on box 2. RobTuesday 5 April 2011 9:49PM
I have the full sky+HD package I watch on my TV in the living room and use a digisender to watch sky on the TV in the bedroom. I have recently bought a TV with built in freeview for the bedroom. Is there some type of switch that will transfer between sky and and normal aerial/freeview so i can watch two different tv channels upstairs and down?Mike DimmickTuesday 5 April 2011 11:28PM
Reading Rob: Normally Sky distribution is done through analogue TV signals, and you tune it in as if it were an analogue TV station. You would normally select a different mode, source or input using the TV remote (terms vary between manufacturers) to watch Freeview rather than analogue TV.
It looks like the DigiSender uses a SCART connection. SCART has a pin that the device can use to tell the TV that it's on. If this pin changes from off to on, the TV automatically switches to the device. If it's on when the TV is turned on, it may also automatically switch to the device. Again, by pressing the INPUT, SOURCE, TV/AV button or similar on the remote, you can get back to Digital TV.AsviThursday 7 April 2011 12:21AM
Hi, i hope somebody can help me. We just moved to a new house, we have a TV with build in freeview, there is an aerial in the loft, but we can catch only 3 channels and no any freeview. My partner put the aerial outside, so now it's a bit better, we have 5 channels and 13 freeview, anyway no ITV, E4, Film4, Five.. So i was wondering, if there is a problem with an aerial, or should we purchase something - like sky HD box, o freesat box?.. On our aerial there is a yellow sticker with letter B, so after some research i discovered, that probably we need wideband aerial, just i am not sure, so i decided to seek for a professional advice.. Thanks a lot.Asvi: It's impossible to say without your full postcode. Colin Saturday 9 April 2011 8:13PM
We have Sky HD+ box and want to use the sky has a aerial for a freeview box is this possible? we do have an old sky+ box? blanefieldkennyWednesday 13 April 2011 12:15PM
Glasgow My mother has a Sky digibox on which she cancelled the contract after my father passed away.
The card is still in the box.
She can now only see a few channels on it (mostly BBC) but not her local ITV channel (STV).
Q 1. Should she be able to see all FTA and/or some FTV channels with her current setup or does she need to get a new freeview box?
Q 2. If she needs a new freeview box, can this use the existing satellite dish and cable.
BBC - Blogs - Internet blog - What'…
Ofcom to crack down on sloppy subti…
The quality of live subtitling Impr…
Half-way mark for digital radio lis…
DTG :: News :: Talk Talk reports ne…
BBC iPlayer - Help - Frequent quest…
Aereo gets set for Atlanta debut - …
All free-to-watch channels | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice page. 
Show: 
