How can I watch Channel 4 and five on satellite if I have no card or a free-to-view card?
Get a replacement card from Freesat from Sky (fSfS)
Get a new free-to-view installation from Sky, by calling their hot-line on 0870-240 5651 and choose option 1. You can pay for a replacement Freesat from Sky (fSfS) card by paying £20 with a credit or debit card.
Get new Sky free-to-view installation
Get a new free-to-view installation from Sky, by calling their hot-line on 0870-606 1111. You will get a new dish, a new Digibox, a new free-to-view card and full installation.
Get a Freeview box
From £20: If you are in a Freeview reception area (see
Freeview Reception) then you can get a Freeview box from a local store. This will give you several additional TV channels ( f-tn, The Box, TMF, UK Bright Ideas, UK History, Sky Sports News) and some extra radio stations.
This will keep your digital wide-screen reception of Channel 4 and five.
Subscribe to Sky for a year
From £157.50: If you have never had a free box and dish from Sky, then the best way is to get the offer from Sky and get a free Digibox, and subscribe to the Value Pack for one year.
Either phone 08705-800874 or visit
http://www.sky.com/ordersky/home
Re-subscribe to Sky
From £15: If you have been a Sky subscriber in the past, you should not have to complete the minimum term of one year. You can re-subscribe to Sky on the Value Pack and cancel again after one month.
Either phone 08708-501 607 or visit
http://www.sky.com/ordersky/home
Watch on analogue cable
From Free: If you have ever had a cable TV service (analogue or digital), the law requires that itv-1, Channel 4 and five are kept available as an analogue service, even if you have stopped a subscription many years ago.
Most systems now use a digital TV receiver to produce the analogue picture for these channels, so the quality is good. However, it is not wide-screen.
You will need a cable to connect the TV Out socket on the cable box using a suitable cable (made from parts 16-0605 and 16-0445 from
www.rapidelectronics.co.uk) and you will have to re-tune your TV or video.
Because of the way that digital TV is carried on cable systems, you must connect the video and TV by a SCART cable, and tune in the video only.
Watch on analogue UHF
From Free: As a final backup, you may still be able to receive an analogue. The picture quality may be poor, and will not be wide-screen.
Updated 27/2/06 to reflect ITV channels being free-to-air
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Richard: Thanks. Such products should not be confused, however, with official Freesat system that provide MHEG5 interactive services and the EPG. I've got sky freesat. I paid £20 for my card about 3 years ago. I've heard that sky are replacing all freesat viewing cards for security reasons. How can I get my card replaced?
I understand that the cards will cease to function during October 2009. BERNARDMonday 22 March 2010 7:32PM
Walsall can you get free HD with fsfs card for £20Alan SinclairFriday 26 March 2010 11:45AM
South Shields I have a 32" digital LG television which works perfectly. I also have a 40" Samsung digital television and the picture keeps breaking up on all I.T.V channels. They are both wired to the same new digital aerial. One works fine and the other does not.
Can you please explain this?Alan Sinclair- There could possibly be alot of factors involved here. EG, do you have external equipment connected to the Samsung?
Signal strength is dropped slightly each time a lead is connected to an appliance. Is the Samsung TV further away from the aerial? And so forth.
Have you tried swapping the sets around? This would confirm that your issue is due to signal drop.
Hope this helps.
vikki adkinsSaturday 19 June 2010 9:20AM
i have a free sat viewing card for my old sky box and wish to upgrade to the new card - i watch this down in France but i have been told this is illegal and should only be used for the uk - if it is free to view television how can it be illegal to use it in France. effetively i will not be able to use the new viewing cardbernardSunday 20 June 2010 11:35AM
hi can i get ch4 hd on freesat if so what do
i do to get itbernard- CH4HD is not available on FreeSat at present. I have heard that you can receive CH4HD with a Sky card and retune the box in 'non' FreeSat mode.
As I am unable to try this, I cannot confirm whether this would work. Personnally, I do not believe this is possible, but I may be wrong. vikki adkins: Just run without the card, you will get all the same channels, except Sky Three, Fiver and Five USA. A Freesat HD box would also give you BBC and ITV HD channels. LutonFan: There is no NDS software in the Freesat recievers, and C4HD is only available to Sky HD subscribers, so you are right when you say it won't work. StuartSunday 3 October 2010 11:13PM
Hi. Is it possible to receive channels 4&5 with a free to air sattelite dish and receiver for a motorhome?Jahangir AliFriday 10 December 2010 4:29AM
I need a nds viewing card for south African horse racing ( racing international )
3-6 or12 months subscription
can i buy a viewing card for attheraces and racing UK for Pakistan
a lot of people searching viewing cards of all three channel i have mentioned
please reply as soon as possibleJahangir Ali: The cards can only be purchased in the UK and RoI. stickThursday 30 December 2010 3:48PM
I have a standard sky plus package and would like to know how do I get freeview channels through the dish in other rooms in the house without having multi room?mikeSunday 2 January 2011 10:28PM
I live in Germany near Frankfurt and want to receive Chgannel 4 via satellite. Bit which one transmits Channel 4?
Can't find it on ASTRA 234.
Moray ChristieSunday 16 January 2011 12:48PM
how do i get channel 5.on a sat,dish,in a caravan,please.
thank you
MorayGwyn EvansSunday 16 January 2011 2:41PM
I still have a old blue free to air (welsh) sky card on which I receive all the channels I need but I am unable to receive the new ITV 1+1 on it. Can you tell me why that is?Gwyn Evans: No card is required to watch ITV1+1, the channel is broadcast free to air. Moray Christie: The same way as every other channel? I'm not quite sure what your question means. John CookeMonday 17 January 2011 8:35PM
Hi I live in Stoke on Trent and want to watch the Cardiff vs Stoke Cup replay tomorrow on S4C can I receive this on Virgin?John Cooke: Virgin don't carry the channel outside of Wales. You can watch on Sky and Freesat though. leonard felbergTuesday 1 February 2011 11:56AM
I have tv connected to a freeview box (hdd) I do not have sky, is it possible to have freesat and still use my existing freeview box?leonard felberg: Yes, you can use Freeview and Freesat at the same address. You just can't use a Freeview box for Freesat or vice-versa. TedWednesday 9 February 2011 12:29PM
Hi Briantist. I have an old sky box and dish it dose not have channel five how do I get it please.AllanThursday 24 February 2011 1:02AM
Johnstone Hi my parents tv can no longer recieve channel 4,tried retune, nothing! could anyone shed some light on this please?, only analogue 1-4 beforehand, 1,2,3 are fine, area is west renfrewshire,scotland PA9, switchover shouldn't of been till May, checked with transmitters on here, say they are fine, don't know what to try next.
thanks, AllanChrisTuesday 29 March 2011 10:49AM
Hi, I recently hooked up my old sky satellite dish and sky+ HD box in my new home in order to watch regular freesat channels.
The trouble is i am not able to view some channels i thought were free-to-air...
e.g. i can view all the bbc chans incl BBC HD, all the news channels (except fox) and all the shopping/adult/ religious chans.
If i attempt to watch itv, chan 4, e4 etc.. i get an error saying the incorrect viewing card is being used (i have no viewing card inserted)
shouldn't these chans be available to view? can you clarify this for me please? is there a setting on the box i need to configure to allow it to view all the regular freesat chans?
Thanks in advance,
ChrisKeithTuesday 29 March 2011 1:26PM
Pay sky £20:00 for a card, that one off payment, you will get all the freesat channel.
ChrisTuesday 29 March 2011 1:41PM
Thanks for the quick reply Keith, all the info i've read indicates that itv1 is free-to-air now just like bbc1 etc.. nowhere does it mention that itv is restricted on freesat...or is it just restricted because i'm using a proprietary sky box? i'm in ROI by the wayMike DimmickTuesday 29 March 2011 2:15PM
Chris: It's probably because whatever region your box was previously tuned to was encrypted. Not all of the ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 regions are available free-to-air, some are only available encrypted (but 'free-to-view', you don't need an ongoing subscription).
The 'free-to-view' card is actually £25. You will need to get it sent to a UK address if you're in the Republic.
The address that the card is sent to is recorded on the card. That tells the box, in conjunction with data sent from the satellite, which ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 region you're in and therefore which frequencies to tune to and stream IDs to select for channels 103, 104 and 105.
BBC/ITV Freesat boxes use a different set of data (also carried by the satellite) to look up the postcode you enter and tune to the appropriate free-to-air frequencies and stream IDs.
You can also use the Add Channels feature to add your chosen ITV1 region, and a free-to-air Channel 4 region and Channel 5. See 
Eurobird 1 & Astra 2A/2B/2D at 28.2°E - LyngSat for a list of free-to-air channels on the satellites. See 
Freesat from Sky cards need updating | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice for the procedure.
You may be thinking that Channel 4 and Channel 5 don't have regions. They don't have different regional content, but advertising time is sold on a regional basis so there are multiple copies of Channel 4 and Channel 5 carried on the satellites. (RG47SH) ChrisTuesday 29 March 2011 3:53PM
Excellent reply Mike, that's exactly the info i was looking for, cheers!NottsUKTuesday 29 March 2011 4:08PM
Mike Dimmick: All the UK Channel 4 regions are free-to-air on Astra 2D. The only one that is encrypted is Channel 4 Ireland on Astra 2AmikeThursday 19 May 2011 12:11AM
i have a sky= and sky HD BOX CAN i use them as video recorders. i get a message telling me to insert my card.mike: That's correct, you need a Sky subscription to permit the boxes to record/play/pause. FreddiMonday 30 May 2011 1:33PM
i've got a TV with free sat, I autoscanned for channels but it didn't fine many channels including 3 4 and channel 5 plus film 4. how can i get these to show please?Freddi: Are you located in the UK? FreddiMonday 30 May 2011 1:51PM
yes, I live in London. I used to be able to view ALL freeview channels on my currennt TV, but few days ago I when I turned my TV on I couldn't vew any channels whatsoever so I checked my attena on the roof and found there was a loose connection, I fixed that then I did an autoscan. I managed to find only very basic channels such as bbc 1 2 and dave, the rest have not been found. I wonder why... :/anthony aldridgeThursday 25 August 2011 1:55PM
I live in spain and we receive our channells via a large satalite dish we have recently swithed to a h d box and it is wonderfull.I am told that if i purchase a card from u k i can increase my channels to include 5 usa is this possible .thank you.
Tony Aldridgeanthony aldridge: If you have a Sky HD box and can call Sky on 08442 411 602 from the UK and have a card delivered to the UK, you can pay £25 for a card that provides PICK TV, 5* and 5USA. steve hTuesday 20 December 2011 10:00PM
channel 5 now appears on sky boxes without a card, what has changed?steve hTuesday 20 December 2011 10:00PM
channel 5 now appears on sky boxes without a card, what has changed?janeThursday 12 January 2012 7:32PM
Bridport hi was just wondering if i can connect my old sky+ box upstairs and watch diffrent programmes thats on downstairs in other words multi room for freejb38Thursday 12 January 2012 8:19PM
jane: There is nothing to stop you provided you have another feed run from the dish to the upstairs room, plus you should be aware that you can only use the Sky+ box as you would with a standard non-subscription box, insomuch that the recorder side will be inoperative as Sky controls that at all times, this including playback of anything that may be stored on it.
JohnFriday 5 October 2012 4:08PM
Rushden Hi John here, my question is-
if I put the freeview aerialfeed through the sky box will the sky box improve the freeview signal ie act as an amplifier?, the freeview aerial is a communal one installed on a roof pole through a splitter / amplifier serving 5 bungalows
Many thanks
John
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