For expats or people wishing to view English language television from the Sky Digital platform across Europe - this page in intended as notes to help you make an informed choice about which equipment to buy and what sky digital satellite television services you may expect to view, with or without a sky digibox. Most people associate English television from UK with Sky Television and because the majority of the UK English channels are grouped amongst the packages for sky TV, it does for our purposes make it much simpler to explain, and is also the reason that the most comprehensive electronic program guide for UK satellite television is generally that of the digibox.

Often confusion surrounds the costs associated with satellite TV, people are often discouraged by thinking they will need to take out a subscription, but this is not the case.

There is 3 levels of encryption associated with Sky Digital :-
1)  FTA (Free to Air) - no card required, can be viewed with digibox or normal DVB digital satellite receiver 
2)  FTV (Free to View) - can only be viewed with a Sky Digibox, requires a card but not a subscription
3) Subscription Channels (Sky) - can only be viewed with a Sky Digibox, and a valid subscription

The channels which can be viewed in the three categories above are listed on our channels page.  If you have not looked and are not aware of what channels can be viewed with or without a subscription then please do so.

Next you need to determine if you can receive the channels, and for this purpose you need to consider that the Sky Digital platform broadcasts from a constellation of satellites co-located at 28.2E, you will need a clear line of site to this orbital position and then you'll need to assess what size of dish you will require.   This is determined by the signal strength of the broadcast signal and whether you are inside the footprint or not - if not, then you cannot receive Sky Digital UK TV. Since there is more than one satellite to consider, a footprint map of the weakest satellite Astra2d  is shown below. This should be the basis for your choice of dish size in order to maximise the available channels. This map is an overview, local advice is always the best policy, although adhering to the sizes in the map will normally in 99% of cases result in success. 

Whilst the footprint map gives a reasonable overview of the dish sizes required it should be noted that "hot" spots occur, in these locations it may be possible to receive the signal with a smaller dish. The hot spots come from what's known as "side lobes", and are reported to exist in "The Algarve" Portugal 80cm,  "The Costa-del-Sol", Spain 1.2m and the "Boot" of Italy 90cm. At the same time conversely there are also "cold" spots or exceptions: Alicante 2.4m, Canary Isles 300cm, Portugal 180cm and Costa Brava 180cm. Users in Cyprus should consult local installers for the best sized dish since there are very large variations in quality and signal strength over very short distances whilst a user in one address may be fine with a 3m dish, 200m away a neighbour may need a 4m dish, since large dishes are both costly and unsightly you are advised to consult locally for the best dish to suit your needs. 

Outside the footprint?
Contact us, we may be able to assist.

Inside the footprint, ok. What to do next?
We recommend you go to a local satellite installer for the dish and installation, whilst you can do it yourself, it can be very tricky and complex without experience for large dishes DIY installation is rarely possible, in most cases you need  high quality signal spectrum analysers or full programmable digital meters. If you want Sky + then you'll need to request at minimum a  twin output LNB and the associated cabling.

Now you'll need a receiver, and for this you will need to decide between a budget FTA receiver, or dedicated digibox for FTV and subscription channels. 

How to get a Sky Digibox, as an individual you will need a UK address, and UK bank account, you can get a subsidised normal or Sky+  digibox  (but not a Multiroom Discount) receiver from Sky and have it delivered to the UK address for DIY installation. You will need to call from the UK to do this, otherwise you will need to purchase a contract free digibox.

If you obtain a subsidised digibox you will need to honour the requirement of connecting the telephone line to the digibox and for this purpose you'll need a digibox dialler available in our online store.  

If you already have the equipment and it is not subject to any telephone connection then for the FTV channels you'll need either a FreeView* Satellite Card or sky digital subscription card (*not to be confused with Freeview Terrestrial UK non-satellite services).

 If you need either of these then we can assist -  contact us   

If you already have a viewing card, digibox and subscription then providing you don't use multiroom discount then you probably only need installation of a suitable sized dish, if you need help finding an installer, we can recommend installers in Portugal, Spain, and  Cyprus (UK Military Only). We can also help obtain a dish for you and are able to source dishes up to 4.80m in size. You should change your subscription address to one of a friend or relative in the UK and everything will become straightforward.

If you don't wish the hassle, or cannot get a useable UK address  providing you have any valid credit card, or a UK bank account suitable for direct debits, we can provide you with a Sky Digital subscription  with any digibox you purchase from us. We used to provide this service without charging an annual fee, however big changes in Sky have resulted in the need for us to apply annual fees and other charges - we regret this, it is beyond our control.  

If you already have a digibox but cannot get a viewing card because you live overseas then we can still help, for a broker fee of we will supply you with a viewing card subscription. ; If however you have a UK address and can have mail forwarded from that address, please contact us we can provide you alternative and cheaper options for obtaining your card.  More detail in our online store.