Sky free TV Bundle

[Chan110]

I left Sky 2 months ago

They keep ringing me from Derby and I finally answered

They offered a 10month free TV bundle for £10, but I get £100 credit = free

Hard to verify who they are on phone, but I took the plunge and signed up (no bank details exchanged except name, address , last 2 digits of bank a/c)

Just checked - my Sky TV is working within minutes!

Just wondering if anyone had same offer (or am I in trouble with a scam now)???

[softscoop]

Yes I got 6 months free about 2 months after I left them.

 

Double checked that I was not signed up to another 12 months +, but no, just 6 months free no contract.

[hutchysrs50]

Same story for me but with Virgin Media.

I didnt get "free" as such just a much improved service with additional mutli-room, fast speed, more channels & cheaper.

Edited 6 September, 2016 by hutchysrs50

[Chan110]

Ah

Good to know, guys!

[gadgetman]

I need to haggle with sky as it's getting too expensive now.

But not all of the kids channels the kids watch are available elsewhere

[Chan110]

I need to haggle with sky as it's getting too expensive now.

But not all of the kids channels the kids watch are available elsewhere

I tried that when I told them I was leaving

....in the end they did knock off about £15/month - but wasn't good enough for me so I just left ...

[gadgetman]

That'd do me nicely

[octyal]

Have just cancelled ours today, be about the 5th time so far, usually get them phoning up about 6 weeks later offering x months free or at a greatly discounted rate. Best one we had was the full monty package including movies (but no sports) free for 10 months

May just give them a complete shove this time and get an openbox or kodi stick instead

[gadgetman]

Have just cancelled ours today, be about the 5th time so far, usually get them phoning up about 6 weeks later offering x months free or at a greatly discounted rate. Best one we had was the full monty package including movies (but no sports) free for 10 months

May just give them a complete shove this time and get an openbox or kodi stick instead

Just reading on MSE sky haggle page you should check your interactive page as you'll probably have an offer to remain a customer in there.

[octyal]

Just reading on MSE sky haggle page you should check your interactive page as you'll probably have an offer to remain a customer in there.

 

that is one option, but why bother when an openbox is about £30 and gets you the full sky package for free (some of them you have to buy a code every 18 months or so for about £20 - still cheaper - and you can record to a usb drive)

[Coops]

that is one option, but why bother when an openbox is about £30 and gets you the full sky package for free (some of them you have to buy a code every 18 months or so for about £20 - still cheaper - and you can record to a usb drive)

 

Excuse my ignorance but what's an "openbox" ?

[octyal]

Excuse my ignorance but what's an "openbox" ?

 

Basically it's a satellite box that plugs into your existing sky dish, and connects to the broadband. When you watch Sky, they send a decryption key with the signal every few minutes, this then confirms that the sky box is allowed to receive the paid for content. The openbox bypasses this by using an encryption key to essentially fool the system into thinking you have the full package.

plenty of info here http://www.openbox4u.co.uk/

[Chan110]

Have just cancelled ours today, be about the 5th time so far, usually get them phoning up about 6 weeks later offering x months free or at a greatly discounted rate. Best one we had was the full monty package including movies (but no sports) free for 10 months

May just give them a complete shove this time and get an openbox or kodi stick instead

Funny u say that

They rung me a week after I left but by then I had signed up to someone else - can't understand why they wait til someone has left???

I have a NAS server setup now

Plus Kodi app on my PC - can't wait to give it a try...

[Chan110]

Basically it's a satellite box that plugs into your existing sky dish, and connects to the broadband. When you watch Sky, they send a decryption key with the signal every few minutes, this then confirms that the sky box is allowed to receive the paid for content. The openbox bypasses this by using an encryption key to essentially fool the system into thinking you have the full package.

plenty of info here http://www.openbox4u.co.uk/

Nice

But is it legal?

Is it similar to buying a hacked set top box from the car boots ?

Oops!

Are we allowed to discuss such topic on here???

[octyal]

Nice

But is it legal?

Is it similar to buying a hacked set top box from the car boots ?

Oops!

Are we allowed to discuss such topic on here???

 

 

Good point - not sure on the legality, as far as I am aware you aren't doing anything illegal as you are receiving free to air signals from the Astra satellite, same as if you were receiving freesat, the only dodgy bit is the encryption system. The signal (so I am reliably informed) is only encrypted when it leaves the satellite apparently, and a tweak of the dish can allegedly pick up the non encrypted signal.

 

Apologies to the forum gods if we aren't allowed to discuss these subjects - all of the equipment is freely available from the likes of Amazon and eBay etc and as it isn't the originators box that has been hacked, rather a stand alone box, I personally can't see a problem. The problems arise when you use a hacked sky box - which is of course highly illegal due to the terms and conditions that Sky impose

Edited 6 September, 2016 by octyal

[gadgetman]

Nice

But is it legal?

Is it similar to buying a hacked set top box from the car boots ?

Oops!

Are we allowed to discuss such topic on here???

Not legal, and I'm sure sky will go after them and anyone they can trace using it.

[mac11irl]

Its on my to do list, cancelling the robbing sods.

have a 6month free netflix to start with our vodafone bband contract...

[octyal]

Not legal, and I'm sure sky will go after them and anyone they can trace using it.

 

After a bit of research, apparently it is currently legal due to an EU ruling, the only time it becomes illegal is if you download and keep the copyrighted material, like films, operating along normal "catch up" type operations (eg recording soaps etc) is fine, as that is the same as using sky. As for the decoding bit, not managed to find out about that yet....

[malcster]

really annoyed with sky 

bt offered us bt tv full package etc with netflix 4k for a good price 

didnt want bt but was out of contract with sky just after the last price increase 

 

rang sky to say if i can have sports free for 3months to watch the ipl i would happily sign a new deal and have the price increase 

 

they said no cant do that so signed with bt for a year 

 

 

1 month later i get a phone call come back to sky 60% for 10 months which was loads more than giving me sports 

stuck with the bt 4k pack until march next year 

[Chan110]

I feel for u buddy

As I said, can't understand SKY not giving customer who wants to stay what they want...

Then heavily discounted offers to them AFTER the customer already sign another contract.

Still

I happy what I have now:

1. Cheaper TalkTalk unlimited broadband

2. Free Sky TV bundle for 10months

[@Lee]

really annoyed with sky 

bt offered us bt tv full package etc with netflix 4k for a good price 

didnt want bt but was out of contract with sky just after the last price increase 

 

rang sky to say if i can have sports free for 3months to watch the ipl i would happily sign a new deal and have the price increase 

 

they said no cant do that so signed with bt for a year 

 

 

1 month later i get a phone call come back to sky 60% for 10 months which was loads more than giving me sports 

stuck with the bt 4k pack until march next year 

not sure how much the add-on is per month but you can get Sky Sports via the BT YouView box.

[malcster]

I have a dull package sky sports bt sports etc

Was cheaper than sky but you only get sky sport 1&2

Was annoyed when they said they can't then they all of a sudden can offer me a deal

[FUBAR]

Good point - not sure on the legality, as far as I am aware you aren't doing anything illegal as you are receiving free to air signals from the Astra satellite, same as if you were receiving freesat, the only dodgy bit is the encryption system. The signal (so I am reliably informed) is only encrypted when it leaves the satellite apparently, and a tweak of the dish can allegedly pick up the non encrypted signal.

 

Apologies to the forum gods if we aren't allowed to discuss these subjects - all of the equipment is freely available from the likes of Amazon and eBay etc and as it isn't the originators box that has been hacked, rather a stand alone box, I personally can't see a problem. The problems arise when you use a hacked sky box - which is of course highly illegal due to the terms and conditions that Sky impose

No need to adjust a dish installed by sky if you want to plug in any free sat box and receive the free channels, or even continue using a sky box post subscription (for Sky plus and HD boxes etc they like to be nice and disable the ability to record though :( ). 

 

 

After a bit of research, apparently it is currently legal due to an EU ruling, the only time it becomes illegal is if you download and keep the copyrighted material, like films, operating along normal "catch up" type operations (eg recording soaps etc) is fine, as that is the same as using sky. As for the decoding bit, not managed to find out about that yet....

Be really really careful on what you read on the matter googling around and take as fact. If brave enough, try contacting your local police on their view on the matter (likely just confuse them). FACT are the driving force largely behind tackling this in the UK and they basically are out of their depth just trying to catch the suppliers, the users are not really a priority, but happy to make an example in an easy case. 

 

Generally speaking the suppliers of the CCcam signal will not allow you to use them if Sky is your ISP (if Sky is your ISP and you lie, good buy money they will block your IP ((the supplier not sky))). They are of course paying for a sky subscription and the better ones have a complete subscription with every extra channel like MUTV, 3D etc. They of course are the high value people sky are after and they are breaking their agreement with Sky and the law as such. Servers tend to be hired in places like Russia. There have been a few high profile cases in the media of people imprisoned over this. From selling the boxes ready to go, using the boxes in pubs to show sport, not domestic viewing as commercially gaining from it opens up the long hard fist of the law. The attempted defence which has always failed was that you are not breaking a Sky agreement/contract since you didn't take one out or agree to one with them and simply bypassed their encryption system with your own property etc. The main issue is there is criminality involved primarily on the end of the supplier and you do become complicit in this by being a customer to an extent. If you don't take out a contract with an electricity supplier and tap into the mains before the meter, you again receive a readily available service you are not paying for. The big difference is there are specific laws for electricity supply, TV licencing and telecommunications, satellite services were never addressed or protected to the same extent so the prosecutions are based around other laws.  The manufacturers of such boxes for example do not ship them ready to achieve what they ultimately do in the end. This usually requires an 'unofficial' firmware upgrade which is identical but opens up some handy new menus (on the better boxes) and allow you to enter the servers details. Lower end boxes you have to manually change a few values in certain files. The manufactures make the boxes and ship with a notice stating that it may be illegal to use the box to receive services for which you do not pay for and that it is not possible with the box as is and then goes on to suggest that this would require you to go away and use 'unofficial' means to do so. So they basically cover themselves and on top of that throw in the epic line that this will of course invalidate your warranty (the cheek of them considering this is the only end use for these boxes). Sellers of the boxes ready to go simply take it out of the box and do what anyone could after a few minutes using the internet then sell it on at a profit. 

 

The biggest clue in it all is that the places you go to set up stuff like this are private private tech forums which do not come up on google searches. This is BIG in the expat world, just like not registering cars in new country, paying duty, fake UK MOT certificates, declared SORN in UK and playing golf all day while bigging themselves up about how tight they aren't.....  

 

 

Edited 12 September, 2016 by FUBAR

[Lady Elanore]

As someone who works in broadcasting, I can't condone the advertising of illegal SKY 'work-around' boxes on here, or indeed ways of cheating the system through a legal loop hole. Whether you agree with SKY and it's peers or not, it still ultimately leads to redundancies and reduced content in the long run. 

Edited 13 September, 2016 by Lady Elanore

[john999boy]

As Amanda says, let's not digress to the dark side.......