New Sky satellite TV cards on their way - Germany

Hi All.

Once in a while, Sky are obliged to change their veiwing cards.

As Many of you are aware, there is a huge "Grey market" for these cards and many people use hosting services.

So, To avoid delays and complications Bav sat need some information from you!

If you are a Bavaria Satellite customer and have one of our Hosted Subscription cards, then you can help me by sending some details.

All I need from you is a mail to Cards@bavaria-satellite.de in the subject field i need your Cardnumber followed by your mane

In the Body of the email, I need your Name, Adress and Contact number.

By Doing this, it will enable me to identify your replacement card and forward it on to you.

I will endeavour to get your card to you before the switch off date.

Regards

Geoff

Bollocks. All this mess again. So silver foil time again?

When is the switch off date?

Better phone my mother and ensure she forwards the card...

Parents around the UK beware!

Sky have today started the process to begin their subscription card exchange. New cards will start arriving at UK host addresses in the next few weeks. Sky subscribers will get an on-screen warning message on their system a few days before the card arrives (at its' registered UK address) and about 2 weeks to change it over once it has arrived, so there is time to get it shipped over from Blighty. The changeover is pretty straightforward - old card out, new card in. You can only replace an old card with a new card that has been specifically designated to replace it - you can't use any old new card. If you have multiple Sky systems then you need to be careful that the cards are correctly replaced - the carrier on which the new card is mounted should indicate the nine digit number of the old card it is replacing. Once inserted the new card is paired (tied) the the system and the old card is no longer valid. It'll take 2-3 months to complete the changeover (9 million cards to change!) so don't hassle Sky or your provider unless you've been receiving the warning message for a while, and in any case avoid calling Sky from outside UK unless you are looking for a quick and unexpected termination of your subscription.

The new cards are white - see below (the old ones are blue). It's unlikely that free-to-view cards (originally offered by the BBC) will be exchanged - they are essentially no longer necessary and were never supplied directly by Sky in the first place. "Freesat from Sky" cards WILL probably exchanged but for a fee. This is the subject of speculation at the moment.

Sky are contractually obliged to replace the cards every five years and intended originally to swap out early last year, but had to postpone because of technical issues. The new card series will also likely prevent or at least inhibit the rapidly emerging card-sharing "hack" where a single internet-enabled card reader with authorised card allows multiple distributed (modified) Digibox receivers with internet connections themselves to be serviced from a single subscription.

Subscribers to none-Sky services such as standalone Setanta, adult or international channels will get their cards from their own providers at a later date. Viewers who use these services as part of a regular Sky subscription will get their card (including the additional services) from Sky as part of the normal changeover.

None of the above any information has any relevance to viewers of "free-to-air" services which they currently watch such as BBC, ITV, Channel 4 or Five or "Freeview" services. None of these services are encrypted or have any need for a card or support from Sky.

You can get further information on the card swap and the procedures that will be used by switching your Sky system to channel 999 and pressing the red button (this is the most up-to-date information) or on Skyviewinghelp
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Thanks. I had wondered as she hadn't see the card yet.

It is also rumoured that ITV may become encrypte and will only be available with a card...

Yes, I know, a Step Backward.

Sky are looking at buying ITV as they appear to be in Deep financial Shite!

I just switched to Sky HD in the UK using a mate's address and dumped my regular Sky from Ireland. Does anybody know if the card I got last month will need to be replaced as well? I know I can call Sky but then I have to go through the hassle of turning off caller ID on my phone before calling just to be safe so if someone knows that would be great.
Cheers

Edit: I'll check and see if it is white

Talking of ITV, if you have a Sky HD box you'll be able to get ITV HD when you get the new EPG and opereating system software. This is currently being rolled out (the first batch of Thomson boxes have it, with the other Thomson, Pace, Samsung and Amstrad to follow at some point over the over the next few months). ITV won't appear in the EPG as standard, but can be added, details here.

This is not true. Sky have been prevented from the monopolies commission from increasing their share in ITV. In addition the government have a vested interest in increasing the share of public television services so are unlikely to ever condone encryption of this service. It's more likely that ITV will come to some partnership agreement with Channel 4 or Five, neither of which will enforce any encryption as a result.

ALL cards will be changed. Apart from a selection of Sky employees who have been testing the new cards there are no white cards on the streets yet, even for recent new customers.

This is a lucky coincidence. There are no official plans to add ITV HD to the Sky platform. The workaround to add ITV HD only applies to the new EPG currently being rolled out on selected SkyHD boxes, but is likely to appear on other systems later in the year (with no guarantee that ITV HD will be similarly available). Even then there is no EPG information for ITV HD and it cannot be recorded. ITV-HD is currently "committed" to be exclusively available on the Freesat platform and to be honest, apart from football transmissions (the England game last night for example) is pretty content free at the moment.

I heard a rumour a while back that the government wanted Channel 4 and five to merge. 4 was having financial problems at the time. not sure if the rumour was true though.

I think a rumour is only true when it is proved to be so. There was a merger proposal in February, but it came to nothing. Five is owned by Germany's RTL by the way. There were also discussions between Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide which also came to nothing.

This is the only reason I'm looking forward to being able to get it (currently waiting for the new software on my Pace box, which if the rumours are to be believed will be about the last set of boxes to get it). I don't think I watch anything else apart from football from ITV full stop, so being able to get this in HD, instead of their poor quality SD (compared to Sky/BBC SD) will be a big bonus for me at least.

You'll have a lot of spare time then. ITV don't transmit much live football at the best of times, and not all they do transmit is in HD. The next and only HD game in the foreseeable future will be the Manchester vs. Porto game next Tuesday. It's not entirely flawless either. Until the game last night there have been regular audio drop-outs (every 4-5 minutes) and on the last game shown they switched to SD for the adverts at half-time and seemed to forget to switch back until about 15 minutes into the second half. Last nights game seemed ok, so maybe they've ironed out the problems - it might have just been luck of course.

Actually what I meant was all I watch from ITV is the football, not all I watch is football from ITV. I have the full Sports/Movies and HD sub, so I have loads of good HD stuff from Sky and BBC (especially their documentaries) to enjoy. I read comments on uk forums about audio dropouts on Sky HD football as well, but since I've got my HD box at christmas I've not noticed any. I must say though, I'm distinctly unimpressed with the football coverage on both ITV and setanta, and would be more than happy if it was all back on Sky and BBC.

Thanks for the info.

Does anyone know if the new cards also apply to Sky Ireland? Also, does the new card have to be "activated" and do you need to be back in your home country when you first stick the replacement card in the receiver?

Yes..

Sky Irelend are issueing new cards..

Only the card that is Pre-Paired to the bo will work.

It has been said that "IF" the card does not work First time round... Sky will send a new card that does need the phonecall (Possibly Dial-cack) activation!

Got my first white card last week!