Subscribing to Sky from UK, viewing it in Germany

I have been reading lots of great stuff on the forums and espeically re. Sky - mainly that I shouldn't leave home without a digibox!

We don't have Sky in the UK so just wanted to run through how I go about everything. I assume the following:

1. Get Sky Subscription and receive digibox and card. Satellite will probably be connected via communal dish as living in a flat.
2. Set up payments with UK bank account
3. Move to Germany and take digibox and card.
4. Arrange for satellite to be set up if not one already there (might need a recommendation for Freiburg area if anyone has one..)
5. Don't tell Sky I have moved from the UK and leave payments on the UK bank.

Does this pretty much cover it ??? Sorry to seem such a dumb a** - never have been very techy but don't want to be without my telly !!

Sounds pretty good, but you will have to have an address in the UK were sky can send stuff to, i.e. new cards and their magazine. Not that you probably want the magazine, but if it's an old address the new owners might get in touch with sky to tell them you don't live there any more which could be a problem.

i'm going to use a relative's UK forwarding address anyway as thought it would be easier so will just give Sky that one when we move. What happens if you have to contact them for any reason, say your Sky box isn't working - any ideas??

Unless you WANT sky programmes You don't need to subscribe to Sky.

If you do it's a relative in UK scenario.

If you just want normal channels (ITV, BBC etc) then it costs nothing! )These are free to air channels. Just connect up and go with your free to view card in the digibox slot.

Any local reputable sat comm dealer in your chosen german town will get you up and running - just give him your box and TV. Simple. Expect to pay around E300 or so to include sat dish and bits and pieces. First problem will be getting PERMISSION to put up your dish - depending on your circumstances i.e will you own your own house? (no problem) will you own your own flat? (some problems) will you rent? (bigger problems). There is a lot on Toytown sites on this subject also. It's why it's taken us almost 2 .5 months to get sorted! Just bring your digibox and £20 sky card and plough your way through the process when you get settled in.

In theory at least, you should not move a Sky system out of the UK that has been running less than 12 months. Part of your contract to Sky commits to keep the box connected to the telephone line for the first 12 months and that line will be connected when the Sky chap installs it. While they don't often check, Sky do occasionally check the connection (by signalling to the box to make a call on the line), and if they do and find the box is disconnected they may disable the service, which is a risk you may wish to avoid. Bear in mind too that Sky will continue to send letters and packages to your registered address, so this should be somewhere where mail can be received in your name. You should avoid a mail forwarding service (because if it fails and a letter gets returned to Sky they will start to ask awkward questions). Use (or move your address to) the address of friends or relations. No need to pay out of a UK bank account (especially if you are not feeding one) - you can also use a credit card, even a German one to pay the monthly costs.

You don't need permission to install (you have a practical right in Germany) but it never hurts to check if the landlord has any issues over how, or where the dish is installed. You probably should even check installation is even possible (technically and permission-wise) before choosing your apartment and signing the contract as sometimes you simply don't have a location where the dish can be installed. You don't mention where you are moving to, but bear in mind that anywhere to the south and east of Frankfurt needs much bigger dishes to receive all channels...

YL6

Thanks again for your info. and advice guys. We will be signing up for less than 12 months but that's a risk we'll have to take. We'll come armed with our digibox and card and take it from there! We are moving to Hinterzarten YL6, quite a bit further south!

Just wanted to update this link as we are now living in Germany (in the Hochschwarzwald) and loving it! Today we had our satellite dish installed and after 7 weeks of no TV we now have Sky - yippee!! We had a local firm install the dish and cabling and they managed to find the Astra 2 satellite relatively easily. However I also contacted Bavaria Satellite (as seen on Toytown) but it was too far for them to come but spoke to a chap called Edwin who was really helpful and he even spoke to my engineer on the phone for me as we had a small hiccup with the installation and my German wasn't up to it...thanks Edwin! If you need Sky or a dish set up then these are the people to call, prompt replies and great help.

We seem to be pretty lucky at the moment as we have managed to get our Ameldung, set up bank accounts, take our various insurances, navigate the 'rubbish' system, register with the doctor and purchase our winter tyres all with my schoolgirl German...and lots of patient people here in the village :-)

To anyone else like us, considering moving to Germany but wondering how to get through all the necessary set up processes, I just want to say it's not as scary as we thought!!

You don't have to have your digibox connected to a phone line. You can tell them that you don't want/can't connect it to a phone line. They'll charge you a one-off fee (if you're a new customer) and activate your card via satellite.