Having purchased a little Sky HD “multiroom” box for £18 on ebay, to use in the caravan, I have been playing with the box and setting any Free-to-Air channels (FTA) as favourites, so that I can have a basic channel list to easily view those channels that will work without a card. After reading some info on-line, it appears that at least two channels are FTV on Sky (Free-to-View). These are LiverpoolFCTV and Motors TV. Free to View channels are channels which are encrypted by Sky’s software, so need a Sky box and card to decode, but they are free channels, and aren’t included in any of Skys channel packages.
Motors TV is actually a channel I would like to be able to receive, as they cover the World Endurance Championship, The Rolex series, and loads of other Motorsport. Why they are operating as an effectively “free” channel, but behind Sky’s encryption system, is beyond me. If they would broadcast encryption free, the channel could be viewed by anybody with any satellite receiver, such as Sky, Freesat, or generic hardware.
Oddly you can actually view MotorsTV with a Sky viewing card, even if the card is no longer linked to an active account. Some cards get deactivated, and these wont work, but most cards appear to remain as a “freesat” card after a customer cancels their contract, and in this state, the card will decode Motors TV. I bought a card on ebay for a few £££ to test this theory, and sure enough, the card works for Motors TV!
This is quite interesting, as I may well buy another of these HD boxes to stick under the living room TV, specifically to view this channel. The multi-room box will receive all the HD and SD channels that Freesat hardware would receive, but additionally, as it is a Sky box, it will decode Motors TV! It will be handy to have this as a backup too, I suppose, should my YouView box or aerial fail.
For anybody interested, older Sky digiboxes can be obtained for almost nothing, and if you can obtain a Sky viewing card (you can purchase a Sky “freesat card legitimately, in your own name, for £25 from Sky) you too can view Motors TV for free.
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