With Sky announcing a price rise for TV and broadband for 2025 – along with other big name providers like Virgin Media – more and more people are looking for any way to cut the cost of their viewing.
Many people are only now realising that you can get hundreds of channels, including some services included on Sky, for free with no subscription by plugging a cable into the back of your TV.
Many households across the UK have a satellite dish on the side of their house or roof, even if the house’s current owners don’t have a Sky TV subscription.
That’s because many properties have had dishes installed for Sky at some point over the years by one of their previous owners, and then not bothered to uninstall it and take it with them when they sell up.
And others may already have a Sky subscription and a dish and be thinking about leaving to save some money.
According to Sky’s website, the cheapest Sky TV and broadband package starts at £37 a month (£444 a year). However, you could save all of that money by using Freesat with your existing Sky dish instead.
And a lot of people are still only just realising they can get Freesat for free. Many smart TVs now come with a Freesat tuner as well as Freeview, so you don’t even need to buy a box to get Freesat necessarily – simply plug a satellite cable from your Sky point in the wall straight into the back of your TV if it has a SAT connection on the back (which looks a bit like a hexagonal bolt shape with a tiny hole in the middle).
Then you just go into your TV’s menu and tell it to scan for satellite channels. It will immediately pick up a raft of channels, including some normally only on Sky and not Freeview.
As the Freesat website explains: “To use Freesat you need a satellite dish, but it doesn’t need to be new!
“Even if it’s a Sky satellite dish or an older model, all you need to do is plug the satellite cables into the back of your Freesat 4K TV Box [or some smart TVs] and you’re good to go.
“If you’re thinking about moving from Sky TV to Freesat you can use the same satellite dish! The dish you have will affect how many channels you can record at once on your 4K TV Box.”
The current list of Freesat channels lists over 100 right now, including channels not available on Freeview, such as ITV2 HD, ITV3 HD, ITV Be HD, PBS America, Quest HD, Court TV, and lots of other channels like W, Drama, Yesterday, Sky Mix HD, Challenge, Sky Arts and E4 Extra.
People using Reddit have only just discovered this – and it can even work with Sky Q dishes if you buy a new box.
@vamprybyte said: “A fair chunk of TVs include a satellite tuner, known as DVB-S2, just like they have a free view tuner (DVB-T). So you can probably get the open freesat channels without buying anything if you are already on Sky and getting away from it.”
And @antde5 said: “The new Sky Q setup works 100% fine with the 4K freesat box available on the market now. It’s literally what I ran for the past 12 months after I dumped sky.
“I’ve just switched back to sky, and we just plugged the Q box into the cables and it was fine.”
Of course, in the age of streaming many people aren’t bothering to hook up aerials or dishes, but the advantage of Freesat is being able to record and rewind without restrictions, while also not using up any internet bandwidth – no chugging streams while you’re downloading something in the background.
It comes as Sky has this week announced a price rise for TV packages and broadband to take effect from April 1.
Devesh Raj, Chief Operating Officer, Sky, said: “This April, we will be introducing some changes to prices of Sky’s TV and broadband products. I wanted to take this opportunity to explain to our customers why this decision is necessary and why we’re always committed to offering you excellent value.
“At Sky, everything we do is focused on bringing people the joy of a better experience. Whether it’s award-winning content, world-class sports coverage, or reliable broadband, we strive to provide an offering that sets us apart. I’m proud to say we’ve invested heavily over the last twelve months, so our customers now have access to more than ever before.
“This continued investment to deliver the best and most reliable products, along with increased supplier costs, means most of our TV and broadband customers will see a change in their price this year. But we’ve made every effort to minimise the financial impact to you.
