Sky TV and Freeview

[Guest tayella]

Does anybody know if you get Sky TV or Freeview in Oz?

If I take my Sky dish and Box will it work and if it does is it Legal?

 

Thanks

 

Chris

[Guest IanL]

I don't watch much tv in Oz (cos it's crap), I did have pay tv once (it's called Foxtel here) and I'm no expert but I doubt whether it would work, we don't really have much satelite here (you can get it if you can't get a pay tv serviced landline in) plus you'd probably be in violation of about a gazillion telco broadcasting regulations due to frequecies etc.

 

The pay tv you get here won't give you same channels as Sky (for instance no Real Time Discovery, which means no River Cottage )

 

However I have seen a lot of the same programs packaged differently and under different channel banners.

 

I wouldn't have thought your Sky box woyld work either, who would you pay? BTW unless things have changed, when you get Foxtel here you don't own the box, it's part of your contract and must be handed back to Foxtel.

 

As for freeview it exists only in theory really. I have a Sony HD reception box for my Bravia, and whilst the potential is there ( for example there is Ch7 1,2,3 and HD) they allshow the same things. The exception (in Sydney at least) is that CH7 HD shows their travel show on a constant loop and there is a chanel called ABC 2 which is excellent for music. That's about it really. The set up there for 32 channels, there's just nothing on them really

 

Oz is very far behind the UK in this regard, but it is a much smaller and segregated market remember.

 

BTW costs for SKY vs FoxTel are almost identical as far as I can tell.