Skynettv

[Campo Steve]

Read an advertisement in Grapevine magazine for Skynettv. They are offering full sky package for 25 euros per month. Seems a good deal.

Anyone any experience with them? Are they one of these companies likely to get shut off by sky? Or is the deal as good as it sounds (if one wants sky that is)?

[Campo Steve]

Been in contact with them. Looks like the advert was too good to be true as it omits to mention the installation charges from €160 depending on the receiver you want from them. It also needs connecting to the internet so if your internet isn't by the TV I assume it will involve running cables to it.

Really annoys me when companies advertise a service but omit unavoidable costs. Had a similar situation with a company that was advertising Sky cards on contract, but they didn't mention in their ad you have to buy the card from them for €200 and there was then a yearly admin charge of €120 on top of the Sky subscription.

If it looks too good to be true then it probably is! Will give this one a miss.

[pmb]

Sounds like they are running an illegal server if it needs an internet connection.

[Campo Steve]

That was my thought too.

[El Cid]

Apparently (they claim) you can get HD channels on a 1mb connection. That does seem unlikely unless they completely download the program before watching it (like you can do on BBC iPlayer).

They offer an HD box with recording facilities (like Sky+) for €550 (ouch).

It seems too good to be true and if the (illegal) stream is cut off in future you have an expensive doorstop.

Sid

[pmb]

Cid - Are you saying you don't need a dish with their 'service' ? What normally happens is you still need a dish to receive the signal and the internet connection is used by software in the box to connect to their server for decryption purposes only , in which case a 1Mb connection would I expect be sufficient. A chap in the UK got put in prison a couple of years ago for running such a system. I'll have another look at their ad (online) in the mag after tea.
edit: just had a look and a dish is required as I thought.

[El Cid]

Cid - Are you saying you don't need a dish with their 'service' ? What normally happens is you still need a dish to receive the signal and the internet connection is used by software in the box to connect to their server for decryption purposes only , in which case a 1Mb connection would I expect be sufficient. A chap in the UK got put in prison a couple of years ago for running such a system. I'll have another look at their ad (online) in the mag after tea.
edit: just had a look and a dish is required as I thought.

No, a dish is not required - you must have misread it or be looking at a different system.

Its primary attraction is that you can get £50+ worth of premium channels for €25 without a dish.

The secondary attraction is that, as it is not dependent on location, as the signal comes via the Internet, that you can receive all UK channels in areas where satellite coverage is non existent or difficult.

Bearing in mind that when the new batch of Astra satellites are launched over the next two years, it is entirely possible that the reception of UK TV via satellite in Spain will become limited or impossible. If this happens then IPTV systems like this will be the only viable option.

My concern is that they are being marketed at the moment with promises that exceed their actual capabilities.

Sid

[pmb]

Must be a different advert to the one on page 30 of April magazine that states a dish is required. Noticed they also mention a Tring system , wonder if the recent 'events' at a satellite shop in London have stopped that!

[El Cid]

Must be a different advert to the one on page 30 of April magazine that states a dish is required. Noticed they also mention a Tring system , wonder if the recent 'events' at a satellite shop in London have stopped that!

No, the ad I saw does not mention a dish.

It does look very dodgy to me!

I will look into it further.

Sid

[Campo Steve]

Grapevine magazine April 2011 Page 30 First paragraph

....Each of these dishes requires its own satellite dish....

Advert sounds like they are saying that to receive all three of their packages you need three dishes. Actually, it is exactly what they are saying. Reality is one dish with a quad LNB is what is needed. Once you ask them they do confirm that the quad LNB is fine. Makes the advert sound rather amateurish.

Prices for their receivers are also not cheap:

All prices include full installation. No extras to pay.
Standard Definition - 160€
Recordable single tuner - 250€
HD receiver - 350€
HD / recordable single tuner - 400€
HD / recordable twin tuner - 550€ (twin tuner needed for recording whilst watching other channels)

25€ per month. Two months to be paid on installation date and then payment every 4 months (100€)

This is probably the sort of operation Sky will try to block so the payment schedule for the subscription leaves one open to suddenly getting nothing for your money.

[El Cid]

I contacted Skynet direct and they confirmed a dish was required. It certainly wasn't mentioned in their other ad.

It is obviously an illegal card sharing system similar to the ones that were closed down last year. I also understand, from a "guy that knows" that Sky are actively changing the encryption codes that are being used by these boxes.

Also, from what he said, similar boxes are available at much lower prices so the whole thing looks like a very dodgy scam to get money up front before your lovely new box gets "bricked".

Sid

[ashfieb]

SKYs FIRST REAL ATTACK against Card Share.

Pipino reported that since this afternoon Sky has changed something on channel 4 (transponder 12.480) and killed down and put newcs 1.67 out of use for the whole transponder..you can see the ecm decoding but no video signal..thats remind me similar story in Brasil,turkey,italy..i think something big´s coocking..i did some test on DM500 and that was my conclusion ..for now...cheers

Analoguesat responded with "Good. The companies selling boxes with commercial card shares on them for a handful of quid have ruined it for everybody.

When card shares were complicated to set up, the preserve of hobbyists and there was only a few hundred folks doing it then it wasnt a problem.

Now its gone mainstream with thousands of folk sharing with 50 quid boxes its hitting Sky's revenue.

The sooner they shut this avenue down the better."

[markwilding]

There has been a court case recently where it decided that it isn't illegal to receive other countries satellite signals outside that country.
A pub in the UK were receiving English football from a Greece and have won their case although I think it still need to go to higher courts.
I don't understand why people who want English TV would need to go through a company like this when there are better legal options
Apart from Sky There are other ways of getting UK tv which is pefectly legal.
Get a Freesat system ... a dual tuner system can be bought for as low as 179 pounds(on the official Freesat site) install it. both together should be quite a lot less than the price quoted by Skynettv. Apart from that all you need is....
....Football through Canal plus or Gol(Some platforms allow it to be listened to in English)..
.....Films from either your local video shop,Canal plus, Orange ,Movistar or cable TV. All of them offer them in the O.V.

[El Cid]

There has been a court case recently where it decided that it isn't illegal to receive other countries satellite signals outside that country.
A pub in the UK were receiving English football from a Greece and have won their case although I think it still need to go to higher courts.
I don't understand why people who want English TV would need to go through a company like this when there are better legal options
.

It is not illegal to receive signals that are transmitted if you have the equipment to do so.

What is illegal is to rebroadcast them for a fee.

Skynet use a cardshare server and the server owners are possibly breaking the law by breaking the encryption systems - but that depends on the law in the country that they are operating in.

Skynet provide a Linux based satellite box and make a one time profit on the sale. They also set up the box to use a cardshare server for which they get a cut of the monthly charge. I don't see that any of that is illegal as such - the risk is that the cardshare server will be shut down or Sky will keep changing all the encryption codes.

The Greece case was very different. It was FIFA that took the court action and the UK pub was paying a full subscription to the Greek company that was paying FIFA a lower fee than Sky were paying so they could offer a cheaper sub than Sky.

You say you don't understand why people need to go through a company like this - well it's pretty obvious to me - €25 for all the Sky and other premium channels compared to £50 or more through Sky is a no brainer (as our American cousins would say).

Sid

[Campo Steve]

What puts me off companies like Skynettv are their adverts that say only €25, nothing more to pay. They miss out the bit that also has to be paid i.e.

All prices include full installation. No extras to pay.
Standard Definition - 160€
Recordable single tuner - 250€
HD receiver - 350€
HD / recordable single tuner - 400€
HD / recordable twin tuner - 550€ (twin tuner needed for recording whilst watching other channels)
25€ per month. Two months to be paid on installation date and then payment every 4 months (100€)

So you make your 100€ four months. Two days late Sky change the encryption and you have nothing, except for a worthless box.

[markwilding]

The Greece case was very different. It was FIFA that took the court action and the UK pub was paying a full subscription to the Greek company that was paying FIFA a lower fee than Sky were paying so they could offer a cheaper sub than Sky.

Sid

Correct, I thought I made it clear in my post that the situations are different and that there are legal ways of receiving UK TV, Films and the football without resorting to paying a lot of money up front only to lose the service after a short time.
I think the other benefit of not having a Sky subscription, where football is concerned, is you have access to more matches.
There are many people who think companies like Sky are on thin ice where they don't offer their services outside their regions and that anybody who gets around the system by finding ways of paying Sky directly or indirectly, of course, not including companies such as Skynettv, aren't doing anything wrong.
Furthermore many people would like EU to look into this situation and maybe one day in the future we, who don't live in our native country, will be able to choose our TV provider. I for one wouldn't have any problem paying the TV licence, even though I live outside the UK.