In order to view many of the services on Sky, a subscription is required. Sky offer a variety of packages and a summary of these are shown in the table below together with how much they cost.

Sub:  

Sky offer a free Digibox and Minidish and free installation with any subscription package. Sometimes other deals are offered for a limited period as well, for example, there might be an option to get the first month's subscription at half price if ordered online. Refer to the Sky website to find out what's currently available.

It is important to know that when subscribing with the free Digibox and Minidish option, the subscription must not be cancelled for at least 12 months or changed for at least 1 month. The viewing card must also be kept in the card slot and the phone line connected to the Digibox during this time. If this is not done, either a fine may have to be paid, or the contract terminated.

There may be other package combinations available that aren’t listed in the table above. These usually reduce the monthly subscription cost by about £2 at most. The stand-alone channels, which are shown below "Movies & Sports Mix" prices in the table above, require their own subscription fees in addition to the regular subscription, so the initial cost for these is dependant on which package is chosen. Only some are listed in the table and the services own websites should otherwise be observed for more details.

When subscribing to the mixes, any 2, 4 or all 6 can be subscribed to. Prices are shown in the table above. 2 Mixes is the minimum package available and this one or a higher one is required to access many of the interactive services, stand-alone channels or the use of Pay-Per-View (PPV) services. Pay-Per-View services are ones where instead of paying a monthly subscription, only one selected film or event is paid for. Some PPV services can allow either a single nights viewing or up to 24 hours of viewing.

It is currently possible to get the Minidish and Digibox free and only pay for installation when ordering "Free-to-Air" (FTA) services. It is still a requirement to keep the phone line connected for the first 12 months, although a viewing card is not required. These services are not indicated by any coloured dot in the Subscription column on the channel lists and cost a one off payment of £120 for installation. In theory, an ordinary digital satellite receiver will be capable of receiving these, but it's recommended to use a Sky Digibox as that's what the services are designed to be received by and features such as the EPG are only functional with one of these.

Some free channels (indicated with a white dot in the Subscription columns) are part of a service offered by Sky called "Freesatforsky" (abbreviated as "FreeSat"). Of course this is in addition to all the FTA services being available. This requires a viewing card for a one off payment but no subscription. FreeSat costs an installation fee of £150 or alternatively the viewing card alone costs £20 for existing equipment. FreeSat has some advantages over the FTA system, the main ones being able to receive Channel 4 and Five which are encrypted without a viewing card and it also allows the correct BBC regions to be received on EPG positions 101 (BBC One) and 102 (BBC Two) which is determined by the post code set in the Digibox and card. Although BBC One and BBC Two are receivable without a viewing card, EPG positions 101 and 102 will always be set to the London region no matter where located in the UK. It is still possible to access other BBC regions without a card but they have to be accessed higher up in the EPG between positions 941 and 962. All services available on FreeSat are also available when subscribed to any Sky subscription packages.

The BBC will also be introducing a Free Sat service. More information about this will be available soon.

Sky currently offer three forms of receiving equipment and depending which is used, depends on the cost.

The "Sky Box" is the first and cheapest option, which includes the basic features such as a 7 day EPG and interactive content. No extra costs are required with this option. Subscription package prices for this option are shown in the table above.

The second option is "Sky+". This includes a Digibox with the same features as the "Sky Box", but the Sky+ Digibox includes a hard disk drive and a second tuner built in so it can be used as a 'personal video recorder' or PVR. This allows extra features such as recording one programme while watching another, live pausing or rewinding, or viewing an earlier recording while recording two live programmes. It costs an additional £10 per month subscription to the package subscription (e.g. a package costing £21.00 would cost £31.00) unless subscribed to Movies and/or Sports channels, in which case no additional subscription costs are required. Installation is currently free for all packages. The equipment currently costs a one off payment of £89 for a Sky+ Digibox.

The final option is 'Sky Multiroom' which basically allows the use of a second Digibox in a different room. Installation is free, subscription costs an extra £10 per month in addition to the package subscription, which applies to all packages. Equipment costs a one off payment of £49 for regular Sky Multiroom and £89 for Sky+ Multiroom.

These costs above are applicable to new subscribers. For existing subscribers wishing to upgrade their equipment the situation changes entirely. Subscription prices are the same, however, equipment and installation costs differ. To upgrade to Sky+ or Sky+ 160 costs £199 for equipment and £60 for installation. To upgrade to Sky Multiroom costs £49 for equipment and installation is free. Upgrading to Sky+ Multiroom or Sky+ 160 Multiroom costs £199 for equipment and installation is free. Refer to the Sky Website for more information. A Sky+ 160 Digibox consists of a 160GB hard disk (providing up to 80 hours of recording), instead of a 40GB one (providing up to 20 hours of recording) that a regular Sky+ Digibox has.