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I have a Sky box but I don't subscribe any more. At the moment, using the blue card, I get a range of programmes. I'm not sure I understand the difference between FTV & FTA. Anyway, will I need a new card & if so, when & who do I contact?

Thanks, Chris.

my mum was sent one in the post for each box

Chris, you will need to contact Sky if you have not recieved a new card, but there may well be a small charge for this.

FTV is Free-to-view and FTA is Free-to-air. Basically, Free-to-air channels do not require a card to work as they are unencrypted, just a reciever and dish, free-to-view channels on the other require a card to decrypt them.

The advantage of some channels being free-to-view as opposed to free-to-air is mainly because they can restrict content based upon your location, and also send your localised feed (BBC North West is sent to customers in the North West, and customers outside of Scotland can't view the Old Firm matches on BBC Scotland), and also Sky charges a lower fee for placement on the Sky EPG for a FTV channel than it does for a FTA channel, because they can use the channels to add value to their service. Because of a dispute of EPG costs, this led to ITV not being carried at all on Sky during the first couple of years that Sky Digital was available, and there is now a dispute taking place over ITV HD which has led to it too not being available on SkyHD.

This is why Five was not present at the launch of Freesat, and its satellite channels still remain unavailable, because they are encrypted. It is also why people were alerted by Sky to a change with Five last October-ish. Five does now have a FTA feed for Freesat (you could manually add it as "other channels" on a Sky decoder it I think - though don't take my word for that because ITV HD can't be added to a SkyHD decoder despite that feed being FTA), but remains officially FTV within the Sky EPG.

Thanks for that very clear explanation, Matt. I'll contact Sky.

Cheers, Chris.