What do I do with my old Sky box?

Question

My daughter left her Sky+ box here from her old flat. Is there anything at all I can use it for without a dish?

Submitted online by Bill

Our Answer

There’s not an awful lot you can do with an old Sky+ box if you don’t have a satellite dish. Sky boxes get their signals from a satellite, and so it won’t get any channels without being connected to a working dish. It can’t be used with Freeview.

There are a few options though:

Get a dish

If you decide to get a satellite dish installed (from around £80), then you can use the old Sky box to watch around 200 free channels. These won’t be any of the premium Sky channels, but you’ll find most of the Freeview and Freesat channels, plus a few more. There are also a lot of shopping channels.

There’s a list of the free channels here: List of free Sky channels

A couple of things to note. Should you want to use the Sky+ box as a recorder (not just for viewing channels), then you need to subscribe to the Sky+ service. This is free if you subscribe to one of the Sky packages, otherwise at the time of writing, it’s £10 a month to be able to use Sky’s recording service. Also note that to record, you will need two feeds from the dish, and not just one.

Sell it!

Provided you’re out of contract with Sky and the box is yours to sell, then you could consider selling it on eBay, where they can earn some decent money. If a Sky box breaks, they’re expensive to replace and many opt for a second-hand box as an alternative. Visit www.ebay.co.uk and see what Sky+ boxes are selling for!

Extract the hard drive

If you’re a computer user and are good with a screwdriver – you can remove the hard drive from the Sky+ box, format it, and use it as a hard drive for your computer. Again, make sure you’re out of contract and own the box before opening the box.

Spare box

If none of the above options appeal. Store the Sky box away safely. It could come in handy if you ever decide you want to get a dish, you could sell it to a friend or at a car boot sale, or it could come in handy if a friend or relative’s box breaks.

They also make attractive paperweights and doorstops!