This won't make any sense to non-UK people, but it is of interest to tight-wads like me who have a satellite receiver but have been using a BBC supplied Free To View card up to now. For those who don't know, the BBC pulled out of Sky's encryption scheme and aren't paying for people like me to have the latest card, and Sky are telling people they have to subscribe at £12.50/month to get what they used to have free - this means we'll lose several channels and have to connect up the rooftop aerial to get all the non-BBC channels back, in all their snowy 4:3 glory.

OK, here's the deal - an "erotica" channel has a slight flaw in their ordering system that sends you a new card if you are an FTV viewer. You probably won't get charged, but even if you do it's only £5, much less than Sky's basic £12.50/month service.

1) go to www.pouttv.co.uk and click the button for the PPV nightly service
2) enter your name/postcode and viewing card number
3) click next, select your address, next again
4) enter a credit card number etc. You won't get billed, but enter it anyway.
4) you should get an error message asking you to phone them - DON'T
5) Sky will send you a new card in a day or two, plug it and enjoy FTV for the life of the card :-)

One thing - if you need to do this, do it RIGHT NOW because the cards are being switched off in the next few days, and you might not be able to get one if it's been deactivated.

Gareth
PS. Disclaimer: You might lose some channels between getting the error message and the card arriving (a day or two) - I can't confirm this but it probably will happen - see here for more info: http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/t/81098/ds.html