Has Sky encryption changed ?

**patoc16** · 16th May 2013, 02:20 PM

I have a holiday home in Villamartin, Orihuela Costa and for years I have brought my SKY card with me for use in a non-SKY box. I subscribe to all the Premium channels, HD and ESPN and primarily use the card to watch Sky/ESPN Sports HD channels via a 1.9 metre dish, using a Ferguson Ariva receiver. Originally this was an Ariva 120 Combo but recently I have upgraded to an Ariva 150 Combo.

I have had a few problems in the past but on Saturday 11 May I turned on the receiver and .... NO Premium or Sky HD channels. In the past a power OFF/ON, or a reboot of the system has cleared the problem but no success. I have done several resets of the system, reloaded both the main software and channel lists and still no success. What is more irritating is that the Card details and entitlements all appear to be in order, the signals are very strong but still no luck. I thought it might be the card itself so I tried it in the old Ariva 120 Combo but no success either.

A friend of mine has exactly the same setup and when he arrived back from a weekend back in the UK yesterday I asked him to check his system. The same result - No Sky Premium or HD channels and he confirmed that these channels WERE working at the beginning of last week.

So my question is - why are these channels no longer available ? Have SKY changed anything ? Any help you can give in sorting this problem would be most appreciated.

**satandpcguy** · 17th May 2013, 07:37 AM

Hi and welcome,

I have heard rumours that Sky had "upped" its encryption on HD and Premium Sports and movie channels, as part of its anti-piracy measures.
And one of these measures is to try and stop its card being used in other "non sky" receivers - a sort of "hard pairing" of card between boxes. Maybe something to do with the new "receiver ID" on the sky box system details, or a "trick up their sleeve" prior to any sky card change that is rumoured next year..

Perhaps you need to load the latest software into your receiver? (new software for the 120combo was release in April - ferguson-digital.eu/en/download/HD-Satellite-Receivers/ariva-120-combo)
If that does not work, then another receiver that it does still work on.

I have not an Ariva on me at the moment so I cannot test.

**patoc16** · 17th May 2013, 10:18 AM

Thanks for the quick response. I have already loaded the latest software for the Ariva 150 Combo from the website you mention (A150Combo_20130507_V1.23B2.abs) but no success. You mention the "receiver ID" which I know is 10 digits long in the Sky system information page, but only nine on the Ariva settings - could this be the cause possibly ? If you do hear any concrete information on Sky changes I would be most grateful to hear about it
Regards.

**satandpcguy** · 17th May 2013, 06:36 PM

After doing some reading, yes it appears that Sky have changed encryption / pairing methods on HD, Sports, and Movie channels, and so using a card in some other "non sky" receivers may not clear those channels. It is related to the "Receiver ID".

Not sure if this is currently on all cards, or if there are receivers that are not affected...my brain is overloaded with all the reading!!

**patoc16** · 15th January 2014, 04:50 PM

Now that Sky's encryption changes have been with us for some months, have you come across any non-Sky receivers that can successfully read ALL Sky channels, including Sports and Movies, from a UK fully subscribed card ? The GI Genius range for example ?

**satandpcguy** · 16th January 2014, 10:43 PM

Not yet. The encryption especially for Sky Sports, Sky Movies, Sky HD channels still remains intact and still does not open on many receivers.
With the (unconfirmed) rumours of a new sky card to be issued later this year, taking advantage of even more encryption to help beat cardsharing (many HD channels are no longer available via cardsharing on Sky Italia for example), perhaps the "hackers" will not do anything until the new card is deployed.