Can you get SKY Satellite TV in Australia?
October 16, 2007
I’ve noticed recently that quite a few folks have been hitting getting down under via search engines using search terms such as Sky TV in Australia and How do I get SKY TV in Australia?
The only reason why I’d imagine Google and co are presenting GDU in these results is because of the the article I wrote whilst back in the UK titled ‘How to cut your SKY TV costs in half’?
Within this article I basically wrote about how willing the folks at SKY were to offer us great deals when we told them we were going to cancel our subscription.
In hindsight there wasn’t a lot the poor buggers could do really as we were moving to Australia for good, still it shows that they are willing to drop their proverbial pants to try and keep the business.
Anyway, to provide a slightly more useful article for those looking I thought I’d write an entry to really answer the question: Can you get SKY Satellite TV in Australia?
Well, for those interested, unfortunately you cannot get SKY TV here in Australia (boooo!). If you think about it, your SKY Satellite dish might be pointing skywards in the UK at the Sky Satellite deep in Space but down under, around the other side of the world we can’t even see this Satellite.
Thankfully though we are not only limited to the 5 terrestrial channels here in Australia. We have a Sky equivalent here in Aus called Foxtel.
Foxtel was formed through a joint venture between Telstra and News Corporation (Rupert Murdochs mates). With the Foxtel service you’ll find many of the same features you’ll be familiar with as a Sky user such as IQ (aka Sky+), the EPG and Red Button Active.
So What will you be able to Watch on TV here in Australia?
At time of typing the current channel line up is as follows:
News and Documentaries
Animal Planet
BBC World
Bloomberg Television
CNBC
CNN
Crime & Investigation
Discovery Channel
Discovery Health
Discovery Science
Discovery Travel
FOX News
National Geographic
Sky News Australia
The History Channel
The Weather Channel
Sport
ESPN
Eurosportnews
FOX SPORTS 1
FOX SPORTS 2
FOX SPORTS 3
FOX SPORTS News
FUEL TV
Nat Geo Adventure
Sky Racing
TVN
Movies
FOXTEL Box Office
MOVIE EXTRA
MOVIE GREATS
MOVIE ONE
MOVIE TWO
SHOWTIME
SHOWTIME Greats
SHOWTIME+2
TCM
WORLD MOVIES
Kids Stuff
Boomerang
Cartoon Network
Disney Channel
Nick Jr.
Nickelodeon
Playhouse Disney
Entertainment
ACC
ARENA TV
ARENA TV+2
Aurora
Bio.
E! Entertainment
EXPO
Fashion TV
FOX Classics
FOX Classics+2
FOX8
FOX8+2
Hallmark
HOW TO Channel
Lifestyle Channel+2
LifeStyle FOOD
Ovation
SCI FI
THE COMEDY CHANNEL
THE COMEDY CHANNEL+2
The LifeStyle Channel
TV1
TV1+ 2
TVSN
UKTV
UKTV+2
W.
W. +2
Music
Channel [V]
Channel [V]2
Country Music Channel
MAX
MTV
VH1
And last but not least *cough*
Special Interests 
Adults Only 960 / 961
Antenna Pacific
FOXTEL Gamesworld
Main Event
RAI International
How much does it cost?
The packages start at $37.95 per month (approx £16) Rising to $64 (£27) for the full lot.
For those big Sky Sports fans who like their UK premiership games, you’ll find many of the big games on both the terrestrial channels and also on Foxtel.
However, don’t expect the full on Premiership coverage that you’d get in the UK. Here in Australia this precious airtime is handed over to sports such as AFL or similar.
So there you go.
Finally; remember the ‘Sky’ here in Australia has this big thing called Sunshine in it, so you won’t miss it that much
Useful Resources : Foxtel Website (Opens in new window)
Popularity: 17% [?]
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There is (apparently) another option, although it depends on your broadband speed and download limits. You can get a nifty sounding box called Slingbox, which you plug into a Sky+ box back in Blighty (say, at your folks’ home) and link to their broadband connection, then you can “dial” into it from anywhere in the world, watch recorded programmes, “live” tv etc. I’ve heard bad things about Aussie broadband though - slow, capped and very expensive, so unless someone knows otherwise it might not be ideal…
Funny you should say that Vicky because I’m just in the process of ordering my broadband here in Oz.
I heard the same about the speeds and availability but in the main areas it’s as readily available as in the UK and it seems ADSL2 (the faster version of ADSL) is becoming more widly available.
My new house is in the catchment area for ADSL2 and I’ve been told by a friend of mine who lives in the same subrub (who recommended the service) to expect download speeds of over 22 mb/sec (Fast!).
Still, I’ve not seen this myself yet so I’ll save the actual results for a future blog entry
Cheers for the input
Mark
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