Sheila, SaorTV are clearly biased, but their FAQs claim unequivocally that No Irish channels are available on Sky without a subscription in the section What happens if I cancel Sky? I'm sorry to say it, but I think that this means you're stuck with paying Sky.
Thank you Peter and Martin for your replies. We use Stephen at Digi TV Solutions ( www.digitvsolutions.com) and he has taken care of us since we arrived, nearly three years ago. However, the reason for posting here in the Irish group is that the Sky Ireland platform is somewhat different, and carries the four Irish TV stations. So I was hoping that other Irish members who had brought their box with them and who no longer have a subscription could tell me what stations they now receive. If we cancel, I'd like to be sure we can still receive the Irish stations as that's where we watch the RaboDirect Pro 12 league and also the Six Nations. Having said that, if the IRB step in and "save" the ERC, we might just feel obliged to continue to pay Sky so that we can watch the H-Cup.
Hi. have you tried talking to Richard who can be found at www.skyinfrance.co.uk. He's not that far from you and he's worth his weight where Sky TV is concerned.
My family and I arrived in France on the 16th July and by 1st August we were up and running with 2 SKY+HD boxes and in very short order.
Sheila - I'm fairly sure that none of the channels you've specified would be available to you if you cancelled your Sky subscription. These days, there's virtually nothing that the Sky card gives you (after cancellation) that you wouldn't get anyway with just the Sky box. Try taking your card out of the box & see which channels you still receive. It's possible that there's some special Irish deal which gives you the RTE channels even if you cancel Sky, as there used to be with the UK public broadcasters, but searching Irish Bulletin Boards seems to confirm that there isn't. You could, of course, still get the free-to-air UK channels like BBC & ITV, so long as the satellite changes expected next month don't kill them off where you're located. You'd also continue to get what were described on boards.ie as 'loads of sh*te channels', but I agree with that opinion, though my Christian Brothers 'education' wouldn't allow me use that expression. :-)
One thing that searching showed was that Sky usually offer to cut your price if you phone up to cancel, but it might be better to do that sometime when you're physically in the country (or using an Irish mobile phone). UK Sky certainly offered a big reduction to me when I called them to cancel Sports & Movies.