It can be hard to find a quick and simple answer to this: What’s the cheapest way to get digital TV?
Option 1 - you don't want sports, movies or kids TV
The answer is getting a dish and a decoder for one of the 'free' satellite options.
But there are draw backs. You won't get any premium channels such as sports of movies for nothing, and you won't get the Irish channels - you'll still need an aerial for those.
If that suits you, then you can get up to 250 channels for nothing including news channels and gems like BBC3 and BBC4 and Film Four which went free some years ago.
Option 2 - you do want sports, movies or kids TV
You will need a dish for satellite or a subscription to digital cable from UPC.
But if you pay, remember the subscription packages are designed to confuse. But both Sky and UPC are flexible these days and you can drive a hard bargain.
>More on free satellite TV options
>Freesat boxes
>More on Digital Terrestrial TV
> More on Sky and UPC
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RTE MONEY QUICK TIPS
Tip 1 Ditch Sky or NTL and get freesat. Save hundreds a year.
Tip 2. Threaten to leave Sky and go with freesat and see if they will offer you a six month deal at rock bottom prices. They have been known to drop prices to as low as €10 a month just to retain you as a customer.
LINK TO YOUR TIPS - 'I saved more than €200 on Sky TV'
Tip 3: If you absolutely have to have Sky Sports, don’t subscribe for the entire year. Subscribe for few months only. Same for movies – subscribe for December. You can upgrade and downgrade at no cost. Sky has no problem with this.
Tip 4: Share Sky with a friend, using your laptop. An extra €15 a month gets you an online subscription to the sports channels- so share the cost and one of you can watch the sports channges and you can watch them on your computer via the Sky Player – so ask a friend or family member to do it and get the sports channels for €15 a month. You can also subscribe so Sky online independently. But getting the sports channels will set you back significantly.
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Free
