My 89 year old mother is going to lose all her channels. Help!!

[Westcoaster65]

My 89 year old Mum lives on her own on one of the remote Scottish islands.  When I was visiting her last week, I noticed that she had lost her BBC Channels and there was a message on screen to say she will lose all her Sky Channels soon.  She has an old box and dish which I'm guessing must be around 20 + years old and she pays a basic subscription of £40 per month (previously £43).  She had a severe stroke and cannot speak , therefore cannot call Sky.  The Television is her only companion....What can I do on her behalf to ensure she can still watch her programmes, bearing in mind she has a very limited income after paying her Carers, and couldn't afford to buy a new dish or HD television.  Any advice is greatly appreciated, so I can get this sorted out for her.  Many thanks!!!

[Mark39]

A used Sky+HD that you can buy cheaply from the likes of ebay might be a reasonable solution? Don't pay more than £30, and look for a DRX890 or DRX895 model as they're the most recent.

[Daniel0210]

@Westcoaster65 

With your Mums health issues it may be worth you registering her with the Sky Accessibility Team who may be able to help her in the future. Once registered there are also different methods of communication with this team
https://www.skyaccessibility.sky/

Not sure if you're aware but Sky no longer support faults/issues with Sky+ / Sky+HD although they may offer advice on the phone. In future, unless your Mum already has cover via Sky Protect through Domestic and General Insurance, Sky will advise her to either upgrade to Sky Q whereby any issues will be resolved as part of the installation, or move to Sky Glass or Stream but I doubt she'll want those (but who knows). 

[TimmyBGood]

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@Westcoaster65 wrote:

 she pays a basic subscription of £40 per month

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I'd observe that's rather too much, but caution that trying to negotiate a better rate with Sky would almost certainly involve migration to the Q platform, which may well cause additional complication and potential distress.

As @Mark39 indicates, the simplest solution to the channel loss is the acquisition of a late-model Sky+ HD box.