The legal alternative to a dodgy box: a first-week plan

The legal alternative to a dodgy box isn’t one box. It’s free Irish and UK channels through an aerial and a dish, plus one or two subscriptions taken by the month for the things you actually watch.

Nobody is going to pretend this is as simple as one fee for everything. It isn’t. It is, though, usually cheaper than the full bundle, as the finder will show for your own list, and nobody sends you a letter about it. One week does it.

Day 1: Can I keep the box or Fire Stick I already have?

Probably, if it has a proper name on it.

A certified device from a big brand, such as an Amazon Fire TV Stick, a Google TV Streamer, an Apple TV, an Nvidia Shield or a Xiaomi box, is a perfectly good legal streamer. Do a factory reset in the device’s settings, then install official apps only, from the app store that comes built in. That’s the whole job.

An unbranded box that arrived with everything already on it is a different matter. Retire it. BeStreamWise, an anti-piracy awareness campaign, warns that illegal streaming puts you “at risk of receiving malicious software”, which “gives criminals access to your network or your device”. It has been sitting on your wifi next to the banking app. Time to part ways.

And cancel the subscription properly. Don’t let it run out “to get the value”. If you’d like the reasons, they’re on is a dodgy box illegal?, and if a letter has already arrived, got a letter? comes first.

Need a replacement? These are the two we’d start with. Our guide to streaming sticks and boxes has the rest, and is a Fire Stick illegal? answers the obvious question.

Day 2: What can I watch for free in Ireland?

More than you’d think. Start here, because every channel you get free is one you don’t pay for later.

Saorview’s own pitch is “just plug in an aerial and start watching live TV for free”. Not sure whether the telly can do it? Does my TV have Saorview? takes two minutes. The full line-up is on our Saorview channel list.

A fair amount of sport is on these channels. Check before you pay for it twice.

Day 3: What do I actually watch?

This is the step people skip. Don’t.

Get a pen. Write down what the house genuinely watched in the last month. Not what was available. What was watched. For most households it’s a short list: one or two sports, a couple of series, the news, and whatever the kids have on a loop.

The dodgy box sold “everything”. You weren’t watching everything. Nobody is. You were watching the same handful of things as before, with a very long list of channels you never opened on standby.

If you can’t remember what’s where, the shows matcher tells you which service has the series you name, and the watch guides do the same for sport: the Premier League, the GAA championship, Ireland’s rugby and the rest.

Day 4: What does it cost by the month?

Now price the list. By the month, not by the year.

That’s the trick the full bundle doesn’t want you to notice. Sport is seasonal. Series end. A monthly service you can cancel is only a cost in the months you use it. A 12-month contract is a cost in August whether or not there’s anything on.

The finder does the sums. Tell it what you watch and it lists the cheapest legal combination, which months to have each service, and when to cancel. It includes options that pay us nothing, because the free ones usually win.

Each service review says what the contract terms are. NOW, for instance, lists the Fire Stick among its supported devices, so the stick you reset on Day 1 will do. We also keep a page of current deals, for what it’s worth, which some weeks is quite a lot.

Day 5: Which subscription first?

One. Just one.

Pick whatever is on right now that someone in the house would actually miss. Subscribe to that, on the official app, from the official app store. Then put a reminder in your phone for the day before it renews.

Resist the urge to sign up for four things on the first night to fill the gap. That’s how you end up with the full bundle by accident, and the full bundle is the bill you were trying to get away from.

Add the second service when there’s something on it. Cancel the first when its season ends. That’s the whole system. It is not complicated. It’s just not advertised.

Days 6 and 7: Do I need a new aerial?

Maybe not. Look up. There may be a working aerial on the chimney that hasn’t been plugged into anything in years, and an old Sky dish may be pointing at exactly the right satellite already.

If the picture is perfect, you’re done. If it breaks up, or there’s nothing up there at all, that’s a job for someone with a ladder and a signal meter. Aerials explained covers what you need, and what an aerial installation costs covers the bill.

Or go straight to installer quotes.

What about the things I can’t find legally?

Occasionally something genuinely isn’t shown in Ireland by anyone. It happens. The honest answer is that you can’t watch it, which is annoying, and still not a reason to hand your card details to a stranger.

More often it is available and just hard to find. Our where to watch catalogue lists Irish availability for the titles we’ve checked, with the date we checked them.

Is this really better?

Dearer than a pirate subscription, yes. We won’t insult you.

But the stream doesn’t die in the 89th minute. The app comes from an app store. Amazon has confirmed it will block apps on Fire TV that provide access to pirated content, so the other route is getting shakier by the month. And the legal position isn’t in doubt: Irish law makes it an offence to knowingly receive a protected broadcast unlawfully to avoid paying for it, Sky sent around 200 warning letters in May 2026, and in October the Irish Times reported it was “moving towards further action” on the ones that went unanswered. Is IPTV legal? has the detail.

Free channels first. One subscription at a time. Cancel when the season ends. That’s it. That’s the alternative.