topic Re: Error on Free Preview channels 'Your smart card does not currently have authorization to view or purchase this program' in TV & Streaming

Error on Free Preview channels 'Your smart card does not currently have authorization to view or purchase this program'

NewBoy17 — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 16:45:28 GMT

Hello,

I am not able to view the November Free previews, the channels show up in my guide but when I tune into any of them I get the following error message:

Your smart card does not currently have authorization to view or purchase this program. Please wait or press the channel Up or Down.

I performed a reset two times (first via the reset button on the front of the receiver and second by doing a hard reboot- unplugging the receiver, leaving it off for 5 minutes and then plugging it back in). Unfortunately, neither attempts were successful at fixing the problem. Is there anything else I can try that will fix things so I can view the channels?

Thanks.

Re: Error on Free Preview channels 'Your smart card does not currently have authorization to view or purchase this program'

BellPatricia — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 17:31:23 GMT

Hey there @NewBoy17

Thank you for reaching out to the Bell community 🙂

Can you share which receiver you have, and if this is impacting multiple receivers in your home?

Often missing channels can be restored by re-synchronizing your programming from your MyBell profile. For a step by step check out MyBell app: How to synchronize programming for Bell Satellite TV

Let us know if you can access the free preview channels after that.

@BellPatricia

Re: Error on Free Preview channels 'Your smart card does not currently have authorization to view or purchase this program'

NewBoy17 — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 16:25:16 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

As of yesterday evening, the channels are now all accessible- whatever you did on your end worked! 😀

FYI, I only have 1 receiver, a 6131.