Thanks for responses guys.
..I should probably mention, ..this is all for my grandad. He currently has freesat, but is VERY anti-subscription. He's 87 years old, and very set in his ways, and he won't ever have a direct debit to anything. He's quite old fashioned and pays for everything in cash. So if I get him the sky+ box, the PVR function is definately not free, is that correct? What about the freesat+ box? Is the PVR free on that? He would rather pay over the odds for a box outright, instead of a smaller amount of money with a monthly subscription.