Do I need to link a Sky TV box to the satellite dish to get freeview? ?

Of course you do, but you don't need a card for most of the channels, just a Freesat card (about £20) for channels 4 & 5. If you don't connect it to a dish, where will it get the signal from?....

Freeview is the terrestrial digital tv service and it needs a Freeview receiver connected to an ordinary television aerial to work, The Sky box is a satellite receiver only. It needs its dish to work. It cannot receive Freeview even if you connect it to an ordinary aerial. The ordinary aerial input to the Sky box is just a "loop through" which simplifies the installation when using it with a television set that does not have a SCART socket (not many around, but they still exist). It "may" be able to pick up the basic subscription-free channels which are carried by Sky (BBC, ITV, Ch4, Ch5 channels) but there is no guarantee it will work and are not many anyway.You will probably not get the full range of "free" channels. I think that you may be confusing it with Freesat. That is a system which uses a satellite receiver to pick up subscription-free digital television from a satellite. The boxes can be bought from most places like Curry's or Comet.

you can just put it through your aireal (thats what i do and mine works fine) - u don't need a sky box (but you can still recieve freeview through your old box) but you can also get it through a freeview box or a freeview enabled tv