There are two offerings from Sky. FreeSat and Pay Once. I believe the list of channels might be different so check.
http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/pay-once.aspxhttp://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/freesat.aspxIt's possible that the EPG is also different (FreeSat EPG vs Sky EPG?) I don't know but I imagine that on the cheaper Sky Pay Once deal you might have to wade through all the sky channels on the program guide, most of which you won't have a sub for. This is done so you kow what you are missing. Perhaps set up a favorites list with just the free channels.
Aside: I worked in the industry 15 years ago and it was recognised then that the company who gets their EPG into the most houses wins. Back then the thinking was that it's like a PC operating system, the more people that have your one the better. Personally I think Sky haven't exploited the capability of the EPG as much as they could. How about adverts that keep playing until you press a button on the remote to switch back to the program? That and worse is possible if they wanted.