SKY TV Alternatives

[pzu]

OK not strictly Computers but I suspect the solution/s may be

At present I have a Full Sky subscription costing some £70 a month +£10 insurance, this gives me All channels/HD and multi room; also have Broadband phone package from PlusNet this inc line rental is some £35month - Total £115 a month

Computers in use iMAC, laptop & an iPad plus iPhones and a spare laptop

TV's Main on Sky HD, Daughters (disabled permanent resident) on SKY extra room, + 2 spare room Freeview

Main TV is Freesat capable

Any suggestions to cut costs - not bothered about Sports Packages - we just have them (SKY inertia they love me) but do want multi room or equivalent for daughter

At present the router is in spare room/study with iMAC and signal back to l/room can be patchy have just tried router in l/room and signal to spare room is POOR

No cable system in area

PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)

[Milo Minderbinder]

stop paying the Sky subscription and just take the free channels
the hardware should still work the same, you just won't be able to view the encrypted channels as your card will become u/s

[mixture]

Call up sky, tell them you're thinking of leaving, those magic words should get put through to the "retentions" team and the floor is all yours for negotiations. :cool:

Remember the old business adage, it costs ten times more to win a new customer (marketing costs etc.) than it does to keep an existing customer loyal.

(Might help your cause if you do a little homework before planning and see what the cheapest package others are offering is .... even if they don't serve your area, e.g. Virgin cable ... being able to quote actual lower prices at the retentions team will help more than just haggling..... because they may well be able to offer "competitive discounts" that do what they say on the tin.... they are there in order to win you away from the competition).

[gemma10]

Agree with MM, and dump Sky. If you want to watch sport go to WIZIWIG on the laptop, its free-just register

[spannersatcx]

if you take just the free to air channels you will not be able to record them on sky+, anything else you have previously recorded, on subscription channels, will not be able to be viewed either.
The old I'm going to cancel trick very rarely works these days as Sky have cottoned on to it and they have lots of existing customers loosing one here and there is no big deal to them anymore.

[OFSO]

(a) tell SKY to get st*ffed,
(b) go and buy a freesat receiver with hard drive. There's plenty there to watch.

[Ancient Observer]

I am currently researching the same issue, although I have a "trimmed" Sky service.

Last time I rang Sky - about a year ago, and told them that I was a poor pensioner, the person on the other end was helpful, and talked me through my options carefully and slowly. We reduced the overall package.
I now take as little as possible, but I've kept the sport and discovery stuff.

I do not need Sky HD, (on a 37inch Panasonic). I'm clear about that. The change in picture quality is not worth it, as the Pana sorts out the picture quality, (somehow). However, daughter's 3 year old 40inch Sony does benefit from HD - the basic picture without HD is nowhere near as good as the 1 year old Pana.

So I would suggest Option 1 to be to talk to Sky. As described above, (mixture's advice is always worth listenning to) tell them you are leaving, and find out their best deal from their retention team.
Then, trim down what you take, and figure out the best price.

Option 2 would be to look at Youview. We have one of their boxes in another room, and SWMBO loves it. (In our set up it needs one of the range extending Homeplugs that GG hates so much). It is free, or you can buy add-ons from BT.

Option 3 is the freesat stuff. I know nothing about that.
Option 4 has to be a Virgin bundle if you are in an area with their fibre. I'm not.

If you keep your plusnet deal, on a standalone basis, they strike me as the best in terms of the price/reliability balance.

BT also have a retention scheme, and my Cunning Plan is to talk to them. I take my phone and broadband from them, on a "retention" deal that they did for me about 2 years ago. I can't find anything cheaper than the deal they gave me, so I'll hang on to it. When I ring, I'm going to ask for their best price for broadband, phone and youview with sport. My "I'm leaving" script is based on plusnet prices!

[Ancient Observer]

Huh!
I can't do what I wanted to do. Youview plus sport is not currently available. The Youview box, currently, cannot record progs from Sky, or ESPN, so with BT I'd be stuck with their "Vision" offer, which is not as good as youview.

Plus, they were unwilling to move on their prices for their TV offers.

[crewmeal]

As it's the age of internet television why not stream programmes from the internet. I have apple tv2 (jailbroken) and stream youtube items through software called plex. It serves all my needs and more.

[mixture]

As it's the age of internet television why not stream programmes from the internet. I have apple tv2 (jailbroken) and stream youtube items through software called plex. It serves all my needs and more.


Its called respecting copyright crewmeal.

Not suggesting you don't since I don't know what you watch. But I do know that much of the content on Sky, the BBC and other transmission mediums are covered by copyright laws and content licenses.

[NRU74]

Also consider that for the cost of a few month's Sky subs you could have a box and a second dish with a double LNB, one,say,taking the signals from Hotbird and the other pointing at the Astra 1 satellites and you get several hundred Spanish,French,German,Italian,Polish etc etc channels all gratis.Also,if,like me, your French and German is not very good many of the programmes have subtitles obtained via teletext

[Evanelpus]

Call up sky, tell them you're thinking of leaving, those magic words should get put through to the "retentions" team and the floor is all yours for negotiations.

May have been the case a couple of years ago but I know of at least three people who have gone down this route and SKY have just said bye bye to all three of them. Maybe they were unlucky but I wouldn't hold my hopes out for a new deal on this particualr score.

Good luck mate!

[Mike-Bracknell]

May have been the case a couple of years ago but I know of at least three people who have gone down this route and SKY have just said bye bye to all three of them. Maybe they were unlucky but I wouldn't hold my hopes out for a new deal on this particualr score.

Good luck mate!

The current golden phrase would be "i'm considering switching to BT Vision", as I know they're ramping up their battle for subscribers against Sky - it's their latest direction.

[mixture]

May have been the case a couple of years ago but I know of at least three people who have gone down this route and SKY have just said bye bye to all three of them. Maybe they were unlucky but I wouldn't hold my hopes out for a new deal on this particualr score.

Nonsense.

See this article (http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/skys-retention-strategy-drives-revenue-uplift/4004574.article) published in November 2012 .... the subheader says "BSkyB says its strategy to focus on retention over acquisition now it has reached the 10 million customer landmark has effectively helped it reduce churn and increase revenue."

Customer retentions is a very important strategy of any business model that is reliant on subscriber volumes and associated churn (e.g. home internet connections is another example).

[crewmeal]

Its called respecting copyright crewmeal.

Not suggesting you don't since I don't know what you watch. But I do know that much of the content on Sky, the BBC and other transmission mediums are covered by copyright laws and content licenses.

I know but there is so much crap on these channels at the moment, that's why I use iplayer 4od etc. All I do is stream via my Macbook to my Samsung smart tv. Since there are so many YouTube files that are more than an hour long, it's a great way to watch them. YouTube have to decide if they break any copyright laws.

[stumpey]

We ditched Sky a couple of years ago and only miss UK Gold, but we've seen it all before, several times and have probably got the DVD.

Rang them up and told them of our intention to leave. Refused the lower priced offers and just carried on using OUR equipment. Easy peasy. Will even ditch satellite when I get around to connecting the free-view box we bought two or three years ago!

I'll beat these clouds yet............



One day.