Cancelling Sky?

[mitsy26]

Hi All

I'm thinking about cancelling sky as my monthly cost is £70. I do use the record function quite a lot. I read somewhere that you can still pay sky £10.50 a month to use the free channels and still have the availability to record - Has anyone else heard of this?

I was also thinking of getting the amazon stick instead of sky - has anyone else done this?

Many Thanks

[SherryBea]

Misty try doing what I did: Call sky and explain why you want to leave (too expensive) They will offer you a deal of some sort to stay. I got offered the full package that should have been £70 for a whole year for half price + a new sky Q box. If you like watching documentaries like we do then Sky is far superior to Amazon

[sunny-dave]

Firstly - have you tried threatening Sky with cancellation - I got them down to around £32 per month for the full movies/sport/hd package.

Amazon fire is excellent - but is a streaming device not a recorder - so you will have to rely on programmes you miss being available - it also burns up huge amounts of internet data, so you must have fast and 'unlimited' broadband.

[mitsy26]

I will try but knowing my luck they will say ok thanks for your custom lol. I'm with sky for my broadband so will have to look into having this from somewhere else. I have unlimited broadband at the moment but its not very fast.

[SherryBea]

I agree with sunny-dave. We tried BT TV for a few months and it was dreadful. it would not allow you skip through the adverts on anything you recorded and the catch up stuff froze if someone else in the house was gaming.

[Buenchico]

Rather than paying £10.50 per month it would seem to make more sense to buy a Freesat+ PVR, such as the Humax HDR-1100S. It's £179.00 from Curry's but you can buy a refurbished one (still with a full 1 year warranty) from Humax Direct for £139.00:
https://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/hdr-1100s-500gb-black-1.html

Then, if required, you can top that up with subscription services via an Amazon Fire TV stick or a Now TV Box.

[SherryBea]

Mitsy they will not say that! They have dedicated departments to try and keep their customers. You may also get a better Broadband deal in the package if you insist!

[Buenchico]

>>> and the catch up stuff froze if someone else in the house was gaming

That's only because your broadband connection isn't fast enough.

[SherryBea]

Buenochico I would rather just persist with Sky its much less trouble.

[SherryBea]

Buenochoco yes I realise that, we get around 17mb download which is amazing speed considering where we live but not adequate for an acceptable BT service. Not being able to FF through The Ads was the dealbreaker for us.

[mitsy26]

I have looked into freesat but in the area I live I can only get 20 channels and most of these are the duplicate channels +1.

[sedge47]

It depends what you use Sky for. I used it mainly for rugby, but when they lost the Aviva Premiership to BT Sport I switched to BT TV and found it far superior and only about one third of the cost. Their Youview+ box is very good and has all the record/playback/pause functions of Sky+ (and their rugby commentators are far better than Sky's). You do need a decent internet connection for BT Sport.

[whiskeryron]

Do as Chris suggested (13.38) The Humax FreeSat is good for HD & SD progs.
Plus The NowTV gives a wide choice of Movie/Sport/ General Progs of your choice.

[Buenchico]

>>> I have looked into freesat but in the area I live I can only get 20 channels

That makes no sense at all! Are you sure that you're not confusing Freesat with Freeview?

The Astra group of satellites transmit all of these free channels:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free-to-air_channels_at_28%C2%B0E
It's those transmissions which your Sky box receives. A generic satellite receiver (which is what your Sky box would become if you stopped paying the subscription) can also receive all of those channels. Similarly a Freesat box (which is basically a generic satellite receiver with a few tweaks added) can receive ALL of those channels. (They're exactly the SAME signals which your Sky box currently receives. If your Sky box can pick them up then so can a Freesat box!).

The electronic programme guide for a Freesat box includes all of the channels listed here:
http://www.freesat.co.uk/channels
(Note that if you click on 'TV Channels' you only initially see the 'Entertainment' channels. You need to click on the other categories, e.g. 'News & Sport, to view the full list).
Some of the more obscure channels from my first link aren't available via the electronic programme guide but they can still be added manually (if you actually need, say, Arabic news channels anyway!)

It's only Freeview (received via a conventional TV aerial) which has limited availability in a few parts of the country. Freesat (received via a satellite dish) is available wherever Sky is.

[SherryBea]

Freesat is not a charity. It is only free because you have to put up with all the ads and can't FF them in playback!

[mikey4444]

Mitsy....I don't know what anybody else thinks, but £70 a month sounds an absolute fortune to me !

Cancel all subscriptions to Sky.....you will still get Sky's version of Freeview, with all the important stations, and the same great picture quality. If recording TV programs is such a concern to you, then investigate the various iplayers, where most of the good, mainstream programs can be viewed again for some time after broadcast.

£70 a month equates to £840 a year ! I am sure you can think of better ways to use that than pay it to Sky !

[mitsy26]

Thanks for your help, I've just looked at the freesat - never seen this before but sounds great as I can still record if needed. I'll have a look at all the options you have all mentioned :)

[-Talbot-]

Go down the half price Sky route first, I have never known them not to offer 1/2 price when I have pleaded poverty.