Another alternative to Sky thread...

Longtallronnie

I know I know but I'm fed up with paying over £55 a month and having an old box and router that they won't upgrade unless I sign up for more expensive bundles so...

Here's my plan:

Freesat+ Freetime box (£150-£200)

BT Infinity 38mb (£32.50pm inc line rental)

Unlimited evening and weekend calls

BT Sport

Subscribe to Now TV via Xbox (£6.99pm)

That would give us all the channels we actually watch plus BT Sport, 3x faster internets and save us over £15 a month.

We don't have a digital aerial and a decent freesat box would cover the cost of fitting one plus BT's £10pm for its youview box in approx 15 months. 

Sound good?

Col_Decker

what we did when we dropped sky:

 

apple tv box - £80

Netflix - £5 pm soon to move over to now tv £7pm

 

 

never looked back

Grumpyrocker

We ditched Sky. We haven't missed it at all. 

Bought a Freesat HD pvr for when we want to record stuff. I've used NowTV off and on but it's utter shit - terrible picture quality, often on the blink when you want to watch something and restrictive with devices.

Watch a lot of stuff on Netflix. Sometimes something on Amazon Prime too. If I want to watch a recent film I'll rent via Google Play.

Both our TVs are "smart" though we find a Google Chromecast works much better than the same apps built into the TV. And as we have internet via BT we watch BT Sport through the Chromecast too.

hotpot

KODI         youtube it if you're not familiar with it.

edit: I forgot to add, it costs nowt, zilch, nada, nil pois.

thecolourbox

You do realise Now TV is Sky right? Still I suppose it is still cheaper than normal, just got the impression was more anti-Sky than how to save money!

chrispy108

I've never had Sky - Price being the main factor, not a fan of them charging for things they don't need to, like HD and recording, and making you buy the box, but crippling it if you stop subscribing. Also, living in a flat with a communal dish I've only got one feed, and you can only buy from wholesalers who rip you off, not Sky direct, so you pay more for less.

I had Virgin, mainly for the broadband but we had an early V+ box too, but couldn't get cable when we moved.

Happy with a mix of Netflix, Amazon Prime, iPlayer, 4oD and downloads for US stuff. We tend to subscribe to NowTV for a month a few times a year when there are special offers, watch whatever is new and then cancel again.

boogieman

As @Grumpyrocker says Now TV is very hit and miss and can be really crap at times. Sometimes the picture quality is like a YouTube clip shot on a mobile. Sometimes it just refuses to work and all we get is an "Oops, something went wrong. We're working on it". We've stuck with it because it's the cheapest way to get game of thrones, walking dead etc, but don't expect miracles for £7 a month.

chrispy108

I don't know if they still do it, but in the early days of NowTV I'd have a moan on the live chat when it wouldn't work and got a week or so free access every time it happened.

EricTheWeary

We've got Now movies free for a month and when the picture deteriorates seems more annoying than on tv programmes ( but it is free other than having the Entertainment package anyway). I think ( although this may be bollox) peak net times are the problem, like Sunday tea time.
If you watch on, say, a tablet rather than a big tv then not much of an issue.

Dalefty

The joys of living in a T.V. black spot, we get no terrestrial television channels and Sky, Virgin and BT do not service the area I live in with their T.V. packages. Yet doesn't stop the T.V licensing bastards from posting threatening letters through our mail boxes at an almost daily rate reminding us that we don't have a tv license for the address.  I really do think that they employ thick cunts to work at the T.V licensing.


DaLefty

GuitarMonkey

Where do you live - Mars?

spark240

Not sure you get all the Sport with BT, golf in particular.

Usually if you call Sky and say your are jumping ship, they will offer you a good deal for 12 month to stay?

If you find a good deal let us know, Im on top whack with Sky around £70pm and not happy...

Longtallronnie

@thecolourbox, bit of both tbh but mainly to save a few quid. It feels like we get a constant flow of letters from Sky notifying us of yet more price increases, generally for stuff that we don't use. If I can save over 25% and get a similar (perhaps better) product I think it's worth a squirt.

Longtallronnie

spark240 said:

Not sure you get all the Sport with BT, golf in particular.

Usually if you call Sky and say your are jumping ship, they will offer you a good deal for 12 month to stay?

If you find a good deal let us know, Im on top whack with Sky around £70pm and not happy...

BT sport is a wee bonus but not a deal breaker. I only watch the odd prem game and usually use it as an excuse to go to the pub! 

If Sky offer something awesome to stay I'll probably give it another year but it would have to be a really good deal. 

capo4th

Exactly ring em up to cancel unless they treat you like a new customer. You will be surprised how receptive they are to keeping £85 a month

Gagaryn

Threaten them with cancellation. 

I got Sky TV for free for a year when they took over O2 Broadband two or 3 years ago. I had never considered buying a Sky package due to the price, plus I don't really watch much TV, but I have to admit the Sky+HD box is very good, all the catch up stuff etc. works really well. 

Long story short is that at the end of the free year I put in notice of cancellation and started looking for a new Phone and Broadband package and was looking at Freeview and Freesat PVR, but Sky called me and offered me TV, Phone and BB for £24 a month which I decided to do. I just received a letter to say it will soon rise to £27 but it's still an okay deal.

Dalefty

GuitarMonkey said:

Where do you live - Mars?

A very small rural village in a rather deep valley, it's really rather pretty and picturesque, great for hill walking and hiking, and great if you happen to own a dog or two, funnily enough we have really really good internt in the vilage.


DaLefty

Grumpyrocker

boogieman said:

As @Grumpyrocker says Now TV is very hit and miss and can be really crap at times. Sometimes the picture quality is like a YouTube clip shot on a mobile. Sometimes it just refuses to work and all we get is an "Oops, something went wrong. We're working on it". We've stuck with it because it's the cheapest way to get game of thrones, walking dead etc, but don't expect miracles for £7 a month.

Last straw for me was last Monday about to watch Game of Thrones. Just before it starts my app tells me that I've used all my device changes for a month and all my slots are full. I know this is balls, check the site - three empty slots. But no, stupid NowTV won't let me watch. So I miss the show. Check on Twitter and many users suffer the same fate. I'd only resubscribed for a couple of months for Game of Thrones.

I cancelled within an hour of that happening.