Digital TV Cost Cutting Article - Discuss What You've Been Offered

owey

Is anyone on this package and getting a better deal?.

Talk unlimited
Tv XL package
B/Band 2mg
one V+Box
one standard box.

Total £49.00 a month.

They also said, if I pay a one off payment of £75.00 for my old V+Box which I have had for a year, they will knock another tenner off.
If I want another V+Box it will be another one off payment of £75.00.

So if I go for the above package with 2 V+Boxes it will cost £39.00 a month and a one off payment of £150.00 plus they said I will have to give them the Standard box back.

Before I go, am I talking to retentions when I call 150 and option "Thinking of leaving", or is this still C/S until I ask them to cancel my contract?. Plus what is the best day to call, if there is one?.

I have just over a week to decide what to go for.

Karen1980

I phoned sky as im out of contract told them i wanted to cancel, they offered nothing and told me i would be cut off on 8th may eeeeeekkkkk

BexTech

Karen1980 wrote: »

I phoned sky as im out of contract told them i wanted to cancel, they offered nothing and told me i would be cut off on 8th may eeeeeekkkkk

At least you'll be saving money, and that's what it's all about!

Billys

As I stated in post (2481) I went ahead with the cancellation of sky as they were not offering any deals for exisiting customers. My service ended on the 23rd of March, I phoned them on Sunday morning (30th) and they offered me a Sky+ box for £49 with no installation costs as i was now classed as a new customer. I took their offer up and the box with a new dish and LNB was installed last Thursday morning.
I can only suggest that if people are prepared to actually cancel then maybe they can get a deal.
I am not a great supporter of sky and would not have taken their offer if there was an installation charge or the box was any more expensive, I used (sayno to 0870) and got a geographic number although the lady was obviously in India.

confused1

I have just received an offer from Sky to join its Sky Talk for free pm and w/end calls, at no extra cost to my existing subscription.
I am very suspicious of any Sky 'offer'. Does anyone have any experience of this, please?! Would appreciate advice on it.
Many thanks.

spv4u

BexTech wrote: »

If you already have a Sky box, then there is no point in buying* a Freesat box, as your Sky box will work as a Freesat box when you cancel your subs.

The Freesat box, will come as SD Freesat, HD Freesat and HD Freesat with PVR, so if you want HD and don't want to buy a Sky HD box then maybe it's the way to go.

Yes, it's the same satellites as Sky use - SES Astra 2 and Eutelsat Eurobird. All freesat is is a spec for an alternate EPG and different interactive.

The Sky box will only get freesat from SKY using their freesat card unless they change their policy on it.

It will not work on the ITV BBC frresat as they will be on different frequencies to the sky channels and there is no way to retune these boxes to pick up the new channels.

The freesat from BBC ITV will include BBC HD and roumered to as going with ITV HD and CH4 HD (hence the bung they are getting). If you have Sky+ with freesat from sky then you still have to pay them the £10 free. Get a new box and you get the extra HD channels and PVR recording functionality for free,

It is an alternative to keep your eye on when it becomes avalible, call me stupid but SKY seam to be holding back on discounts as I suspect they will make some unbeliveable offers when Freesat is avalible to try and stop movers.

Mark

BexTech

spv4u wrote: »

The Sky box will only get freesat from SKY using their freesat card unless they change their policy on it.

It will not work on the ITV BBC frresat as they will be on different frequencies to the sky channels and there is no way to retune these boxes to pick up the new channels.

The freesat from BBC ITV will include BBC HD and roumered to as going with ITV HD and CH4 HD (hence the bung they are getting). If you have Sky+ with freesat from sky then you still have to pay them the £10 free. Get a new box and you get the extra HD channels and PVR recording functionality for free,

It is an alternative to keep your eye on when it becomes avalible, call me stupid but SKY seam to be holding back on discounts as I suspect they will make some unbeliveable offers when Freesat is avalible to try and stop movers.

Mark

NO, NO NO! You have it all wrong. Please don't mislead others!!!

You have confused yourself and you will confuse others with the incorrect information you post.

I don't know where you got your misinformation from, but it is so so wrong. Believe me, I know what I am talking about!

The FTV card from Sky gives you Ch4, Five, Five Life, Five US + associated +1 and Sky 3. All the other 200 or so channels are FREE TO AIR - They require no viewing card and will work on ANY digital satellite receiver.

For those who have a Sky box - take your viewing card out and see all those channels that broadcast FREE TO AIR. Then add on the Ch4, Five & Sky channels mentioned above and that's your FREE TO VIEW channels that require a FreeSatFromSky card or cancelled subscription card.

The new BBC/ITV Freesat service will NOT be on different frequencies.

The BBC channels will still be broadcast on the frequencies they are today, same with ITV, same with the 200 other Free To Air channels. You can use a Sky box, a £30 Free To Air satellite receiver from Lidl or Aldi or online, you can use the new BBC/ITV Freesat box, you can use the £60 / £70 Pace DS810XE (which offers HD). (I paid £60 for mine Brand-New, however as both Sky and BBC/ITV Freesat use proprietary EPG and not a standard open EPG, these boxes only have now/next info as the open EPG system isn't transmitted).

All the the BBC/ITV Freesat is is a new spec for the EPG system and for a different Interactive system. The reason is they don't want to pay to use the Sky EPG system and don't want to pay for Open TV Interactive.

BBC HD is already broadcast Free To Air - I know, I'm watching it on my Pace DS810XE HD satellite receiver and picking up Luxe TV HD and picking up around 200 Free To Air SD TV channels and 80+ radio stations.

There is not enough capacity on the SES Astra satellites and Eutelsat Eurobird satellites for these 200+ channels to broadcast twice, nor would they want to pay twice for capacity.Not when all that us happening is they remain all on the same frequency and the new BBC/ITV Freesat box is just like any other satellite box and picks up the Free To Air channels no problem.

ITV HD will be launching in the summer. This will be Free To Air, so any HD satellite receiver will pick it up, there won't be one frequency for Sky boxes and another for Freesat boxes, there is only one frequency and any box will pick it up if it's a HD box.

4HD is currently FTV (Free To View) that is there is no subscription, but you need a viewing card. Shortly 4HD will be switching from FTV to Free To Air (FTA) so any HD box will pick it up, again only one frequency.

Please don't be brainwashed into thinking Sky own any satellites or Sky control the channels on these satellites. These 200 or so FTA channels only pay Sky a small fee to be listed on a Sky box, Sky have no other involvement. These channels will also have to pay BBC/ITV Freesat to be listed on their EPG. On standard boxes there is no fee to pay as the box creates the EPG itself.

The only part you have got right is the £10 recording fee with Sky, which I have mentioned. You can have a Sky HD box and not pay a subscription and not pay a HD fee and you'll still receive all the free channels and the Free HD channels, however you won't be able to record. Similar with a Sky+ though without HD.

BBC/ITV Freesat will be bringing out a SD box, so just for the Free To Air channels (Yes, all the same channels as FreesatFromSky appart from the few FTV ones mentions above, though soon Channel 4 will be switching to FTA).

They will also have a SD PVR - this like Sky+ but without the £10 recording fee.

They will also have a HD PVR - like Sky HD but without the £10 recording fee.

BBC / ITV Freesat planned launch 1st week of May.

If someone already has a standard Sky box then for SD they have all the need for Freesat, I don't want the misinformation make them go out and buy a new box they don't need and will miss out on a couple of channels due to them being FTV and not FTA. A cancelled subscription card reverts to a FTV card - FTV giving the FTV channels mentioned above, the rest of the channels being FTA and requiring no card.

(Yes, I'm a satellite enthusiast since the mid 1980s).

Have a pop over to Digital Spy and we will tell you the same.

jammin_2

spv4u wrote: »

The Sky box will only get freesat from SKY using their freesat card unless they change their policy on it.

It will not work on the ITV BBC frresat as they will be on different frequencies to the sky channels and there is no way to retune these boxes to pick up the new channels.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. But to clarify, any Sky box without a card and any of the anticipated Freesat boxes, will receive exactly the same FTA channels. The will be no difference at all in the channel line-up. The only difference between the new Freesat boxes and Sky boxes, will be the EPG and interactive functions.

spv4u wrote: »

The freesat from BBC ITV will include BBC HD and roumered to as going with ITV HD and CH4 HD (hence the bung they are getting).

ITV channels are FTA anyway. ITV channels can viewed without subscription on any Sky box and on the anticipated Freesat boxes.

spv4u wrote: »

If you have Sky+ with freesat from sky then you still have to pay them the £10 free.

At present, yes.

spv4u wrote: »

Get a new box and you get the extra HD channels and PVR recording functionality for free,

Incorrect. All FTA HD channels can be watched on any SkyHD box without card / subscription. There are no channels, HD or otherwise, that will available on anticipated Freesat boxes that are not also available on a Sky boxes without card. Agree with you on the PVR issue though, Sky currently require a subscription or £10 monthly payment for access to Sky+ facilities.

spv4u wrote: »

It is an alternative to keep your eye on when it becomes avalible, call me stupid but SKY seam to be holding back on discounts as I suspect they will make some unbeliveable offers when Freesat is avalible to try and stop movers.

You may be right here. They may drop the £10 Sky+ charge for non-subscribers.

spv4u

Applogies about the frequency error as I believed they would be on a new ones.

However the I was simply suggesting that it is an altenative for the users coming off SKY to think about in the future. If you use a freesat from sky card in any other box every so often you have to put it back into a sky box to update it I believe and some users might not like having two boxes in their frontroom to get all channels.

I suppose if you have sky and want to watch standard channels without the SKY+ functionality then get the freesat from SKY card and you will be happy.

If you have SKY+ and only want to watch freeview channels and record then it may be an altenative rather than paying the £10 fee.

I guess once its launched all will be out in the open, so to say

BexTech

jammin wrote: »

I'm not sure what you mean by this. But to clarify, any Sky box without a card and any of the anticipated Freesat boxes, will receive exactly the same FTA channels. The will be no difference at all in the channel line-up. The only difference between the new Freesat boxes and Sky boxes, will be the EPG and interactive functions.


ITV channels are FTA anyway. ITV channels can viewed without subscription on any Sky box and on the anticipated Freesat boxes.



At present, yes.


Incorrect. All FTA HD channels can be watched on any SkyHD box without card / subscription. There are no channels, HD or otherwise, that will available on anticipated Freesat boxes that are not also available on a Sky boxes without card. Agree with you on the PVR issue though, Sky currently require a subscription or £10 monthly payment for access to Sky+ facilities.


You may be right here. They may drop the £10 Sky+ charge for non-subscribers.

Yeah, I think they might, they could well drop the £10 recording fee for those who don't subscribe as currently if you subscribe there is no recording fee, however that has only been recent.

There's the £75 offer that's been going on for quite some time. Pay Once View Forever. You get free box, free install, dish etc and 4 months viewing to 4 mixes, you can then cancel and just have Freesat and that's it. Half the price of Freesat and you get 4 months of 4 mixes.