In effect blackmail by sky?!

helentolf23

as lots of other users, we got our letter from sky explaining about the price increase. Whilst this is annoying, its hardly unexoected as so many other services are putting prices up too.
What i have a problem with is being told i can't have sky anytime+ (with box sets & more on demand stuff than normal anytime) because i don't have sky broadband! I get a better deal & a great connection with someone else, which is more than my neighbour gets with their sky connection that rarely works, so i don't want to change!
We've been constant customers for 16 years when we bought our first house & have regularly upgraded. We have their top package including multi room & yet thats still not good enough for sky who i feel are effectively blackmailing sky users into taking their broadband!
My mums just left sky as they would'nt let her upgrade to sky+ unless she took multi room & broadband. She explained she was a widow in her 60's so would'nt benefit from multi room & did'nt own a computer but to no avail, so she left!
Anyone else feel sky are effectively blackmailing their customer?! (rant over now lol!)

jd87

Isn't it perhaps a physical issue? You actually need the broadband for the box to be able to download the extra programs? If that's the case then it's not exactly blackmail.

FabSascha

I'm not sure whether you would physically need the broadband as whilst I have broadband with them (to be honest it's worked great for me - I've had one issue since I had it and they got it sorted quickly) I don't have my Sky box connected to the phone line so my understanding is that they download all the content through the dish.....I could be wrong though, I'm sure I'll be corrected if so

cajef

FabSascha wrote: »

I'm not sure whether you would physically need the broadband

The Sky Anytime+ service uses broadband for its service.:)

On 29 April 2010, BSkyB revealed that it will name its video-on-demand service Sky Anytime+. “It will be a broad offering at launch with a large range of content across the range of content that we show,” CEO Jeremy Darroch said. “(It will feature) progressive download using the broadband return pathway and the hard disc in a combined way. All of the boxes are VOD-ready, so we’ll be able to roll it out to all of the box population.”

daniel.thomas4

its not blackmail its saving you money, too use anytime+ you download off the internet. Now most companys have a cap on there Broadband.... o2 unlim is capped.

so sky will only let you have anytime+ with there BB beacuse there system will exclude any films or shows you download from your usage. where other companys wont.

Sky have confirmed that they are trying to get other isp's on boad to allow them to exclude anytime+ from there usage but as of yet none have agreed

Nilrem

daniel.thomas4 wrote: »

its not blackmail its saving you money, too use anytime+ you download off the internet. Now most companys have a cap on there Broadband.... o2 unlim is capped.

so sky will only let you have anytime+ with there BB beacuse there system will exclude any films or shows you download from your usage. where other companys wont.

Sky have confirmed that they are trying to get other isp's on boad to allow them to exclude anytime+ from there usage but as of yet none have agreed

That's very spurious reasoning, Sky don't want you to use anytime because it'll use your bandwidth with another ISP?

Sky don't want you using anytime with other ISP's because they want you on their BB packages spending as much money as possible with them (if they've got you with them for TV they just get the TV money, if they can use their products to get you to also take out phone/internet with them, they can potentially make much more money from you, and it looks good for the shareholders).

Basically it's because Sky want people to be "triple play" customers.

There are plenty of ISP's that offer unlimited packages, or high limit packages.

FabSascha

cajef wrote: »

The Sky Anytime+ service uses broadband for its service.:)

I think I'm getting confused - do you mean the Sky Anytime that you watch through the TV or the extra stuff on the net? As if it's the stuff on the TV then no wonder I'm currently being penalised for hitting my download limit!

jcandsc

FabSascha wrote: »

I think I'm getting confused - do you mean the Sky Anytime that you watch through the TV or the extra stuff on the net? As if it's the stuff on the TV then no wonder I'm currently being penalised for hitting my download limit!

Normal anytime uses the satelite to get the content over the air as I get it without my phone line being plugged into the sky box.

Anytime + is there new video on demand service that uses the broadband.

laurel7172

Sorry if I have this wrong, but isn't Sky broadband free?

Because, if so, sign up, connect, if you're not happy THEN get proper broadband, as well.

moodydonkey

laurel7172 wrote: »

Sorry if I have this wrong, but isn't Sky broadband free?

Because, if so, sign up, connect, if you're not happy THEN get proper broadband, as well.

I don't think so, I was told they didn't have it in my area. It may be to some but not everyone.

isplumm

helentolf23 wrote: »

We've been constant customers for 16 years when we bought our first house & have regularly upgraded. We have their top package including multi room & yet thats still not good enough for sky who i feel are effectively blackmailing sky users into taking their broadband!

No not really - you don't have to take the extra service if you don't want - I suspect at some point they will roll it out via other providers. You'll just have to wait.

helentolf23 wrote: »

My mums just left sky as they would'nt let her upgrade to sky+ unless she took multi room & broadband. She explained she was a widow in her 60's so would'nt benefit from multi room & did'nt own a computer but to no avail, so she left!
Anyone else feel sky are effectively blackmailing their customer?! (rant over now lol!)

Confused by this - if you talking about Sky+, there is no requirement for broadband - but if we are talking about the new Sky Anytime+ product, well Sky have stated that you must have their broadband to take this service - according to them this is because they can guarantee the service via their own broadband, whereas via other broadband companies, they can not ... they are supposed to be rolling it out to other broadband providers at some point.

Not sure I see the issue with this??

Mark