Sky + plus rip off

Keanosafc

Got sky plus installed a few months ago. Upgraded my package to movies over the christmas hols and copied a fair few films on the sky plus box to watch later. I cancelled the movie subscription this month as I really only wanted them to watch over christmas and new year.

Tried to watch a pre-recorded film from sky movies and because I'm not subscribed anymore I can't watch any, even though by upgrading the package last month I basically paid for every film which sky had on its various channels.

Considering backing out of Sky totally now.

hjb123

Ive just got Sky +, well we havent even had it a month yet but are finding it great so far. We are only paying under £25 per month for all 6 mixes plus the movies package which was a great deal. However I too would be annoyed in your siutaiton, if I had recorded it onto the box I would expect to be able to watch it even if had downgraded the package

Keanosafc

I'm pleased with the service generally just didn't expect to be unable to watch stuff that's already recorded to the system.

I've contacted customer service, and they've offered me a £20 credit onto my next bill, they couldn't offer me a free month of movies though, so I've agreed to pay for that out of the £20 credit. I'll cancel next month.

How'd you manage to get the package for under £25, do you also have sports?

advent1122

I love sky+.
I dont think I could live without it anymore.

hjb123

No we have everything except Sports. All six movies plus the premium movies section which meant we dont pay subscription for the Sky +. It should have been £37 but there was an offer for 33% off the subscription price - we got this when we rang the number for Freesat and they said there was this offer on Sky so we decided to go for that instead. We still had to pay the £159 for the box and installation.

Searcher

Keanosafc wrote:

Got sky plus installed a few months ago. Upgraded my package to movies over the christmas hols and copied a fair few films on the sky plus box to watch later. I cancelled the movie subscription this month as I really only wanted them to watch over christmas and new year.

Tried to watch a pre-recorded film from sky movies and because I'm not subscribed anymore I can't watch any, even though by upgrading the package last month I basically paid for every film which sky had on its various channels.

Considering backing out of Sky totally now.

Didn't they tell you when you cancelled the movie package that you wouldn't be able to view any movies that you had on teh hard drive

When we dropped the sports package they made a point of making sure we knew we would lose anything recorded from Sky sports.

Avoriaz

Sky are not ripping you off.

You need to have a current valid subscription to view any PPV programme, whether it is a live broadcast or one that you recorded earlier.

Your subscription pays for the right to watch any film broadcast during the currency of the subscription.

Otherwise everyone could do what you have tried to do. Sign up for Movies, record everything possible, cancel the sub and spend a year watching the recorded films.:D

I’m normally very critical of Sky but in this case I think they are correct.

zztopgirl

Is this the same if you just had the mixes? Im getting Sky cut off next month and have been sky-plusing some programmes on uktv food, etc, will these get deleted after the cut-off date?

stugib

Avoriaz wrote:

You need to have a current valid subscription to view any PPV programme, whether it is a live broadcast or one that you recorded earlier....Otherwise everyone could do what you have tried to do. Sign up for Movies, record everything possible, cancel the sub and spend a year watching the recorded films.:D

Agreed, and I believe it works the other way round - you can record movies when you're not subscribed to them, then watch them later when you are subscribed. Swings and roundabouts. If I could be bothered I'd have one month on, one month off and watch the previous month's recordings during my subscribed month

JohalaReewi

zztopgirl wrote:

Is this the same if you just had the mixes? Im getting Sky cut off next month and have been sky-plusing some programmes on uktv food, etc, will these get deleted after the cut-off date?

Yup (well not deleted but you won't be able to watch them). With the Sky+ box, it records the encrypted TV channel to disk. When you want to watch a recorded program, it has to be decrypted. This is done via the Sky card which needs to be paid up in order to work.

Obviously, if the TV channel is free in the first place (like BCC, ITV, etc), it will not be encrypted so you will still be able to watch it without a paid up Sky card.