MSE Blog: Living without Sky – we did it! 13 January 2015 at 12:51PM in TV MoneySaving 21 replies 3.9K views

Former_MSE_Joanne

"Back in 2012 I did a TV viewing audit and decided we weren’t watching Sky channels enough for it to be worth paying for them."

Read MSE Andrea's full blog:
Living without Sky – we did it!


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PasturesNew

Is this real? I've never seen/used Sky - and have no desire to get it. I wouldn't even know what to get, what I needed, or how to use it.

I've got a freeview box attached to an old portable telly somebody lent me.

problemcashback

PasturesNew wrote: »

Is this real? I've never seen/used Sky - and have no desire to get it. I wouldn't even know what to get, what I needed, or how to use it.

I've got a freeview box attached to an old portable telly somebody lent me.

why wouldn't it be real, as you will know there are thousands and thousands of people on here who wont stop paying for Sky. Some people need a little encouragement so the article helped them. In the same way most people joined MSE, encouragement to fix their finances.


As you have an old portable then sky probably isn't for you.

Tropez

I'm sure I could live without Sky. It isn't something necessary to my survival.

But I still like having it.

VisionMan

I had Sky for over 15 years but only had it for the football. I then realised I only watched 1 or 2 games a week for (back then) a whopping £64 a mth so I cancelled it. I missed the football but didn't miss Sky. Or the prices.

calleyw

I not had a tv for 13/14 years now and guess what I survived.

I do have a netflix sub and use the on demand players. But before that I use to listen to the radio all the time.

Yours

Calley

Twosheds

I've been complaining for ages that mse doesn't mention freesat on its digital TV pages, so its good to see it's being discussed as a viable alternative at long last!

Bonus_Abusing_Baracus

"However, after a year of paying more than we wanted to for Sky, we decided to get a Freesat box for about £200."

http://www.sky.com/shop/freesat/home/faq/#3

if you already have a sky box/dish, you can get a 'freesat from sky' card for £25 which saves buying a new box. You may not even need this, I didn't but it's some years since I cancelled Sky briefly.
I think you may lose recording & on demand functionality from a sky+ box; allegedly there are ways around this but I couldn't suggest/endorse any other than the 'pay sky £10 a month' option.

Disclaimer: I have worked for sky, but I still think this is potentially a good saving.

jorok

Freeview offers the 5 main channels with virtually all the original programming available in UK. All the other Freeview channels are repeats of UK and American programmes as is most of Sky programs. Why pay Sky for repeats ? We won't.
In addition when we cancelled Sky years ago we needed our bank to recover money from Sky continuing to take it incorrectly under Direct Debit, so we will never trust them again, even if they offered enough programs to be worth their fees.

sinizterguy

Fantastic article.

Another that shouldn't even have been published unless you just like oversharing your life.

wiogs

jorok wrote: »

Freeview offers the 5 main channels with virtually all the original programming available in UK. All the other Freeview channels are repeats of UK and American programmes as is most of Sky programs. Why pay Sky for repeats ? We won't.
In addition when we cancelled Sky years ago we needed our bank to recover money from Sky continuing to take it incorrectly under Direct Debit, so we will never trust them again, even if they offered enough programs to be worth their fees.

Wrong on both counts.