Sky TV retention deals ( post your haggling successes )

brewerdave

MouldyOldDough said:

Purely out of interest - what is the maximum that any of you would be willing to pay Sky for a TV service ?

I mean - if they doubled your present tariff - or trebled it - would you continue to pay regardless ?

I was just wondering at what point, you would say "enough is enough - goodbye"?

If your answer is "I don't know" or "it depends", perhaps you should think carefully before signing up for another 18 months/2 years...

And bear in mind that by the end of the decade, perhaps earlier - Sky will become a purely streaming service - with no recording with the added disadvantage of not being able to avoid the ever lengthening adverts !!

Every time I "negotiate" with Sky, I have a target for monthly sub. But it has become more and more difficult. Last time I had a figure of £45pm in mind but I only achieved £50.50 ,shortly to go up to £55.50 !
I think my target in December will be the £55 ish figure - but reading the last 10 pages or so, can't see me getting anywhere near that - so after 20 years it'll be bye bye Sky I fear.

Ozzybozz

Agree with the recent posts that haggling has been harder this time round, went through the full cancellation process with a couple of calls offering me deals similar to my initial retention offer.

Received a text today about my service going offline tomorrow and a number to call to rejoin so gave it a try and got a better deal on my budget at £70 an month and at April 2025 prices. I’ve been a customer for 18 years.

Sky signature - £22.50
Kids -£4
Ultra HD - £2
HD - £4
Netflix standard - £4.50
Full Sports - £14
Cinema - £9
Multiroom - £10
Paramount - Free

No fees.

Might have got more of a discount if I actually disconnected but ok with that offer.

AbbieCadabra

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

I have now been without Sky for 5 months and nothing would persuade me to go back.  I have a freesat recorder but now I'm used to streaming I hardly record anything.  I used to have sky signature with Netflix and multi room for £59.50 a month.  I now have the with ads subscriptions to Netflix and Now Entertainment I also have Disney free with my bank, total cost £11.98 (£12.98 from April) so a saving of £558 a year from April (although it's actually more as my sky prices would have gone up then too).  However I've discovered that there is far less to watch on Sky than I realised so will likely cancel after my 6 month deal and just resubscribe for the odd month if something comes on I want to watch.  Also I would say not to rush into paying for no ads.  Even on the sky channels there are much fewer ads and when they do come on they are much shorter.  I've found many times that Netflix programmes don't have ads anyway. Oh and all the streaming is in HD and I only had SD with Sky Q

The biggest problem for me was the multi room and being able to watch in the bedroom.  I have smart TVs but they are horribly slow and clunky.  I did some research and bought an Apple TV box and that was a game changer.  I added the TV Launcher app and a few other apps and it feels like I'm watching live TV.  It's not only really quick you get a live TV guide and can change channels easily though with some channels you will have to download specific apps to work in the background to get them but that is easily done.  It also has loads of features I haven't even tried but the best is being able to say "what did he say?" if you miss a bit of dialogue.  It will automatically wind back 30 seconds and switch on the subtitles for that bit.  A feature I never knew I needed but it's been brilliant!

So my advice is don't fear the unknown, Sky is not the be all and end all.  There is life after Sky and it's pretty good.

Good info, thank you. We've definitely got a 'fear' of the unknown as we've had Sky for so long & don't know any different.  I realise that streaming is the way to go, which we do a fair amount of already, but how do you keep track of things you watch if you don't record them/have a planner for when a new series starts? We frequently record something but then watch about 20 mins behind live so we can skip the ads, presumably you can't do this with live tv if only streaming, you have to wait for it to end before you can download? I feel like i know nothing!

GrubbyGirl_2

AbbieCadabra said:

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

I have now been without Sky for 5 months and nothing would persuade me to go back.  I have a freesat recorder but now I'm used to streaming I hardly record anything.  I used to have sky signature with Netflix and multi room for £59.50 a month.  I now have the with ads subscriptions to Netflix and Now Entertainment I also have Disney free with my bank, total cost £11.98 (£12.98 from April) so a saving of £558 a year from April (although it's actually more as my sky prices would have gone up then too).  However I've discovered that there is far less to watch on Sky than I realised so will likely cancel after my 6 month deal and just resubscribe for the odd month if something comes on I want to watch.  Also I would say not to rush into paying for no ads.  Even on the sky channels there are much fewer ads and when they do come on they are much shorter.  I've found many times that Netflix programmes don't have ads anyway. Oh and all the streaming is in HD and I only had SD with Sky Q

The biggest problem for me was the multi room and being able to watch in the bedroom.  I have smart TVs but they are horribly slow and clunky.  I did some research and bought an Apple TV box and that was a game changer.  I added the TV Launcher app and a few other apps and it feels like I'm watching live TV.  It's not only really quick you get a live TV guide and can change channels easily though with some channels you will have to download specific apps to work in the background to get them but that is easily done.  It also has loads of features I haven't even tried but the best is being able to say "what did he say?" if you miss a bit of dialogue.  It will automatically wind back 30 seconds and switch on the subtitles for that bit.  A feature I never knew I needed but it's been brilliant!

So my advice is don't fear the unknown, Sky is not the be all and end all.  There is life after Sky and it's pretty good.

Good info, thank you. We've definitely got a 'fear' of the unknown as we've had Sky for so long & don't know any different.  I realise that streaming is the way to go, which we do a fair amount of already, but how do you keep track of things you watch if you don't record them/have a planner for when a new series starts? We frequently record something but then watch about 20 mins behind live so we can skip the ads, presumably you can't do this with live tv if only streaming, you have to wait for it to end before you can download? I feel like i know nothing!

If you really want to record then simply get a freesat recorder.  My advice would be to get a secondhand one to try rather than new as I'm sure, like me, you'll end up recording less and streaming more.  You don't download anything with streaming.  To keep a track of things you simply create a watch list then any new series are added.  all the apps also have a "continue watching" section so you can pick up where you left off.  A lot of the times the ads aren't actually ads they are trailers for shows but if subscribed you get very regular emails which inform you of new series and programmes.  

All I can say is I have a load more things I'm wanting to watch than I ever had before as Sky Q tended to stick me more to the "live" channels.  Like you I really didn't want to give up the interface which is good (though the sky box did play up at times) but it's certainly not worth paying hundreds of pounds each year to have it

prowla

southlad said:

Does anyone know if Sky Q still offer the service where you just get the free view channels but you can pay to have the recording facilities? 

Alternatively you can buy a Freesat recording box; I've had mine for over a year now.

prowla

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

...  I've found many times that Netflix programmes don't have ads anyway...

We watched a movie on Netflix yesterday and some ads came on at 1hr40min of a 1hr50min movie; that seemed pretty random!

d123

prowla said:

southlad said:

Does anyone know if Sky Q still offer the service where you just get the free view channels but you can pay to have the recording facilities? 

Alternatively you can buy a Freesat recording box; I've had mine for over a year now.

Or even a Freeview recording box, the EE Pro 4k box is one of the best I’ve used, and that includes the Sky Q box.

prowla

d123 said:

prowla said:

southlad said:

Does anyone know if Sky Q still offer the service where you just get the free view channels but you can pay to have the recording facilities? 

Alternatively you can buy a Freesat recording box; I've had mine for over a year now.

Or even a Freeview recording box, the EE Pro 4k box is one of the best I’ve used, and that includes the Sky Q box.

Well, My Freesat one was just a direct swap for the outgoing Sky Q one; it's like Sky Q, but if you go back in time in the planner it pulls up the programme on the appropriate streaming service.

brewerdave

d123 said:

prowla said:

southlad said:

Does anyone know if Sky Q still offer the service where you just get the free view channels but you can pay to have the recording facilities? 

Alternatively you can buy a Freesat recording box; I've had mine for over a year now.

Or even a Freeview recording box, the EE Pro 4k box is one of the best I’ve used, and that includes the Sky Q box.

The issue with a Freeview box is that few channels are available in HD, so one has to be willing to watch some recorded stuff in grainy detail.

miller

GrubbyGirl_2 said:
All I can say is I have a load more things I'm wanting to watch than I ever had before as Sky Q tended to stick me more to the "live" channels.  Like you I really didn't want to give up the interface which is good (though the sky box did play up at times) but it's certainly not worth paying hundreds of pounds each year to have it

The most annoying bug is when the YouTube app tries to load ads and crashes or the ads play while the video is still playing in the background so you miss stuff. Only solved by powering off at the plug.