NOW TV vs Sky

50Twuncle

I have been offered Signature on my existing HD box with legacy F1 only for £38.00 with a £5.00 discount for 18 months - £33.00 

What is the difference between NOW TV Entertainment compared to Sky's Variety or Signature package ?

NOW TV costs just £8.99 per month - compared to £39 for Variety or £25 for Signature

Apart from box sets (never use anyway) or recording ability (more concerning)

What else would I miss if I left Sky for NOW TV ?

And is there any reason why I should not get 2 NOW sticks and run them both on the same account - to allow me to watch TV in the bedroom as well as in the living room ?

Neil_Jones

Sky will give you more channels and the entire Sky+ experience, but realistically if you don't watch those channels its pointless paying for them.  Only you know what channels you watch.

NowTV will give you the core Sky channels and a couple of primary extras, but there is no recording and its all on demand.  Couple it with a TV with Freeview built in and you can probably have all you need to watch right there, you can top it up with Disney+ or Netflix or Prime or Apple or whatever you like.

Recording wise, NowTV is primarily based around on -demand and a few live streams.  Most of the content is on demand so there is little need to record anything, but coming back to the Sky setup you can get Freesat recorders that link up to the existing dish and do the same sort of job as Sky without the ongoing monthly fees, but again if you're not going to watch half of these its again pointless having the setup if you're not going to use it.

NowTV is contract free and you just pay as you go.  If you just want movies, you can do that with Now, you can't do that with Sky.  Likewise if you want Sports on its own, you can do that with Now (for Sky you can't have movies/sport without the base package).  Sports you can buy day passes as well as week passes if you just want to see certain events.  Otherwise plenty of deals around for Now generally and you only have to cancel and get offered a deal on the website.

Nothing to stop you having two Now sticks, you can sign in on up to six devices with one account.

DCFC79

No reason why you shouldn't use 2 sticks at all, it's it's entirely your choice.
I can't answer the main question as I don't have Sky but I do have Now TV.

Bigphil1474

The main difference is that Now TV is a streaming service i.e. through the internet. Sky is through your dish. If you have good BB then Now TV is fine. The quality isn't high end HD, but I find it as good as HD channels on the TV. I think its about 720hp. 
If you are watching a series on Sky, with Now TV the episodes are usually available for about a month. I wouldn't discard the box sets, as there is some good stuff there. The other upside for me is that they have fewer commercial breaks on the catch up service, usually one per episode, although I assume you could skip them if recorded on your box. 
If you buy 2 sticks with free passes, you only need to activate one pass at a time. You can sign in to multiple devices (6) at the same time with the same email and password. The devices don't even half to be in the same house (or city in my case). I share my Now TV account with my son, and he shares his Netflix with me. 
One thing to note is that if you have a free pass, when you go to cancel it towards the end of the expiry, you will almost certainly be offered a discount to continue with the service e.g. 3 months half price. I would always advise cancelling before the expiry of any free pass or discount pass, as you'll either get another offer, or it will be cancelled so you don't pay full price. You can wait for the inevitable email offering another deal to restart, or just restart the any time at full price. 
If you want to watch F1, you would need a separate sports pass, which is about £33 full price, although they usually have deals from time to time. Last year I had the F1 season pass for £180 for 10 months. Fortunately didn't buy that again this year.

50Twuncle

I am confused as to how, exactly Sky offer deals

I was offered a £33 Signature + F1 SD deal - a week ago and that has now increased to £48 because I did not accept it straght away

This annoys me - so much that I will probably dump Sky - when my contract expires at the end of June !

They are trying to convince me that Signature's normal price is £35 - when it is really £30 - and is currently available to new (and existing) customers for £25 !!

Is there no regulator that decides how much Sky can charge ?

brewerdave

Commercial decision for Sky as to subscription charges. Some particularly hard nosed characters can negotiate the biggest discounts on threat of cancellation. I've got a deal I'm satisfied with every time over the last 7 or 8 years altho others have reported better. Currently I'm paying £35 pm for a package which is £74.50 full price (I think!!)

Timberflake1983

Does Now TV offer terrestrial TV too? I don't have an aerial in my lounge.

Neil_Jones

Timberflake1983 said:

Does Now TV offer terrestrial TV too? I don't have an aerial in my lounge.

No, but you can get indoor aerials that may do the same job depending on quality of signal.

However you will have access to the on-demand stuff so if you can't watch it live you can watch it later through the Hub or the iPlayer or whatever.

Cornucopia

You can now get an Upgrade pass for Now TV which provides 1080p HD and Dolby Digital sound.  It's £3 pm, and like the other passes it works on a rolling monthly basis.  

I got this upgrade at the beginning of lockdown, and it definitely improves picture quality even without a massive TV.   The other advantage is that it also applies to the non-Now TV apps (ITV Hub, All4, My 5, UKTV Player and presumably BBC iPlayer).    I'll give it a couple of months and then cancel to see if a discount is offered.  

I think the main broadcasters' apps all now offer live channels, so that means that Now TV offers terrestrial (well kind of, and only for BBC, ITV, C4 and C5 channels).

Neil_Jones

All4 AFAIK doesn't offer a live stream of any of the Channel 4 stations.  The main Channel 4 website does though.

The iPlayer does (as you'd expect), ITV I believe so, and can't remember last time I went anywhere near anything on My5 or All5 or whatever they're calling it this week so I can't say.

Cornucopia

Neil_Jones said:

All4 AFAIK doesn't offer a live stream of any of the Channel 4 stations.  The main Channel 4 website does though.

The iPlayer does (as you'd expect), ITV I believe so, and can't remember last time I went anywhere near anything on My5 or All5 or whatever they're calling it this week so I can't say.

All4 on Now TV had live channels added a few months ago.   It's slightly unconventional in that they appear in a TV Guide format, rather than channel by channel.  All the channels seem to be there, but it's possible that the format is the way it is because some programs are omitted from live streaming.

My5 has live channels (in a more typical "select-a-channel" format).  The available channels are 5, 5USA, 5STAR, Paramount and 5Select (I assume that's all of them).

Same with ITV.   It has ITV(1), ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, ITVbe, CITV.

Even UKTV Player has live channels:  Dave, Yesterday and Drama.    (These were also added recently).