Sky TV Competitors

Cookie._2

I have just received my Sky TV Renewal at £136 per month. As a member for over 20 years, I get a massive £15 discount. This price includes Kids, Cinema, Sports, Multiroom, HD and UHD.

I can no longer justify this cost.

I have spoken to Sky who have offered minimal discounts, however even if I strip everything out, the total cost is still roughly £80 per month (£40 Basic, £10 HD, £15 Multi-Room, £8 and £7 Ultra HD.

I am happy to lose Cinema and Sports, but cannot justify £80 for what are mostly free to air channels. The biggest loss however is the ability to record, pause and rewind TV Channels.

I have looked at things like Freesat boxes, but there seems to be so much choice and I honestly don’t know what I am getting and how good it is. Basically I just want something we can watch and record, including series record, most normal entertainment channels and then rely on Netflix/Prime for more varied films/sports.

Can anyone recommend anything which provides this and works out a lot cheaper than Sky TV?

MattMattMattUK

Cookie._2 said:

I have just received my Sky TV Renewal at £136 per month. As a member for over 20 years, I get a massive £15 discount. This price includes Kids, Cinema, Sports, Multiroom, HD and UHD.

I can no longer justify this cost.

I have spoken to Sky who have offered minimal discounts, however even if I strip everything out, the total cost is still roughly £80 per month (£40 Basic, £10 HD, £15 Multi-Room, £8 and £7 Ultra HD.

I am happy to lose Cinema and Sports, but cannot justify £80 for what are mostly free to air channels. The biggest loss however is the ability to record, pause and rewind TV Channels.

I have looked at things like Freesat boxes, but there seems to be so much choice and I honestly don’t know what I am getting and how good it is. Basically I just want something we can watch and record, including series record, most normal entertainment channels and then rely on Netflix/Prime for more varied films/sports.

Can anyone recommend anything which provides this and works out a lot cheaper than Sky TV?

Why not just get rid of all the TV packages and then use one streaming service at a time, watch what interests you then cancel that and move to the next? 

Peter999_2

£136 a month, that is crazy.    I agree with the above poster.  Subscribe to just one streaming service - wait till you are bored with that then subscibe to another.

I used to have Now TV and they are constantly badgering me to take out a six month contract with them for the entertainment pack at £4.99.   That seems very good value compared to what you are paying.

brewerdave

If you cancel ,you should be able to get a further sizeable discount on your package either just before the cancellation takes effect or just after - target should be no more than  £50 pm !

Rodders53

Only direct competitor is Virgin and you don't want to go there.

Cookie._2 said:
The biggest loss however is the ability to record, pause and rewind TV Channels.
I have looked at things like Freesat boxes, but there seems to be so much choice

There is no choice really.  Only ONE box is still made 4K PVR Set Top Boxes: 500GB, 1TB or 2TB storage | Freesat in a choice of Hard disk size -- avoid the 500GB they have a poor reliability reputation (tho freesat might have changed disk maker since).

Plug and play swap with the $ky Q main box.  Multi room is not so simple.

IF you have a working UHF TV aerial then there is a choice of two PVRs Humax Aura and Manhattan T4R. Similarly multiroom is more difficult.

$ky Stream (avoid the Glass TVs they also have a poor rep) would allow streaming of the major channels via $ky Sky launches Essential TV, bringing together Sky, Netflix and discovery+ for £15 a month | Sky Group

GrubbyGirl_2

I was exactly the same as you and got sick of being ripped off by Sky.  I bought a Freesat recorder and cancelled.  I found the freesat recorder a lot more clunky than sky (it was the interface I was going to miss the most).  For the first few weeks I was very tempted to go back to sky but the more I got used to streaming the less I used the recorder for recording programmes.  I now only really use the recorder for live pause and I've just checked and the last time I recorded anything was at Christmas and I only have 2% of my capacity used.

I have Netflix for £5.99, Now for £6.99 though I'm probably going to cancel that as I hardly use it.  I get Disney + free from my bank.  Instead of being committed to contracts you can dip in and out when there are things you want to watch.  You definitely don't need multi room with smart TVs and in fact it played up so much I really don't miss it.  

It's a culture shock when you first drop Sky but it's worth it.  I now seem to have loads more to watch because I am actually looking more closely at what the streaming services have to offer.

ballyblack

Do you really need Ultra HD, a waste of money in my opinion