Ditch Sky, buy Smart TV?

iksbedd · 1 July 2019 at 5:04PM

I was shocked to see my latest Sky Subscription leave my bank account – a whopping £115! I logged into my Sky account and the breakdown is:
Broadband (Fibre Unlimited – average speed 40mbp) £16.01
Phone line (free evening and weekend calls) £18.99
Sky Entertainment £22.00
Sky Box Sets £5.00
Sky Kids £5.00
Sky Sports HD (complete) £17.00
Sky Cinema £11.00
Spotify £9.99
On top of this, we have Amazon Prime (which we access through our DVD player, along with You Tube), Netflix, which we access via Google Chromecast and BT Sport (via my EE contract, streamed via Google Chromecast).
All in all, we have access to a lot of TV! Which is ironic really, seeing as we don’t watch that much of it!
Clearly, I need to sort myself out! I am thinking about investing in a Smart TV, so access to all our streaming is one remote (and our TV is pretty old) and subscribing to NOW TV instead to access those Sky channels we’d miss.
“Must-keeps” are:
Recording programmes
Kid’s movie channels – they love Disney
BT Sports (Champions League)
Discovery Channel
Eurosport
“Like-to-keeps” are:
Sky Sports (football channels)
Sky One
Other movie channels

I’m thinking of using a combination of Now TV, the smart apps for catch-up on BBC/ITV and C4 and Amazon, Netflix and BT Sport. Will this do it?
Any advice on this? Any pitfalls I’m missing?

TIA

xDx

pphillips · 1 July 2019 at 6:47PM

I personally wouldn't invest in a smart tv because they cost more and I've heard about that the apps on smart tv's stop working because the don't update themselves.

I'd recommend a Roku streaming stick because it has the best choice of apps, which include: Amazon video, Netflix, Now TV, Youtube, Spotify, TVPlayer, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, My5, UKTV Play and many more.

[Deleted User] · 2 July 2019 at 8:26AM

iksbedd wrote: »

I was shocked to see my latest Sky Subscription leave my bank account – a whopping £115! I logged into my Sky account and the breakdown is:
Broadband (Fibre Unlimited – average speed 40mbp) £16.01
Phone line (free evening and weekend calls) £18.99
Sky Entertainment £22.00
Sky Box Sets £5.00
Sky Kids £5.00
Sky Sports HD (complete) £17.00
Sky Cinema £11.00
Spotify £9.99
On top of this, we have Amazon Prime (which we access through our DVD player, along with You Tube), Netflix, which we access via Google Chromecast and BT Sport (via my EE contract, streamed via Google Chromecast).
All in all, we have access to a lot of TV! Which is ironic really, seeing as we don’t watch that much of it!
Clearly, I need to sort myself out! I am thinking about investing in a Smart TV, so access to all our streaming is one remote (and our TV is pretty old) and subscribing to NOW TV instead to access those Sky channels we’d miss.
“Must-keeps” are:
Recording programmes
Kid’s movie channels – they love Disney
BT Sports (Champions League)
Discovery Channel
Eurosport
“Like-to-keeps” are:
Sky Sports (football channels)
Sky One
Other movie channels

I’m thinking of using a combination of Now TV, the smart apps for catch-up on BBC/ITV and C4 and Amazon, Netflix and BT Sport. Will this do it?
Any advice on this? Any pitfalls I’m missing?

TIA

xDx

I’m thinking of using a combination of Now TV, the smart apps for catch-up on BBC/ITV and C4 and Amazon, Netflix and BT Sport. Will this do it?
Any advice on this? Any pitfalls I’m missing?

Well I can spot a couple straight off.

“Must-keeps” are:
Recording programmes
Kid’s movie channels – they love Disney

You need Sky or Virgin to do everything you want.

neilmcl · 2 July 2019 at 8:34AM

If you want the ability to record then you're going to need a Freesat/Freeview recorder. As one of your "must haves" is Champions League, then you may want to look at a BT Youview box, which will have all the streaming apps you're after, including Amazon Prime, Netflix and Now TV.

iksbedd · 2 July 2019 at 8:56AM

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

Well I can spot a couple straight off.

You need Sky or Virgin to do everything you want.

Hi

Thanks - as I'm not au fait with this, this is exactly the input I knew I needed.

JJ_Egan · 2 July 2019 at 9:34AM

BT Max TV

Has BT Sport and Disney channels .Discovery , Eurosport,

BT Sport has football .

500Gb/ 1 TB BT Recordable BT TV boxes have been £60 delivered to BT Tv customers .Records Freeview and BT TV channels inc BT Sport.

BT TV will also have the add on of both Now TV and Sky Sports sometime in 2019/20

Enterprise_1701C · 2 July 2019 at 9:48AM

You can use your sky dish to connect a freesat box (as long as it is not Sky Q), and you can get a freesat dish with a hard disc to record.

With our Smart TV we can connect a USB device to record.

A lot of TVs these days have a satellite connection too, again you could connect this to the sky dish.

Some smart TVs even have a hard disc these days too.

almillar · 2 July 2019 at 1:11PM

I personally wouldn't invest in a smart tv because they cost more

Can you find a non-smart TV? How much cheaper is it than the equivalent model?

I've heard about that the apps on smart tv's stop working because the don't update themselves.

Now you're talking sense. Hopefully with each manufacturer having more mature platforms, this will be less of a problem, I think it's a safe purchase.

“Must-keeps” are:
Recording programmes

You'll still need a set top box of some sort, because whilst some TVs will let you record to a USB port, the functionality is nowhere near as good as you're used to with Sky. Consider a Youview (if you have an aerial) or FreeTime (to use your Sky feed) to replace your Sky box.

couriervanman · 2 July 2019 at 1:19PM

iksbedd wrote: »

I was shocked to see my latest Sky Subscription leave my bank account – a whopping £115! I logged into my Sky account and the breakdown is:
Broadband (Fibre Unlimited – average speed 40mbp) £16.01
Phone line (free evening and weekend calls) £18.99
Sky Entertainment £22.00
Sky Box Sets £5.00
Sky Kids £5.00
Sky Sports HD (complete) £17.00
Sky Cinema £11.00
Spotify £9.99
On top of this, we have Amazon Prime (which we access through our DVD player, along with You Tube), Netflix, which we access via Google Chromecast and BT Sport (via my EE contract, streamed via Google Chromecast).
All in all, we have access to a lot of TV! Which is ironic really, seeing as we don’t watch that much of it!
Clearly, I need to sort myself out! I am thinking about investing in a Smart TV, so access to all our streaming is one remote (and our TV is pretty old) and subscribing to NOW TV instead to access those Sky channels we’d miss.
“Must-keeps” are:
Recording programmes
Kid’s movie channels – they love Disney
BT Sports (Champions League)
Discovery Channel
Eurosport
“Like-to-keeps” are:
Sky Sports (football channels)
Sky One
Other movie channels

I’m thinking of using a combination of Now TV, the smart apps for catch-up on BBC/ITV and C4 and Amazon, Netflix and BT Sport. Will this do it?
Any advice on this? Any pitfalls I’m missing?

TIA

xDx

"I was shocked to see my latest Sky Subscription leave my bank account – a whopping £115"...........and how long have you been paying this......if months/years,i would advise on a serious check on bank DD & SO as its a fair bet your paying other stupid amounts out

Kildare · 2 July 2019 at 1:45PM

You don't need to invest in a Smart TV - you already have all the apps on your various devices or as pphillips suggested buy a Roku stick, much cheaper than a new TV. If your TV can take a USB stick you can record that way.

We ditched Sky a couple of years ago - we were on an MSE deal and they were going to ramp the price up so we switched to Now TV. The biggest change is not having the box to series link, but we've found we don't need it - almost everything is available On Demand on one service or another so it's not really necessary.

Also whilst thinking about ditching Sky think about how many of those channels/services you really need. Netflix and Amazon both have a lot of kids films/content on them so do you need the Now TV films package or Kids package? We don't subscribe to the NowTV Kids package, the best shows are available on Amazon or Netflix anyway and we use iPlayer for CBeebies. And we were going to ditch the films package when the price went up but then they offered us a good deal.

Remember you can always start with the smallest NowTV package you need and add on later or just during the school holidays - you don't have the subscribe all year

JJ_Egan · 2 July 2019 at 2:09PM

Looking for my 2019/20 services .
Sky Sports via Now TV circa £34 pm OP paying £17pm .
BT Sport on Now TV not so far .

Benifit of Now TV do not need to buy a pass in the non football season .
OP should work out what is critical and sort supply of those first .Suspect it will be the BT and Sky Sports .

BUT the key is how much longer left on the Sky contracts .What can you cancel with no penalty .

Ditch Sky, buy Smart TV?

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