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Hi all,

With addition of a new Apple TV to the household, I've been thinking about my Sky subscription. Has anybody here ditched their Sky packages in favour of online content/streaming boxes?

I get Broadband (unlimited), Calls (unlimited), Line rental, two extra packs (one has the likes of Natonal Geogrpahic and Nature programmes, the other has kids TV and a few others) and all available channels are in HD. All of this costs me £51 a month.

Now, I don't really want to lose HD as I have a big TV and a decent home cinema, so resolution and sound are quite important. I'd like to keep the kids channels as they have occasionally come in quite handy.

At the moment, I download films and some TV shows, but we do, some evenings, just have the TV on as a bit of background noise while we chat or read. We do watch a lot of terrestrial TV, and we do watch a few TV series that are on Sky 1 too. I notice Now TV have an app on the ATV which is subscription only: does anyone here use it? Also, if I cancel my Sky package, will I still be able to use and record on the box but with the obvious reduction in available channels?

Whatever I do, I also need to factor in Internet and line rental.

This isn't based on any monetary situation, I just feel I may be able to get similar by shopping around or better for the same price. Also, we rarely use the landline now with our mobile allowances, so could easily consider waving goodbye to that. Plus, I'd like to be armed with the facts when I call to cancel. If they were to offer me a decent alternative or a sweetener to stay, then I'd consider it. But i want to make an informed decision!

So, any experiences or thoughts welcomed!

Dan

I think you can convert to freesat with Sky, but recording will not work (you won't be able to view recordings you have made either) without paying £10 a month (this could be out of date).
NowTV does look like a viable alternative for around £6.99 a month, depending on what package you select. I may also go this route for the TV part and save £10 a month.

_________________
James
Mac4Mac Founder
(use mac4mac as PW)

12.9" iPad Pro, Magic Keyboard, Pencil 2
21.5" iMac Quad Core i5 8GB RAM (Plex Server) ~ iPhone 15 Pro
AirPods Pro ~ Apple TV 4 (64GB) ~ Linksys Velop Mesh Wi-Fi

I have one of these it's a Freesat box by Humax highly rated.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HDR-1000S-Frees ... =hdr-1100s

I have a twin cable so can record one channel and watch another.

This is the twin cable you can get them in various lengths.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004 ... ge_o00_s01

Its simple to instal just undo the cable at the dish and screw the two ends to the LMB, if as you say it's a Sky dish you should have four out nodes on the dish.

Freesat info here
http://www.freesat.co.uk/get-freesat/us ... lsrc=aw.ds

List of channels here
http://www.freesat.co.uk/channels

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2019 27-inch iMac, 5K Retina, 3.7GHz 6-core Intel Core i5, 2TB HD 40GB memory, OS 11.1, 1 iPad, 3 iPad mini's, 2 iPods, iPhone XR 128GB Space Grey

A freesat box is ideal, depends if you need to keep the other Sky services or not and if you want to pay out for a new box.
So many options!

_________________
James
Mac4Mac Founder
(use mac4mac as PW)

12.9" iPad Pro, Magic Keyboard, Pencil 2
21.5" iMac Quad Core i5 8GB RAM (Plex Server) ~ iPhone 15 Pro
AirPods Pro ~ Apple TV 4 (64GB) ~ Linksys Velop Mesh Wi-Fi

_________________
2019 27-inch iMac, 5K Retina, 3.7GHz 6-core Intel Core i5, 2TB HD 40GB memory, OS 11.1, 1 iPad, 3 iPad mini's, 2 iPods, iPhone XR 128GB Space Grey

Some of the £51 is for line rental and broadband, though (prob over half). This still needs to be paid without the TV subscription.

_________________
James
Mac4Mac Founder
(use mac4mac as PW)

12.9" iPad Pro, Magic Keyboard, Pencil 2
21.5" iMac Quad Core i5 8GB RAM (Plex Server) ~ iPhone 15 Pro
AirPods Pro ~ Apple TV 4 (64GB) ~ Linksys Velop Mesh Wi-Fi

Over Xmas I phoned Sky on behalf of my parents that were paying £60pm for TV, broadband and phone.
After being put through from customer services in Mumbai to Retentions in Scotland I was able to get a £20pm reduction in cost when i told them they wanted to cancel their TV packages and only have Freeview channels.

"I think you can convert to freesat with Sky, but recording will not work (you won't be able to view recordings you have made either) without paying £10 a month (this could be out of date)."
That is out of date now. I was told that if you use the Sky box for only Freeview they now allow you to still record programs.

No recording fee is very interesting!

_________________
James
Mac4Mac Founder
(use mac4mac as PW)

12.9" iPad Pro, Magic Keyboard, Pencil 2
21.5" iMac Quad Core i5 8GB RAM (Plex Server) ~ iPhone 15 Pro
AirPods Pro ~ Apple TV 4 (64GB) ~ Linksys Velop Mesh Wi-Fi

Thank you for the responses guys.

So, after a little delving, I looked on the BT site and had a look at their offers. With BT I could set up a new account, receive a near identical package but with Fibre Broadband instead of regular Broadband, a £125 MasterCard gift card thingy for 1p less a month. I figured this was quite a good deal, but had a chat with an online advisor to see of the activation fees could be avoided in anyway (they were around £50-I thought I'd just give it a whirl). The advisor said that she couldn't, but if I was to sign up that day, she was prepared to offer me discount for my first year, and reduced the payment instantly to £40.xxp. So, I got the reference and her number and set about calling Sky.

Got through to Sky, explained my reasons and what I had been offered etc, asked if they could match. The guy was very helpful and was calculating bits and pieces when suddenly... the bombshell. I'm still trying to wiggle out of this, but am fighting a losing battle at the moment. I received a courtesy call from Sky a few months back asking if I was happy with my package-I tried to get Fibre for free then but it didn't work, but they offered me the HD package for free. I figured that it was the best I could get at the time, so said yes. What I wasn't aware of was that 'yes' tied me in for another 12 months (10 months remaining). How annoying! I stated I wasn't aware, I figured it was for being a loyal customer. They then proceeded to tell me I should have gotten letter confirming this. Well, I keep *all* my letters, and I have not received that. I protested over and over, but with no luck. If I wanted to exit it would cost me around £120...

What the advisor did then do however, was sign me in to a current 'new customer' deal, and signed me up for free Broadband. This has reduced my monthly bill to £41, with next months being only £26.

So, although not what I was aiming for, we're better off. Just gives me more time I suppose to get prepared for a years time. And I shall hold out for Christmas sales again too as BT were offering a pretty good package. They also included ESPN in that (good for DTM & other motorsports), which would cost another £12 a month with Sky, and all in HD too.

So there you have it. Apologies for wasting everyones time: I was unaware of my commitment to Sky, which is incredibly frustrating!