Sky, free upgrade...Fitted.

[Dave in Wales]

My Sky Box inc HD is being phased out, tomorrow if all goes according to plan, I'll get a new Sky Q box installed for free

As a Sky VIP customer, been with them for 25 years plus, I negotiated at no extra cost, a Netflix package.

The Netflix comes with ads, but that will have to do, I'm not paying extra for no ads.

[LadyG]

Well done. I'd been with them for over 20 years but couldn't get the price down to a reasonable level: no movies, no sport and still over £30 a month. My partner bought a Freesat box and we ditched Sky altogether. Can't say we miss it (apart from a few programmes - Monkey World being one!) The rest come round eventually. We have Amazon Prime but all the rest are free.

[rsh1960]

Monkey world is on freeview ch11 pick

[LadyG]

Yes - waiting for the latest series to make it!

[linus1884]

I'd imagine Sky will be moving more towards a streaming service now with faster full fiber broadband, they will be charging more for the traditional dish services to give people a push to move off it before removing it completly.

I see no need to pay the Sky(s) high prices! They dont have anything exclusive i'd want to watch these days.

[Phill D]

Well done Dave. We've never managed to get much change out of Sky. They charge us a lot for Sky Q so you did well getting a free upgrade. Ours is a lot more than Carol's was and we don't have any extra TV channels or Netflix either. Just feeling a bit ripped off by them at the moment.

[blackfox]

dumped sky several years ago , we have Freeview through a Ariel and multiple channels on the smart t.v I think some may be paid for by the son but I rarely watch t.v these days the mrs is in control of it as it has a smart controller that you just point at it to do stuff far above my level of wants or needs

[Tram]

We had Sky when it first started with a dish, decoder and card, only the recent big films that were pay to view
Then they started putting main sporting events on the pay for movie channel, one of the first was Bruno v Tyson
Other channels like Eurosport and the Cartoon Network were free.
If you left they tempted you back with generous offers for varying periods of time.

Packed it up for good when we moved 25 years ago and left the dish where it was.
Now just stream with Netflix, Disney and Apple TV
Get the TNT sport app free with our BT Fibre and because we have a Samsung TV means we can watch it on the that.

[Ian]

We've watched all our TV via streaming for 15 or 16 years now (NTL, then Virgin, etc. digital cable TV). Our current house came with a dish but it's not that well aligned so it doesn't work reliably. The TV has a dish port so no need for a box.

Ian

[Phill D]

Yes NTL/Virgin were definitely the best Ian. Wish they would lay some cables round here.

[The Technician]

Sky do streaming now so you dont have to have a dish so they are going that way now, so wont be long before they ditch the dish!

[Phill D]

Yes that's true, I don't think you can get a dish service now. It's good though as when the internet goes down we can still get the satellite signal, currently anyway.

[Keith-369]

I have Sky +HD and am seriously considering asking for a Q box.
I record a full series, then sit down and watch, say three per night as I am doing with the Attenborough 'Asia series. I have a 2T box and sometimes with a few longer series it gets quite full. I like to watch when I want to watch not when the program is on. I also get F1 free with my package whereas I'd have to have the full Sports package to get it which I am not interested in at all.
Streaming wouldn't work for me for this reason.

[Phill D]

That's interesting too Keith, free F1. I'd be up for that if they offered it.

[Keith-369]

Phill, I've had the package (to include all the nature programs etc. but no sport or films or netflix etc. etc.) for 20+ years, well before Sky took over F1, but since the BBC decided not to spend our money on F1 it has been invaluable to us.
If they change the package to not include F1 then I'll give up Sky in a heartbeat. It's the only thing that keeps me with them nowadays.

[djrwhittle]

I gave up sky years ago. I had freesat until the decoder broke and I removed the dish etc. and scrapped it. Now I just use Amazon Prime. I get my F1 courtesy of my son, who has Sky Go and all the sports etc. and allows me to use one of his logins. I have no interest in anything else they offer.

Derek

[wornish]

I ditched Sky over 3 years ago. They were charging simply rip-off prices.
I now use My Apple TV box and Amazon Prime. It delivers all the Freeview channels, including Amazon Prime Video for £90 per year plus free next day delivery on all Amazon purchases.

There is no need to have a Sky dish if your broadband is over 25Mb download.

[Dave in Wales]

Mr Sky came as promised on Monday.

Fitted a new Q Box, a new dish, one compatible with the Q Box, and a Sky Broadband Booster.....all for free.

A Netflix package, previously mentioned was also included.....again at no cost to me.

So all-in-all I'm quite a happy bunny, especially as my monthly subscription has not changed.

Mr Sky's parting shot was..."Give it 4 years and dishes will be a thing of the past"

[BDennis]

Never used Sky. We have Amazon Prime, BBC and I get Disney+ free with the bank account. That gives us plenty to watch.

There are ads on Amazon and Disney. The trick with Amazon is to download programmes to a laptop or iPad with the app and watch on one of those or plug into a TV over HDMI - bingo, no ads! With Disney the ads can be annoying but often they’re for other Disney stuff and for films the ad is only at the start.

Enjoy your upgraded system Dave.

Bill

[Keith-369]

I upgraded from Sky +HD to the Sky Q box a couple of weeks ago. All went well.
My +HD box was a 2T so I wanted to replace like for like. Luckily, because I have been with Sky for 25 years, I asked for, and got a 2T Q box for free instead of it costing an extra £99. The Q box has a different UI to get used to but it's not too different, you get used to it quite quickly.

My point here is that the engineer told me that all Sky plus HD boxes will not work from some time this summer (they use different LNB's with different signals than the 'Q' box). So, if any of you still have the Sky+ HD box, I would start to watch everything you need to on it and change at your convenience. Don't forget, you cannot keep or save any programs which are on your +HD box.