Leaving and/or cancelling sky club

[wozwebs]

Did the same as most of you today, phoned and cancelled Sky. Been with them 21 years, VIP Diamond member and all that but best they could offer me was £62 for everything apart from Movies (including HD/UHD) so I said no. Currently paying £80.

Simply can't justify that outlay when most things I record are from BBC / ITV / C4 / C5 and I mainly watch Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV.

I cancelled Broadband from them last month and moved to NowTV broadband. Was paying £38pm now paying £20pm. Expecting an email to make me stay as I did get those with Sky Broadband but best they offered was £25pm for that.

Told the bloke that I don't know how they have the nerve to still be charging extra for HD when most people have had HD for over 15 years+ He even agreed the same to be fair.

Will miss it as I've had it so long and every year I have blagged some kind of discount but their discounts are getting worse now.

Will miss the football but there are other ways to watch that. What box is best then for freest connected to the Sky dish and Q LNB? One direct from Freesat? 2TB job?

 

[RobM]

None of the Freesat boxes are as slick and polished as SkyQ, but I hooked up my new Freesat recorder (2TB) box last night and it’s fine. Just, fine.

You very quickly realise the thing you’ve been paying for is the amount of HD content, and the convenience of having lots of content in one place. Once the new box was up and running I spent some time installing the various streaming services Apps on my AppleTV, and I’m almost back to where I started for everything except sport. The difference is having to jump in and out of individual services, rather than flicking through a single EPG. I’m convinced it’ll become normal quickly enough, but it’s saving me nearly £100/month.

It is quite jarring popping on a channel like Dave for casual viewing and it being SD on a huge 4K TV mind you. That’s going to take some getting used to.

 

[interbear]

I‘ve found the FreeSat box better than I expected actually. The picture quality on HD channels is better than via the Sky Q box. The EPG is a little slower. An extra button press is required to list only HD channels. Recording seems to work just fine and I’m glad I bought it for that reason and to pause live TV which is a simple feature we got used to with Sky Q.

We also use Apple TV 4K for all streaming services (Netflix, Prime etc) but actually did that before ditching Sky as we also found the picture quality for 4K streaming content better via the Apple TV than via the Sky Q box. So we are used to switchIng between two source devices.

Overall, very happy not to be paying Sky £95 a month and being locked into a contract. The value equation just no longer works for me with so many other viewing options now available.

 

[rorton]

Had a text today to say box sent to collect the old equipment. Can’t believe how little they have done to try and keep existing customers. Oh well.

Managing fine with Freeview, would like a way still to record stuff from Freeview or freesat and play in multiple rooms, but it’s only a nice to have. Just wait for it to get to on demand and watch then.

Guess the savings will go to the increase in gas and electricity bills, although the electric may come down without these pesky boxes plugged in!!

 

[interbear]

Sky Return box popped through the post this morning.

Found this quite therapeutic and liberating actually

 

[rorton]

Mine came today, bye bye sky - boxes are quite clever (cardboard ones!)

 

[Ian182]

Do they arrange collection of it, or can you drop it off somewhere? Don’t fancy having to stay in all day waiting for a courier if it can be avoided.
My Now broadband router turned up today - identical to my existing Sky one, but says ‘Now’ on top of it. The box even says ‘Sky activation date 16th March’.
Sky Retentions have tried calling me for the last couple of days, I’m just ignoring the calls. No interest in a new deal, discounted or otherwise. Just need to finish off s3 of My Brilliant Friend and the box can be unplugged and removed.

 

[rorton]

yeah they send you a box, and then there are 2 labels provided, 1 for Royal Mail, the other collect plus, so you can drop it off to one of those locations

 

[wozwebs]

Well it didn’t take long for my email arrived asking me to stay. Cancelled on Tuesday and it arrived today.

I was paying £80 for Sky Q / Multiroom / Signature / Sports / HD / UHD

Email was offering signature and sport for £33 but no HD / UHD or multi screen. Clicked the link went on live chat. Managed to get what I currently have for £49 for 18 months and that includes next months price hikes. Said yes as didn’t really want to get rid as I do like the interface and recording more than 3 things at the same time plus have loads of recordings I haven’t watched yet.

Almost did it but into year 22 with them now. One day..

​

 

[craigt1971]

Stockholm Syndrome

 

[wozwebs]

I know lol. Thought it was for good this time but at least it’s a £31 saving each month. When I first called a while back best they could offer was £62pm

 

[JayCee]

yeah they send you a box, and then there are 2 cables provided, 1 for Royal Mail, the other collect plus, so you can drop it off to one of those locations

Typo I presume and you meant “labels”?

 

[rorton]

Typo I presume and you meant “labels”?

aye yep sorry, labels

 

[SparkShot]

I cancelled sky last month and now boxing up equipment to return back to sky.

Does sky viewing card also need to be returned?

Card does say property of sky on it so I’m gathering it probably should?

 

[JayCee]

Of course, it’s of no use to you.
Just leave it in the card slot.

 

[Ian182]

Well that's my contract ended, although they don't give up easily. The email yesterday confirming it started with "This doesn't have to be the end....".
Got such a wide selection of stuff to catch up on on Netflix. iPlayer and Disney+ that I genuinely won't miss it.
Now Broadband router seems a bit flaky though, so I'm currently considering buying a second hand Sky SR203 router based on some HDUK advice.

 

[rorton]

Yeah not missing it one bit. My now router is still in the box, I use a ubiquiti usg router which is the same one I used with sky and it’s been rock solid on now broadband, Worth trying a diff router.

 

[JustinT350]

Morning all, similar to others in here. 16 years with Sky and we've just initiated the cancel process.

TV only, full package and two rooms has just gone up to £118 a month.. Add on Disney, Netflix, Prime, Youtube and Spotify, its all getting too much to justify. I'd say out of all of them, we watch sky the least. I'll see if they come back with a 'please stay' offer but if they don't I'm starting to look at alternatives.

Now TV? Seems good.

Which are the best streaming boxes? One room has a smart TV so think we'll be ok with the app, but the other room has an AVR so will need some sort of firestick / smart box. Any recommendations? I don't mind spending money on a good box, ideally 5.1 / atmos etc if possible, especially if I won't be paying £118 a month!

 

[Ian182]

I absolutely love my nVidia Shield Pro, but it might be overkill for what you're looking for. It does atmos on all the streaming apps though, which was part of the attraction!
Think the newest Firestick 4K (Max?) also does this, so there are cheaper options than the nVidia.
nVidia also has Chromecast Ultra built in, which I've found surprisingly useful for just casting browser tabs etc.

 

[JustinT350]

Thanks Ian.

I guess I should have worded my question a bit better. I'm looking to buy something I can plug into my Denon AVR, that has all the usual streaming apps and ideally can pass through atmos etc. I dont have a 4K projector (maybe in future), so thats less important.

Ease of use would be nice, or should I say wife friendly!

 

[Ian182]

Yep, the nVidia does all that It's HDMI to your AVR.
The variety of available Firesticks would all be the same, and there's also a cheaper version of the nVidia Shield if you do like the look of that.
It's probably the most user friendly device I have - literally switch it on, and all your apps are on the Android TV homescreen. You can organise them to your preference and remove stuff you don't want or need.

Other options would be Apple TV or Roku, but I've never had either of those, so can't advise on pros and cons.

 

[Andrew1472]

Thanks Ian.

I guess I should have worded my question a bit better. I'm looking to buy something I can plug into my Denon AVR, that has all the usual streaming apps and ideally can pass through atmos etc. I dont have a 4K projector (maybe in future), so thats less important.

Ease of use would be nice, or should I say wife friendly!

Apple TV is easily my preferred box.
I started with a Firestick which still does the job nicely, but Apples box is so much nicer to use.
The Firestick is now a back up device.
I’ve never used an Nvidia though just to balance my opinion with Ian’s.

 

[JustinT350]

Thanks gents, sounds like they are all much of the same then.

Ideally I'd like one with a bluetooth controller as my AVR sits in my hallway cupboard, so IR isn't as good..

 

[Therealpommie]

Thanks gents, sounds like they are all much of the same then.

Ideally I'd like one with a bluetooth controller as my AVR sits in my hallway cupboard, so IR isn't as good..

Apple TV remote is bluetooth to the Apple TV, Amazon Firestick is the same, cannot comment on the others.

 

[Andrew1472]

Thanks gents, sounds like they are all much of the same then.

Ideally I'd like one with a bluetooth controller as my AVR sits in my hallway cupboard, so IR isn't as good..

This might interest you.