Leaving and/or cancelling sky club

rorton

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This is a continuation of threads for those of us who are leaving Sky, our experience, thoughts on other services to replace some of the features, and generally for us to all pat ourselves on the back for finally seeing the light and leaving sky and its expensive services :clap:

So, my update is that my broadband is so much faster! when on Sky, they base your speed on the hardback speed from the network, so if their line test says you can do about 38mb, they will lock you into an Openreach 40/10 speed profile. Mine used to be above this, but they still locked me at 40/10.

Now I have moved to Now Broadband, I get the full line speed, and im at 52mb now on the same line as there is no profile attached! (52 is most he line will do for distance to the cab etc)

Had to send my modem back, good riddance to that rubbish - just waiting on the TV Contract to finish in 1 month, no one has tried to make contact, even though I put notice of cancellation in 2 weeks ago, so they aint that bothered yet.

Getting on OK with just having Prime/Netflix and using Freeview/Catchup TV, not missed anything we want to watch yet, just one gripe about ITV Hub catchup in SD only so looks rubbish on a big telly.

Also tried to haggle on the mobile renewal, and that was poor so will move that too I think!
 
Put my notice in, even at my currently heavily reduced sub (which they won't match) I don't find enough value in it anymore nor am I being tied to another 18 months. I get far more entertainment from DisneyPlus, Britbox and Amazon now.
 
It's like anything,it's what the value means too each individual...Sky can be a great service that's easy to use and can benefit a generation of people who can make the most from it..."People know the price of everything,and the value of nothing"
 
I loved Sky 3 or 4 years ago. I was genuinely excited when I first got Sky Q. Far more of my viewing then was based around Sky, mostly Sky Atlantic, Fox and Sky Sports.
I expected them to continue pushing technology forward, but that seems to have stopped. HDR took an age to appear, and when it did, I had to pay a fee for a compatible box. Despite the fact that I was only renting the existing box. I can watch football in UHD but I can’t record football in UHD. It’s been death by a thousand cuts for me. Less and less exclusive content, no new tech and yet regularly increasing prices.
The majority of my viewing now is Netflix and Disney+, with a bit of Prime and Apple TV thrown in. Actual ‘TV’ viewing tends to be mainly BBC. I’ll miss being able to watch a bit of football or cricket easily, but there’s always options. And for the few bits I do fancy on Sky, a month or two of Now will do me.
It’s definitely good for the vast majority of Sky subscribers, just not for me anymore:)

Ian
 
Ive been a sky subscriber for 12 years now. Not had sports or movies, but did enjoy the contents on Sky One, Atlantic and more recently the box sets available. Its also great as a central hub, could get to Netflix/prime and all the other services from one central point and the aggregation of those services into a 'what can I watch' screen is great - its just too expensive for what it is for me. I understand i'd have to pay if I wanted sport/movies but without those services, it doesn't offer me any value any more.
 
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I loved Sky 3 or 4 years ago. I was genuinely excited when I first got Sky Q. Far more of my viewing then was based around Sky, mostly Sky Atlantic, Fox and Sky Sports.
I expected them to continue pushing technology forward, but that seems to have stopped. HDR took an age to appear, and when it did, I had to pay a fee for a compatible box. Despite the fact that I was only renting the existing box. I can watch football in UHD but I can’t record football in UHD. It’s been death by a thousand cuts for me. Less and less exclusive content, no new tech and yet regularly increasing prices.
The majority of my viewing now is Netflix and Disney+, with a bit of Prime and Apple TV thrown in. Actual ‘TV’ viewing tends to be mainly BBC. I’ll miss being able to watch a bit of football or cricket easily, but there’s always options. And for the few bits I do fancy on Sky, a month or two of Now will do me.
It’s definitely good for the vast majority of Sky subscribers, just not for me anymore:)

Ian

Exactly, and I mean exactly, the same for me. The Sky Q user experience is decent but evolving viewing habits mean I no longer have a compelling need to keep paying the premium price for it. And their business model increasingly annoyed me, paying for HD / UHD, paying for Q boxes on top of renting them (HDR upgrade being a good example) , emails telling me about great price savings when in reality the price was going up.

So, after 21 years I’ve cancelled and actually mean it this time. I suppose there is a price at which they could lure me back in, especially with sport, but I’m not sure what that is at the moment and I actually quite fancy being liberated from a Sky contract for a while, if not permanently. So FreeSat plus streaming services beckon, we already use Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV and Disney, so are well covered.
 
I'd like to pay just to watch F1 but not on top of the entertainment channels which I barely watch anymore. Their pricing model is so archaic. I know there is NowTV but the sports alone is dearer plus not in 4K
 
Ive been a sky subscriber for 12 years now. Not had sports or movies, but did enjoy the contents on Sky One, Atlantic and more recently the box sets available. Its also great as a central hub, could get to Netflix/prime and all the other services from one central point and the aggregation of those services into a 'what can I watch' screen is great - its just too expensive for what it is for me. I understand i'd have to pay if I wanted sport/movies but without those services, it doesn't offer me any value any more.
I understand why you enjoyed box sets. I felt the same way early on about movies. but there comes a point where you have caught up with all the good stuff and struggle to find anything new. That happens well within an 18 month contract sadly and the value for money drops off a cliff.
It’s sport that has me “trapped”. Lose that and they lose me too.

Thanks for your comments about Sky broadband btw as that was something I was considering when my BT contract ends who, to be fair, have given me trouble free service for years now.
 
Rorton, re hagglin with Sky mobile, dont bother. Plusnet is a great UK bases company with rolling monthly contracts eg 5gb for £6 and 30gb for £10. It uses EE which I think has the best signal especially when you are out in remote parts of the UK.

Re Premier League. You can get it much much cheaper and not via illegal sites. Subscribe to Peacock TV in the US for $5 a month and every week they stream live 8 or 9 of the matches. Use Nord VPN to locate yourself in the US (try it free to make sure it works). Sign up to Peacock. You will need a ZIP code (this doesnt need to be verified by your credit card and I used an LA hotel address). For some reason the App doesn’t work for me nor via a browsers on my iPad as through my ipad and App Store Apple knows I’m in the UK. However going logging on via a pc works perfectly. I haven’t tried it on a Mac.
 
thanks supermac, at the moment, im paying £8 for 8gb x2, (me and wife) plus £4 for 2gb for mum in law, so £20 for 3 sims,

Were not even using 8gb, we don't go out much these days, so seem to use about 1-2gb per month, otherwise the phones are on wifi at home, so happy enough with 8gb and try and get the costs as cheep as I can.

I do like the look of plusnet, I will scour the switching sites and hold for a deal :)
 
My contract is up next month, I can call on the 24th this month to give my 31 days notice.

Currently paying £98 for both sports and multiroom (no movies). Offered to save £20 a month by agreeing a new deal at £111 a month.

Really can’t cancel quick enough.

The price for their basic signature plus HD is more than the cost for me to subscribe to Netflix, Prime, Disney & Apple, all in 4k and able to stream to every TV in the house (5, only get sky on 3 at an additional cost of £15)

I find that the kids only really watch Netflix and Disney, and most of our live TV viewing is all available on freeview.

Will miss being able to pause and rewind live tv, so may look at a freesat box in the future.

But not even the sports can keep me paying for sky any more!
 
I don't understand why their pricing structure is still as if they are the only alternative to freeview. It's as if they have their fingers in their ears singing la-la-la
 
Rorton, re hagglin with Sky mobile, dont bother. Plusnet is a great UK bases company with rolling monthly contracts eg 5gb for £6 and 30gb for £10. It uses EE which I think has the best signal especially when you are out in remote parts of the UK.

Re Premier League. You can get it much much cheaper and not via illegal sites. Subscribe to Peacock TV in the US for $5 a month and every week they stream live 8 or 9 of the matches. Use Nord VPN to locate yourself in the US (try it free to make sure it works). Sign up to Peacock. You will need a ZIP code (this doesnt need to be verified by your credit card and I used an LA hotel address). For some reason the App doesn’t work for me nor via a browsers on my iPad as through my ipad and App Store Apple knows I’m in the UK. However going logging on via a pc works perfectly. I haven’t tried it on a Mac.
Plusnet is a BT brand, that's why they use EE.
 
Ordered the Manhattan T3-R today, so my move to Freeview gets one step nearer.
Next decision is which broadband supplier to switch to. Currently siding with Now, as it’s £20 a month, decent cashback via Quidco, and only a 12 month contract. Virgin Media would be faster speedwise but I’ve never struggled with Sky Fibre speeds. Also, from reading threads on here and HDUK, Virgin seem nigh on impossible to contact if you have a problem. Quite liked the sound of Cuckoo Broadband who are a much smaller company, but not sure I can justify the price premium as a large part of this plan is to save money.
 
im pleased with now for broadband - you can if you want pay £65 up front and then just pay per month - ive done this as FTTP is due in my area in a few months and I don't wanna be tied into 12 month contract
 
I'll be switching to Freeview and streaming when my contract runs out in May. I'll initially miss the recording functionality until I get used to streaming only, but currently I'm basically paying Sky just to record because I barely watch anything on the paid channels
 
My contract is up next month, I can call on the 24th this month to give my 31 days notice.

Currently paying £98 for both sports and multiroom (no movies). Offered to save £20 a month by agreeing a new deal at £111 a month.

Really can’t cancel quick enough.

The price for their basic signature plus HD is more than the cost for me to subscribe to Netflix, Prime, Disney & Apple, all in 4k and able to stream to every TV in the house (5, only get sky on 3 at an additional cost of £15)

I find that the kids only really watch Netflix and Disney, and most of our live TV viewing is all available on freeview.

Will miss being able to pause and rewind live tv, so may look at a freesat box in the future.

But not even the sports can keep me paying for sky any more!

Similar here. Also been pondering the Freesat box but having researched the current box, it seems fraught with tech problems and unhappy users. As I use an Apple TV 4K for all streaming services, I would only really need the Freesat box for for Live TV channels not apps. I think I could live without recording on the free to air channels as on-demand programming such as BBC iplayer covers most of that requirement. I do pause live tv and like recording to avoid ads, but before spending £200 on a Freesat box I’m going to see how I get on just plugging the satellite cable into the TV tuner. If I really miss recording free to air channels I will invest in a box later. I’ll find out soon enough as the Sky Q boxes will be winging their way back to Sky at the end of this month.
 
I’ve just got a Manhattan T3-R, currently using Prime and took the £29.99 offer for a years worth of Discovery Plus.

Need to do some research but I think i’m only missing one channel that we used to watch on Sky.

The picture from Discovery Plus watching the olympics seems better than sky.
Just need to teach the misses how to use the Apple TV.
 
Similar here. Also been pondering the Freesat box but having researched the current box, it seems fraught with tech problems and unhappy users. As I use an Apple TV 4K for all streaming services, I would only really need the Freesat box for for Live TV channels not apps. I think I could live without recording on the free to air channels as on-demand programming such as BBC iplayer covers most of that requirement. I do pause live tv and like recording to avoid ads, but before spending £200 on a Freesat box I’m going to see how I get on just plugging the satellite cable into the TV tuner. If I really miss recording free to air channels I will invest in a box later. I’ll find out soon enough as the Sky Q boxes will be winging their way back to Sky at the end of this month.
Does your TV not allow you to plug in a USB drive to record onto from the Freesat tuner? I use a 256Gb USB flash drive in the back of my Panasonic TV for recording the odd Freeview HD show. It works perfectly & best of all, is totally silent. With some TVs you can even get instant rewind as it constantly records the channel you're tuned to, much like Sky Q does.
 

Yes it does actually, I have a LG E9 OLED. Before calling to cancel Sky I tried connecting the sat cable directly and tuning in Freesat to check that it worked (it did). On the Freest program guide there was a record option, I pressed it to see what happened and got a message to connect a drive to one of the USB ports. Subsequent research tells me that I could record 1 program using that but that it's a bit clunky. Panasonic apparently better for this.
 
Latest on my move away from Sky is Vodafone cold called me earlier. I’m with them for mobile, and they offered me Fibre 1 broadband for £18 a month on a 24 month contract. The fella said they don’t rent the lines from BT and use the old Cable & Wireless infrastructure - is this true? He’s calling me back in around 10 days so I’ll see if I can squeeze any more discounts out of him by mentioning cashback, vouchers etc that are available via Quidco and MSE.
The T3R I ordered from CeX turned up yesterday, but they’ve sent me the standard T3 in error. I was hoping they would just arrange a swap but no such luck, have to return it and then wait for them to check it etc. Not hugely impressed so may just drop it off at my local store and ask for a refund. EBay might be my next source, a few refurbs on there with 12 month warranties.
 
With Voda, they bought cable and wireless, so everything to the exchanges is cable and wireless, but the last 'mile' as it were to peoples homes is still Openreach.
 
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So I’ve cancelled and my contract expires in 10 days. Despite my future bills all showing as zero, I still got an email today to tell me that my Sky prices were going up by £5 per month from April 1st. £1 for Signature, £1 for Cinema, £2 for UHD and £1 for HD o_O :rolleyes: Nope, no thanks.

Still not had any offer come through, not that I’m likely to be swayed.
 
Ive packed all my kit up early! I still have a week left, but im getting used to not having sky, so its all been factory reset sitting in the spare room and waiting for the return packaging to arrive from sky...
 

I’ve got about 10 days before I can give my 31 day notice yet but I’m thinking of doing the same!
Happily existing with my T3-R and NVidia Shield now, with more stuff between them than I’ll ever have time to watch.
 

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