When will Sky lower HD box price?

[PlasmaVirgin]

I have Sky+ at the moment, and would like to invest in Sky HD at some point. Because I'm on a tight budget at the moment, I don't want to spend £300 on a box and £10 a month to watch a couple of programs here and there.

So in a nutshell, does anyone reckon Sky will lower the box price a bit in time for Christmas? I'd imagine, this would be a really good time to tempt people and would love to see the box at £150 or £199 in December, when there'll also hopefully be a better range of programmes available...

Anyone with inside knowledge out there?

 

[sanderton]

I'd expect the current price to hold fo a year at least.

 

[vee6]

£150 or £199 in December,

don't hold yer breath mate !! the price will only come down when subscriptions start to drop off .. and with the current waiting list .. december 2020 maybe !!

 

[Mario Nicholas]

Sky originally tried to charge an additional £10 sub to record programmes on Sky+ . They dropped it when sales didn't take off, but still retain the option to charge it now - So watch out!
The price of the kit continually drops over time to encourage take-up and the monthly sub always increases - Eighteen years of this formula so far.
So within twelve months I predict HD boxes at£199 and monthly subs to £12
Year two boxes £60 with full subscription & subs £15

Crystal ball getting blurry now...

 

[Ultra2man]

As said by others I would not expect the price to drop for at least 1Year.
Partly due to the demand for the box at the moment and also going by past history.
At £300 the price of the box was lower than quite a few expected. Bear in mind that Sky+ was £400 when launched and I believe it was about 18 months before they started to drop the price.

 

[andothfc]

Sky originally tried to charge an additional £10 sub to record programmes on Sky+ . They dropped it when sales didn't take off, but still retain the option to charge it now - So watch out!
The price of the kit continually drops over time to encourage take-up and the monthly sub always increases - Eighteen years of this formula so far.
So within twelve months I predict HD boxes at£199 and monthly subs to £12
Year two boxes £60 with full subscription & subs £15

Crystal ball getting blurry now...

Where's the precedent for the rise in subs? The HD sub is analogous to the Sky+ sub (you say so yourself) and the Sky+ sub has remained unchanged for 6 years.

The box will, of course, eventually come down in price, but it anything, the HD sub will be subsumed into the main payment a la Sky+.

 

[Nicky1964]

As said by others I would not expect the price to drop for at least 1Year.
Partly due to the demand for the box at the moment and also going by past history.
At £300 the price of the box was lower than quite a few expected. Bear in mind that Sky+ was £400 when launched and I believe it was about 18 months before they started to drop the price.

This is true I had sky from the very start (before digital)
and I paid £299 for my sky+ box (original pace one)
so after 4 odd years I did not mind paying out £299 again to upgrade the box
and I even got £50 for my old box on ebay
so its quite a good price shame about the 10 a month though

 

[mr_yogi]

Sky originally tried to charge an additional £10 sub to record programmes on Sky+ . They dropped it when sales didn't take off, but still retain the option to charge it now - So watch out!
The price of the kit continually drops over time to encourage take-up and the monthly sub always increases - Eighteen years of this formula so far.
So within twelve months I predict HD boxes at£199 and monthly subs to £12
Year two boxes £60 with full subscription & subs £15

Crystal ball getting blurry now...

I may have miss read, but... Sky still charge £10/ month for Sky+, however if you subscribe to a premium channel you get it for free.

 

[Mario Nicholas]

I may have miss read, but... Sky still charge £10/ month for Sky+, however if you subscribe to a premium channel you get it for free.

Most subscribers that have Sky+ are serious couch potatoes and would be taking at least a premium channel, so it is in effect free, at the moment...

 

[neilmcl]

Most subscribers that have Sky+ are serious couch potatoes and would be taking at least a premium channel, so it is in effect free, at the moment...

I would have said most Sky+ subscribers are very active people with busy lives hence the need for a recording facility. Not exactly coach potatoes

 

[Mario Nicholas]

Where's the precedent for the rise in subs? The HD sub is analogous to the Sky+ sub (you say so yourself) and the Sky+ sub has remained unchanged for 6 years.

The box will, of course, eventually come down in price, but it anything, the HD sub will be subsumed into the main payment a la Sky+.

The only reason that the sub hasn't increased so far is that the Sky+ market wouldn't bear it, it was introduced initially but stalled sales and was changed to under a Premium channel sub only.
The addition of the new HD viewers to the subscriber base will trigger increases in the surcharge when a given subscriber number has been reached.

 

[Starburst]

The only reason that the sub hasn't increased so far is that the Sky+ market wouldn't bear it, it was introduced initially but stalled sales and was changed to under a Premium channel sub only.
The addition of the new HD viewers to the subscriber base will trigger increases in the surcharge when a given subscriber number has been reached.

Nah I don't agree with that accessment.
The prices for additional services have stayed level or even reduced in price over the years with the basic channels prices reflecting the requirment for profit and inflation rises.
That business model is very common, add value instead of reducing the base price so as competition increases the SKY+ charge is likely to be totally absorbed with all channel packages and the HD sub to be incorporated into the premium packages.

 

[Mario Nicholas]

I would have said most Sky+ subscribers are very active people with busy lives hence the need for a recording facility. Not exactly coach potatoes

I have several clients that have Sky+ boxes and they are indeed very busy people that still manage to watch an incredible amount of TV, but as no poll has been taken (to my knowledge), I will amend that statement to "Couch crisps"

 

[Mario Nicholas]

Nah I don't agree with that accessment.
The prices for additional services have stayed level or even reduced in price over the years with the basic channels prices reflecting the requirment for profit and inflation rises.
That business model is very common, add value instead of reducing the base price so as competition increases the SKY+ charge is likely to be totally absorbed with all channel packages and the HD sub to be incorporated into the premium packages.

There is no competition to Sky across the country, only a few cable companies - so they can charge whatever amount the market will bear.
When the customers have invested in their Sky+/HD boxes they will always pay small incremental charges year on year to retain the service.

 

[Starburst]

There is no competition to Sky across the country, only a few cable companies - so they can charge whatever amount the market will bear.
When the customers have invested in their Sky+/HD boxes they will always pay small incremental charges year on year to retain the service.

You'll find that the next few years will totally change the market as NTL move outside their areas via LLU, SKY move into the telecoms market and BT enter the TV market.
As for Freeview, well I think that has established itself as a good alternative for millions of homes offering both cheap STB's and DVR's plus limited subscription and PPV content.

Yes of course SKY charge what the market can absorb but that doesn't alter the basic business model SKY have been using over the last 8 years by generating more revenue from basic channel packages with fixed price additional services (multiroom, SKY+ and now SKY+ HD).
In that time multiroom has dropped from £15 to £10 and SKY+ is now free to I suspect the vast majority of it's users and I see no reason to assume the worse and expect that business model to change especially as the market is getting more competitive and varied.

 

[suniil]

Last week i sold my new SKY+ box (pvr3) in fleabay for £85+£15 postage. if we consider that, SKY HD box for £300 is a bargain (double hard disk space, component out, hdmi out and HD reception)

 

[Soulfinger]

I think Sky will have a big Christmas push on HD and will drop the price or have temp Christmas special offer price. Can't see it being as low as £199. Maybe £250 or £230.

 

[Tony Hoyle]

£239 would make sense because that's the same as £299 + free installation - ie. Sky can make it look like a price drop without it costing them anything.

 

[cockroach]

When we first got sky, with multiroom the sub was £10, but we had to pay £179 for the box. They then changed this to £15 sub, with a free box. Now it has gone back to £10.

 

[andothfc]

There is no competition to Sky across the country, only a few cable companies - so they can charge whatever amount the market will bear.
When the customers have invested in their Sky+/HD boxes they will always pay small incremental charges year on year to retain the service.

But this hasn't happened with Sky+ (even after the intial slow take-up) so your view that a sub rise for HD is pure, unfounded speculation.

 

[Nick_UK]

£239 would make sense because that's the same as £299 + free installation - ie. Sky can make it look like a price drop without it costing them anything.

Since they directly employ most of the installers, they never directly paid the £60 anyway.

 

[Mario Nicholas]

But this hasn't happened with Sky+ (even after the intial slow take-up) so your view that a sub rise for HD is pure, unfounded speculation.

That is the point of the thread, it is speculation, but in my case it's based upon eighteen years of a working relationship with The Sky Corporation, so lets re-cap my earlier post;

Crystal ball getting blurry now...

 

[PlasmaVirgin]

It would be nice to think that the price will drop slightly before Christmas as they will inevitably be trying to lure tens of thousands of new customers at the time. I think that if it came down to something like £239 I would possibly sign up, but at the moment for £299 and an extra £120 per year in subs, I can hire all the new DVDs I want for a year and still have cash left in my pocket.

I still think it is a premium priced product as it is relatively new, and feel there just isn't the quality of content available yet to justify the price of a holiday abroad or hiring 150 DVDs!

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that there's a juicy offer on the table though just before Christmas to tempt me...

 

[thornton]

I just won't buy SKY HD until it drops well below £200 and the extra cost per month is rather less than the tenner it is now. That won't happen as long as people keep piling in while it is still such poor value. So STOP OK!!! Think I'll get a Tosh HD-DVD player for Xmas meantime.

 

[Liquid101]

OK, the way I see it the £10 a month sub isn't really a sub at all. it's a way of getting the full box price back + interest.

I was a new subscriber to sky, and after the 30 days cooling off period, I phoned to cancel - saying that there was not enough HD content to justify its cost. They were more than happy to half my subscription for 6 months, but they said that this would not effect the HD sub. I asked why and they said that this was 'to pay for the box' and not a part of the normal subscription model.

It makes sense really, they charge 399 for the box if you don't take out the 'HD Subscription'

I suspect that in May next year the £10 'HD sub' will go the same way as the Sky+ sub, if you have a premium channel package, it's free.