blonde poker forum

Just had notification that the cost of Sky is going up again and they now want £540 per year from me.
According to my figures I have been paying
2002 £408
2003 £456
2004 £480
2005 £492
2006 £510
2007 £540
I make this an average rise of over 6% over this period.
I have three bug bears with this.
Firstly my understanding of simple economics is that with the increase in subscribers there should be some economies of scale, ie at some point my price should be going down and this has not happened. Am I wrong on this?
Secondly, why when I have already paid £540 do I have to have loads of adverts when I am watching TV? You try to flick channels to avoid them but they all seem on an advert schedule so hard to avoid them without switching off.
Lastly, Sky are throwing more money at football making footballers even richer at my expense. Yes I could cancel Sky Sports, but there are so many key sports events that are on Sky that I would miss if I cancelled.
Up to now I have been one of the many subscribers that with apathy have just carried on paying the money without grumbling, but time for cutting it back. After all I spend more time on the net that I do watching TV these days.
Does anyone know how to work out what the split is between the basic package and other channels eg if I cancel the movie channels how much would I save? Also do i lose any other channels that are linked to the movie package?

I'm paying too much.  Every channel I turn to, there's a fella called Ed on my screen!

:dontask:

you think most of skys money comes from the £540?
My guess is that's a small fraction of their income.

why would they put the price down if subscriptions go up? That only makes sense if they wany to make £x only and no more. If subscriptions decline, prices would drop but given the strength of the product, I can't see that happening

I'm a bit bitter about the cost of sky also. Infact i tried calling them earlier to discuss the possibility of canceling the service. There was a 55min wait to speak to a human...sigh.

Can anyone suggest an alternative to sky?

Earth

That's it, take the bread out of my mouth. A man tries to earn an honest living, & folks don't wanna pay for me to live in the style to which I'm accustomed. It's all wrong, I tell ya.

£10 a week.  Excellent value IMHO

We took off all the sports channels and moveis , was costing a fortune to watch the same movies day in day out .

Also we seem to watch alot of jetix for some reason lol .

I actually think its great value, I can't think of anything else I get such good entertainment from for the cost of a subscription. Also over the last 10 or so years they have taken sports coverage to an entirely new level. £100 odd per year for 5 channels v £500 odd for stacks of channels= no contest, I don't even watch the terrestrial channels that much these days apart from the occasional nuggets like planet earth etc

If i wasn't paying for my TV licence i might of kept the movies

Agree 100%

Since i moved to my new flat I'm unable to have Sky (dish not aloud)  And i cant say enough how much i miss it.

its less than a tenner a week ffs!!!!

its not complicated, if you want it you pay if you dont you dont.

Well I am a little pissed off that they lost most of the USPGA golf which they happened not to mention.

I can now get the US golf on Setanta for an additional £15 per month !

And still they want to increase the price no doubt due to the poker content ;)  :tikay:

please teach me how to be this organised. HTF do you have figures on how much you paid for Sky in 2002 ???

I am not as sad it sounds. With my bank I have online banking and you can look back over statements going back to 2002.
 :)

I am not knocking the product as Sky is excellent and I couldn't bear to part with Sky Sports. I appreciate that the number of channels available come at a cost, but just think it is too dear. A clear lack of competition hasn't helped.
I guess it is just like most things in life these days like council tax, water rates etc. If you add up the increases on your usual monthly bills and compare to wage rises etc it is no wonder that so many are ending up skint. I realise that I am one of the lucky ones in that I have no debts, but dread to think how many try to cope with the cost of living increases.
What can i say it is summer, it is pouring down and I am  feeling grumpy.
:tikay:

Sky is great and pretty good value too imo.  We did away with the movies as we never watched them but it's well worth the money for the sports.  That said, I am a little disapointed with them losing the golf and some Premiership matches to Setanta - I'm not forking out another £15pm for them

Buy a "modded" cable box.
Get the basic subscription.
Buy a card programmer and a flash card.
Put the supplied box in your bedroom.
Download latest hex files and program new card.
Watch every available channel on the modded box and run the feed to the normal box (not skyone).
Alternatively if you know a cable fitter get him to turn on your feed for a drink (don't need a subscription).
Done, 4 years of free cable.

Try this . Martin lewis usually has good take on things like this.


http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cheaper-sky-cheap-cable


 Td Th

Hey, if they knocked down the price challenge may not be able to afford great programmes like casino casino ;)

Good point.  :)up

Out of interest does anyone know how this works. Does some of my money go to channels like Challenge, or do they pay Sky to transmit and then they rely on adverts?

I pay I think its £48 a month now. I have tried 3 times to ring and cancel the movies as I never watch them and have got fed up waiting to be connected and hung up.

Sky IMO has the WORSE customer services...even worse than BT and that takes some doing.

Much of the content on various Sky Channels is supplied to them free of charge, with the programme Sponsor footing the bill, Sky simply agree to take it. Nice business model, gotta be said.

Ok cheers, makes more sense now about adverts being needed.

They pay sky for the privelage.

Tv channels pay sky something like £70,000 a year to be on the EPG within their subscription service.
If they want to be true free to air (no sky subscription needed to watch them) they charge 2-3 times that
Also certain channel numbers worth more than others.

But cheap if you consider the extra possible viewer numbers, bit like paying extra for a prime shop location.

BBC had a big faling out with sky over this as they were being charged a fortune for the prime 101 and 102 spots in free to air.
Think the government had to step in before BBC pulled all their services from the sky box.

NTL (now Virgin Media) has the worst 'Customer Service'  Hang on for 45mins just for someone to then put the phone down on you!

 :tikay: :tikay:

Their broadband service is superb.  Their customer service is shocking.  They've got my bill correct once in the past 7 months.  Each month it's at least an hour on the phone waiting to speak to someone and then waiting to speak to the right person.

I'd move, but from what I've heard the grass isn't greener on the other side.  If only one service provider could get the service delivery and the customer service sorted - they'd make a killing.

As well as that information have a look at what you can watch online for free. (check out the alluc thread for some info)

Most US tv shows and films can be watched advert free and before they actually air on uk tv anyway. If this saves you money and you want it to your tv the weigh up the small (in comparison) cost of connecting your pc to your tv.  http://www.weethet.nl/english/video_connect_pc2tv.php

Sandy

There are many streaming sites that carry many of the big us channels, i can even watch the sci fi channel online these days.

Not according to my maths, and that's if you don't add HD or Xtra on top at £10 a time each per month.


Not only has the golf gone last year, but the SPL a couple of years ago, and now splitting some of the fixtures in England with Setanta also. I loved the letter detailing the price increase and trying to justify their better than ever value for money. I fail to see how gradually getting less and less of the top events is getting value for money?

Made further enquiries and the movies part of the package is only £7 per month, whereas the Sport is £16 per month.

Just had notice of increase for 2008. New cost is £564 per annum, up 4.4%. Bearable, but would of course like it lower.

Cancelled last week.

free for us.

ship.

I get me line rental and broadband from Sky aswell so its much better value than any of the alternatives (but I don't have Movies or Sports).

Also Sky+ is amazing and I couldn't live without it.

Freesat HD FTW!!!!
Get HD for free :)
If you dont have Sports and Movies and have a HD telly this is a must.

Strange cus the cost of our Sky has dropped dramatically ...might be cus MrsB gets it free :) we pay nothing!...which is probably why y6ou mugs all have to pay more rotflmfao I shall be thinking of that next time I record stuff free on the old Sky+ box..or watch telly in the other room...also free...hell I might even switch both of them on at the same time..safe in the knowledge that you lot are paying for them.

chipped digital sky box ftw, runs off standard ntl/telewest/virgin cable, all 1000 channels, ship