Sky subscription

[Dr Lobster*]

just had my bank statement through and noted that my sky subscription has gone up by £2 to £47 (never had a letter from sky like normal - perhaps they were trying to sneak this one through?)

i did have the sky world package or whatever it's called now which i'd been subscribing to since 1999 and i lived with my parents which i think cost about £30 back then.

this for me was a price rise too much. sure, i can afford this, but it has to be said, we still tend to watch the main terrestrial networks, can't say i've watched anything on sky one/two/three for ages (got the simpsons on dvds which was the only thing i did watch) and i don't think there has been anything decent on sky movies for years and years now (which i haven't already seen) so i downgraded my package.

maybe i'm way off here, but with the tv licence, is £60 a month for mostly repeats, imports and low budget programming (especially on discovery / living / etc) a bit of a pisstake?

[Gavin Scott]

You could ring 'em up and see if their retention department will do you a deal.

I'm not sure how frustrating you would find a downgrade. I'm on Virgin M package and I keep seeing things I want to watch on the smattering of channels I don't receive.

Largely I'm content with what the slimmed down package offers, and although I can afford the full works I think I begrudge it for the same reason as you.

[Dr Lobster*]

if it was down to me personally, i could completely live without a sky subscription and tv licence; i barely watch broadcast tv any more, and that which i do catch is because mrs lobster has it on, i listen to the radio more than i watch tv these days. there are a couple of things on the bbc which i watch when i get the opportunity, newsnight, family guy, apprentice, watchdog, crimewatch but that would be it (most of the old bbc reruns on dave are ok). i haven't sat down and watched anything on itv for years and years.

i would still keep a decent tv, i like watching dvds, my collection is quite substantial (which i suppose is probably why i don't watch sky movies any more)

i actually like the experience of going to the cinema with friends, maybe a meal first and then a couple of drinks after. maybe i'm just getting old

[Lee]

just had my bank statement through and noted that my sky subscription has gone up by £2 to £47 (never had a letter from sky like normal - perhaps they were trying to sneak this one through?)

I'm on the £21 package (whatever the hell its called) which has now gone up a quid. I got no warning of this either, which is unusual. Did anyone know about the price rise? And is it normal for them to sometimes not say anything?

[Nick Harvey]

The letter was on the back of the address sheet of the July edition of the magazine.

Easy to miss though, as the letter's usually just a load of carp anagram about next month's programmes.

It's worth looking out in July though, as it's usually that month that they sneak the subscription news in.

They were specific letters to specific subscribers. Mine gave me my amount payable in August, where half was at the old rate and half at the new, then my amount from September onwards, all at the new rate.

[barcode]

I hope the Broadband prices have not gone up aswell, I get it through sky. I keep trying to get rid of the movies but sky keep giving me an offer, so I always take it ( for a few pounds more or the cost of a DVD retail)

Is the FULL package not about £50 now a days?

[Jamez]

Big Brother - two words that will continue to keep me well away from purchasing a television (not to mention the ridiculous prices they now cost!).

[jjames]

> The letter was on the back of the address sheet of the July edition of the magazine.

Hmmm. Sneaky.

I have been thinking about getting rid of Sky altogether and just having Freeview (and downloading the odd US programme as and when required -- yes it's illegal but to heck with the law) -- £22 for the package you get is increasingly poor value.

This dastardly move may well kick me over the edge.

[Pete]

You could ring 'em up and see if their retention department will do you a deal.

I just got a nice deal from Virgin retentions. My "free talk unlimited for a year" offer ran out and they sent me a bill for £72 instead of the usual £42. I phoned retnetions telling them that £30 for a load of landline calls was extortionate and after 5 mins of talking to a very nice man they put me back on the talk unlimited and upgraded my broadband from 2 to 10meg for £43. I'm perfectly happy paying an extra £1 for 5x faster BB, and they said if I wasn't impressed with the speed I could just phone them and they'd knock it back down so I only had to pay £36.

However after seeing bloatorama itunes' 60mb installer fly down in 60 secs I think I'll stick with 10Meg for now

I read all the DS threads about retentions first and all these greedy people getting V+ boxes and what now seem to have had to argue with them but it appears being perfectly honest and not greedy gets you a nice little deal with no trouble at all.

[Spencer For Hire]

I'm pretty certain we got a letter about the increased price of the subscription. Perhaps that's because we've not been subscribed long enough to receive the magazine yet, so wouldn't be able to see the announcement sent out with it.

[itsrobert]

I decided to cancel Sky+ earlier this year. Like many of you guys, I didn't watch any of the Sky channels and the rest of it is just repeats of old docs/sitcoms/gameshows from 20 years ago. I remember Sky back in the early 1990s and there used to be some great stuff on. Before I cancelled, I monitored some of the channels more closely and found that it was routine for the likes of UK Gold et al to re-run not just the same programme two or three times per day but even the same episode! That's just not on for the amount of money being paid for the service.

So, I switched to Freeview and I can't say I've missed much. I found that Sky was only good for channel-hopping. I never actually sat down to watch anything. With Freeview, just the main channels are included so yes, there's less choice, but I'm finding I'm being more selective in my TV viewing. I'd rather pump the money into buying DVDs of my favourite shows, giving me greater control than Sky ever did.