Do you have sky tv? Is it a waste?

[AyyMacarena]

I currently have subscriptions for Amazon prime, Netflix and Disney+. I have the big package for Netflix as some of my family use it. The price goes up soon and it got me thinking, is it worth it?

We haven't had a tv licence or any form of live tv for almost 15 years. We had sky and used to just scroll through trying to find something to watch. Now we do the same with Netflix.

There is an offer of sky tv, fibre and 1 Netflix screen for £43. This is far cheaper than what I currently pay as internet alone is £40 but would have to get a tv licence so probably evens out.

People always think I'm strange for not having a tv licence and DD has started talking about tv programmes with her friends but can't watch them.

Reviews for sky are bad. Waste of money and daylight robbery being mentioned.

Should I rejoin society and get sky or stay as we are?

Hi Op,

I have Netflix and Sky. Pay £70 pm for sky ( in 2 rooms ) and i would not be without it. Dropped the kids channels a few yrs ago as didn't need them anymore. I like it as i can record series, download on catchup ( i know you can do that online). Reminders for all my soaps etc. I have Sky for 16 yrs now and lots of films and series recorded on the box that we revisit. I have often thought of getting rid and just having Netflix and Freeview but can never quite bring myself to do it. Have been glad to have both during pandemic. The price does creep up over the yrs....When i first got Sky 16 yrs ago it was about £40 pm for everything, including kids and sports channels.

Another thing with Sky that we now take advantage of as Sky VIP's, is the ability to purchase iPads, iPhones etc under contracts at competitive prices and then trade those in again , after a min term to trade up. This has meant that the kids and i have the latest phones and packages and ipads ,every 2 yrs at affordable monthly payments. We have 2 iphone 12's and just ordered 3 ipad 8th gen and will pay £80 per month. We will trade these in again in 2 yrs and upgrade. Works for us as we do not have large sums of money to part with in one go. Or, you can pay till end of contract/ or pay balance early, owning it and go elsewhere. We paid the DC's ipad's off in full about 5 yrs ago but due to depreciation ( these products become outdated quite quickly) , did not get much trade in when we went elsewhere. This now works better for us. Point is we have benefitted from being Sky customers but there is the monthly sky subs costs to factor in as well.

That package you describe sounds good but keep in mind it will likely go up yr on yr. You may be benefitting from a new/returning customer incentive. We pay £81 pm in total , £70 sky and £11 Netflix. Then there is the TV licence which we pay at £41 per quarter.

We have a separate wifi cost ( £38 pm ) but that is because we live rurally and have to go with a separate small specialist provider ,who laid their own cabling network.
Our hands our tied as we live so rurally other providers cannot match the performance as they laid no cables, basically other providers using BT existing lines which are old and not up to job. As only 400 people in our village not worth the costs to the big players to lay new cables apparently. We have tried them all EE, Sky ,BT etc ) and all not great for us. We struggle to receive 3G as well never mind 4G so i rely heavily on Wifi calling on my mobile. A price we have to pay for reliable internet. No Virgin Media in village either so its either Sky or Freeview for us on the TV!

Netflix my DC's use all the time ( they are late late teens ) and Sky Box office pay per. They also stream a LOT on BBC iplayer and you need a licence for that. I dip in and out of Netflix but no Sky would really limit my viewing tbh. As i said i have sky in 2 rooms so the DC's can be watching a film in the snug while i am watching a docu in the front room. Has given me much needed peace and quiet!! You will probably have some DC pressure coming your way by the sounds of yr post. I think what you are being quoted is quite good. Then again our circumstances may be different due to where i live so you may want to shop around still, based on your infrastructure which is probably better.

Thank you! That's so informative!

That's my concern, that I will get hooked on it and find I'm wasting money but be locked in. I'm quite careful with money, hence the no tv in the first place but as we are spending so much time at home now it could be worthwhile. I don't mind spending money but if it's something fun and worth it, I don't mind.

I think we would at least end up getting multi room for DC.

I have Sky, Netflix and Prime. Worth it for me, I watch Sky more than the others.

"We haven't had a tv licence or any form of live tv for almost 15 years. We had sky and used to just scroll through trying to find something to watch. Now we do the same with Netflix. "

Sounds like you don't want Sky or Netflix.

What about Now TV? Much cheaper and month by month.

We haven’t had sky for about 10 years. We do have freesat built into the tv and do pay a tv licence. We get our monies worth I think.

I’ve got pretty much all the streaming services though.

You could pay for the tv licence without sky and use iPlayer/itv hub etc?

I watch more sky than Netflix, Hayu and Disney + etc.

We used to have Sky until a few years ago when they refused to match our existing deal (they've matched and reduced it since but that ship has sailed!) We decided that we would buy a NowTv voucher (literally the same as Sky) every few months and catch up on everything we have missed in our break period. It really works for us. We also have Netflix and Disney.
The only thing we miss is the recording box. We've got a Smart TV with that capability but it's not the same.

I dropped Sky and do a Nowtv entertainment which, for a fraction of the price, has all the sky channels I wanted to watch.

I also have Netflix.

I never really understand why people pay a fortune for Sky TV when you can just get Now TV and see all the same shows when you want but without the adverts.

Obviously might be different if you like sport I’m guessing ...?

I have Now tv. I pay £5.99 a month for the Entertainment package which has all the channels I need. No contract, cancel anytime.

Do you need a tv licence for now TV? We did look into that in the past. I can't remember why we didn't bother but that's not much at all is it!

Now TV isn’t live TV, you just pay your subscription and stream programmes when you want, so a TV licence is not needed. There are always special offers on too, I bet you’ll get a half price deal. Or a free trial.

I was going to say Now TV too. It's sky on demand. You don't need TV licence for that.

@ElizabethofpeanutYorkies I don't understand why you want to record series. That's exactly what the sky agent said I couldn't do on Netflix when I rang to cancel. You have to program to record the series and you have a limited number of channels to record concurrently. You also can't watch things you haven't record. The ability watch anything on demand eliminate the need to record.

@PuppyMonkey I don't understand sky either. Sports is available on Now TV too and you can get 7 day passes I hear. (We don't watch sports).

We have sky with free Netflix thrown in. Use it all the time.

When your month of Now TV is over, you can cancel really easily through the app and they pretty much always offer you a reduced price to keep you. We were also given the kids package free for a year. Every 3 months or so (during Easter, summer hols and Christmas normally) I'll pay for the movie package and catch up with those too.

I have it and it is very expensive but I can use it to record and live pause as well as sky channels, Netflix etc. I might change it if I moved but I am paying for it now as it works.

@not i record on sky by putting a series link in once. Docu's on Nat Geo and History etc. Anything really. Then i have it there all recorded on the big tv to watch at leisure. There are some things on Sky not on Netflix and vice versa. The recent series i have recorded on Sky is Very Scary People on one of the Crime chnls. I have most there now to watch. I occasionally stream on I-player etc. I would not be without sky and having it in a second room has been good for the DC's to watch premieres and pay per movies and events etc. I guess it works for me.

@not You also can't watch things you haven't record. The ability watch anything on demand eliminate the need to record.

Meant to add you can watch programmes you have not recorded by using Sky search function. There are additional showings of the same programmes avail to download for immediate viewing or recording. There is also a catch up option that you can search by ch and day etc which i often use, if i forgot about something i wanted to see or didn't record. Again, programmes that are not avail to stream. It is pricey but in my case ,as no cable in our village ,it has to be Sky.