Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Cost of living

Stretching your budget? Share tips and advice to discuss budgeting and energy saving here. For the latest deals and discounts, sign up for Mumsnet Moneysaver emails.

Original poster

After much debate we cancelled Sky to save some money and the result is

41 replies

Lilyloo · 31/05/2011 20:57

Now there is not much choice on tv the kids cannot argue anymore.
I have gone from full scale arguments with ds wanting sky sports , dd1 wanting disney and dd2 wanting nick jr to tiny pop for everyone (on freeview) or no tv.
Wish i had done it ages ago !!!

OP posts:
GypsyMoth · 31/05/2011 20:58

sounds good to me!!!

ScrotalPantomime · 31/05/2011 21:07

:o

In our first flat we had cable and were addicted loved it. Then we moved and found out - the letting agent had actually lied - that our new house wasn't cabled as we'd thought. And the tv signal was fairly dodgy anyway. Oh no!

But quickly we realised we didn't actually missed it. In fact we now have no tv channels at all, we disconnected it a few months ago because we barely watched any. We just use the box for wii and DVDs, and catch up on a couple of bits on iplayer when the DCs are asleep.

Tinkerisdead · 31/05/2011 21:13

We've had sky hd/virgin for the last five years including recording and on demand stuff. We've just moved and because we are not in a cable area it released us from our contract without charge. We jumped at the chance to save money but panicked about losing recording facility. We haven't missed it one jot. Even dh who is sports mad hasn't been bothered. With all the +1 channels we don't miss anything anyway. It's been brill and saved us more than 40 quid a month. I should add I'm a telly addict and it's been nohardship at all.

Original poster
Lilyloo · 31/05/2011 21:48

I am really surprised how quickly we have all adapted to having limited channels tbh.
Dp just watches any sports he wants to really see on the net anyway !
We have had sky since moving in here 8 years ago so think it became more of a habit than anything

OP posts:
noid · 31/05/2011 21:54

Try getting rid of the TV altogether (not kidding). We just use ours for DVDs and there are no fights any more (except over all the other things the kids argue about...)

diggingintheribs · 31/05/2011 21:56

we've had a non-functioning aerial for the past year so no TV at all. Like noid we watch DVDs but DS doesn't really ask. It's actually been really nice - we read more and talk more in the evenings!! I keep putting off getting the aerial fixed!!

whomovedmychocolate · 31/05/2011 22:00

We didn't have TV for a few years and now are not addicted like we were. But we use BBCiplayer and 4oD a lot too. And now cbeebies has started to have some downloads too it really works.

curlywurlycremeegg · 08/06/2011 12:51

Late to this thread but I love it, we cancelled sky about a year ago to save money, after a nightmare call to them to cancel, Sky: have it for half price.... me: no thank you, Sky: well you can't come back to us for 12 months, me: that's fine, Sky: your husband can't open an account with us either, me: we really at too bothered goodbye! Needless to say that within a month we had letter after letter inviting us back and low cost package offers. By that point we had connected a PC to the tv and used it to watch programmes via iplayer and 4od and don't miss sky at all. I would love to get rid of the tv all together as noid suggests, just can't quite bite the bullet yet, I guess I use it too much as a childcare crutch when I am trying to separate four fighting children!

Atwaroverscrabble · 08/06/2011 15:30

I would love to get rid of ours but dh an ds are too attached... Just a quick question, can you still use sky+ to record if not paying for a package and just using it as a freeview box? I rarely watch live but record quite a bit...

curlywurlycremeegg · 08/06/2011 15:48

No, once you have stopped subscribing the sky plus features stop working and you loose anything already stored on the HD.

MynameisTerces · 08/06/2011 15:59

This thread is great. There is never anything on the TV that we want to watch and I was thinking of getting rid of it. I think i will now.

Atwaroverscrabble · 08/06/2011 17:32

I think if it was just me and the kids I would get rid of sky and the aerial and just use the box for dvd's and the wii! Dh would never consider getting rid of it now!

wonderif · 09/06/2011 12:38

i have done the same and we use that i love film i got an offer via groupon for 9 quid for 3 months and can have 2 dvds at a time,potentially 4 a week means kids get to see some films they havent seen as do we.

after the 3 months are up then we will just cancel and maybe use the library and go to the cinema once every 2 weeks as its only a quid .

HMTheQueen · 09/06/2011 13:34

I got rid of virgin cable when we moved house and bought at Freeview+ box. So i still get all the freeview channels, and the ability to record them, pause live telly etc but don't have a monthly fee. It was a couple of hundred pounds for the box (I think about £198 IIRC) but it has more than paid for itself in the year and a half we've been in our house.

LittleMissFlustered · 13/07/2011 23:31

I could happily live without an actual telly, as long as I could use iplayer for Doctor Who for the kids. Very tempted to be fair.

Tortington · 13/07/2011 23:41

i have a telly i only used at xmas. i watch i=player, teenagers watch iplayer or download.

no telly rocks, althouh i did panic when i realised i hadn't heard the news for a couple of days last week

PirateDinosaur · 13/07/2011 23:46

I could happily get rid of the TV altogether and just watch DVDs or iPlayer occasionally. DH would never go for it, though.

AlsoAvailableSober · 13/07/2011 23:46

AtWarOverScrabble - Like HMTheQueen Grin we have a Humax HD Freesat box with record facility, so no monthly fee and we can pause, record etc. Ours was c.£200 new too, but they were quite new at the time so may have come down in price

Hufflepuzzpig · 13/07/2011 23:47

Ooh I remember this thread (I was ScrotalPantomime) - wonder if the OP's family is still getting on OK without sky?

I still like being tv-less (still watch plenty of DVDs) - in fact we hardly bother keeping up with stuff on iplayer now. Custardo I agree about the not-keeping-up-with-news thing - I get most of the headlines via MN thread titles Hmm have to say I feel a bit... I don't know, lighter? now that we don't have the depressing news blaring every morning.

DooinMeCleanin · 13/07/2011 23:48

Who babysits your children during the day if there is no Nick Jr or Cbeebies? Wink

Dd1 never watches TV. Dd2 only watches it untill dd1 gets home from school, so there is none of the fighting here.

realhousewifeofdevoncounty · 13/07/2011 23:52

I personally have never paid a subscription for TV, as I think there is enough junk stuff on freeview anyway. I have lived temporarily in a few places that have had Sky/BTV Vision/Virgin and have alway s found that there was still never anything decent on, and the only stuff worth watching was on the free channels...

KellyKettle · 10/08/2011 15:37

I know this thread is a bit old now but I am hoping someone who has got rid of Sky can answer this question.

Is there a substitute for not having Sky Sports. DH loves football, lives for it sometimes. He doesn't have nights out drinking or spend lots on clothes and so he justifies us having Sky by that. Except its costing over £100 a month now. I would switch to Freeview but the sports packages for top up work out quite expensive. If you factor in paying for broadband and telephone too it doesn't seem a lot cheaper than paying monthly for Sky.

Any ideas? He mainly likes it for watching Premier League football.

ChippyMinton · 23/08/2011 09:10

DH usually manages to watch sky sports on the internet - various sites, but I don't know what they are I'm afraid. Apparently it's hard to watch the bigger teams, because high demand means the site running slow, but less popular teams and other sports are mostly ok.

Another tip for those with a Wii. If you connect the Wii to your wifi, you can use it to watch BBC iPlayer.

NetworkGuy · 23/08/2011 12:33

Various options (for those considering ditching Sky but might miss the time-shift facility of Sky+ box)...

  1. Freeview recorder (I bought one this week on Ebay for 39.99 + fiver delivery)

  2. FreeSat recorder (FreeSat available as HD or SD (Standard Definition) and can plug in existing Sky cables to FreeSat boxes.

Obviously with FreeSat or Freeview, no monthly fees to pay unless you opted for some extra (like Top-Up TV) and some will miss particular channels from Sky (movies / sports) but where Sky charges extra for HD, you'd just buy an HD capable box for FreeSat, and where Sky charges extra for multi-room, you can just add extra cables from dish LNB to extra rooms. LNB is the bit at the end of the arm from the dish. They can have 1, 2, 4 or 8 cables, depending on make and model.

If you are using more than 4 boxes which record (ie need a pair of cables) or 8 boxes in total, there are devices to provide 16 to 32 outputs... enough for 8 FreeSat recording boxes distributed around your mansion :)

NetworkGuy · 23/08/2011 12:35

oooops, enough for 16 FreeSat recorder boxes (!)

Swipe left for the next trending thread