Alternatives to sky? Freeview, BT?

[LucyTheValiant]

My parents are currently spending something like £80 per month on sky tv and are keen to spend less. Need to spend less, really. I suggested Freeview (which I find more than adequate) but Dad is determined that he needs sky sports It appears that it's possible to get sky sports only and then have freeview or BT (they use BT for phone and internet so I was wondering if there was a package that would be more cost effective) but I'm not massively clear on the options.

What do people have as an alternative? Is BT better than Freeview? Has anyone else gone down the freeview/BT route and 'topped up' with sky sports? They can't get Virgin where they live, so that's not an option, though I assume it's as expensive as sky.

Do you know how fast they can get broadband? Can they get Fibre broadband such as from Plusnet? If so, then Plusnet offers packages that include quite a lot of usage, so could then stream video if they have suitable hardware such as a smart TV, or by using a ChromeCast or the new Amazon Fire Video thing.

Sky sports would need to be from Sky though I think, though they do a plug in box for getting that and there may be players for various third party devices.

If they already have Sky, cancel it. The box is switched off to become a Freesat box. Like Freeview but with a few more channels.

Then get a Now TV box. He can then pay for daily passes to watch the sport he wants on the day he wants. Unless he 'needs' to watch sport daily.

www.nowtv.com/box and then add daily or weekly sports pass when needed. Cost is 6.99 per days / 10.99 per week I think for the sports pass. Worth investigating, though could get very costly if watching a lot of sport.

Will need reasonably fast broadband.

I think they can get fibre broadband, yes. I think the plug in box is what I was looking at before, is it direct from Sky?

That's interesting about the Freesat box, I didn't know that, thank you. Will investigate now tv too.

Are they using a cashback site too? That would get the price down a bit more.

Try topcashback & quidco.

Failing that ring Sky & ask to cancel the service, they might offer you incentives to stay.