AIBU to cancel our entire Sky package? The price is a joke.

[HEAVNER]

Just sat down to look at our monthly budget and our TV/broadband bill is making me feel sick (over €110/£100 a month!).
My husband insists he needs his sports channels, and the kids want their movies, but I'm putting my foot down. I was chatting to a mum at the school gates and she said they completely ditched Sky and use a "private server" on their Firestick for a fraction of the price, and it has literally everything.
AIBU to just cancel Sky and force my husband to figure out this private streaming thing? Has anyone else here done this? Is it reliable?

I’m guessing a ‘private server’ is an illegal dodgy box?

If you're happy to use something dodgy and illegal yeah do it

If he doesn’t know how to set up a private server I’m not sure you can force him to figure it out. Maybe you should figure it out?

But no, we don’t have Sky as it is so expensive, we do have Netflix.

We get sky sports via now Tv and it’s £20 a month for us atm!

We also sometimes get movies too when they’re on offer if there’s something we want to watch and use it upstairs as it’s cheaper than multi room with sky!

We cancelled Sky but still have Netflix, Amazon Prime and BBC iPlayer - we are happy with what's on offer - never really watched most of what was on Sky.

You could pay for now tv. I think sky sports is £20 or £30 a month on there. Then netflix has loads of films for kids for like £12

We have the NowTV app - you can cancel when you want and they often have offers on. I’m paying £10 for movies £10 for the entertainment package and £25 for Sky Sports at the moment

When did you last have a really detailed budget session?

I don’t blame your Dh for wanting to have access to Sky Sports, it’s increasingly hard to see much sport on telly any other way. Never a good idea to discount the other partner’s priorities.

Are you concerned about spending overall or does it just feel like a lot of money for something you don’t care about? Could your Dh suggest other things to cut costs?

I pay £120 for Sky which is a joke but needs must as apparently we have to have the sports! I also have one of those dodgy fire sticks (so shoot me!) and although they’re OK , they don’t replace Sky and you can’t fully rely on them for both quality purposes and longevity

personally i prefer youtube, or cheap dvd boxsets for films and shows.

This is wild! We have never had sky! We have the bb and then I pay for Disney Netflix and prime. So well under £100 a month.
in this climate some things are now a luxury and need to be treated accordingly.

We have now tv £10 a month basic. Broadband is separate though.

Now TV is brilliant value for sports and it’s the exact same package as Sky . Think we are paying 25 a month .

We got rid of Sky and did the fire stick thing - it drove me mad because I could never find what I was looking for. We then used used various streaming services plus NowTV for sports (dh and I both love live sport) and that plus the broadband started to add up. We’ve just gone back to Sky as it worked out slightly cheaper for the whole package, but we don’t have the film channels because we don’t use them.

With sky, I pay £40 a month for full fibre broadband, landline, basic sky channels, Netflix and Disney+.

Sports and movies are expensive but if you're out of contract you will be able to get it cheaper than you are now. If you're not regularly haggling at contract renewal then you're basically paying for other people.

Ring them and pick the 'thinking of leaving' option and they'll offer you a better price. My MIL has done this and come out much better. Have an idea of what you want to pay ready.

We did the same - have Prime (plus recent HBO max subscription to watch a couple of shows and we will likely then cancel it), Netflix, Disney+ and Freely. DH was never interested in the sports channels and there is 10,000 times enough for the kids to ever watch on the other channels. Can honestly say I have not missed Sky at all.

Just subscribe to nowTV. It’s sky. You get all the on demand stuff as well as the live channels. You just don’t get the sky interface but it’s like Netflix/disney or any other streaming service so you’ll get used to it.

I have now entertainment (the TV shows) for £2.99 a month for 6 months and now movies (sky movies) for £3.99 a month for 6 months. You almost never pay full price because once the deal ends, I pay full price for a couple of months (about £9.99 each) and then I go to cancel it and they offer another deal.

Why are you paying for sky when you get the exact same thing for less than £10 a month? The only thing I don’t get is now sports. I think that one is more expensive but will also offer discounts.

Definitely get NowTV. Identical except much cheaper!

I left Sky we now have
Now TV with sports
Disney +
Netflix
prime tv
virgin media broadband and tv box

and it still cost less then I was paying for Sky

Mine was up for renewal and they wouldn't offer me a better deal so I cancelled the TV. It was utterly painful tbh but less than 24 hours they called back with an offer I was happy with and im paying much less and they gave me sky sports free for 2 years. I didn't have this before but we do watch it now. Also Netflix as well which I previously had. When you cancel they will try to offer you tons of stuff but fully cancel then see what they offer if you still want it.

I'm on Virgin. I have 500MB, Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, 2 x additional boxes, phone, Netflix with Ads all for £49 a month.

You can reduce your bill without getting a dodgy Firestick.

I just checked our sky bill, £143 per month! We have all the channels but the only ones that are really watched are the sports once by dh and ds, the dds occasionally watch something on one of the film channels. Sky tv is a non negotiable for the sports fans in the house so I don’t really care, dh pays for it because he wants it. Additionally we also pay for Netflix, prime, Apple TV and something else.
the biggest joke is that dh likes the boxing and will put extra for fights ☠️

They're clamping down on the dodgy stick mind. If you're caught you will get fined. It still costs to get it loaded and a further cost for the VPN per year.

That's an absolute joke. Ring up, say it's too expensive and put in your cancellation, wait for them to ring with offers and don't accept the first offer.

You're the kind of customer Sky love as you're subsidising all their new customers on amazing offers.