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?

Part of the problem with Sky is that they don’t have transparent prices so you always feel robbed because everyone is paying different amounts depending on what they can negotiate.

I left sky a few years ago assuming that they would offer me a better deal, which they did but by then I found I didn’t miss it at all.

We have Disney+ and Netflix - and obviously iplayer. We did have Sky in the past but it felt like a lot to spend for sports that dh didn’t want that often. We also had Amazon prime for a while but never found anything we wanted to watch on it.

I imagine so too. Why would you be able to get everything for nothing unless it's illegal?

We have Sky Q and get free Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max. We have sky movies, everything except sky sports. We pay £57 per month. I cant believe what people on here are paying. We have had Sky for over 25 years and every time we need a new contract I haggle like a mad woman and get it down to below £60.

We also have Prime and iplayer, 5, ITV streaming but we never watch it.

Baffles me that people still pay ridiculous amount for sky. I cycle between streaming platforms for a fraction of the cost. But we don’t do sports channels cos they are ridiculous amounts of money. Although are they cheaper on Now tv or alternatives to sky?

Now tv often gives discounts when you go to cancel too.

I get it when offers are on so currently paying £4.99 for entertainment for 6 months. Just cancelled movies and we had that for £2.99 for six months. When i cancelled they offered £4.99 then £2.99. But i want to use a different streamer and catch up on apple tv for a bit.

I think the prices are a bit of a joke but at the same time you've got one family member who watches the sport and one who watches the films and it probably works out at decent value in that sense when you take out the wifi cost. £20-ish a week is far less than the cost of a match ticket for the football! But as said, the fact everyone pays different prices and that it just depends on your luck when you phone them is rubbish. U less you're lucky.

The different platforms and the fact you own fuck all is annoying.

We used to have Sky and after we left for about a year after they would send us letters offering 70per cent off so it may be worth trying to cancel and see if you can get a much better deal if the family really don’t want to stop it.

Pretty much all the Sky packages now have Netflix, Disney+ and HBO included (all with ads) so make sure you aren’t paying for those separately. We have Sky Stream (with all the above included) and Sky Sports for £45 per month which includes the April price rise, but also a small Blue Light discount. Fibre broadband is provided through Virgin for £20 per month.

We cancelled Sky a few years ago. We have Apple prime and Netflix. We don’t miss Sky

I find the broadband is most of the cost, and we do need decent broadband, so the sky tv channels on top isn’t really much extra.

the sky package includes Disney (albeit with adverts) and we share a Netflix account so don’t pay for that.

we do pay for Amazon prime, but I guess we mostly pay for the free delivery so if we watch anything it is a bonus.

Having said all that, most stuff we watch is available on firestick so once we are out of control maybe we will just pay for broadband only.

That’s interesting! Gunna look at this thanks/ we pay so much to have sky sports!

You’ll probably get a discount for joking and then you just before the offer runs out for to cancel the package and they normally offer you a silly low price for six months but you have to go all the way through all the cancellations screens to be offered it I’ve had it as low as £18.99 before!!

Pop over to the sky tv thread on Reddit
load of ways you can get it cheaper

I am with Virgin
paying 47 for 1GB internet

i rang retentions they could only drop it to 42
So I signed up for EE and clicked on tell virgin media that your leaving

didn’t go any further just saved it

within 5 mins VM had sent me a text offering
1GB & Netfkix and Amazon prime for £26

I already have now tv that I pay 3.99 for

I moved from Sky to Virgin, when my introductory offer ended with Virgin, I renegotiated and got broadband, Sky, Sky Sports and Netflix for £61 a month for 2 years.

I'm with Virgin, not Sky, but the principle is the same:

Every 18 months or so they send me an email saying something along the lines of 'We're going to raise your monthly charge, making it c. £130.'

So I go onto Sky/Now/comparison sites and work out the cost for a new customer.

Then I ring Virgin and tell them I'm leaving as I can get Sky/Now/whatever for £X. They push back a bit- usually along the lines of 'Oh but that's for new customers' and I say 'Well yes- they reward new customers, like you do' and then there's a bit more hmming and hahhing from their end until we reach a mutually acceptable quote, which I accept, saying 'Well I suppose it will save me the hassle of swapping'.

It's a bit tedious, phoning them, but I save a lot of money by doing it.

We cancel every time the contract is up and usually end up paying about half what they offer. Currently £73 for Sports, Cinema, Netflix and multiroom (one extra mini box).

We cancelled sky last year and I’m fed up of it all, us all fighting over Disney and Netflix instead of just finding something on or watching it. Said it to my friend and she said sky is her only source of entertainment since they stopped going out so she’ll continue to pay. I’d also say ring and pretend to cancel, they’ll lower the price

A long time ago I had broadband from O2. They were taken over by sky who were supposed to honour the monthly cost. Bill was enormous when it came and when I asked for a breakdown they had charged me lots of surcharges for NOT having their TV channels..I threatened legal action as you can't bill for a non service and they backed down but I won't have them now. Prime and netflix only here.

Definitely ring Sky and say you’re thinking of leaving. Virgin knocked my bill from £102 down to something like £37 a month inc Netflix when I told them that.

I’ve also been reading that the police /authorities are cracking down on dodgy stick users……not just the people who sell them but the people using them so that would really put me off even if the moral aspect didn’t.

Sounds like you've just accepted all the price rises. We've just got full sky, sports, movies and kids for £50 a month, and we do Internet with another provider for £20 a month

DH is dyslexic and "can't read small print" according to him, so he keeps seeing things on screen then adds it... so currently we've got Movies, Sports, Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Apple TV and broadband through Sky and the bill is £180 a month. We've also got 2 mini boxes added to the main box. Then he moans like hell at the bill every month but he's the idiot adding it. Thankfully it's one of the bills that comes out of his account. I've given up trying to remove things, I don't have the patience for their indian call centre.

If you call and tell them you want to leave they are likely to offer sometimes a large reduction but they never offer unless you ask !

cancel the tv . Wait out the months notice and see what they offer a couple of days before the time is up. Or let it cancel and then wait. You will get better renewal offers at that point.