digital satellite pricing

[Steve]

I'm sure others on here will agree with me here.

Been with Sky for 5 years. At first, we got a free digibox and subscription was £32 a month for complete package - all channels. Also paid £40 for "installation". Fair enough.

Now, after 2 years, you would think we had paid enough so our digibox was now ours, wouldn't you, and thus we were just paying for channels. Wrong. Since we started with Sky, subscription has gone up and up and up, now at £45 a month or similar. They try to fob us off with "we have more variety of channels". Anyone ever watched 181 AVAGO? 223 OBE? 244 LONDON TV? 279 YooPlayTV? Its not variety, its rubbish. I bet 99% of Sky viewers never venture past ch188 reality tv. And Sky receives revenue FROM these channels.

THE REAL REASON sky charges £40 odd a month for subscription is because it is STILL giving away free digiboxes AND installation! Which we, as long-term customers, have been funding from the first day of our viewing! Not only have we paid for our digibox, we have also paid for at least 10 others!

The real gripe is that people wouldn't mind paying £200 for the box and dish and install if the subscription was cheaper! And if they showed less adverts on SkyOne. They could make subscription, say, £20 a month if they stopped this free install and box nonsense.

This is my theory anyway, and personally im fed up with paying thru the nose for other people's free digiboxes, especially if ours breaks down, we have to pay £100 for a new one. The BLOODY CHEEK.

And we have no other option for digital TV. Cable TV is available on EVERY STREET IN CUSWORTH EXCEPT MINE and im not stooping to freeview. A real shame these con artists have a monopoly in some areas.

 

[Big_Spark]

Crafty, do you realise just how expensive it is to put a satellite in orbit?

Sky broadcast via three seperate satellites, they do not own them, they pay "Broadcast lease" on them, and it stands at something like £150,000 per month per satellite.

Plus, all those programmes you see on the Sky owned channels cost money.

Now don't get me wrong, I think the package deals could be better, and I also think that the free installation should be scrapped, but I don't think these incentive schemes make truly significant differences to the cost.

I would personally like to see a more flexible approach to package creation.

 

[ohmygodwhathaveyoudone]

sky seems to be all repeats.sky seems to be all repeats.sky seems to be all repeats.even my 6yr old has noticed.

 

[empip]

If the Beeb goes into demise ..... just watch out !! You'll get a half hour prog. and an hour of adverts !!
Not one provider has anything remotely approaching the quality of say, Radio 4. ... They have to work to paint the pictures .. and those wonderful gaps of pure silence between words.

Sky currently pays £341m a year for 138 live soccer matches .. £2.47m per match .... £450,000 pm for three satellites £5.4m per annum.
They must be pulling some dosh !!
A neat summing up :-

Sky, for example, in which Rupert Murdoch owns a controlling share, would like to see the BBC reduced to pioneering 'difficult'; programmes that Sky could then take over and make money out of; it would also be quite happy to see the BBC forced to take advertising, since Sky depends predominantly on subscription income.
ITV plc would also like to see the BBC forced to give up all audience-maximising programming, but does not want it to have to rely on advertising, since that would reduce ITV's dominant share of TV advertising revenue.
Channel 4 wants a definition of its own public service broadcasting obligations that will leave it able to hold onto its current share of advertising revenue.
Independent programme makers want the BBC to be obliged to outsource more of its total output for them to produce.
The online and digital niche channel companies want the BBC forced to stop running websites and channels that compete with theirs.

I feel the bu##ers are trying to asset strip me/us .. Plenty have great affection for the BBC both here and overseas.
Just who was behind the Gillingan / Hutton debacle.. So many stand to gain from BBC reduction ... Oh no, conspiracy theories bubbling again .. I'm off out, raining or not !!

 

[AdamW]

They pay that much for the football?! If people really like football for the sport of it then surely they shouldn't care which game they are watching? I'm sure my mate's five-a-side team would love to be televised live on Sky, they'd probably do it for free!

I wonder if the football is paid for purely by those subscribers who take out the sports package, or do they balance it out across the subscriber-base?

Satellites are of course expensive, but they are definitely very very profitable when used with such business plans! Anything telecomms-related works like this. You can lay a few fibres across an ocean, and recoup the entire cost of the project in something like 2 months!

The government has the targets for analogue switch-off, they need to have enough people on digital TV systems before they can do this. No doubt Sky's monopoly depends partly on their help in this matter. So, free digiboxes all round.

You will have the same issue with your mobile phone too. All these people going for the "free upgrades" instead of just sticking with their perfectly useful phone.

 

[Steve]

Sky is advertising a new, more flexible approach to its subscription. I think the blanket inclusion and exclusion of all channels of each category is wrong. What if i watch Skysports 1 and 2, but not any of the other sport channels? i still have to pay for all the others regardless. Why can't we pick and choose, and sky charge, say, 50p per channel per month over and above the basic for entertainment channels (£11 or £12?) BECAUSE THIS WOULD MAKE IT CHEAPER AND REDUCE THEIR PROFITS. The satellites were put into space ONCE they dont do it EVERY MONTH!

And i thought they only had one satellite, since all the sky dishes in this country point south . . .

 

[Zampa]

THE REAL REASON sky charges £40 odd a month for subscription is because it is STILL giving away free digiboxes AND installation! Which we, as long-term customers, have been funding from the first day of our viewing! Not only have we paid for our digibox, we have also paid for at least 10 others!

Skys answer to this will be....what about the people who subscribed before us ..they sponsored our free boxes...

Im cheesed off to the back teeth with this company, the only reason we have it (family pack..about 20 quid a month) is for something for the kids to watch.

How many times are they going to show gimme gimme?..it was tripe the first time around for gods sake!

Since getting sky I have become a expert on the battle of midway..german u boats of ww2, pearl harbour, and the russian front......the repeats are a complete joke.

But dont bother trying to complain....e mail them and all your get back is...2thank you for your comments we will pass them on"...

Ever noticed to letters page in the magazine?....NEVER do you see a letter on complaint...only praise about how wonderful sky is and how its changed peoples lives forever....but whoever you talk to they say they are sick of the repeats and the endless long advert slots..

Why show re runs of ancient quiz shows?....there has been some quality t.v ove rthe years, but sky cant seem to find it.

Its pure garbage.

 

[stevedo]

I've just had a look at the Sky web site and it still seems ridiculously expensive to me by the time you add Sky+ multi-room bla bla bla.

All I really want access to is British Eurosport. Is there a way to get this without having to sign up to Sky. I do not have the option of cable TV where I live.

 

[confidentincompetent]

I got freeview and jeeez if i see that same 3 pints of lager& packet of crisps again seems sky is just a larger heap of crap repeats. When I see sky in other peoples house's they seem to spend most of their time flicking channels looking for something to watch! at least with freeview you only need to check out 30 channels to realise theres fk all on

 

[empip]

Get decent radio kit and immerse in R4 and the like before it all disappears into the orifice of jabbering, unintelligible, provincial DJ's.

There is talk of 'quality' hereabouts ... It is there if you look for it.

Somehow, breaking up an interesting program to brainwash with adverts is a nonsense ... One caresses the old handset and channel hops, the laugh is that with the base 5 channels, the Beeb scores because the rubbish all virtually run their adverts at the same time .. Who wants to channel hop twixt adverts? Kids I suppose...

For my money we, to a certain extent, own and subscribe to the finest broadcasting enterprise on the planet, the BBC.

 

[empip]

Get decent radio kit and immerse in R4 and the like before it all disappears into the orifice of jabbering, unintelligible, provincial DJ's.

There is talk of 'quality' hereabouts ... It is there if you look for it.

Somehow, breaking up an interesting program to brainwash with adverts is a nonsense ... One caresses the old handset and channel hops, the laugh is that with the base 5 channels, the Beeb scores because the rubbish all virtually run their adverts at the same time .. Who wants to channel hop twixt adverts? Kids I suppose...

For my money we, to a certain extent, own and subscribe to the finest broadcasting enterprise on the planet, the BBC.

 

[homertimpson]

I'd been with Sky since the BSB days - 14 years.

Moved house last month and called them up to check the score.
Use my 6-year old box with a new dish and installation [for a 'nominal' £20 fee] Free installation of Sky+ [but £149 for the box] + 3 months line rental £134.25 Total £303.25

Jack it all in and get the missus to join as a new customer.

Free installation & Sky+ box for £49, PLUS 3 months 1/2 price line rental [£63.75] - Total £112.75

It was a no brainer - bye bye old unvalued customer - hello newbie.

Homer

 

[AdamW]

For my money we, to a certain extent, own and subscribe to the finest broadcasting enterprise on the planet, the BBC.

When in America I would speak of TV licences. A few yanks (admittedly they were the few stupid ones I met) got indignant and thought it was heinous that we must PAY simply to OWN a TV. The majority (they were the intelligent ones who I feel we often forget when discussing their fine nation) thought it was excellent. One girl even knew all about our rules on how many minutes of adverts ITV is allowed to show in how ever many minutes of TV.

In the US they have "HBO" which I hear offers a similar level of quality to the BBC (although I've never seen it myself). I bet it costs more than the cost of a TV licence too!

 

[poshman]

where is cusworth ??

 

[keyplayer]

But all those dishes man, don't half make the council estates look tatty.