The BT TV Box Pro 1TB is pretty good. Usually around £100 on eBay.
Was paying £85 a month for BT. Land line, 2 tv boxes, BT sports and broadband up to 60 Mbps.
Stayed with BT but got rid of the land line, changed to 500Mbps full fibre. Everything stays the same as with full fibre you get TNT sports for free, so still have the 2 boxes but now only paying £40 a month.
I have an IPTV box and stream Freeview channels from the U.K. and everything else from literally all over the world. It’s not as slick as Sky, and I can’t pause or record, but for £80 a year it’s pretty good.
Also access YT/ Netflix / Plex etc on the same box which cuts down the clutter of boxes
That's an amazing price - if you get rest of world TV does that mean you can view Premier and Champions League matches? Presumably not available in the UK (legitimately at least)Originally Posted by demonloop
I believe that is available, but illegal to watch in the U.K. I recall seeing some debate that the 3pm games were legal to be watched in the U.K. as they are not broadcasted here, but I’m sure someone’s rights would be infringed
It’s amazing the amount of free to air TV in the US, though there is a lot of dross too.
You get "full" TNT Sports for free? I don't see that on their BB pages
If you go the Freesat route, worth mentioning that you’ll probably need a suitable LNB on your dish as the ones utilised by SkyQ are not compatible.
Thanks you for this. What is LNB?
The bit on the dish that the cables fit into
The official Freesat box by Arris supports the Sky Q LNB
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Crazy prices !
Had an email from Sky for a sizeable price increase from February…boo!
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Cancelled mine a week ago so contract free from 30th. Explained to them when they called that the pricing system is outdated since most of the channels are crap & no one watches or needs them & basically I’m paying a grand a year for ur benefit of recording which I can get elsewhere for a third of the price or less! They didn’t seem to care much but I can’t see how in the current climate they are happy to lose customers.
I've just got off the phone to Sky. Was paying £120.50 per month (out of contract) and the call centre "assistant" (I use that term loosely) was so hopeless, she didn't know what the Sky Ultra add-on for my account was ("It gives you thousands of on-demand movies in 4K").... Her best offer was that she could knock a fiver off my monthly cost, so I asked to be put through to cancellations. I was fully intending to leave and get BT TV.
The lady in cancellations couldn't have been more helpful. Scottish lady, who went down and seemed to apply every discount she could find. Came off the call with a future bill of £81.50 for exactly the same service, so she saved me almost £40 a month. All discounts valid for the 18 month re-contract, so I'm pretty happy at the moment.
Zero point speaking to anyone other than the cancellations team - they have the best discounts and are assessed on retention, not margin, so in their interest to find you a deal you can say yes to.
Anyone cancelled with Virgin lately?
Did they come back with an improved offer or did they let you walk?
Same. We do the merry dance every 18 months with the cancellations team.
Just make sure you get through to them, be polite but state your case on you are finding it expensive. They always come back with a better offer.
It can’t take 30-60 minutes sometimes with all of the ins and outs but with it.
Often the do a deal on our 4 mobile contracts we have with them as well.
Cancelled the F1 channel as no race until March, wanted to put the monthly movies on for £12 vs the £10 a month for an 18 month contract.
They wanted to start a new base tv package contract for 18 months, so declined their kind offer lol. Amazingly been with them 22yrs so I’m unlikely to run away, but their ability to overcome the contract hurdle lost them the revenue. They don’t care, but strategically weak in approach.
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I have been doing the merry dance for 15 years with Virgin. Always managed to get a good offer, including a few months ago when I last updated my contract.
Within cancellation period and all offers given were still ridiculously expensive. From 12th December they are now charging an extra £10 for Standard Netflix or £15 for Premium (free version is with ads).
Have dropped down to the Essentials Package for £5pm (plus option of multi room for an extra £5)…it’s ultimately expensive freesat but nothing beats the Sky Q interface.
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I’ve just done the dance as well. I wanted to cancel the broadband as we’re moving to fibre to premise, and the first ‘normal’ renewal guy offered £100 (which is tha same as the current contract) for TV, we have the full works, sports, multi-room and cinema, then told me that there was a £20 admin fee to renew. I said I wanted to leave as he would waive the fee after 20 years with them. I then spoke to cancellations and was immediately offered £78 a month for the whole package. But I still had to pay the damn fee…
I’ve taken the offer and am still moving broadband, but will save about £25 a month in total, with 600Mb broadband instead of slightly dodgy 60Mb from sky….
The moral of the story is to get through to cancellations ASAP and do the ‘Sky’ dance every renewal. I’m now waiting to do the same with the new broadband company next year!
Times have changed.
My contract ended this week and they're offering me nothing apart from a higher cost.
Bizarrely, entering a new 18-month contract is more expensive than remaining out of contract.
Wondering now how far I have to push it to get a better deal.
I fear this will be the norm moving forward.
Earlier in my career I had many £000's invested in me across a variety of negotiation courses.
Trouble is, the people you speak to in these companies really cannot negotiate, even the retention department, they don't have the autonomy.
I put my own mental health & wellbeing over dancing for a monthly saving, life is too short and I waste far more money elsewhere.
This is what I was offered yesterday if it’s any help…
Signature is normally £34, but you'll pay £16 (with an 18-month contract)
Sky Cinema is normally £19, but you'll pay £6 (with an 18-month contract)
Sky HD is normally £9, but you'll pay £6
Ultra HD is normally £4, but you'll pay £3
Netflix Premium without Ads is £15
Sky (Q) Multiscreen is normally £15, but you'll pay £8.50 (with an 18-month contract)
Paramount+ normally £6.99 but it's included with Sky Cinema at no extra cost
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I'm with VM.
Got a letter the other day saying my payment is going up yet again. £2.50 this time, not a lot - but enough! I've been with them fully 24 years and have reduced down to the Variety Pack, F1 Chanel + Sky Q and multiroom. New price from next month £75.50/month.
Enough is enough, most of what we watch is on Freeview/Freesat is I decided that the time was right to cancel. No if's, no but's, there's no way I'm being talked out leaving, I'm out!
So got through to cancellations and told them enough is enough. The guy asked why and when I told him said fair enough, but before you leave us let me see what we can do....
After much discussion about what we watched he offered us Sky Signature, which gave us everything we normally watch except the kiddies channels which we don't watch anyway, and Discovery + which we didn't have before for £46.50/month or continue with F1 as well for 61.50. OK, that's a bit of a saving, but then he said you might as well have the full Sports Pack for a total price of £60/month.
Oh well, the best laid plans as they say - so I'm with them for the next 18 months, £14/month better off and more to watch.
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
Just cancelled myself.
We rarely watch live TV and generally just use the streaming services. We just had the basic Sky Signature package which was costing us £56/mth before the April increase but £13 of that was just to watch Tv in HD or 4K. What a rip off!
The max discount they offered to me was £6
We are keeping our broadband for now but out of contract and as the speed is bad will most likely look to move to Starlink and share with the neighbour but I begrudge giving Musk any money so I am in a dilemma
Interesting
When I gave up sky at Christmas, they offered me a £4 reduction to £76 pound per month, I declined.
Roll on 2 months, and they sent 2 emails telling me how they have missed me and offering the same service for £38 per month for 18 months.
I've not replied, happy to have moved on
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Same here, finally gone ahead and service ends next Monday. I was only paying £34.50 (just entertainment or whatever it’s called and had etc) but realised anything we record is on normal TV. Our scheduled recordings have diminished and I’ve got loads I’ve not watched - still have recordings from 2017. Just not worth it anymore. Was offered it for £36.50 or just keep the box for recordings for £15 per month. Nope. 24yrs myself although am sure I’ve been longer as seem to remember getting a year after buying my first house in 1995.
I’ll be fine. The Mrs will struggle without the interface (which I do like). So bought a new TV today (LG G3) - if I have to have the pain of teaching the Mrs May as well do it on a new TV!
I am with VM and have been for years as only one with a decent broadband here. Every year gone through the agonising discussions / cancellations and people to get the same deal as we had before on the new user discount.
This time we had moved and started again so had an 18 month deal. Coming towards the end and decided I couldn’t be bothered with the calls so have taken a fibre to the house broadband deal as it is now installed in our street and will be cancelling VM. Seem to just watch catchup anyway.
So imagine my surprise when last week with 3 months to go VM mail me and offer me the same deal we have been on :-) First time that has ever happened. Must realise people in this area now have an option. Will still leave as have 1Gb up/down for £25p/m from the fibre company. Comes into the hose from the BT pole so has more physical security than the VM cable from the street.
Cancelled mine too last month. Been with Sky since 94 but viewing habits seem to have migrated to Netflix of late and most of the programmes I used to enjoy on Sky have either been ditched or changed beyond recognition.
Was offered a similar deal to the one I’m on now but know there will be a few increases over the course of the contract, so declined. Was all for ditching and returning the box too, but they offered it for £5.00 a month which I was happy paying given I had a lot of recordings to get through. They applied a £30.00 credit to the account as well so basically SkyQ box free for six months then a fiver for 12 months.
I can’t say I miss it. Was convenient for the odd thing but not worth the £50 plus.
Did you have to haggle to get the fiver deal and credit? I’d do that just for convenience to be honest.
No. Just spoke to the agent via the online chat confirming I wanted to cancel. Looked like they had adapted their scripts to address cost of living and asked if they could at least try and look at negotiating a deal. Back and forth a little regarding the basic signature package or to include Sports. Just told them it was still going to be too expensive and with house renovations going on, any package was effectively redundant as I wouldn’t even be there to watch tv. May look to revisit but for now please cancel. No truth in it but was just looking for a quick “out”.
They immediately came back to me and suggested their Essentials package. Keep the Sky Q box, same record and rewind functions with access to the free view channels etc. said it was usually £15 but happy to do it for £5 a month. Like you agreed for convenience. Was going to go the Freesat route but knew I’d need a LNB connector on my dish plus cost to buy the Freesat box and couldn’t be bothered faffing about getting up ladders etc.
No idea why they applied the credit, so just gone in to my account and realised they had cancelled my subscription the day I contacted them. Was part way in to the month that I had already been charged for and the credit applied to the account was a refund for the days I did not have access to Signature and Sports channels.
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We cancelled ours a few months back, they never came back with a decent offer. We now have another solution for TV which is much cheaper and gives a greater selection. The wife did end up getting a Sky stream service for the bedroom which was £12 a month or something, so we have that.
Email arrived today price increasing to £128 from £99.
Contacted Sky, the Indian call centre chap was actually laughing when i mentioned the price increase.
Got through to cancellations (Scotland) & currently no deals, 30 days notice put in.
Let the games commence.
A dodgy firestick?
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Had everything inc multi room and it went upto £111 with a other price increase coming in April
Called them and they knocked movies off and got it down to £78 and won’t go up in April. 18 month contract
Mine went last week. No offers. Not missing it. Not fussed.
Makes me realise even more how little we watched it and the available stuff just on a smart
Tv is enough.
Missed this reply dammit. Would have given it a go but never mind. Great stuff for yourself tho 👍
Cancelled mine last year. They keep pestering me with discount offers. I'm happy with terrestrial and YouTube.
I posted this on one of the other threads but it might be useful in this one. On AV Forums there is a thread on alternatives to Sky with some really good info in it. Mainly revolves around using Apple TV boxes to front end everything plus VPNs for certain sources. See https://www.avforums.com/threads/my-...tream.2484863/
My sky tv deal ends next month 4th may
Rang sky yesterday.
Is sky signature the minimum you must subscribe to to
Keep the q box and its pause / recording function??
I was offered sky signature for £21 a month
But then hd was extra ?
Cheers
Misses got an email a couple of weeks ago saying our ancient hd box would shortly no longer be supported and we needed to updated Sky-Q. She called them last Thursday and they offered her signature for £21 on an 18 month deal which we're ok with. Came and did the install today and replaced the dish while they were here.
We still record quite a lot of stuff as I'm away half the year with work and we've be caught out downloading stuff and it expiring before it's been watched so it still meets our needs at the moment
The cheapest is called TV Essentials. It's normally 15 quid but I got it for 5 the first year. Now I'm paying 10 in the second year. It's basically Freeview with the recording, stop, pause etc. Also no HD.
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Cancelled my Sky a few months ago.
Pretty much had everything - Sky Q, Multiroom, HD, Movies and Sports.
Incredibly I don’t miss it, and enjoy some extra cash.
The deals that have been offered since I left have been rather pathetic.
I've got 3 days left on mine after I cancelled last month. Had one offer, which was pretty pathetic, and that's it. Was going to buy a Freesat box but will see how we get on with our streaming services and catch up first.
I am now Sky free.
Equipment sent back.
Was never offered any deals.
Don’t miss it as we still watch what we want via streaming services but without the £60 per month to Sky for the privilege.
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