I think I'm feed up with Sky. Any thoughts on options?

frobisher

My €65 a month to Sky for sports and movies is increasingly feeling like bad value. I'm sure there are many who feel the same.

Any thoughts on the various options?

Benster

I would agree with you there, I have never watched so little television since getting it in June, and I'm only on the basic package.

I'd also be interested in hearing about alternatives.

Cheers,
B.

Pal

option depends on what you want to watch.

I use
hotbird/astra1/astra2 on one dish.

eigrod

I don't think there is enough information in your post.

Why did you choose Sky in the first place ? Dissatisfaction with NTL or Chorus ?

You may need to examine Sky's new package offerings to see if you can get what you want for less. You don't say if you are willing to drop Sports & movies altogether, which is a vital piece of information for people to make recommendations to you. Can you get RTE without using Sky ?

If you are a Sports addict [ like me ] and have kids, then it is well worth €65 i.m.o. Between rugby & soccer, I watch at least 4 games each weekend. The kids have at least 12 channels to choose from. I rarely watch the movies, but the kids often find a movie to watch at the weekends.

watty

I have just 2 mix packs and 3 other digtal receivers for FTA.
I might even cancel again and just have about 20 decent channels. Better than the two I had first arriving in Limerick in 1983

andrew3

Orbit Television --great pack news/entertainment/movies are in english
TPS FRANCE ---Movie service is fantastic -NO WATERSHED!!! all mainstream movies broadcast in dual english and french!
buy a big dish and get Viasat! -- brilliant Nordic package 90% english language!


NTL - sucks!
Chorus -no words for how bad!
Magnet - blah!

p.pete

At the risk of being banned at my first posting in this forum: join a library?

hawthorn

I have the "old" basic package which of course has crept up to 30.50 now. I might go back to 2 mix. But of course Id like Sky+ but that is not a service Sky will let you have without paying 55-60 pm, despite their ads. In other words, if I went back to 2 mix, then its 15pm for Sky+ and 15pm for multiroom. Now if you dont take multiroom then the cost o the box goes from 149 to 374 (thats what i was told).

So one way or another they're going to get 55-60 from you. Well I wont go into it any further, theres a long thread elsewhere on it.

Can someone elaborate a bit on alternatives? My only option right now is to cancel, and just have the free channels, with the irish ones on the old aeriel.

Can you explain about other receivers, I havent a clue. ie

What dish do you need?

What channels do you get?

Are they digital?

Can you have more than one receiver on same dish?

....and any other beginner info you may wish to give!

Thanks

K
Was in Dixons in Limerick today and they were signing people up inside the door for Sky. So I explained my desire to get Sky+ and the cost. The girl said Sky really only care about getting new customers! (As regards offers, that is)

K

Pal

Can someone elaborate a bit on alternatives?
There are many alternatives. most English language TV is however confined to one particular satellite. Thats the one that SKY uses. 28e.
point the dish elsewhere and theres lots to discover.

What dish do you need?
usually 80cm. that's a little bigger than a Sky mesh type dish

What channels do you get?
where to begin ? what do you want. there are thousands of channels out there. no one size fits all solution is possible though. check lyngsat.com for channel lists

Are they digital?
yes

Can you have more than one receiver on same dish?
yes. it's not the dish but the LNB that decides how many receivers you can have. Eight I think is the max.

....and any other beginner info you may wish to give!
I really think a great place to start is buy a copy of WHAT SAT magazine

watty

Agree on all that, except Wot Sat is poor compared with Tele-Satellite International. Easons do import it but you can buy even one issue online.

Also browse the ICDGopedia!

MisterAnarchy

I too think Sky is dreadful value for money.
I have been a subscriber to Sky Digital for over 5 years and I think the service is
worse now than at any time in the past.
I was previously with Chorus 'Buachailli bo' who were a shambles of a company.
The analogue service I had was atrocious and disappeared frequently most often at the weekends.
I remeber once it cut out for the whole Ryder Cup weekend.:mad:
Once I changed to Sky I was really happy with the service but it has deteriorated over the last few years.
The EPG is clogged up with garbage gambling and Z rate channels.
Many vital channels are missing off the EPG,ITV1,BBC3 and 4 ,ITV2.
I hope the EPG reshuffle will go some way to readressing this.
To be honest alot of the free channels provide very good programming and I think the gap between the shows on RTE,BBC,ITV and CH4 and those on SKy is smaller now than it ever has been.
The terrestrial channels have upped their output quality immensely.
My primary reason for having Sky is for Sport.
I like to watch Spanish Football, European and US Golf and the odd Premiership match.
I dumped the movie channels are they were pathetic,I had every movie they showed on DVD by the time they showed it.
The new Mix packages are useless to me as I need the sport.
Freeview in the UK is a really outstanding package of free channels and I can see Sky's market dwindling there.
I have looked into gwetting a motorised dish in the past but the range of English channels was limited.
I will have to Re-evaluate the situation.
I have threatened to cancel my Sky subscription in the past and I was given a half price subscription for 3 months , twice last year.
That made it €26 a month which I consider decent value.€52 is way too much,I'd prob consider €30 a month a fair price .

Sparky

i would downgrade but the fact that there are 4 people in the house who have 4 different tastes, its hard, but thats that.
I seriously think that when you downgrade they should remove the channels you dont subscribe to, because there is nothing worse that passing a channel you dont have and seeing a programme you would love to watch, if you dont see it, you wont want it.
Simular to the time if you didnt have your card in right just the FTA channels would come up on the EPG.

byte

Sparky-s wrote:

I seriously think that when you downgrade they should remove the channels you dont subscribe to, because there is nothing worse that passing a channel you dont have and seeing a programme you would love to watch, if you dont see it, you wont want it.
Simular to the time if you didnt have your card in right just the FTA channels would come up on the EPG.

That's probably all part of their cunning plan. So that you'll consider subscribing to these other channels also.

Also, channels not directly controlled by Sky would prefer to be left on the EPG (since they did pay enough for placement) for the same reasons.

jonnygee

Does anyone know of any free to air channels that will give me english language movies or sport on a free to air reciever with an 80 cm dish on any satellite other than astra 28degrees. If so please post frequency details etc. Thanks.

Pal

FTA movie channels.
none


FTA Sport channels
SportItalia
RAI Sport
Dubai Sports
Sport Planeta
Real Madrid TV
DSF
Eurosport Germany

(I am sure this is incomplete. somebody please feel free to correct me on this)

watty

About 4 or 5 movies a day in English:
NCTV @15W
There are other sport channels too.

There are other channels with a lot of movies, TFJ often has old B&W movies in morning in English.

Arte has a lot of FTA movies, mostly French/German, but some English

Some Engilsh on on eof the Turkish mostly movie channels (I watched Zorba the Greek in English with Turkish subtitles).

walter johnston

Living in Ratoath

NTL in appartment complex but I'm not sure if they offer the range of channels that SKY do, SKY dont have UTV which is a pity

any thoughts

thanks
walter

ps NTL website is pretty poor explaining the options i feel

Pal

walter johnston wrote:

SKY dont have UTV which is a pity

OOOPS !

prepare for an avalanche

welcome to the forum Walter.

watty

ALL the ITV channels work on a Sky box, just not on the Program guide (EPG)

Browse the Stickies and also the FAQs and Wiki on
http://icdg.bytelive.com/
Which is our "sister" info site.

Sparky

jonnygee wrote:

Does anyone know of any free to air channels that will give me english language movies or sport on a free to air reciever with an 80 cm dish on any satellite other than astra 28degrees. If so please post frequency details etc. Thanks.

Jonny, you can PM Hagar to acces to eurosat, under private and he will let you in, they discuss stuff like that there

jonnygee

Thanks Sparky.