Got SkyHD? - Sky+ now free :)

slave1

Title says it all, got a letter from Sky today, if you have a HD sub you no longer have to pay the Sky+ €15/month fee.
That's great news as I do not have 2+premium channels so an extra €15 a month in my pocket......
Fair dues to Sky

TCP/IP

Yeah but you are paying an extra €15 for the HD anyway so they cant charge you twice

byte

I guess that will help sell HD now. Though a better selection of channels would help sell it more, as it's not very enticing for most people as it stands.

John mac

a cheeper box would help! (free)

KTRIC

When the box comes down in price I'm getting one. My HDMI socket is getting very little use these days apart from my upscaling DVD player.

slave1

Yeah but you are paying an extra €15 for the HD anyway so they cant charge you twice

er.. that's what they have been doing to everybody since May, I don't see it as being charged twice, that infers been charged two times for the same thing whereas I see it as €15 for Sky+ and €15 for HD

a better selection of channels would help sell it more, as it's not very enticing for most people as it stands

agreed but even though the channels have not increased since launch - ignoring HistoryHD - some of the content has, as a heavy TV viewer having Lost/24/Stargate/Planet Earth/Nat Geog/Discovery in HD are worth the sub in my mind, also with a 50" HDTV I want to get the best possible source to enjoy the potential that the TV is capable
another benefit is the much bigger hard drive which records a lot more and also all the SD channels are significantly better through the HDMI connection than previous Scart RGB

In fairness to Sky on this one, this will present significant savings to all in my boat and I would see it as a great encentive to jump onboard, yes the box is expensive but watch out for the deals that sky have, I got free install and €150 off because I bought a Bravia tv, the pick up has been low in Ireland because I ordered in mid may and got an install at dinner time May 22, launch day, very happy with experiences to date, to think of the ****e reception that we lived with for years on Chorus to now, no comparision

If you're spending €2-3k + on a TV why hesistate with proving the best TV based source

watty

Looks like Sky+ may replace ordinary Sky as the regular box and the inquitious Sky+ fee dropped. The Sky+ fee is NOT for extra channels (SkyHD fee is). It is rental on recording, even if you paid a full price for the box.

I'll order a Sky+ the very day the Sky+ recording rental ripoff charge is dropped.

eirebhoy

I'm obviously missing something but why would you want SkyHD and Sky+?

slave1

Sky HD allows you to receive High Defination TV channels via a Sky HD box

The Sky HD box is also a Sky+ box, Sky + is a recording facility

eirebhoy

slave1 wrote:

The Sky HD box is also a Sky+ box

I knew that but were you actually paying €30 for SkyHD? Is there a way of disabling the Sky+ or something?

Mossy Monk

where is the bargain?

still a rip off

slave1

I knew that but were you actually paying €30 for SkyHD? Is there a way of disabling the Sky+ or something?

AFAIK you can have SkyHD without the Sky+ sub as I got a pricing structure of just SkyHD wothout Sky+ before install, but then when I got it installed I decided to get Sky+also
So I could have been paying €15 for the HD as that was my original agreement on my booking reference, so the answer to your question is if you do not pay the Sky+ sub then by default the Sky+ function is disabled.
Academic now.

slave1

where is the bargain?

noone here said it was a bargain, this is the satellite forum not Bargain Alerts

still a rip off

well thats just your opinion, I'm happy paying €15 for HD and Sky+ functionality, of course I would prefer to pay less but "rip-off" is an overused term these days, you get what you pay for

byte

watty wrote:

Looks like Sky+ may replace ordinary Sky as the regular box and the inquitious Sky+ fee dropped. The Sky+ fee is NOT for extra channels (SkyHD fee is). It is rental on recording, even if you paid a full price for the box.

I'll order a Sky+ the very day the Sky+ recording rental ripoff charge is dropped.

I plan to do the same. I hope that someday they will drop the €15 Sky+ levy.

Sparky

I assumed that the Sky+ price was still wavered if you subscribed to 2+ premium channels!

byte

Spanky-s wrote:

I assumed that the Sky+ price was still wavered if you subscribed to 2+ premium channels!

It is. Though it would be good to have Sky+ features to anyone with any Sky subscription.

Headshot

what about multi room how will it work

Charlie

Its good but its not great in fairness. My assumption was always that if you had the money to get a HD tv and a HD box then you were more than likely a subscriber to Sky world or at least one set of premium channels. I mean sports and movies is wheer the most HD content is, is it not?

(Assuming I don't have movies or sport) I know that I wouldn't pay €15 pm for what, Sky 1 HD which has very limted HD ontent and a couple of HD discovery channels.

A bigger improvement would be if you have multiroom in one room, then a second multiroom box is €5 pm or, a general reduction in the cost of multiroom.

watty

Nat Geo HD and some movies and a little sport is probably where most of the content is.

BBC had only 3 HD programs yesterday. It will be some time , maybe 2008 or 2010 before there is a lot of HD.

2funki4wheelz

Sky breaking the bank there!
It's like HD is put on par with having a premium package therefore it's free.
Of course it's better to pay €15 instead of €30 but once you get anything extra the €15 fee should be dumped.

I don't understand the €15 charge which came in so early with a limited supply of programming, why didn't they start at a discounted fee and once there's say 20+ channels then they can start charging their full fee.
They might snag more customers with a lower/discounted initial price that could be hooked by the time the full price applies.

watty

If someone has spent 1000 to 8000 Euro on an so called HD ready set, at the minute there is ONLY SkyHD.
The HD are technically extra channels. They do eat a lot more satellite bandwidth and the rights cost more too.

It's called what the market will bear and is reasonable. Even I would pay the extra for HD.

Charging ANYTHING extra however for Sky+ when you actually own the box is robbery. The Sky+ or SkyHD will not record FTA with no sub. This is very bad. Nor indeed will it play back previously made recordings from a higher package if you downgrade.