Sky HD pricing

jeromeof

Hi,
I am interested in upgrading my Sky subscription, just the standard entertainment packages (no movies, no sports) to Sky HD and I am wondering what the monthly cost would be? At the moment I am paying €30.50.

Basically, I am reading conflicting details about whether I would have to pay both the Sky+ Subscription and the Sky HD Subscription, which would be €15 and €15 for a total of €60.50 or would I just have to pay €15 for the Sky HD subscription so it would be a total of €45.50.

I got the following from Sky terms and conditions page:

Sky HD: Sky HD box costs £299 for Sky digital subscribers taking a Sky HD subscription (£399 otherwise). Only compatible with digital satellite. Sky digital and Sky HD subscriptions required for Sky HD programming. Sky HD channels depend on your Sky digital package (you need Sky Sports 1 & 2 for Sky Sports HD; Sky Movies 1 for Sky Movies 9 HD; Sky Movies 2 for Sky Movies 10 HD). Sky HD subscription £10 per month. Sky+ subscription is free if you subscribe to Sky HD (otherwise £10 per month) and is required to use the Personal Video Recorder features of the Sky HD box. Standard installation is £60 when taken with an HD subscription (otherwise £120). To experience the benefits of Sky HD you will need a compatible HD ready TV.

This seems to indicate that Sky+ is free if you take a sky HD subscription therefore, I wouldn't have to pay the €15 extra for the Sky+. But other pages seems to say that unless you subscribe to the premium channels you have to pay the €15 extra for Sky+ also.

Thanks

Jerome

kmick

You have to pay Sky+ subscription and HD subscription. Therefore its basically another Euro30 a month and you get 5 or 6 channels which endlessly show the same few hundred programs. You would need to add a movie or sports sub to get the movies or sports in HD. It owuld be about 90 a month if you got the whole shooting works. Seems expensive.

mustang68

No, its 15€ for HD AND plus, put in your options on www.sky.com/ireland and you'll see

jeromeof

Just to be sure, I rang Sky and they confirmed that Sky+ is free if you get Sky HD no matter what package you are on. So, its 45.50 for me. I will probably move down to 4 instead of 6 entertainment package and that should mean 40.50.
By the way, what started me on this was a Dixons/Currys offer of Sky HD for €299, so once I confirmed this with Sky I went into Currys and signed up for their Sky HD boxer offer.

Jerome

Mac128

Are Currys/Dixons still offering the Sky HD box for €299:)

jesus_thats_gre

Even better, can you go in a pick one up? Would love to impulse buy one of them I have an existing sky package like.

watty

mmmm Impulse buys...

jesus_thats_gre

Or anywhere else in Dublin selling these for 300 euro and you can impulse buy

kmick

I just rang SKY and if you are an exisitng customer the deal is Eur449 for the box and installation for Eur70. The Dixons deal is for new customers only. Plus when I rang Dixons they said the price has just gone up from Eur299. You only pay for the HD tho not for the sky plus so that is one concession they have made. That box still needs to come down though. The sky plus box is only Eur150 what is costing the extra Eur300 for the HD box?

jesus_thats_gre

449 my arse. Should be either 299 plus the 15 euro a month or 450 without the 15 euro a month.

regedit

I thought that the price for Sky HD would go down by now but it is still ridiculously expensive at 449 Eu.
Any ideas as to when the price drop is expected or if anyone knows any installer that will do the job for sub 300 Eu

byte

I don't know of any installers doing it for less than 449 at the moment, though am open to correction.

Sky do tend to change offers on a regular basis, usually putting a big push in the few months before Christmas.

givecredit

jeromeof wrote:

I will probably move down to 4 instead of 6 entertainment package and that should mean 40.50.

Jerome

You can move down to 2 or 4, and cut out say Documentaries and News. You still will have most News Channels and Discovery HD, Nat Geo HD and History HD, All the non premium HD Channels are available with any 2 or 4 mix as long as you subscribe to HD.

mburke

If one gets sky HD can they manually tune in BBC HD as they show some of their sporting events in HD.

DigiDec

Yes you can manually add in BBC HD into other channels

Blaster99

You can get a Sky HD receiver for about €250 brand new on eBay. €450 from Sky is a joke.

regedit

Blaster99 wrote:

You can get a Sky HD receiver for about €250 brand new on eBay. €450 from Sky is a joke.

Are you saying that if I get a Sky HD on eBay, I would only have to pay the 79 Eu installation fee?

Tony

Blaster99 wrote:

You can get a Sky HD receiver for about €250 brand new on eBay. €450 from Sky is a joke.

Wonder where this guy is getting stock from as this is less than the trade price

Blaster99

I can't find that particular seller now, but it's certainly no more than €275. I don't know how the installation would work in terms of cost, but I ain't paying Sky 200 squids more for the box when they should be subsidising it.

Blaster99

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't dreaming earlier: http://cgi.ebay.ie/SKY-HD-PLUS-THOMSON-HD-SKY-RECORD-NEW-300GB-BARGAIN_W0QQitemZ270110577660QQihZ017QQcategoryZ96971QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

byte

Indeed, it's a good price. He says he gets them straight from the factory...

I'd have thought they were units previously faulty, now repaired.

ethernet

Tony wrote:

Wonder where this guy is getting stock from as this is less than the trade price

Or what's wrong with them? Good price but I'd prefer to be able to return it to a shop in person if there was anything wrong with it.

People holding off may be better off for a second generation box altogether, if they have the patience. Prices may have come down a bit more by then.

Tony

ethernet wrote:

Or what's wrong with them? Good price but I'd prefer to be able to return it to a shop in person if there was anything wrong with it.

Well as long as the seller has good feedback I would not necessarily assume there was anything wrong with them. Hopefully cheaper HD boxes in the market will force sky to drop the price to something comparable with non sky HD boxes

Couch Potato

I was looking seriously at this guy too !

Anybody here purchase a HD box from him ?

Marty_

Don't see any problems with this or the price, he's or his supplier gets a claw back from sky, so either way theirs 100euro to be made with his 243euro price

kmick

270 including postage from the UK - very tempted. Does anyone know if you just plug it in to the current sky lnb and phone line and then ring sky. They add your 15 /month sub and hey presto or does it need an installer?

Tony

there is no claw back from sky on HD unless he is signing up new customers, where exactly did you get this 100 euro profit figure from?

Marty_ wrote:

Don't see any problems with this or the price, he's or his supplier gets a claw back from sky, so either way theirs 100euro to be made with his 243euro price

Tony

kmick wrote:

270 including postage from the UK - very tempted. Does anyone know if you just plug it in to the current sky lnb and phone line and then ring sky. They add your 15 /month sub and hey presto or does it need an installer?

It does not need an installer unless you need a second coax run, sky can talk you through the call back function although I'd recommend using a mobile to ring them so you can go through the whole procedure.

Marty_

Tony wrote:

there is no claw back from sky on HD unless he is signing up new customers, where exactly did you get this 100 euro profit figure from?

You get the HD boxes for 375, a customer signs up with any box or sub, once a card gets activated within a box sky pay you back 232, boxes get sold on ebay and someone in main land Europe or Spain in this case gets a sky subscription card.

Tony

If the card gets activated in a sky hd box them sky will immediately know if someone else tries to use it with another card as they will not activate HD without a call back. How exactly do they get the name and address for the contract? And why go to the bother and expense of HD boxes, standard digibox can activate the cards if indeed thats what he is doing.

Marty_ wrote:

You get the HD boxes for 375, a customer signs up with any box or sub, once a card gets activated within a box sky pay you back 232, boxes get sold on ebay and someone in main land Europe or Spain in this case gets a sky subscription card.

3rdDegree

Kinda off topic here: But I presume that if you buy one of these (and already have a Sky+ account) you just get Sky to activate your account as SkyHD and off you go?

Marty_

Tony wrote:

If the card gets activated in a sky hd box them sky will immediately know if someone else tries to use it with another card as they will not activate HD without a call back.

Of course sky activates HD without a callback how else do you think customers across Europe are upgrading to HD.

Tony wrote:

How exactly do they get the name and address for the contract?

I would assume the guy in Spain gets the contract details when he purchases the boxes from his UK supplier. Either that or the UK supplier sells them on him self.

Tony

3rdDegree wrote:

Kinda off topic here: But I presume that if you buy one of these (and already have a Sky+ account) you just get Sky to activate your account as SkyHD and off you go?

Yep presuming you are connected to a phone line.

Marty_

Anf why go to the bother and expense of HD boxes, standard digibox can activate the cards if indeed thats what he is doing.

Because hes going to make 4grand he had 44boxes last time I looked at the ebay link. He will sell HD boxes quicker then a standard digibox.

Tony

Marty_ wrote:

I would assume the guy in Spain gets the contract details when he purchases the boxes from his UK supplier. Either that or the UK supplier sells them on him self.

That makes no sense, the figures involved and the fact that he needs Uk address just dont add up.

Tony

Marty_ wrote:

Of course sky activates HD without a callback how else do you think customers across Europe are upgrading to HD.

They may well do on some occasions but AFAIK its sky policy not to activate without a call back. Its also possible to send your card to the supplier and have it activated before shipping. You still have not explained how a second account can be activated on the same HD box.

Marty_

I tend not to try and answer stupid questions.

byte

Sky have refused to let me activate HD without a callback being done first. So they must have changed their regime.

Tony

Marty_ wrote:

I tend not to try and answer stupid questions.

Thats always a good idea when you don't have a reasonable answer but perhaps you can explain whats stupid about the question and drop the condescension.
Quote from the guys own website "BUYERS FROM ABROAD PLEASE REMEMBER A SKY CARD NEEDS A CALLBACK"

kmick

Tony wrote:

It does not need an installer unless you need a second coax run, sky can talk you through the call back function although I'd recommend using a mobile to ring them so you can go through the whole procedure.

Just talked to Sky and you need a quad lnb and some extra cabling for HD. How easy is this to do yourself? Must check google

watty

Easy. The Quad clicks in.
Dish should not need religned.
You can get screw on F-Connectors. Add two more coax (The existing box can be FTA on the the 3rd connection in another room. all BBC & ITV on the EPG).

steveon

If you purchase a HD box from someone on ebay the chances are you will also have to purchase a quad or dual lnb further increasing the cost, and depending on your previous sky install you may need a phoneline ran to the box also pushing up your install price.

The Sky HD boxes were previously sold at €299 to new customers and €249 to customers who purchased a HD compatible tv within the last six months before the offer ended. I will keep the board updated as to any new offers as I hear of them

Personally I think people are better off waiting until there is more channels and until more manufacturers start to produce the SKY HD box as this will further reduce the cost to you the end user... The first people who purchased HD suffered countless problems but thankfully these have not been ironed out and the HD kit is certainly a serious piece of kit ..but again worth waiting for

byte

steveon wrote:

The first people who purchased HD suffered countless problems but thankfully these have not been ironed out

I presume that's a typing mistake?

Also, what were the countless problems? I knew of one or two.

steveon

Some of the many SKY HD Problems I experienced with the earlier batches included.

Problems with live pause on HD Channels,
Harddrives failing.
Remote Sensors Failing.
Sound Sync Problems
Boxes crashing

But like all things when there new you have to expect problems and as I already posted I seldom come across any more problems with these ace pieces of kit..

center15

Just wondering is it possible to get sky hd and use it as a normal sky+ box, I currently have a 40GB Sky+ and will be upgrading to a HD tv soon but would like to get the sky HD all setup before the new tv.

byte

center15 wrote:

Just wondering is it possible to get sky hd and use it as a normal sky+ box, I currently have a 40GB Sky+ and will be upgrading to a HD tv soon but would like to get the sky HD all setup before the new tv.

Interesting question.

I think you can do that alright.

steveon

Im sure this question was asked last week and people said you could....if your going to upgrade to a Sky Hd tv soon then Im sure its possible

watty

Sky wouldn't let me order a Sky HD without the extra HD sub. No doubt though you can downgrade later or buy a Sky HD separate and ask for a Sky+ sub.

center15

watty wrote:

Sky wouldn't let me order a Sky HD without the extra HD sub. No doubt though you can downgrade later or buy a Sky HD separate and ask for a Sky+ sub.

I'm planning on getting the sky HD box off ebay they work out way cheaper and just swapping over the boxes no install is needed. I did try and ask sky about getting a HD box without the HD sub and they didnt say it wasn't possible they just said they dont recommend it.

eddiem10

I for one will not be paying ANY monthly subscribtion for HD. If they ask for a once off payment I would sign up tomorrow!!!

Ice_Box

Current Sky offer ends on the May 8th. Maybe they'll do a deal on HD next.