Why do people have Pay TV

snaps

What makes people subscribe to pay tv (Sky)? Is it just the sport packages that are the reason and the appeal? Apparently to latest figures in the UK over 95% of programmes actually watched are on "Freeview" tv.

I know our Irish situation is different where people have pay tv in for our national broadcasters (Rte etc) and once they have it, its hard to shake off and I find it amazing still even with saorview up and running the amount of people that still have sky just for the 4 or 5 main national channels and watch nothing else.

My house for example, we watch Polish and UK/Irish TV and I would say that 95% rule is about right here. All we, well I watch on pay TV is Sport. Sometimes the odd film, documentary or children's channel.

Used to watch documentary's, but its so hard now to find one to watch that hasn't been on before.

Kids watch a lot of stuff off the internet, same as ourselves. A lot of the wifes Polish TV is available free and legal on the internet via "Ipla"

So to sum up for me, the only reason why we have pay TV is for sport.

Soon i think that the day will come when IPTV will be the popular choice.

Macy0161

I think most people/ households just don't realise how much TV there is free, and how much they actually watch is available free. Even our insolvency system sees a basic TV sub as a right (which is ridiculous, with the exception of those in "closed shop" developments).

Drivers are obviously sport, and increasingly the kids channels (again a bit of misconception, given a number of these are free). We had the niece to stay with us last weekend - she went home looking for "the milkshake" channel (5) rather than any of the subscription channels she has available.

Basically I think it comes down to ignorance/ lack of knowledge about... What people watch; what's available free between saorview and uk free to air; and a misconception about how complicated and costly it is to change from subscription to free to air.

galtee boy

Leaving sport aside, Sky Atlantic is an excellent channel. The best new series and dramas from the US appear here first. Sky Living is also a must in our house, Greys Anatomy and The Good Wife, six months ahead of Rte. National Geographic and Discovery, despite the repeats are excellent also, and the Disney kids channels again have the best kids movies and series that come out of the US and of course all available in glorious HD. It's all a matter of personal taste, choice and finances. Yes pay TV is costly, but one night down the pub costs probably more than a months Sky subscription, a person buying a daily newspaper, spends about the same, but these type of expenses seem to go unnoticed. I would agree that quite a lot of people originally got Sky in, to get a decent Rte picture and are now unaware of other choices.

mickdw

F1 and discovery in our house.

mrsoundie

Same here F1, Discovery, History, National Geographic etc

I am aware that these can be streamed, but it is not the same.

For a second TV I would install a Freesat HD box, would be cheaper over the long run.

Manc-Red

ITV is the channel most watched in our home followed closely by Kiddies TV....

Sport is a major thing for me & this is where Sky/UPC have you by the conkers - You need to be on a basic tier at least to then go ahead & buy premium tv, which for me is an absolute scandal.

The guts of a hundred quid a month is needed to view all EPL games that are available on 28e.

I'm now considering having a basic Sky tier, Netflix & getting an IPTV system for Sport - which over a year will save me an estimated 200 quid.

Not much I know when broken down weekly, but I'll feel better not given that few quid to a bunch of thieving so & so's.

Lisha

People are slow to leave sky or to depend solely on Fta for convenience.

We've never had sky. We have Fta + soar view on 2 tvs.
My sister cannot understand how we survive without sky. Total snobbery IMHO .

But I do miss sky's menu options and sky plus recording options.
I also think sky Atlantic and living have fantastic shows.

We have eircom landline with wireless broadband. I would hate to lose this. Live in poor mobile reception area so eircom is only bb option for me.
Husband says we can only afford sky if we get rid of landline so for me it's s no brainer.

mike65

I'd have a hard time convincing myself that Discovery and History channel were worth a subscription! Mostly junk nonsense these days - PAWN STORE WARS etc

If you want quality doc series then watch BBC4 for free.

Sport is the only plausible reason for a SKY sub. Everything else you will get the chance to see one way or another - later on "terrestrial" UK or Irish channels, in a box set or streaming.

icdg

Moved to Broadcasting

OP you have to look at the history of this. The UK broadcasters were not available on satellite at all until 1998 (Channel 5 slightly before that). They were then encrypted until 2003 or thereabout (longer in the case of Channel 4 & 5). In the meantime, reception of UK channels in Ireland was only possible, except near the border, through the traditional means of a mast aerial or cable/MMDS Most people had ditched ditched the mast aerials completely by the 1990s and indeed in Dublin you would be hard pressed to find a house with a rooftop aerial at all. As I said recently in another thread up until around this time Sky was regarded as a luxury which you took in addition to cable/MMDS and not as an alternative.

Now the move to free to air has not been as fast as people on this site might believe for a number of reasons. Firstly, do not underestimate inertia. People stick with the devil they know and may not be bothered/understand the benefit in changing. Secondly, initial cost is expensive if you don't already have Sky, certainly for the non-enthusiast the initial cost would be more than a year's cost of subscribing to UPC's most basic package. Thirdly, some people have restrictive covenants in their leases prohibiting them from erecting satellite dishes. Fourthly, and very importantly, there has been no marketing whatsoever for free to air satellite in this country other than some small businesses. RTÉ isn't interested in publicising it, because its not on it, and it fears that people with two systems won't casually switch to RTÉ because they'll have to make the effort to do so rather than flicking to it.(Yes you can get combo receivers). Most take-up of free to air satellite has literally been because of word of mouth alone.

lenny palmer

Ok so a question for all you's. I have the full sky package sports/movies ect, sky+ . I had multi room but not any more. I do still have the box installed and getting the free channels on it in the spare room. I have been thinking of changing to the saorview/free to air channels but a real sticking point for me is the series link recording i have on sky. So is it possible to have that as well as multi room with saorview/free to air and how much dose it cost to set up. Thanks for any help in advance

galtee boy

lenny palmer wrote: »

Ok so a question for all you's. I have the full sky package sports/movies ect, sky+ . I had multi room but not any more. I do still have the box installed and getting the free channels on it in the spare room. I have been thinking of changing to the saorview/free to air channels but a real sticking point for me is the series link recording i have on sky. So is it possible to have that as well as multi room with saorview/free to air and how much dose it cost to set up. Thanks for any help in advance

In order to have full pvr capabilities with series link and proper 7day epg's for both the Irish and fta UK channels, you really need two boxes, a Freesat pvr such as the Humax HDR and the Walker Saorview Pvr. I'm not sure of exact cost, but it would probably be in the region of €400 for both.

The Cush

lenny palmer wrote: »

I have been thinking of changing to the saorview/free to air channels but a real sticking point for me is the series link recording i have on sky. So is it possible to have that as well as multi room with saorview/free to air and how much dose it cost to set up. Thanks for any help in advance

There is no direct non-sub one box replacement for Sky.

A 2 box solution, Saorview+ (Irish channels) and Freesat+ (UK channels) PVRs get closest with series link, 7 day programme guide, built in HDD, digital text etc. No RF2/magic eye option with this setup but basic Saorview/Freesat zapper boxes come in less than €100 for other room viewing.

Your Sky dish will work with Freesat but the Irish channels aren't available free this way. An aerial will be required for reception of the Saorview Irish channels.

Saorview+ PVR approx €190
Freesat+ PVRs starts approx €200

Combi Saorview/FTA satellite boxes are avilable but no series link, no hdd, no 7 day sat guide etc.

mike65

icdg wrote: »

Moved to Broadcasting
Now the move to free to air has not been as fast as people on this site might believe for a number of reasons. Firstly, do not underestimate inertia. People stick with the devil they know and may not be bothered/understand the benefit in changing. Secondly, initial cost is expensive if you don't already have Sky, certainly for the non-enthusiast the initial cost would be more than a year's cost of subscribing to UPC's most basic package. Thirdly, some people have restrictive covenants in their leases prohibiting them from erecting satellite dishes. Fourthly, and very importantly, there has been no marketing whatsoever for free to air satellite in this country other than some small businesses. RTÉ isn't interested in publicising it, because its not on it, and it fears that people with two systems won't casually switch to RTÉ because they'll have to make the effort to do so rather than flicking to it.(Yes you can get combo receivers). Most take-up of free to air satellite has literally been because of word of mouth alone.

Indeed, Freesat in the UK is easily the least effectively marketed platform and thats its market, hardly a surprise not many here think about it as an option. Ironic that Freeview is much better known simply due to its partial coverage south of the border when Freesat can be watched by everyone who chooses (with that proviso about dishes on multi occupancy buildings) .

Ronnie Raygun

mike65 wrote: »

Ironic that Freeview is much better known simply due to its partial coverage south of the border ...

A big reason Freeview is "much better known" would be the appearance of the logo on packaging of tvs sold here in the last few years, including all those useless-for-Saorview sets.

mike65

Actually that's a point.

Woodie40

snaps wrote: »

What makes people subscribe to pay tv (Sky)? Is it just the sport packages that are the reason and the appeal? Apparently to latest figures in the UK over 95% of programmes actually watched are on "Freeview" tv.

I know our Irish situation is different where people have pay tv in for our national broadcasters (Rte etc) and once they have it, its hard to shake off and I find it amazing still even with saorview up and running the amount of people that still have sky just for the 4 or 5 main national channels and watch nothing else.

My house for example, we watch Polish and UK/Irish TV and I would say that 95% rule is about right here. All we, well I watch on pay TV is Sport. Sometimes the odd film, documentary or children's channel.

Used to watch documentary's, but its so hard now to find one to watch that hasn't been on before.

Kids watch a lot of stuff off the internet, same as ourselves. A lot of the wifes Polish TV is available free and legal on the internet via "Ipla"

So to sum up for me, the only reason why we have pay TV is for sport.

Soon i think that the day will come when IPTV will be the popular choice.

SKy Atlantic for Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire and The Following is the reason I still pay Sky. These programmes are not on free tv.

Zardoz

The Cush wrote: »

There is no direct non-sub one box replacement for Sky.

The Amiko Alien 2 or Golden Media Triplex is a decent replacement .
Twin sat tuner,terrestrial tuner,7 day epg on sat,nice user interface,pvr capabilities with usb stick or external drive,timeshift,rte player,basic series link (autotimer).Its not perfect but its not a bad option for 165 euro.

The main reason people have Pay tv is habit and the fact they have been brainwashed by Sky ,alot of people dont realise most of the channels they watch are actually fta.

Leaving sport aside, Sky Atlantic is an excellent channel. The best new series and dramas from the US appear here first.

I rarely find anything decent on Sky Atlantic,maybe its just the times I watch tv .Its an overrated channel.

I often find myself flicking through the channels late at night and there is absolutely nothing decent on .I think I must start setting up more shows to record via the planner as apart from Live Sport I find very little decent realtime viewing.

Sky Living is also a must in our house, Greys Anatomy and The Good Wife, six months ahead of Rte

Channel 4 show the Good Wife,they are 4 weeks behind the US .

If you arent really interested in Sport then 30-35 euro a month for pay tv with free hardware is a pretty ok deal .
Its when Sport ,HD and multiroom come into the equation that Pay TV is poor value .

Cantona's Collars

Fox,Sky Atlantic,Sports,Discovery & Living are the most watched in my house,the less said about bloody Disney the better.

I download other stuff from the States but even now a lot of it is shown within 24-48 hours later on pay tv so there's little point unless I know a certain show won't be shown for ages.

Haven't paid full price for Sky for almost 18 months now.If this situation changes then I might look into other avenues for my tv service although it won't be freesat/saorview as the choice of programming is very poor imo.It's purely used on 2nd & 3rd tv's in my house.

FREETV

When Quest and Dave, The FTV stations etc are available FTA or on the Freesat platform along with a couple of decent movie channels then even more people will make the move and ditch Sky. Lots of extra free to air music stations now for a few weeks on satellite too.

I couldn't care less about foreign soccer clubs and I cannot understand the obsession, it is all about the money and not the football so the quality is lacking and Sky Sports viewers are paying for these over hyped, massively overpaid average footballers. :pac:

I found the other reality channels, movie channels on Sky to be pure muck with constant repeats and History, Discovery, National Geographics quality of programming has slumped recently.
The less people subscribe then the quicker some of these channels will eventually have to go free to air because of dwindling audience figures and losses of revenue.

I believe that Sky will keep losing customers by the thousands every year from now on, especially with all the much cheaper streaming alternatives now and all these unfair taxes and bills on the way, people will have even less income and lots of people will have to give it up.

I heard that Game of Thrones on Sky Atlantic is very popular because of the numerous nude nookie scenes in every episode although I haven't seen it as I don't wish to subscribe to Sky or any other pay television platform.

NUTZZ

For me, it's the sports channels. I literally wouldn't care if I had no channels bar the sports, most of my TV viewing outside of that is FTA channels.

al22

RTE is 95% crap Nothing to watch Quality is poor
Children's programs are stupid Technically BAD - for example who can explain today;s Ms Fletcher suddenly put a width or get shorter& It is RTE showing old (non-wide) format film stretched it to fill a wide screen!

Annoid the actual news are on every sattelite channel already a few hours behing when RTE show it as a NEWS.
Annoid when RTE shows reports from the world which are actually yesterday's news but present it as by the Irish correspondents. Sometimes with their names but really it were foreign correspondents from foreign channels and a few days ago.

Why this News Channel repeat same and same 3 minutes long news for hours? and it is afternoon but still a morning news?

Why to be able to see recent Irish news on foreign sattelite channels far ahead of te same on RTE? And sometimes to see Irish events which will be never shown on RTE.

---

Do not mind to pay TV License if that is the law. But I would like to have an option to indicate to which channel my money will go. Definetely not to RTE, RTE do NOT do the job to earn money or to be paid.

Do RTE people never watch anything exept their own TV?

World is changed. Plenty of free channels on the sattelites. Better choice and better service.

Did not see any benefit from saorview either. It should be scrapt /
Sattelite TV cost less than Saorview box.

I also seriously think that there are too many RTE channels hich are generally of poor quality.
My offer TWO channels to be enough - one in English and one in Irish, but they must to improve a quality of their programs significantly. Thank you!

Macy0161

Disagree with pretty much all of that. A lot of the children's TV is the same (quite often Irish produced) shows as foreign and sub stations. I like the addition of Irish accent and Irish language links. So that's a definite plus for saorview. Picture quality is a lot better on saorview, but blame Fianna Fail for hamstringing rte's content on the platform.

mike65

Better picture on saorview? The SD picture is terrible Maybe I was spoiled by the old analogue signal in east Waterford but the switch to digital has so far been a step back (bar HD on one channel). Newsnow looks like a youtube stream.

Cienciano

Premier league soccer, Heineken cup, Italian and Spanish football. People have good reasons to pay for sky

I have the basic Sky package with no sport or films. However I've barely used it recently. When I do watch something it's usually not on the FTA channels, but I don't think I watch enough to justify paying €35 per month for it. So I'll probably end up dropping it.

Macy0161

mike65 wrote: »

Better picture on saorview? The SD picture is terrible Maybe I was spoiled by the old analogue signal in east Waterford but the switch to digital has so far been a step back (bar HD on one channel). Newsnow looks like a youtube stream.

We had analogue booming in here from kippure. I had digital as an improvement when we had both tbh. News now is totally hampered by Carey's ridiculous kowtowing to sky and tv3, but it wasn't on analogue at all, and does get watched in this household at least.

Lockedout

I have thought about this myself. Are there cartoon channels free for view for the nipper? Can you get a TV set that records series ? When you aint watching? Why does it always rain on me etc..

Technoprisoner

because irish freeview isnt worth watching

copacetic

Pay Tv for both Irish and worldwide sport, along with the first view in HD of a lot of the newer US shows.

Often in these threads you see people as in some of the posts above say people don't need pay TV because in their opinion the sport isnt great etc. which presumably is their opinion and why they themselves don't have payTV. Obviously others think a lot differently, pretty much everyone I know who is a big sports fan has some form of pay sports access and people who say you don't need it generally aren't sports fans.

It's not to do with viewing hours or %s it's access to the live sport when it happens.

For the last few months there are GAA league games only on setanta, Heineken cup rugby games only on sky, PGA and European tour golf only on sky as well as the more popular premiership and spanish football on sky and espn.

snaps

Cienciano wrote: »

Premier league soccer, Heineken cup, Italian and Spanish football. People have good reasons to pay for sky

but is it worth 115€ a month?

copacetic

snaps wrote: »

but is it worth 115€ a month?

Who pays 115€ a month? It's more like €70 depending on other extras. Which presumably people afford by forgoing other things that people who haven't the interest in live sport spend money on.

Certainly watching even 10% of the sport you would miss by not having it at home in the pub who cost more than the monthly fee.

al22

You watching SKY and you love sports. OK. you can pay.

Apart of Sky there are many other channels and other sattelites

I prefer the Hotbird with FREE English language channels from around the world including NHK Japan? CCTV China? AL Jazeera, French, German, Russian, Egypt etc FREE in English and some children
's FREE too, also BBC World and Bloomberg. It is not on the Sky.
And much better quality news against RTE.

Cienciano

snaps wrote: »

but is it worth 115€ a month?

This

copacetic wrote: »

Who pays 115€ a month? It's more like €70 depending on other extras. Which presumably people afford by forgoing other things that people who haven't the interest in live sport spend money on.

Certainly watching even 10% of the sport you would miss by not having it at home in the pub who cost more than the monthly fee.

Exactly.
I live with my wife, we'd regularly go out and watch the heineken cup in the pub. Between the 2 of us, the amount of money we'd spend doing it was unreal. Now we can watch it at home, so we're actually saving money having sky.
Well, that's the argument I used to get in sky sports. And it worked too

snaps

snaps wrote: »

but is it worth 115€ a month?

sorry I stand corrected, sky world (79), hd (15), setanta(16)= 110€

copacetic

Sky offer constant deals, so I'd say few enough people are paying anything like that for sky and a lot dont pay for HD. Also most people pay about €5-8 euro for setanta.

Hippo

FREETV wrote: »

I heard that Game of Thrones on Sky Atlantic is very popular because of the numerous nude nookie scenes in every episode although I haven't seen it as I don't wish to subscribe to Sky or any other pay television platform.

Is this supposed to be a serious point?

MOONBABY240

I don't understand y anybody sill watches tv at all tbh,

FREETV

Hippo wrote: »

Is this supposed to be a serious point?

Did you watch Johnathan Ross's show a few weeks ago? He had some of the cast on and they and he both mentioned that there were frequent sex scenes, that is why I mentioned that a lot of people found Game Of Thrones popular and they want to portray the beastly ways of the time period.

FREETV

MOONBABY240 wrote: »

I don't understand y anybody sill watches tv at all tbh,

Entertainment and sports should be subscription free end of story.
Getting paid millions a year for kicking a ball around on a field is sheer madness.
I played for fun and was quite good but had to give up because of a dodgy knee, these so called professional footballers are making idiots out of the subscribers, it is like an addiction/drug habit almost and some people in Ireland would go without food or heating to subscribe to that muck.
It is a foreign game with foreign teams.

Though I would agree that it is a healthier addiction than the booze or drugs. :pac:

icdg

Okay, if you want to discuss the merits and demerits of the existence of professional football in and of itself, take it to Soccer..

Hotblack Desiato

icdg wrote: »

Fourthly, and very importantly, there has been no marketing whatsoever for free to air satellite in this country other than some small businesses. RTÉ isn't interested in publicising it, because its not on it, and it fears that people with two systems won't casually switch to RTÉ because they'll have to make the effort to do so rather than flicking to it.(Yes you can get combo receivers). Most take-up of free to air satellite has literally been because of word of mouth alone.

The Saorview site has been promoting combo boxes / FTA satellite since before ASO.



http://www.saorview.ie/saorview-combi/

FREETV

ninja900 wrote: »

The Saorview site has been promoting combo boxes / FTA satellite since before ASO.



http://www.saorview.ie/saorview-combi/

The quote from the cat at the bottom right hand side is a bit of an exaggeration, there aren't that many HD channels yet on either satellite or terrestrial free. Half a dozen or so isn't lots.
I wouldn't buy one yet until it has a T2 terrestrial tuner in it. They were innundated with questions about free carriage/availability of the UK stations before and after the launch.

galait

I was in the States Recently and My sister Pays $185/mth for TV/Broadband from Comcast , No calls included as she has a seperate Vonage Account for Calls, :eek:

FREETV

galait wrote: »

I was in the States Recently and My sister Pays $185/mth for TV/Broadband from Comcast , No calls included as she has a seperate Vonage Account for Calls, :eek:

Salaries, wages are higher there though, we couldn't afford that here, we are too small of a nation.
I have been there a couple of times and the Americans love their technology, entertainment and conforts.

bhamsteve

Because a sky+ box is pretty much the best bit of TV kit going, they come and fit the dish for free, you get more channels.
I've had freesat, saorview, sky, cable etc and sky is by far the best, if you don't mind paying for it. + they only charge you half price if you phone up with a sob story every 6 months.

the great purveyor of mediocrity

I would agree with the vast majority of the points made here. I think it is, for most people, predominantly down to inertia and fear of change. It is also down to the avalanche of marketing (brainwashing) and advertising from the likes of Sky especially. I would guess that I get two flyers per week through the letterbox from them, really annoying. I have not received any flyers from companies saying they can provide me with FTA channels and the setup necessary to do so.
I only have FTA channels but that could be because I had a lot of time on my hands to research an area which at the beginning I knew nothing about. I spent over a week researching the topic online and ringing various satellite installers before I decided on the setup I wanted.
Personally I can't see the point of paying for TV at all. I've attempted to explain it to other people who are paying for subscriptions and only watching the FTA ones and their eyes just glaze over when I start.
I would love to be watching "The Walking Dead" series three on the subscription channels but feck it, I'll just wait and watch it on RTE or channel 5 when they screen it. I won't even ruin it by watching it online. I think it's good to wait and want things the odd time and build the anticipation.
Also you cannot tell me that anyone has the time to be watching the quantity of matches that are on the sports subs. It's just not possible. There are plenty of club and international matches on the FTA and the highlights for the domestic leagues is nearly enough. I'm a major sports fan but I've grown weary of the wages earned by the soccer players and also the sheer quantity of football on TV now. Less is more.

Sam Russell

I think people watch the 'best' that is on - whatever they have. When we only had RTE (single channel) that was great. We all watched 'Stop the lights' and 'The Late Late Show' at the same time. Then we got cable and satellite and Sky and we watched the best of the Beeb or ITV or whatever. Now we have 500 channels (and nothing on) so we flick through the channels looking for some thing decent - but there isn't anything worth watching. That is the reality of it.

Whatever you are used to - it will do. So if you only have FTA, that will be OK. So you can watch the Rabbo rugby, but not the Heino. So, that is what you do and live with it.

If money is tight, cancel Sky and learn to live again.

PS I think 'Stop the Lights' was actualy called 'Quicksilver', presented by Bunny Carr.

FREETV

Sam Russell wrote: »

I think people watch the 'best' that is on - whatever they have. When we only had RTE (single channel) that was great. We all watched 'Stop the lights' and 'The Late Late Show' at the same time. Then we got cable and satellite and Sky and we watched the best of the Beeb or ITV or whatever. Now we have 500 channels (and nothing on) so we flick through the channels looking for some thing decent - but there isn't anything worth watching. That is the reality of it.

Whatever you are used to - it will do. So if you only have FTA, that will be OK. So you can watch the Rabbo rugby, but not the Heino. So, that is what you do and live with it.

If money is tight, cancel Sky and learn to live again.

PS I think 'Stop the Lights' was actualy called 'Quicksilver', presented by Bunny Carr.

Exactly Sam Sky isn't a necessity when one can watch FTA satellite and Saorview, paying the mortgage, the rent, eating a decent diet, looking after the health and well being, having a modest standard of living are far more important than spending money on any foreign football clubs as Sky Sports is just an escape, a distraction and those games do not matter one bit at the end of the day.

Most of the Sky Movie Channels are pure muck and constant repeats for a whole week at a time.

bhamsteve

FREETV wrote: »

Exactly Sam Sky isn't a necessity when one can watch FTA satellite and Saorview, paying the mortgage, the rent, eating a decent diet, looking after the health and well being, having a modest standard of living are far more important than spending money on any foreign football clubs as Sky Sports is just an escape, a distraction and those games do not matter one bit at the end of the day.

Most of the Sky Movie Channels are pure muck and constant repeats for a whole week at a time.

I'd agree with the movie channels being muck, you're lucky to get one new decent film each week, it would be cheaper to rent a DVD or watch online.
I'm well into football too but couldn't justify paying for sky sports for 1 or 2 decent games a month, the best club football is the champions league and that's on saorview.

chinwag

I'm thinking of trying freesat/saorview, I'm presently on cable tv, only on basic pack but it's quite expensive.

I suppose I'm a bit apprehensive about going back to aerials, possible maintenance, their durability in windy weather, etc. although dishes/aerials are smaller than aerials years ago.

I'd appreciate any feedback on freesat/saorview (combi) from anyone who has changed over from cable.

I often feel that if I changed to free viewing, I'd wonder why I subscribed to cable tv for so long (as per thread title) and why so many still pay for cable tv - maybe cable is less hassle but it's expensive. I really want to be converted to free view tv. Thanks for any help.

chinwag

chinwag wrote: »

I suppose I'm a bit apprehensive about going back to aerials, possible maintenance, their durability in windy weather, etc. although dishes/aerials are smaller than aerials years ago.

My grandmother was thinking the same thing - she kept thinking of the monstrosity Band I aerial she had on her roof in the 60s and 70s. The UHF aerials are much smaller though, I don't think you'd need to worry about them too much.