Lots of sporting events being cancelled, suspend contract?

snaps

With nearly all subscription sports being cancelled or suspended, how are TV subscribers protected from suspending or cancelling their high priced subs now pay TV broadcasters are offering barely nothing?
Breach of contract?
Interesting I think.
This is why 30 day contracts like now TV are the best

Wanderer78

You could try argue it, but I suspect you ll get nowhere

Unearthly

I'd be interested to know this to. Sadly I reckon there is a part in contract that says content is subject to change

icdg

As long as you’ve got at least a month completed, you can call Sky right now and give your 31 days notice. No one forces you to keep sports any longer. Yes this means you need to take at least two months. Longer minimum contract terms generally only apply to the basic pack (Sky Entertainment/Signature). If you took Sports Extra and got the half price deal you need to keep the basic pack for another twelve months from when you signed up.

Mind you I think Sky would do well to completely waive all sports subscription fees while there’s no sport on. That said, you have to remember that at present it is still U.K. Government policy that sports events not be cancelled and a different approach is being taken there to here. The Premier League (except Arsenal), Premiership Rugby, Super League etc are all still playing. That’s not something for discussion in this forum (there are approximately 1,000,000 coronavirus threads on Boards where it can be discussed!!!!) but when it inevitably changes I think Sky would do well to waive the charges for the duration of a stoppage.

snaps

Well I think in the next few days nearly every sport will be cancelled or suspended.
Days are looking bleak for EPL and quite possibly CL/EL. F1 doesn't seem it will be successful.
I know that subscriptions to netflix have rocketed the last few weeks as people get ready for home stays.

If this disruption carries on for sometime I can see this possibly being the downfall with satellite contract subscriptions.
Internet monthly subscriptions are the future.

icdg

Premier League and golf now gone so I expect Sky will have to do something to stop a flood of cancellations (some of whom might never return) given it could be a while before sports are back.

dulpit

If they were clever they could pause payments for everyone. That way when sport is back they will reinstate the payments and people will keep their contract going the whole time, whereas if you cancel then you might not ever come back.

Harry Palmr

Presumably they'll fill the time with archive material.

snaps

I'd say not just satellite broadcasters but cable too are getting squeeky bums.

Capt'n Midnight

snaps wrote: »

I'd say not just satellite broadcasters but cable too are getting squeeky bums.

Possibly not. Longer contracts and IIRC there isn't a huge margin on reselling sports.

Closing stadiums means zero ticket sales. Closing shops or isolating everyone may reduce advertising revenue for broadcasters and teams.

The big question is if SKY can themselves can suspend payments to the teams. Sky Sports and BT have agreed to pay £4.464bn to show 160 Premier League games a season from 2019/20 until 2021/22.

Manc_Red

I see BT in the UK can deactivate packages at anytime now with the click of a button like Now TV.


Sky I hope can do that instead of that silly half hour phone-call to do sort it with them.

dulpit

Sky getting an awful lot of flack from pub owners too, as their cancellation period is 3 months (!), and they pay an absolute fortune. You'd think that something will come along from Sky in the next few days if they want to maintain any sort of goodwill with customers...

icdg

The commercial customers are getting a payment holiday.

https://twitter.com/skyhelpireland/status/1239884345005019137?s=21

Now if only they’d give domestic customers the same deal, or at least, free Sky Cinema as a gesture of goodwill in the circumstances.

ClonNGB

What's the best way of cancelling Sky ? I phoned them but they said there is a queue of over an hour.
Is there an address to send a registered letter or something ? I don't want to go through a long rigmarole.

muffler

ClonNGB wrote: »

What's the best way of cancelling Sky ? I phoned them but they said there is a queue of over an hour.
Is there an address to send a registered letter or something ? I don't want to go through a long rigmarole.

I posted this in another thread a few minutes ago

icdg

Finally something for the domestic customers - a subscription pause facility. Oh, and free Sky Go Extra.

http://twitter.com/skyhelpireland/status/1239970185739505672?s=21

dxhound2005

In terms of this thread which started on the 13th, it is a quick move from Sky.

jeffk

Still cant pause online

SO its 40 plus on hold or keep paying and waiting for them to add the option

Should have just paused it for everyone when this all started

vienne86

This seems to imply that while customers currently have to phone to pause Sky and can't do it on line, they hope to change that in the coming days:
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/sky-sports-confirm-customers-can-pause-subscriptions-until-live-sport-returns-1.4205316

machiavellianme

You can sign up online but you can't pause online?
Poor form from Sky forcing call centre workers to put society at further risk as they make their staff attend a confined office.
All accounts should be automatically paused or the facility to do so should be added on the website / app.

Rebel_Kn1ght

machiavellianme wrote: »

You can sign up online but you can't pause online?
Poor form from Sky forcing call centre workers to put society at further risk as they make their staff attend a confined office.
All accounts should be automatically paused or the facility to do so should be added on the website / app.

I just paused mine online. Took a few minutes to connect but was fine

jeffk

Where is pause?

Remove package tells me to call in

vienne86

jeffk wrote: »

Where is pause?

Remove package tells me to call in

I think the Irish Times article said that the pause is not there yet, and that you have to phone in, but Sky hope to make it possible to pause online soon.

jeffk

vienne86 wrote: »

I think the Irish Times article said that the pause is not there yet, and that you have to phone in, but Sky hope to make it possible to pause online soon.

Thats what I was thinking so dunno how someone did pause

I dont think I want to spent 40 minutes on hold and encourage them to keep call centre workers in work

Plus might not unpause it as it stands its half the bill, silly money now

Rebel_Kn1ght

jeffk wrote: »

Thats what I was thinking so dunno how someone did pause

I dont think I want to spent 40 minutes on hold and encourage them to keep call centre workers in work

Plus might not unpause it as it stands its half the bill, silly money now

It's on live chat. I was looking through the package and it was offering the Netflix package and had a live chat button so said I would chance my arm. Was asked few security details and then asked whether I wanted to pause Sky Sports and SPorts Extra or just one of them. As I said it took a few minutes to connect but was all sorted in 2/3 minutes once I got through

machiavellianme

Rebel_Kn1ght wrote: »

I just paused mine online. Took a few minutes to connect but was fine

Can you share how you did this with the rest of us?
I keep getting redirected to the UK site.

jeffk

Went to add to my account (no issues there of course) then pressed on two message icons which changed from a phone number to live chat, twice I waited to no joy

Rebel_Kn1ght

machiavellianme wrote: »

Can you share how you did this with the rest of us?
I keep getting redirected to the UK site.

I did in the post just above yours but it seems like people are not getting through now. I tried this morning before 9 so maybe try tomorrow morning when it's quieter

icdg

It’s not even that the calls are going unanswered or anything, the IVR is actually telling people they cant take calls at this time.

galtee boy

I got an email from Sky about 6pm, telling me I can have SkyGo Extra for free and I can pause Sports and it said check back on Friday for online details about pausing Sports, or words to that effect.

muffler

According to HUKD Sky in Britain are saying that "pause" is an error basically. People would have to cancel it seems

dulpit

icdg wrote: »

It’s not even that the calls are going unanswered or anything, the IVR is actually telling people they cant take calls at this time.

I was trying to sort out details on my father in laws account 3 weeks ago and I was getting that message too. Can only imagine how busy it is now...

icdg

It will apparently be doable on-line tomorrow. Possibly. Maybe.

jeffk

On the phone and got it sorted

20 odd on hold and got through and immediately taken off, 40 euro less a month

machiavellianme

So they added an online mechanism to Pause but it only applies to Sky sports and not Sports extra.

Trampas

I paused mine via Twitter and got reply to say it is paused but channels still working

muffler

Trampas wrote: »

I paused mine via Twitter and got reply to say it is paused but channels still working

Payment is paused, not the channels.

Manc_Red

If you're on the 24 per month deal for 6 mths with Cinema don't even bother pausing Sky Sports I'd imagine?

Mimikyu

Manc_Red wrote: »

If you're on the 24 per month deal for 6 mths with Cinema don't even bother pausing Sky Sports I'd imagine?

If you pause the sports you should still keep the movies for €4.50. At least that's how it worked on my account. I paused the sports and it shows on my future bill as free and the movies at €4.50.

Trampas

muffler wrote: »

Payment is paused, not the channels.

Why don’t they do it for everyone then? Just hoping people don’t do it so get extra money in I guess

snaps

As I live in Poland now and have a Canal+ online account (Basically same as Now TV), it seems subscribers are automatically getting an extra month free for each month this sports abandonment goes on. I wonder though what will happen with Eleven sports subscribers who bought F1 season passes here? I would say that F1 is doomed this season.

Manc_Red

Captain Morgan wrote: »

If you pause the sports you should still keep the movies for €4.50. At least that's how it worked on my account. I paused the sports and it shows on my future bill as free and the movies at €4.50.

Thanks very much just done it online.

https://www.sky.com/ireland/tv/sports/pause/

Lex Luthor

I called them on the 14th asking about pausing my sports subscription and they told me no chance, it wasnt available

So they said I should cancel as no other option, but I asked them to get back in touch if things changed. But in effect I was told basically to stick it and I had to pay out my 31 days notice

So as things have changed I expected a call to ask if I still wanted to pause, but nothing. Now I see it can be paused but 10 days later and the wait time on the phone is > 1hr

They dropped the ball here on this one I feel

machiavellianme

Both sky sports and sky sports extra can now be paused online.
Good luck finding any sort of proof though, most of the app and the site are unresponsive and your bill will fail to load.

vienne86

machiavellianme wrote: »

Both sky sports and sky sports extra can now be paused online.
Good luck finding any sort of proof though, most of the app and the site are unresponsive and your bill will fail to load.

I finally got to pause my Sky Sports last night, after days of 'technical error' or some such. Just tried now to pause Sky Sports Extra, and was diverted to livechat, which timed out.

As an earlier poster said, why they can't just pause it for everyone automatically is a bit of a mystery, but smacks of Sky wanting to make a few bucks out of already-stressed customers.

Lex Luthor

got through today 0818 890 4200

person on the other end was very helpful. Acknowledged that I had called on the 14th March and said they would change my cancellation to being paused and would back date it to the 14th March

Only a 15min call in total...much more pleasant that the person I was talking to on the 14th, the way it should be

fman

Just to post here for info, I was able to pause sports extra through the website today. It's not the most user friendly and even up to clicking it suggested it was just for sports ( which I had already paused).
I think for most it will be the usual dance around the site to find the link but it is there, somewhere.

donnacha67

Why can we not cancel sky sports or pause it online in Ireland? As there is no live sports I cannot see why Sky themselves have not done the honerable thing and offered pause in Ireland. Contacting them is a waste of time as all agents have bern sent home.

mburke

donnacha67 wrote: »

Why can we not cancel sky sports or pause it online in Ireland? As there is no live sports I cannot see why Sky themselves have not done the honerable thing and offered pause in Ireland. Contacting them is a waste of time as all agents have bern sent home.

I was able to pause sky sports online and the next bill was adjusted accordingly.

lertsnim

donnacha67 wrote: »

Why can we not cancel sky sports or pause it online in Ireland? As there is no live sports I cannot see why Sky themselves have not done the honerable thing and offered pause in Ireland. Contacting them is a waste of time as all agents have bern sent home.

You can pause it online in Ireland.

icdg

Merged