Dump your Sky Subscription campaign

carrolls

Sky Digital in the ROI is fast becoming an Irish Joke.
We are never going to See UTV, Channel 4 or the new BBC channels on Sky in the ROI. Too many organisations have got involved. The only way is down from now on.
BBC are teasing us with BBC Radio 6, and 5 Live is also a no hoper.

The bottom line is the Sky Subscription is not worth it without the above mentioned channels.
I am going to break my subscription contract very soon if we don't start getting these channels.

PacMan

Dump SKY and get what? Chorus???
SKY are by far the better platform, and yes, they have very little competition here.
The irish DTT is still only a creation on paper. They have not got the finiancial backing. Chorus is the franchise holder for cable /mmds where I live, and after suffering their crappy service under 3 names (SuirNore/Irish Multichannel & Chorus) I would never recommend them to anyone, never mind cancel SKY and go back to them myself.

There is nothing in competition to SKY at the moment. Until such time there is, my direct debit will be going to the Murdoch empire.

carrolls

Get off your mushroom man!
I would willingly swap all of the available Sky rubbish presently on Sky Digital for the complete UK terrestial selection. ie BBC/ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. No contest.
It is getting harder and harder to find a decent programme on Sky's collection. And there seems to be perpetual advertisments when surfing their channels.
You must have had a pretty bad service from Chorus for you to say that Sky is top notch.

PacMan

Hi carrolls,
Haven't seen you on the boards for a while. Welcome back.
I do stand by my comments that i believe that Sky is the better platform. I have only Chorus to compare it to.
Yes I agree with you carrolls about having UTV and Channel4.
I of course, would love to see them on SKY. News 24 would also be a welcome addition as i am a news junkie:)
I can see and relate to your frustration regarding the absence of these channels on Sky, but they are not, and we all have choices. Dump Sky as you suggested and get cable/mmds, or have both.
Me? I will stay with Sky

Mossy Monk

the only alternative to Sky for me at the moment is Chorus. would i give up Sky for them? is there any question. no way would i take them. if Casey Cablevision are reading, i would take you over Sky. please head out and complete your cabling of Ballinacourty. your broadband internet would be lovely. i am nearly on my knees at this stage and you wont answer my emails. but anyway, Chorus is no alternative to Sky

chernobyl

When Irish subscribers get UK terrestrials for free, you say thankyou to that channel (ie) BBC1/2, you dont pay for the UK terrestrials so you should not get them and there is a mountain of broadcasting issues to get over.

Lennoxschips

I think the problem is the Irish subscribers pay the same price as UK subscribers - but get less channels. So, they sould either lower the price in Ireland accordingly, or turn the channels on.

carrolls

Thanks Pacman, I was away on business,
I suppose what it all boils down to is the difference between Irish and British terrestial programming. They have BBC/ITV/CH4/CH5
and we have RTE/TV3/TG4.
The one consolation is that ITV and Channel 4 are finding it extremely difficult to survive on advertising alone. They need the ROI market much more than they realise.
A lot of the ITV channels are struggling to survive.
Also if UTV loses half of its audience in the ROI because ITV will not allow them to broadcast on Sky Digital in ROI, they will start to struggle also. They literally depend on the ROI for their fluidity.
If UTV were totally switched off in the Republic tomorrow, they would go under in a week. UTV is the second most popular channel in the Republic after RTE1.
They need us more than we need them.:cool:
This also applies to Channel 4 NI too, because Channel 4 NI has more viewers in the South than the North.:cool:

But I reckon some people in Granada would rather eat glass than switch on UTV and Channel 4 in the ROI.

Giblet

I would definatly go for Sky over what I have available to me, which is Chorus. I have both installed at the moment so I can get BBC, UTV and Channel 4, but i'm still not happy with Chorus. Chorus is rubbish and will always be rubbish. The aforementioned channels seem to blackout at least twice a week for about 5 hrs at a time, and I'm left with Eurosport, Sky, Sky news, and Trouble. They even had the nerve to send me out a letter that went along the lines of:
"Dear Customer, Would you be interested in giving us £100 so that when you lose 5 or more channels, we will fix it for only £50"
yeah pay to fix a problem that is caused by them. This happens to nearly everyone I know who uses Chorus, and the worst thing is, if you were to lose only 4 channels after paying for this, they would charge you full price to fix them immediatly.

ejmaztec

I contacted Sky back in November after hearing that several people were still paying dual subscriptions because they assumed that the arrival of ITV and Channel 4 was imminent. I also pointed out that, when the first year was up, if the channels were not on the list, Sky would be dumped by these people. Of course I was totally ignored by this arrogant shower. I waved goodbye to the Chorus Cowboys about a year ago because of our mutual hatred for each other. Now that my Sky contract is almost up for the first year, I'm trying to decide which bunch I hate the most. I think I'll have to arrange for the UN to mediate between me and Chorus. I know Chorus is crap but what else is there except for a 2000 feet aerial bolted to the house.

I blame Sky 100% for the problems. If they really wanted to provide a good service they are in the best possible position to apply pressure to regularise the European broadcasting rules.

What I would like to know is how many people are still paying dual subscriptions and how many redundant digiboxes will be taken to the local landfill at the end of the day.

PacMan

I dont think this thread was ever intended to be a Chorus Vs Sky debate. However "Dumping" Sky, is not an option as there is *no* alternative to those living in the Chorus franchise.
Many postings in the Cable & MMDS forum have confirmed this. It is interesting to note that when reading the Cable/MMDS forum, that most of the NTL comments are technical ones, rather than complaints. Sure Chorus is a union of many companies through the years. But instead of dealing with each region one by one, they flood the area with promotions offering unlimited internet, phone connections and digital television. That was three years ago in this Chorus area. And three years later, well none of the above. Just the old annalogue service that looses channels very often. I will stay with Sky only because they have absoutely *no* competition where I live. They are not known as *Crappy chorus* for nothing.

David C

There is an alternative...
At the end of the year, you can get rid of your subscription, keep your dish & box... Phone Aunty Mary over in London and get her to send over an FTV card.
Use a small UHF aerial to pick up RTE/TV3 and watch, in widescreen, BBC 1/2regions/Choice/4,ITV1regions,C4,C5,CBBC & CBeebies and get to listen to all the radio stations on the EPG including 5Live & 5Live Xtra on the free card....

ejmaztec

Everybody knows that Chorus is a dire outfit - even Sky must have researched them before they moved in for the kill. However, I've heard more people say that Sky is going to get the elbow when the time comes. Chorus is like a cluster of potholes or motor premiums. The vast majority of people just put up with them and have a bit of a moan in the Northern Hemisphere (with the exception of the French who would burn a few dead animals or fish) If this were South America - people would go missing and the populace would take to the streets.

chernobyl

/word has it has that phone line 2 digibox connection, via extension or independant phone line will become mandatory.

David C

To the best of my knowledge, the phone line became manditory last June.

I was told by the installer I had to leave it in for the first 12 months and i've had it in and never seen the modem light on, must dial late at night...

I was a bit concerned about it interfering with the phone and it dialing out to premium numbers when I go into interactive but it's never interupted a call, most of the interactive stuff doesn't dial out and when it does it warns you, but then doesn't work anyway because it dials UK numbers, at the moment at least.

Our man in Havana

Originally posted by chernobyl
/word has it has that phone line 2 digibox connection, via extension or independant phone line will become mandatory.

Surely this does not apply to second hand or used boxes?

chernobyl

To all Sky subscribers in the UK/ROI.
Sky are getting real nervous over piracy rumours, most have been consistent with hardware modi needed for the STB and thats it, so time to tighten the screws.

NDS were under the impression that VG had not been re-engineered with only pic/eeprom files needed for a pirate card and no STB modification needed, but Canal+ have *claimed* that they have done it.


*i think this will hurt their case severly.