Sky Price Rise in ROI

LegacyUser

Hi folks,

Some bad news is in the post for you (if you're a Sky Digital subscriber).

Just got the new Sky Magazine which includes a letter concerning new subscription prices. I currently subscribe to the Movie package which costs £30. However the subscription will be increasing on 1st September to £35.44. It says that while this amount might seem to be an unusual one. it's because it's been calculated in advance of the upcoming conversion to the Euro.

It then says that because I'm a customer for less than 12 months, my charge won't increase until 7th October and it will then be frozen 'til 1st September 2002.

It says the price increase is to bring the monthly charge more in line with customers in the UK and because Sky's costs have grown in the past year as they have invested in original programming and have added new subscription channel such as BBC1 and BBC2.

I suppose we may have gotten away lightly in terms of prices when you convert the sterling amount they've been paying in the UK. I haven't done the conversion yet, but would this be an occurrence of the "rounding up" that the government has been assuring us would not be allowed to happen (how were they ever going to stop it ??)

Also it's interesting that they singled the Beebs out as new "subscription" channels. For some reason it doesn't bode well for the rest of the Beebs and other UK terrestrials. Will we have to pay more for BBC Choice or Channel 4, for example ?

As for the investment in original programming, I think I could live without "The World's Scariest Reps in Ibiza" or whatever it's called.

It's also a fairly hefty price hike. From £30 to £35.44. You work out the percentage.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news ....

LegacyUser

Had to come sooner or later I suppose. I subscribe to the same package as you. I have to agree with you on the programming bit, I don't know how they can say they have invested in new programming when they seem to show Ibiza uncovered etc nearly non-stop.

As you say doesn't bode well for UTV Ch4 coming on and forcing another price rise. mind you if they come on by the end of the year at least as they say the price will be fixed for 12 months.

i doubt if the Government would be too interested in us SkyDigi viewers with regards to the whole "rounding up" scenario.

jim

LegacyUser

as far as i know thats extremely illegal, i dont know the exact law but it is,
imagine the inflation rate if all companies did this

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Gladiator:
as far as i know thats extremely illegal, i dont know the exact law but it is,
imagine the inflation rate if all companies did this</font>

What?

LegacyUser

well if everyone raised price so that the euro converted into an even number, this could tack on alot to the inflation rate,
its meant to be illegal,
i notice none of them dropped their price to make it even

LegacyUser

Yeah, I got my letter yesterday aswell........I can well understand it and was pretty much expecting it, and people get used to the rounding up thing - it was a certainty that all companies are going to use the Euro confusion thing as an excuse to increase prices, we will be ripped off, and again I can't see how the Govt. will be able to do anything about it.

My subscription price won't change until next April, and is then frozen until Sept - again depends on when you got your subscription in the first place. I don't mind too much, I look at what they try to improve and add as opposed to the so called competition and there really is no comparison.

LegacyUser

Any news on the new prices for the other packages, especially the Family pack and Sky World.

LegacyUser

I got the letter yesterday to say the family pack is going up to £21.26. (27euros) from september. Almost a 33% increase.

LegacyUser

is it just or is this aload of bolox http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2001/0726/breaking35.htm

LegacyUser

On a similar issue, Anyone know of a pub in town showing tonights Liverpool game (it's on Sky Sports extra)

Cheers

Penfold

LegacyUser

I've just recieved that letter too. Having re-read it again I wonder if the price increase is actually to cover themselves for the introduction of ITV et al. I have to say a £5 increase wouldn't be that bad if we get those channels. The plot thickens

LegacyUser

£21 for family pack?Arounbd this time last year it was only £13!!!

LegacyUser

who cares, it wastes the competition still.

And big things are gonna happen in the next 2 years.

Astra are launching the biggest (kick a$$) satellite in north america soon and RP will soon own direct TV (or does he already) so we will see direct satellite to satellite feeds of tv from America--->Europe and Europe---->America.
its about to get even better.
well thats what i think will happen as Astra ownz part os Asia Sat (well i think thw own most now) and they do direct feeds from Astra Europe into Asia Sat.

---

Ashley...if only

Ashley Lyn Cafagna

[This message has been edited by chernobyl (edited 26-07-2001).]

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by The Gopher:
£21 for family pack?Arounbd this time last year it was only £13!!!</font>

Even sooner, up until yesterday it was £13.

---

Ashley...if only

Ashley Lyn Cafagna

LegacyUser

Isn't it ironic (as Alanis Morrisette would say) that Sky announce an increase in charges a week after they removed a channel from our service. Although most people won't miss Tara TV too much, I guess there's a lot of people out there with bad RTE reception who would have used it.

What we really need now is an excellent service from NTL/Chorus etc. to bring increased competition and so force Sky to keep prices down and increase choice in Ireland.

As far as terrestrial digital in Ireland is concerned - it's already dead in the water. At the moment, if you want a big selection of channels, Sky is the only place to go - it's not surprising they know they can increase their prices without too much of a fuss.

LegacyUser

I just got the letter there as well....we have the full package and its gone upto £41 squid if memory serves me correctly and Tara was handy cuz we have crap reception on irish channels here in Cavan...good UK channels tho!

an extra few quid a month doesn't seem that much but it all adds up at the end of the year.

Farls

LegacyUser

The Tara thing was nothing to do with Sky, once again it was a stupid decision by RTE, who have incidently announced they are to launch 4 Digital channels (don't get excited, they may well never see the light of day), the channels they are planning to launch won't fill you with excitment either - a 24-hour news channel which turns into a local sports channel at the weekends (fair enough, a good idea), an education channel, a youth channel and more Oireachtas coverage......
For this they will be asking for a hefty license fee increase next year, which they will get I'm sure if the plan is approved...the news channel is to come online in Autumn 2002, with the others the following year - all very scetchy. These channels will apparently cost £40 per year.

I do agree that the services being offered by Sky are getting better all the time, and the proposed takeover of DirecTV (not quite signed and sealed yet) could prove very interesting, but if anyone thinks that NTL or the increasingly fading Chorus are going to bring in good packages at reasonable prices - you're mad......NTL are £15bn in debt, not a sign that they will want to make large subsidies for their customers, and if they are being blocked by regulators from increasing their subscription charges - I reckon they will charge heavily for the new set-top-boxes and installation of same......I'd also look out very soon for a hefty increase in the subscription charges from NTL of Sky channels, just to pass on the increase Sky have made to digital customers.

LegacyUser

well i dont see how they can charge that much for a set top box, if your allready with they, and they want to upgrade you, they cants force it on you,
ill jsut say no idont want digital,
its will be shti anyway, im still ****ed about only being able to watch one thing at one time, *******s, i dont want digital,
and the thought of them charging me serveral hundread pounds for the pleasure of giving them more money each year to watch stations i dont want to watch, is missed up

LegacyUser

Gladiator, who is forcing Sky Digital on you? There is no obligation to sign up for SkyDigi service. Do you have SkyDigi service? It wipes the floor with the likes of NTL's service in Dublin.
If you did some research you'd know that there is a new decoder available soon with which you can watch one channel and record another onto, much like Tivo.
Can you also please tone down the language, not because I am offended by it but it makes it difficult to make sense of your already hard to decipher posts.

LegacyUser

actually i was talking about ntl focing me to use digital or drop them, and actually i know all about Tivo smart ass, but i was lead to believe ntl wont be useing that

LegacyUser

Q>What forum are you posting in
A>Digital satellite.

Tip there is another forum for NTL questions.

I didn't say you didn't know anything about Tivo I said it was coming for SkyDigi.

LegacyUser

i know that, but this topic had already gone off topic in ntl world,

LegacyUser

yes it has, thank you for sending it that way

[This message has been edited by BNC (edited 27-07-2001).]

LegacyUser

"What we really need now is an excellent service from NTL/Chorus etc. to bring increased competition and so force Sky to keep prices down and increase choice in Ireland."

"but if anyone thinks that NTL or the increasingly fading Chorus are going to bring in good packages at reasonable prices - you're mad......NTL are £15bn in debt, not a sign that they will want to make large subsidies for their customers, and if they are being blocked by regulators from increasing their subscription charges - I reckon they will charge heavily for the new set-top-boxes and installation of same......I'd also look out very soon for a hefty increase in the subscription charges from NTL of Sky channels, "

no i think these lads did, but thanks for being a pain

LegacyUser

Given that the topic in question is the increase in Sky Digital's prices, I think it's reasonable to discuss other companies services in the context of keeping Sky's prices down.

Let's face it the two points have a strong bearing on each other.

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Charles Slane:
Given that the topic in question is the increase in Sky Digital's prices, I think it's reasonable to discuss other companies services in the context of keeping Sky's prices down.

Let's face it the two points have a strong bearing on each other.</font>

Absolutely, I think its wrong though to make sweeping statements as to the fact that NTL's digi service will be rubbbish when it hasn't even been launched yet, and also to compare it to SkyDigi when the person making these statements doesn't actually have it! (I don't work for either company )

I think the service's from Sky are worth the increase, as stated by someone else. Something that is overlooked on this is you are also paying for the quality of the service. How many of us ditched Chorus because of their lack of customer focus, their bad reception etc. When I lived in Dublin it, was cablelink at the time, their customer facing skills left a lot to be desired and the reception could be patchy to say the most.
i think we should take in the overall picture, Digital quality Sound and picture, huge choice, and good customer service, hardly any breakdown in service (I had a problem and the engineer arrived the same day!). I think this adds up to a good package for the money.

LegacyUser

i didnt compare it to sky you muppet, never not once, stop!
and ntl cable is at this point in time crap, how would do you think it will be with 40 digital channels going down the same lines

LegacyUser

my apologies i read one of your post's incorrectly in regards sky. my other comments stand.

[This message has been edited by BNC (edited 27-07-2001).]

LegacyUser

Isnt the family pack currently £16 Chernobyl?

LegacyUser

If you were an early subscriber (like me), you would have had the cost of Sky World frozen for 2.5 years at IEP£29.99 per month. I got my letter and from September this year it goes up to £41.74 (€53) per month. That becomes quite expensive, specially if the Sky+ gets launched here and costs £10 or more extra per month.

I'd still pay it though - beats the c**p out of Chorus.

Mark.

LegacyUser

There's been a lot of coverage in the Irish Sunday papers about the price rise which doesn't look very good for Sky Digital. They could do with improving the public's perception of them.

Maybe it's time to announce Interactivity for Irish subscribers.