Discovery-Sky dispute (Now resolved)

mikeym · 26-01-2017 11:28PM

Interesting times ahead.

A lot of people will reconsider keeping Sky if they lose the Discovery owned channels. Especially those who dont subscribe to Premium Channels.

Samuel T. Cogley · 26-01-2017 11:30PM

mikeym wrote: »

Interesting times ahead.

A lot of people will reconsider keeping Sky if they lose the Discovery owned channels. Especially those who dont subscribe to Premium Channels.

TBH, and sorry for commenting yet again. People just aren't reconsidering Sky and Sky know this. They're seeing a bit more churn, which could just as easily be down to new products entering the space such as Vodafone and continued uptake of Netflix etc. However, Sky's profits and subscriber number keep going in one direction; up. From a purely business perspective why on earth would they change a winning formula?

galtee boy · 26-01-2017 11:37PM

Just watching Eurosport now and they had a scrolling banner going across the screen saying that if you're watching Eurosport as a Sky customer, you will lose this channel and other Discovery channels soon, or words to that effect.

lgs 4 · 26-01-2017 11:50PM

galtee boy wrote: »

Just watching Eurosport now and they had a scrolling banner going across the screen saying that if you're watching Eurosport as a Sky customer, you will lose this channel and other Discovery channels soon, or words to that effect.

Free Eurosport One on Astra 1 19e German

Schwanz · 27-01-2017 12:34AM

lgs 4 wrote: »

Free Eurosport One on Astra 1 19e German

That has nothing to do with 28e on which this discussion is about.

dulpit · 27-01-2017 12:44AM

galtee boy wrote: »

Just watching Eurosport now and they had a scrolling banner going across the screen saying that if you're watching Eurosport as a Sky customer, you will lose this channel and other Discovery channels soon, or words to that effect.

Wife is watching TLC and similar banner appeared at top after ad break, stayed for maybe 30 seconds..

snaps · 27-01-2017 07:20AM

Perhaps it's time for the discovery group to do what Netflix are, internet streaming service. I think it's the way forward.

I'm surprised it's come this far, but I would say a last minute deal will be done.

Dave..M · 27-01-2017 09:25AM

Libertarian Kant wrote: »

TBH, and sorry for commenting yet again. People just aren't reconsidering Sky and Sky know this. They're seeing a bit more churn, which could just as easily be down to new products entering the space such as Vodafone and continued uptake of Netflix etc. However, Sky's profits and subscriber number keep going in one direction; up. From a purely business perspective why on earth would they change a winning formula?

Ah beautiful, blinding hubris, never hurt anyone....

SKY are extremely savvy and unarguably at the top of their game, but everyone makes mistakes.

Dave..M · 27-01-2017 09:28AM

_John C wrote: »

Id try connecting up your combo box first before you go cancelling anything. When sky installed your sky q they would have installed a wideband LNB on your dish which wont work with your combo box. So now your dish will only work with a sky q box Unless you asked them to install a hybrid LNB when they were doing the install.

assuming your dish is accessible it's very easy to swap out for a standard LNB, they can be picked up very easily either online (freetv, satworld) or in local hardware or electrical stores (B&Q, Powercity). You could also affix an aeria onto the wall fixture behind the dish at the same time and get a combination LNB to feed the Saorview channels down the same cable (split at other end). Failing that you can phone an installer to do it. Most recent TV's have Saorview built in with pause and record via USB and Freesat boxes are the way to go for UK channels (e.g. Humax, Netflix app built in), there are cheaper freesat boxes too that record via USB

_Kaiser_ · 27-01-2017 09:30AM

I think Sky have passed the point where they can charge what they like for stuff. While there are some who'll pay €100+ a month for TV, I think an increasing number are realising that the content (much of which is FTA anyway) just doesn't justify it no matter how fancy the box is or how sharp the picture is (both of which come at additional premium)

With the rise of alternative triple/quad play providers in the market and services like Netflix as well as more dubious means (no point ignoring they exist!) becoming more accessible to Joe Public than "IT nerds", more are indeed starting to reconsider their options.

FRIENDO · 27-01-2017 09:38AM

It should open a door for Freesat, with the introduction of the previously talked about Eurosport player subscription app on Freesat.

We could also see the arrival on freesat of the Discovery free to air channel Quest and its plus one which are already carried on freeview (terrestrial).

And possibly as said earlier a new subscription app for the Discovery family channels package.

PAKNET · 27-01-2017 11:08AM

Libertarian Kant wrote: »

TBH, and sorry for commenting yet again. People just aren't reconsidering Sky and Sky know this. They're seeing a bit more churn, which could just as easily be down to new products entering the space such as Vodafone and continued uptake of Netflix etc. However, Sky's profits and subscriber number keep going in one direction; up. From a purely business perspective why on earth would they change a winning formula?

Virgin had the same arrogance with their recent Eir Sport bunfight.
All their responses claimed that churn was low, most people weren't bothered by it, cancellations were low etc. etc. etc.
Yet their figures show they lost a pretty sizable amount of TV customers over it (11,000 alone in the 3-month period to 30th September).

Sky numbers are up but their profits yesterday were down.
They too are trying to play down the impact the loss of these channels would have.
Yet the level of displeasure shown across various social media platforms is incredible and the hold times on their retention departments is significantly longer than normal - make of that what you will!

Sky's problem now is that for sport, unless you are an F1 fan, you can get everything Sky Sports related on other platform operators.
Now all of those operators will also have quite a number of channels you potentially can't get from Sky anymore to add into the mix.

joe_99 · 27-01-2017 11:56AM

PAKNET wrote: »

Sky's problem now is that for sport, unless you are an F1 fan, you can get everything Sky Sports related on other platform operators.

All F1 races are shown live on eir Sports. Also a good chunk of races are shown FTA on Channel 4.

thisNthat · 27-01-2017 01:14PM

Just popped an email to Freesat there to see if there is any hope/chance that they would be interested in taking the Discovery channels to their platform (and the rest of the channels which are leaving the sky platform) since they are now up for grabs in the UK and Ireland.
I doubt they will but I thought I'd ask anyway, God I'd love if they went to Freesat,

I'll let you know if/when I get a reply

Gerry Wicklow · 27-01-2017 01:28PM

thisNthat wrote: »

Just popped an email to Freesat there to see if there is any hope/chance that they would be interested in taking the Discovery channels to their platform (and the rest of the channels which are leaving the sky platform) since they are now up for grabs in the UK and Ireland.
I doubt they will but I thought I'd ask anyway, God I'd love if they went to Freesat,
I'll let you know if/when I get a reply

Since they are subscription channels on the other UK services they are hardly going to give them to FreeSat

Samuel T. Cogley · 27-01-2017 01:35PM

Dave..M wrote: »

Ah beautiful, blinding hubris, never hurt anyone....

SKY are extremely savvy and unarguably at the top of their game, but everyone makes mistakes.

I could not agree more, but I expect the guys and gals sitting at the top, earning the big bonuses aren't keen to move from a formula that is working for them. I suspect they expect a soft landing, and will alter the strategy if needed.

I'm all for Sky being brought down a peg or two, they've completely lost sight of the customer in my opinion.

Schwanz · 27-01-2017 02:18PM

There's more chance of me winning the Euro Millions twice in a month than Discovery going to Freesat.

PabloAndRoy · 27-01-2017 02:42PM

Schwanz wrote: »

There's more chance of me winning the Euro Millions twice in a month than Discovery going to Freesat.

Maybe they will switch encryption off for a week or so in order not to p1ss off their customers viewers and leave Sky looking like the bad guys. As mentioned somewhere else, they would still be contracted for the transponder bandwidth.

Johnboy1951 · 27-01-2017 02:46PM

PabloAndRoy wrote: »

Maybe they will switch encryption off for a week or so in order not to p1ss off their customers viewers and leave Sky looking like the bad guys. As mentioned somewhere else, they would still be contracted for the transponder bandwidth.

is it not likely that the transportation contract is with Sky as well as the encryption and the EPG listing?

So I expect it all to go at the one time.

flutered · 27-01-2017 02:46PM

Schwanz wrote: »

There's more chance of me winning the Euro Millions twice in a month than Discovery going to Freesat.

are not some or most of the discovery chanells free on roku

JTMan · 27-01-2017 04:19PM

Vodafone have today announced changes to their TV packages in response to this and obviously to encourage switching. The Disney Channel suite is now included in all Vodafone TV packages.

Source: Bonkers.

sjb25 · 27-01-2017 04:37PM

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

I think Sky have passed the point where they can charge what they like for stuff. While there are some who'll pay €100+ a month for TV, I think an increasing number are realising that the content (much of which is FTA anyway) just doesn't justify it no matter how fancy the box is or how sharp the picture is (both of which come at additional premium)

With the rise of alternative triple/quad play providers in the market and services like Netflix as well as more dubious means (no point ignoring they exist!) becoming more accessible to Joe Public than "IT nerds", more are indeed starting to reconsider their options.

This would be me like an ejet paying sky the guts of €70 a month and more out of laziness on my part than anything else had been starting to reconsider anyway but this has given me a big push to get rid of sky it's just not worth what I'm paying

galtee boy · 27-01-2017 05:04PM

JTMan wrote: »

Vodafone have today announced changes to their TV packages in response to this and obviously to encourage switching. The Disney Channel suite is now included in all Vodafone TV packages.

Source: Bonkers.

What does the Disney Channel suite consist of ?

Kristopherus · 27-01-2017 05:13PM

galtee boy wrote: »

What does the Disney Channel suite consist of ?

Disney XD & +1.
Disney Channel & + 1.
Disney Jnr & + 1.

galtee boy · 27-01-2017 05:27PM

Kristopherus wrote: »

Disney XD & +1.
Disney Channel & + 1.
Disney Jnr & + 1.

I have Vodafone TV since last June and those channels have been on it, except the +1 channels and anyway, what have those channels got to do with Discovery and Eurosport, which are on Vodafone TV anyway.

Agent Coulson · 27-01-2017 05:41PM

galtee boy wrote: »

I have Vodafone TV since last June and those channels have been on it, except the +1 channels and anyway, what have those channels got to do with Discovery and Eurosport, which are on Vodafone TV anyway.

I'm guessing adding more channels to try and entice the Sky customers away from Sky who are p1ssed off losing the discovery channels.

galtee boy · 27-01-2017 05:58PM

Agent Coulson wrote: »

I'm guessing adding more channels to try and entice the Sky customers away from Sky who are p1ssed off losing the discovery channels.

If they want to entice customers away from Sky, they could for a start, put TV3, TG4 and BBC2 in HD, like they are on eir vision. While Vodafone have the Discovery channels, most are in SD only, but Eurosport 1 and 2 are in HD. Anyway, we better not turn this thread into a Vodafone TV discussion.

uck51js9zml2yt · 27-01-2017 06:45PM

Are any sports channels available FTA?

Johnboy1951 · 27-01-2017 06:58PM

Lillianna Bumpy Warthog wrote: »

Are any sports channels available FTA?

On Astra Bike and Horse & Country come to mind.

There are more on other Satellites.

batistuta9 · 27-01-2017 07:16PM

Of these channels were really valuable to sky would they be letting this happen?

Discovery-Sky dispute (Now resolved)

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