Is Freesat dead?

[gavroche]

I never record anything now as I use catch up if I miss something and I don't use a box any longer either as my smart TV has all I need on it: You Tube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, I Player, ITV hub etc....

 

[DaveReading]

Question if anyone has ditched Sky recently, I was thinking of it a couple of months back and was looking at the "How to cancel" bit on Sky's website. On the page there was a load about sending the equipment back and the various ways to do it.
Are they now demanding their stuff back if you leave them or perhaps it is a "frightener" to make you think again about leaving.

In my experience - albeit Virgin rather than Sky - it's impossible to persuade them to retrieve their old kit. We ended up taking ours to the recycling depot and bought a Humax for Freesat instead. I can't see Sky being any different.

 

[Milkfloat]

Question if anyone has ditched Sky recently, I was thinking of it a couple of months back and was looking at the "How to cancel" bit on Sky's website. On the page there was a load about sending the equipment back and the various ways to do it.
Are they now demanding their stuff back if you leave them or perhaps it is a "frightener" to make you think again about leaving.

I believe it depends on when you tarted your contract, the newer contracts have penalties for not returning the equipment but older ones do not. To be honest, if you did keep it, you would only shove it in the loft and never use it again.

 

[Mo1959]

I believe it depends on when you tarted your contract, the newer contracts have penalties for not returning the equipment but older ones do not. To be honest, if you did keep it, you would only shove it in the loft and never use it again.

Why? I still use mine and get all the normal channels on it. Mind you, I prefer to watch TV series as they come on if I can and just use catch up for stuff I've missed.

 

[GetFatty]

Question if anyone has ditched Sky recently, I was thinking of it a couple of months back and was looking at the "How to cancel" bit on Sky's website. On the page there was a load about sending the equipment back and the various ways to do it.
Are they now demanding their stuff back if you leave them or perhaps it is a "frightener" to make you think again about leaving.

If you have Sky Q, you no longer own the equipment but rent it so if you do leave, they'll expect you to return it.

Whilst I'm keeping my Sky Q, I have just cancelled my Sky broadband contract and as well as a request for the router to be sent back they asked me to send back the wifi booster. What wifi booster I asked. The one we sent you in 2014 was the response. I've actually had a different provider in the timeframe so told them I had no idea where the booster was and eventually they said forget it.

 

[PaulSB]

I moved from BT to Sky 12 months ago. BT had pushed the price to £60-65 for services we rarely used. Moved to Sky, against my principles, for broadband only at £25/month. We haven't missed those services.

BT asked for the box to be returned. As I had an old one I sent that, the other box still functions as it did before and we use the smart TV for iPlayer.

The sport my wife is interested in can either be purchased for an annual Eurosport package at £79 or Amazon, I forget which package. So far all Mrs P has needed has been available on a one month £7.99 Eurosport pass.

We have Netflix and overall I'd say it offers more TV which I find entertaining than other services I've tried. Sadly that includes the BBC.

Broadband only plus buying services when needed is proving to be by far the cheapest option in this house.

 

[tyred]

I don't have a TV.

 

[keithmac]

We got rid of Virgin Media TV and Phone line but kept their cable broadband (unfortunately it's excellent).

We now use Freeview/ Netflix and I've recently been watching YouTube (surprisingly there's lots of proper documentaries etc on there).

Saved £50 a month and no problems.

I was looking at Freesat and most recommended Freeview, luckily our aerial was ok, just had to buy some coax and re-wire it.

Most of BBC ITV Channel 4 etc is available On Demand if you miss it, Freeview Play is linked to internet as well.

 

[DaveReading]

Most of BBC ITV Channel 4 etc is available On Demand if you miss it, Freeview Play is linked to internet as well.

Yes, it's a common misconception that On Demand can be delivered via satellite or your local TV transmitter, but obviously it can't - you need an internet connection.

 

[NorthernSky]

we have the freesat, i'm sure it's a humax box with recording facilities
it's really sluggish in the menus, would love to replace it but don't use it enough to warrant that for now
still seems to be going strong with the content though,

 

[DaveReading]

it's really sluggish in the menus, would love to replace it but don't use it enough to warrant that for now

If you mean the EPG, then the standard workaround for its sluggishness is to press Schedule, then the red button, rather than the Guide button.

 

[NorthernSky]

yes the EPG, it's god awful slow
i'll try that ta

 

[Faratid]

I never record anything now as I use catch up if I miss something and I don't use a box any longer either as my smart TV has all I need on it: You Tube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, I Player, ITV hub etc....

We find 'catch up' unwatchable (except BBC iplayer) due to endless lengthy adverts which can't be FF through. We record everything we want to watch, FF through ads on everything except BBC. So we watch our choice of TV, rather than being endlessly shouted at by idiots who think I want to watch adverts. We also watch Netflix, again advert free. We once tried watching something on ITV player, but it was 4-5 minutes of programme interrupted by 6-8 minutes of adverts and trailers for upcoming progs. Never again.
We don't get a proper freeview signal here, so will be very disappointed if freesat comes to an end. Which it won't, and hasn't.
Recordable freesat boxes still available.

 

[NorthernSky]

^ recording and fast forwarding is the way forward
we recorded and watched that 'masked singer' series, a 1.5hr show was condensed to about 50mins or less when you take all the ads and waffle out

 

[Mike_P]

Tend to record commercial channels off Freeview as I have a Freeview PVR that has a minute skip button which consequently gets multiple pushes as appropriate (four typicallly)