Sky TV Packages

[rsvdaz]

has anyone any knowledge of sky packages?
I currently pay about £67 a month for the following:
entertainment pack
movies
sports
eurosport
HD

what i want to know is :

1) can i drop all packages and pay nothing for free view off the satalite using the sky hd box?....will i still get the free HD channels?

or

2) What is the minimum package required to retain sky+?

 

[Downward]

has anyone any knowledge of sky packages?
I currently pay about £67 a month for the following:
entertainment pack
movies
sports
eurosport
HD

what i want to know is :

1) can i drop all packages and pay nothing for free view off the satalite using the sky hd box?....will i still get the free HD channels?

or

2) What is the minimum package required to retain sky+?

1. Can you buy a freeview thing from sky to do it - £40 ?? Retains free to air HD.
2. £19 but I think you pay £10 for HD,Sky + so maybe £29

 

[rsvdaz]

cheers

 

[Vidor06]

I pay sky £32 including hd, but if I dropped the hd part that would reduce my bill by £10 per month. So you could get it for £22.

 

[rsvdaz]

Vidor06 - what do you get for your £22?

 

[Shaun]

We have all the packages except sport and pay £39 p.m.

I've been eyeing-up HD for nearly a year now, but since Mrs. and Ms. Admin can't tell the difference between SD and HD (and they watch the vast majority of TV in our house) I've held off paying another tenner a month. I may upgrade when we move house later this year.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[marinyork]

Normally if you're out of contract and tell them you want to leave they might give you movies + sport for half price.

Freesat-from-sky which is a very different thing from freeview HD and freesat HD is probably your best best.

Obviously things are changing a lot this year as those disorganised people at ITV are finally launching the red button service as a proper channel in April and you'll get things like Hallmark HD and Film4 HD much later in the year. Even Five have started making noises again .

The FTA HD channels at the moment are BBC HD and Luxe and it remains to be seen whether ITV will be FTA when it launches in 2 weeks. All of the other HD channels on sky are subs or premium - although you can obviously hack off large amounts of money.

 

[Vidor06]

Vidor06 - what do you get for your £22?


I get all the packs (entertainment, knowledge, music etc) but no sports or movies and as I say that is with the hd removed.

 

[marinyork]

I get all the packs (entertainment, knowledge, music etc) but no sports or movies and as I say that is with the hd removed.

Obviously, that's what the basic packs are by definition. I'm not sure what the opening post was asking so covering all bases. Basically FSFS is there so you can pay little money and get all the FTA channels plus a few that require a viewing card, traditionally those PSB channels that couldn't go FTA but dwindling in number. One is also open to then subscribe to sky. More generally there is plenty of stuff you can get free by stopping ones sub, it depends whether one can live without the sub channels and most of the HD channels.

To specifically answer the point about HD though, E4 HD for example is a subs channel so if you take HD off and channel4 HD is still waiting to get on astra 2D. So there's very little you get truly free. The same lack of choice is the same on freesat and freeview in terms of HD.

 

[beanzontoast]

We have the movies pack. When son lived at home we had the sports pack, but TBH I don't watch that much sport and what I do tends to be on the BBC (rugby, tennis) or other terrestrial (TdF). Not going to bother with HD at the moment - as admin said, I can't see that much difference myself (and we're already shelling out for Sky broadband and phone) but then we've only recently had to get a new tv after the CRT one went pop so even ordinary resolution still looks good to me. It's fun seeing all those old films on a modern tv - hopefully the novelty will take years to wear off!

 

[marinyork]

I sympathise with people. The HD box is sky's standard PVR now and there are so many more mainstream HD channels launching this year on various platforms one can either be given a TB drive from sky or just amble in an get one of the more expensive up front options later in the year.

I'm really looking forward to getting the Giro in HD for the first time. It's a bit worrying the price of blu-ray drives has actually gone up though.

 

[monkeypony]

I'm paying £44pm for Sky HD with knowledge and variety pack, phone line rental, free evening and weekend calls and 10 meg broadband.

 

[ChrisKH]

I have a standard Sky box (not Sky +) and have been thinking about upgrading to Sky + and HD. Got a call from Sky a week ago and they offered me the Sky + box foc (which is their current offer) plus twelve months free HD, so went for that.

 

[sheva]

I'm paying £44pm for Sky HD with knowledge and variety pack, phone line rental, free evening and weekend calls and 10 meg broadband.

I know this is a sky tv thread but for those of you interested in cable i`ve just got a comparable deal from virgin.
XL tv (biggest one they do without adding sports/movies)
phone line rental
free evening and weekend calls
10 meg broadband
second set top box upstairs also with XL tv
£47.25 per month.

 

[marinyork]

I know this is a sky tv thread but for those of you interested in cable i`ve just got a comparable deal from virgin.
XL tv (biggest one they do without adding sports/movies)
phone line rental
free evening and weekend calls
10 meg broadband
second set top box upstairs also with XL tv
£47.25 per month.

Well if you want to talk about cable I'll just mention the HD channels we're getting soon :-

Sci-Fi (April)
Eurosport (April)
Discovery
ITV (early April)
E4
Film4 (god knows when)

and of course the tivo software .

Of course Sky are getting ITV too but there you go.