Sky TV : is it worth it?

[Marmalade]

Well the last review I tried to make was January but she wanted a deposit so I declined . Since I have been working front line NHS with covid patients and as a vulnerable .

You’re excuses are a bit pish fella. 2020 might be written off but if you stick your head up and have barely a punt for what is overall a longer period then people will take the pish and throw it at you. Just the way it works...
 

[Kinkylondongent]

You’re excuses are a bit pish fella. 2020 might be written off but if you stick your head up and have barely a punt for what is overall a longer period then people will take the pish and throw it at you. Just the way it works...
 

Well I was lucky enough to have an affair that lasted nearly two years up until the end of last year so had no need to punt . And as you say 2020 is a write off , and the first quarter of 2021 probably too .
But apologies if people think I'm taking any liberties by posting on here .

[Kinkylondongent]

if you are a 'vulnerable' were you allowed to work front line ?

Yes.  Was done on a scoring system and I was 2 points below being redeployed .

[Marmalade]

Well I was lucky enough to have an affair that lasted nearly two years up until the end of last year so had no need to punt . And as you say 2020 is a write off , and the first quarter of 2021 probably too .
But apologies if people think I'm taking any liberties by posting on here .

That’s better.

[mh]

Agreed, I am amazed at how much some people seem to be willing to pay each month.  There are so much better things to spend that money on......

I have used a Humax Freeview HDR box for donkey's years. At the time, I said if I ever get short of anything to watch, then I might consider a subscription service.  That time has yet to arrive - even during lockdown.

The initial question was "is it worth it?". The answer is always going to be subjective. It clearly isn't worth it for those who can't afford it. It isn't worth it for those technically adept and willing to forego the simplicity of the Sky system for a low cost of free, albeit more complex, alternative (be it legal or illegal content). It isn't worth it for those who don't watch much TV, as a home unit rather than just one person in the household.

I am technically adept and could easily set up a Kodi box and find the streams - back in the day I was a torrent junkie and downloaded gigabytes of TV, movies and porn when broadband was still 2Mbit! The only time I set up Kodi was when I was selling a used Fire TV stick and by putting Kodi on it the value was doubled. It reminded me how much hassle it was finding the content, but I found stuff to test the device.

But I don't want to be the "TV guy" in the house for my wife and kids at all hours when they want to finish a movie that has stalled half way through. And if I tried to tell my OH that football with Polish commentary is quite normal she'd kick me out. So for me it is worth it. I get to watch what I like on the Sky Q app or on one of the many Sky Q boxes around the house without wasting time looking for content. The kids and OH can do likewise and I get no grief over it! I hate paying Sky, though I keep it down through taking advantage of the renewal offers - I pay about 25% less now than a year ago and that was down on 2 years before that. But I don't even notice it going out each month so 

[puntingking]

I think since reading all of your comments about sky TV it is clear to me that the majority of you think sky TV is a waste of money and think there are better and more useful things to spend money on.
I was unsure about sky before posting this at first but now I am sure that getting sky TV for me would be a wrong decision.
Thanks for helping me make up my mind

The good thing is for me now is in the new year and looking forward I will have more money to pay for wgs services   
 

[puntingking]

So on top of your Sky fee, you're paying another £144/yr to insure your Sky Box?

Really 

[puntingking]

Now TV pretty much gives you every channel that you can get gor free on Freesat and Freeview so the allure of paying for something I can get for free doesn't excite me. Yes, there will be some obscure channels that NowTV has but the primary channels are shared across all of the platforms.

I have no reason to doubt you about SkyQ but after having been with Sky for years they would only upgrade my Sky HD box to Sky Q if I paid them but I suspect new customers get them included? I know that is how most business models work but it leaves a bitter taste when you have been a loyal customer for decades yet you have worse equipment that a newbie.

The foreign content I was talking about is not illegal. I have a valid subscription for it and am paying monthly. I have the sat dish, decoder, hard drive etc. There is no disruption to service as it's satellite not internet based-it's exactly like Sky except Polish TV. I pay around £ 27 a month for this which includes all sports channels (who happen to show pretty much every PL match live) as well as movies most of which are American so I can choose to listen to them in their original language.

That's a great idea. I love foreign TV channels anyway 
 

[Ali Katt]

TV licence on top of a Sky package. Sounds expensive to me. Sky I see as being a dinosaur, IMO the last time it was worth viewing was the early 2000s when it was quite difficult to see "blockbuster" movies, although it's down to perception and Sky used to show a lot of shit then, bad b movies, straight to video etc, Disney channel, syfy was pretty big then, comedy gold etc and sport of course.

Now with Freeview if you just want something to watch there's loads of options, not to mention kodi, Netflix, prime, mubi, bfi player, all4 and you can buy DVDs for 50p. If you just want sports loads of cheaper options.

[catweazle]

Sky have just given me, free with no strings attached, 12 months access to the Discovery+ range of channels.  (Ok, it was only £30 if l wanted to pay for it, but a few more options now available,)

[petermisc]

The Sky Q box is fabulous in my opinion .2TB storage , UHD , and can record loads at same time .

You can get all that for a one-off payment with a Freesat HDR/PVR, such as Humax.  And having used both Sky and Humax menu systems, I would say the Humax is far better.  Even my mother could use it, and she was an extreme techno-phobe.

Likewise you don't need Sky for multi room functionality.  I understand that Humax boxes will play content from one another, if networked, although I haven't tried it.  Certainly mine will play content from other networked devices, such as my PC.  Useful, as even with 2Tb of storage in my Freeview box, I sometimes need to move stuff unto my PC to free up room on the box.

Technically, I think the only thing that Sky offers that you can't get elsewhere is Skygo.  Useful if you travel a lot.  Otherwise, the only reason I can see to pay the Sky subscription is if you want to watch programming that is only available on Sky. 

In my case, there is more than enough programming available on Freeview and Freesat to meet my needs.  There have been a few programmes over the years on Sky that I would have liked to watch, but not enough to justify paying the subscription.  I was disappointed when the last few series of House went to Sky, for example, but no way was I going to cough up £40+ a month to watch it.  And after a couple of years they showed it on one of their Freesat channels anyway (and having watched it for free, I was very glad I hadn't paid out good money to watch it, but that is another story...).