SKY. Rubbish

[Fzero]

Just been looking into the new Sky Now service.


Aimed to rival Lovefilm and Netflix and the likes.


http://news.sky.com/story/961107/no-dish-no-contract-sky-launches-now-tv


On reading about it, it seems pretty lame, especially compared to those services it is up against.


Sky are charging £15 a month to watch their films with Sky Now.


Netflix charge what, £6 to watch their films, with an upgrade offer to get the latest releases at another £6.


...So with Netflix you can pay £12 [less than Sky] AND you get more than just the films, you get all the on demand TV shows too.


What is good about this Sky Now service that you would choose it over Netflix?


Plus, Sky Now will not work on hardly any Android devices, same as their rubbish Sky Go service which works on about 5 Android models, weak.


Are Sky Now offering films that an upgraded Netflix account isn't?


Brand new cinema releases or something?

 

[Prometheus]

Isn't Sky Now essentially an on-demand extension of BSkyB's movies package? I can't imagine, and haven't heard of, the service offering more than the Sky Movies add-on for their TV service already does.


None of the on-demand services available in the UK yet beat Netflix in terms of support for loads of devices, I've found. I hadn't heard about the upgrade for Netflix, though - I just reached the end of my free trial and have decided to stick with it (though I do hope that they bring the 3DS application to the UK soon - that would make Netflix even more useful to me), but can't find anything about that on the site. Any chance of a link, please, or do they throw that offer out there after the trial expires?

 

[Fzero]

The Netflix upgrade is basically the option to pay another £6 a month, in return you get a whole load of more films available to you, newer release films.


I don't have Netflix this is something my mate told me about when they had it, they liked it but thought the selection of films on the basic package wasn't that great, and thought was a bit lame that you had to pay another £6 to get the latest films ..... I thought that sound's reasonable myself, £12 or so all in, new films and the wide selection of TV choice.


I'll look for a link and post back...


edit: OK on closer inspection, I think what they were on about is the DVD rentals package that Netflix offer, where you pay another monthly fee and get the option to watch new released on DVD, but that's not streamed is it, looks like the very newest releases are available as posted-to-your-door rentals.


When my Sky subs run out, I'm thinking of getting Netflix and http://www.youview.com/ for the freeview side of things, and just pay BT or someone for an unlimited broadband.


Even with multiple providers I think it will still be a better value for money service, and I have Android devices which Sky are pretty slack for, I can't use Sky Go as I don't have one of the small handful of supported Android devices

 

[Prometheus]

It looks like Netflix don't offer DVD rentals over here, unfortunately. I do love the idea of paying a bit extra to get extra stuff streamed, though - here's hoping they do that in the future!


Never seen the YouView box, before - that is VERY interesting. Thanks for the link to that.

 

[Null]

Never seen the YouView box, before - that is VERY interesting. Thanks for the link to that.

I vote for wait and see, it does have a rather chequered history after all. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouView

 

[Prometheus]

^ Ohh! YouView is Project Canvas! There's a blast from the past... I had no idea. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Sky have been overcharging for stuff for years.Look at all the corruption surrounding rupert murdock and newscorp.There is evidence that murdock had insider knowledge in the takeover/merger of bskyb etc.Hell they charged extra 3 or 4 times over the years for the same friggin movie/sports channels.there is sky at my parents place but ive always known they were charlatans.They were the only game in town for many years though.Anyways i wont get started on sky or ill never shut up.

 

[Prometheus]

Anyways i wont get started on sky or ill never shut up.

Nah, go for it - it's interesting reading as long as you've got stuff to back it up!

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Well its lots of things.We started with the sky package in the late 80's.Then we payed for the movie channels.Then they were scrambled and we paid more to have them decoded.then if memory serves they were again scrambled until you got a decoder+card and again we paid more.Until setanta came along and outbidded them for the premiership soccer games they had their channel packages carefully set up.No one particular package gave you all the channels you wanted.The different channel types were mixed so if you cancelled one package you would lose channels you wanted to keep. This changed immediately when setanta came on the scene.They also moved the main premiership games to sky box office and you had to pay per view.This was no longer an option when setanta outbid them and so they scrapped this system.Im sure lots more corruption surrounding the forming of sky will come out in the future. Here is allegations of them sabotaging itv digitals tv service.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17494723

 

[renegadechic]

I have a little bit of uncomfortable bias on this, purely from working in connection to the industry, however despite costing a lot of money, if you are after paid for TV services, Sky does tend to offer more than any other competing service out there. It easily outstrips them in number of TV channels (even if most of them are shit), it has the highest number of HD channels, its definitely lagging behind with the online stuff but it is getting there. If you compare the cost with its competitors Sky pretty much outstrips all the others. Virgin are charging a fortune for their services with super low luring in prices and when you cancel your sub they take the box away. With Sky its usually a free box and a free install.


Overall its very expensive but the amount of new subs they make shows people are happy to pay that much and really, if Sky World is around £60 or £70 or whatever, and you compare that to a mobile subscription which is £30 to £40 a month, you definitely get a lot more for your money (and you see that people with piss silly money up the wall for less). For me, I am happy with freeview and so far in the middle of my months trial, Netflix. Every now and then maybe a bit of bittorrent, but i think that is born more out of wanting to consume and watch tv with some individual control. the shows i care about, when i want them, and nothing more.


EDIT


Regarding Sky Now, it sounds like access to their packages, which includes much newer films and Sky exclusive sports events, which is why it is priced higher. I cant imagine they wouldn't use their deals with various companies to not provide them with the freshest content.

 

[Green7]

The thing about Sky is they have never competed with any of their competitors on price. They have always been the most expensive way to digital television in the UK.


If you are a football fan who follows a team you have three choices as far as TV goes : go watch your team every other week (I'm a Celtic fan - my season book costs £600 a year, our home games are very rarely shown on sky); pay sky £20 a month to watch your team however many times they are on (perhaps 4 or 5 times a year); or watch illegal steams (every single Celtic game last season was available as a stream).


I pretty much make every home game. If our away games aren't on sky I'll stream them. The quality is pish-poor pretty much.


I'd pay more than the £20 a month sky charge me for sports to see all my teams games, even though I am a season book holder.


Fuck darts, rugby league and their pish snooker coverage.


/rant


*edit* For films we have LoveFilm on the main TV, the iPad and. with some creative adding/deleting devices, 3 laptops - for £10 a month. Personally, I don't watch that many films but I recommend 'The Guard' and 'In Bruge'. My favourite film 'Hero' is also available