[Closed] Leaving sky for now tv or similar

Now tv were cheapest by a mile for broadband and landline but there were some bad reviews online. Took a chance and have had no issues whatsoever. At the end of the year I will change provider, as per normal.

Would also look at moneysavingexpert.com

I left Sky after about 20 years for the same reason...got sick of continual significant price hikes meaning I was paying a significant amount for TV with alot of my viewing available via free alternative services. I think Sky is brilliant but just too expensive..If I were you I'd just leave them and sort stuff out once you've left. there is no need to jump straight into another provider. You can get movies and stuff like that from so many sources on a PAYG way so unless you watch alot of movies then you might be better off financially...even if you were to simply buy DVD's you'd probably be better off financially.

I now subscribe to Netflix and Disney Plus which gets watched the most in our family and PAYG movies I rent for about £4 a time from either Apple TV or Amazon Prime. The bulk of our day to day TV watching is all via freest or Freeview.

Unless people start walking away from Sky they'll never start being more sensible with their pricing. Times have moved on since Sky kicked off and now there are a plethora of options and Sky is no longer the default.

We just use fire sticks in the other rooms with Prime, Disney+ and Netflix works well. Can see us sacking Sky Tv off completely at some point. Even Sky Store releases are expensive now, 13 quid for star wars digital, wait 3 days and a tenner for the DVD in Asda.

I had basic free for a year with 1/2 price internet... cancelled it and haven't looked back. Something like £20/mo turned into a £50/mo ...

I prefer alternatives to ALL-IN-ONE ... because somewhere they rip you off either due to your own lazyness or tricky practice or a bit of both.

I mean ask yourself why are you paying for multi-room ??? Free with Amazon/Netflix/Apple TV

I don't use Apple TV much but it was cheaper for a Harry Potter boxset last week than other alternatives. TBH rarely pay for anything but lockdown etc..

The only sports I'm interested in is UCI and that's covered by RedBull.
I've got 3 Amazon devices always bought on offer.. a few tablets ... A Nebula projector and an Apple TV box and Bluray. Prime gives me the Prime delivery as a bonus. Between them I usually find what I want or something .. and its worth checking prices.

I can't imagine going back to Sky...

I'd love to sack sky but it's in mrs100th's name and she can't do without the pulp fiction American series. Grey's anatomy, Chicago PD/fire/rescue etc. That box is at 70% and most of that is the ghost whisperer.

I liberated myself from sky last year after getting a smart Tv you could stick a USB stick in to pause live TV. We now just have Netflix and Prime. Plus so much stuff on the terrestrial channels is on demand now anyway it feels like the need for a sky box is pretty obsolete.

Nowtv on its own is pretty rubbish. Best scenario is hook up an Xbox/PS and use skygo if you can borrow a login

Best scenario is hook up an Xbox/PS and use skygo if you can borrow a login

So instead of using a multi box at £12.50 a month log onto skygo on a PlayStation and watch skgo through the TV for free?

Pretty much

Big fan of Now TV. Costs about eight quid a month for entertainment. They offer Cinema passes for a few quid most months too. But £11.99 is the going rate, same as Sky.

You can watch NowTV on about four or five devices at once. So, my main TV has a built in Now TV app, then 2 x phones and 2 x iPad.

Can watch all simultaneously, and can Chromecast anything on phones or iPads to TVs in other rooms.

Same for Netflix, iPlayer, ITV hub, Prime Video, All4 etc etc.

Kills the need for multiroom and offers way more flex (assuming wifi is decent throughout the house).

The NowTV BB is actually provided by Sky (just rebadged). I had it for a year and it was more than fine. I rate-tarted to PlusNet after a year, but no difference from NowTV interweb. About £25 per month for superfast from loads of players, often with vouchers too. Only one I’d avoid is TalkTalk. Good experiences with Vodafone, NowTv, PlusNet and BT.

The cheap Sky Sims are going to take some replacing. But it’s only going to be a couple of quid, compared with the tens you are saving each month by binning Sky TV. See if you really do use mobile coverage to watch stuff on the go. May use less than you think, and free wifi is pretty prevalent out and about. So a cheap high data SIM plan may well do the job e.g. 3 (unlimited £18 per month) or Smarty (£10 for 30GB).

Sky pay billions for football rights. They have to recoup the cost somehow, so regular punters get stitched. NowTV is Sky, but at least you’re not bound by contract, so can walk if they start taking the mick, or find it doesn’t work out for you.

Be brave! Take the leap to freedom!

@onehundredthidiot

I got the same from OH and son ... I offered to pay for a couple of box sets at the time and neither got called in and neither would go back.

As per my post above ... I rarely pay per view anyway and some stuff I do and other stuff I buy a Bluray if its cheaper...

If you care about picture quality then NowTV is pretty crap. You can now at least get 1080p, but unbelievably they charge you extra for it, when the competitors generally offer 4K HDR.

I've decided to renew my broadband and phone for £27 a month. It's about the going rate.

They offered me a better deal on the TV package but I'm going to leave it to run out in September.

Between now and then I'll buy a now tv package, curry's are offering a box for £20 with two months package for me to play with.

Its about convincing Mrs D to use the TV in a different way. I'm hoping the savings will convince her!

Its multi room that kills sky! They are just being greedy. Although it's probably to stop people running sky to their neighbours too.

If you care about picture quality then NowTV is pretty crap. You can now at least get 1080p, but unbelievably they charge you extra for it, when the competitors generally offer 4K HDR

Completely agree. Almost like Sky have to handicap NowTV because otherwise no one would pay for the full sky package....

We have Virgin and I haven’t even switched the TiVo box on for >6 months. Everything terrestrial is on catchup and we have Netflix, Prime and Disney+ (but likely to cancel that once the Mrs Has blubbed over TS4 a few times)

I’m a big fan of NowTV. The picture is fine at 1080, yes they charge £3 a month extra for proper HD. I’ve got 4k stuff, it’s cool and that, but 1080 is enough to get lost in good drama and 4k won’t make shit TV better, that’s just my view.

I’ve got it on my Smart TV downstairs (you’ll need a WebOS LG TV for it without a device). You can easily use in in conjunction with iPlayer, 4OD etc to watch pretty much anything you want. I’ve actually still got Virgin because at £30 a month including fibre it’s good value and sometimes you just need a menu to find something.

Upstairs I’ve got a ‘Stick’. It’ll run NOwTV (obvs) but also Redbull, Netflix, iPlayer, YouTube so we’re well covered.

I’m not sure I’ve saved much money £11 for Now, £30 for Virgin, £12 for 4k Netflix. But I’m sure multi-room Sky or Virgin is more.

If you want to save a few quid you can buy vouchers on eBay and ‘stack’ them on your account. There was a promo running with Cadbury’s recently to ‘win’ a months free NowTV, I think I managed to get 6 of them from 6 bars (I gave them to the kids) and I haven’t actually paid for Now in a while.

I don’t pay for Movies it doesn’t seem worth it, they’re into comic book films. I’ve got a free 1 day sky sports pass which I’m going to use to watch the first F1 race of the year live, whenever that is.

I’m in the process of leaving them too. The constant above inflation price rises just to see if they can get away with it, the feeling that you are subsidising the football, extra for HD, a lot extra for another room, extra for box sets, extra for Q. The best thing I did was a few years ago by separating my broadband from my tv as you don’t feel so tied in.

I do have a related question though. My aerial is a bit crap so would cost quite a bit to put right. Does anyone have any experience of recording freesat boxes such as the Humax? Are they up to the job? I’ve only ever recorded on Sky and a Virgin boxes before. Thanks and sorry for the slight hijack

My aerial is a bit crap so would cost quite a bit to put right.

I'm assuming now tv comes through the Internet and the aerial is redundant

What's the best device to run now tv on?

A now tv device, a roku, chrome cast, smart TV?

Its all a bit of a minefield

Is a remote worth it or do you use your phone?

Thanks

WE haven't had Sky for a while. We had BT TV for a bit, but got rid of that last year after constant price increases.
We've now got Amazon Prime, Netflix and Now TV. I've also just signed up to Disney for the kids (and myself!!) during lockdown.
I like having the choice to pay for what I want on a monthly basis and don't feel that we're missing out at all.
The hardest part, as mentioned in the above posts, is getting the family to use the TV differently - ie everything we want is "on demand" as opposed to being recorded.

I use a smart TV hard wired with a powerline to keep the picture quality as high as possible (Netflix/Disney 4K)

I just use the TV remote and add any box sets to my list on the web browser

I got this for £319 with a sign up voucher Samsung

Picture quality and features are spot on for the money, it's very well reviewed as well

Excuse my ignorance but how does Now tv broadcast?
We have crap terrestrial tv coverage so sky has been the go to provider via the Satelite.
Does now just use the broadband?

The aerial is relevant if you want freeview. Not everything is streamable via broadband. That includes most films that are on freeview/freesat.

The aerial is relevant if you want freeview.

Good point, thank you.

What’s the best device to run now tv on?

A now tv device, a roku, chrome cast, smart TV?

Its all a bit of a minefield

Is a remote worth it or do you use your phone?

Thanks

It's only available on a few smart TVs, there's a list on their website but I think it's WebOS LGs and a few Panasonics perhaps?

Anyway, that's the best experience IMHO.

The NowTV devices are good, the 'Stick' is limited to 1080 for all apps but it's usually only £20 and comes with a months worth of Entertainment and Movies which cost about £20 collectively. The drawback is it's a proprietary OS so you can't download apps outside of their limited offering. The main missing app is Amazon Prime if you use that.

There's a £30 4K version, NowTV doesn't do 4k at the moment, but it will allow you to stream 4k Youtube and Netflix if you have the TV.

Apple TV is lovely to use, but costs a fortune and doesn't really do anything the NowTV box doesn't do, apart from Amazon. Apple TVs have never really taken off in any great numbers so the apps can seem outdated and they're Apple TV specific.

The PC offer is a bit shit, so I wouldn't buy a media PC for it.

Excuse my ignorance but how does Now tv broadcast?

Entirely via the internet. You'll need at least 2Mbps for it to stream in 720 and maybe 4Mbps for 1080. If you're sharing that with a YouTube / Discord / Twitch addicted teen, expect heartache.

Also, it takes a little bit of a shift in thinking. You can stream live TV as it happens, or you can stream it after the fact (the delay varies, most things are available to stream without adverts as soon as it finishes live broadcast, sometimes its an hour, sometimes a week).

Because there's no on board storage as such, you can't pause or rewind live TV. However if you're streaming something that not live, you can do all of that - and there's no adverts.

We like it because we don't have an aerial at home and we can stream in any room.

The Now TV box is a rebranded Roku, with restrictions on what you can do with it.
So better to buy the Roku version instead, then you are able to use it for other services.

Chromecast is good, though you need a phone/tablet to control it.