SKY gone - best thing i've done in years!

There are thousands of LEGAL downloads out there to keep me and mine happy.

[PipPip]

I don't buy or rent DVDs either, but did recently rent a movie off iTunes just for a test on the iPad. One of my factoids is that at 40 years old despite about 20 years of owning a video and a recordable DVD I have never in my life recorded a TV show. I have a VHS video which is 15 years old but absolutely mint and unused. I simply think life is too short and nothing on the TV is worth the effort of recording, it never ever crosses my mind. Also we have no Sky and more and more do TV free evenings, like tonight for example. my wife would throw the TV away if I let her.

[raysablade]

I cancelled sky only to caught by virgin media at my next house, I've got to say fibreoptics is much better than copper lines!

being able to watch on demand is great and you also get newsgroups for 7 days so thats my downloading sorted as well!

How do you guys cope without Sky +? I'd love to enlightened about an alternative !

Is the 7 days the newsgroup retention ? If so thats not long !!

A Humax Foxsat HDR and mypremium.tv work for me

[sssimon]

Nothing like a bit of a cleanse to sort things out.

For me though, Sky stays. I updated to SkyHD recently and kapow what a difference! Sport especially.

[garylee]

I tried to get rid of sky but they would not let me.

phoned and told them that I did not want it anymore. Sky asked why, told them I was broke and out of work. Was told to hold, they came back and said that as a valued customer i could have the service free for three months and closed the call

[Neil.Ldn]

I haven't had a TV for nearly 10 years now as I realised i stopped enjoying it and was just watching it. [ snip ] The downside is that I now have no idea about popular culture at all and have to talk to my wife a lot. Oh, and I sanctimoniously tell people to get rid of their TVs all the time.

Exactly the same here - including the unbearable 'holy-than-thou' attitude toward people who do watch TV :D

Actually I get by perfectly well with just iPlayer and online streams for MotoGP which apart from Top Gear is pretty much all I watch. I do occasionally use LoveFilm or FilmFour OnDemand for a movie, but apart from that I don't miss telly at all.

N

[Neil.C]

[quote=chrisparker]

Am I the only one who never buys/rents dvds?

Nope.

Me neither.

Can't think of any modern film I would choose to watch.

You can rent the classic too.[/quote:2xoeqclk]

Yes but that would entail moving. :lol:

TBH I'd be lost without my Virgin+ service, I really enjoy all the discovery/history types shows and record the best old films.

The on demand stuff is good too. I missed the IT crowd the first time around and thoroughly enjoyed watching the earlier series.

[Gilly]

Trouble with me is, I have the HD pack with sky, but usually end up forgetting and watching regular BBC channels etc, or worse still, forgetting something is on and end up watching it on Iplayer....frustrating when your paying an extra tenner a month.

on balance though, i am happy with sky, it works out at £40 a month, for that i get two HD box's, multiroom, HD and a life with Sky+. I rarely get chance to sit down and watch what i want so its handy to have a back log of telly at my disposal when i can grab an hour....

I still have last years apprentice sat on my sky+ box unwatched and am looking forward to getting stuck into it this week :)

[PipPip]

My boss is a holier than thou non TV owner (and non car owner - they mess up the environment don't you know). She proudly told me how her three kids aged between 5 and 9 can be found at the kitchen table reading the French national newspaper politics sections when she comes home from work. All I could think was, poor kids, poor bloody kids.

[Tai Mi Shu]

My boss is a holier than thou non TV owner (and non car owner - they mess up the environment don't you know).

What kind of companny do you work for?

[PipPip]

My boss is a holier than thou non TV owner (and non car owner - they mess up the environment don't you know).

What kind of companny do you work for?

Insurance

[paulpsz008]

reading the French national newspaper politics sections

Is reading the French national newspaper politics section useful to...
...anyone? :?

p.s. I'm off Sky too. I have a pc/media centre hooked up to the TV, we mostly use the on demand sites from BBC, channel 4 etc..
9/10 we can't even be bothered to use the inbuilt HDD recorder.
Then of course we also have the download (legal of course) option for anything we can't find.

[PipPip]

reading the French national newspaper politics sections

Is reading the French national newspaper politics section useful to...
...anyone? :?

If you live in Paris and your family is part of the French social elite like hers is, then yes. For everyone else, no.

[gentlemenpreferhats]

reading the French national newspaper politics sections

Is reading the French national newspaper politics section useful to...
...anyone? :?

If you live in Paris and your family is part of the French social elite like hers is, then yes. For everyone else, no.

You don't need to be part of the social elite. Most french newspapers are entirely politics (even the sports pages) so its tricky to avoid. SWMBO still gets Le Monde delivered and we live in Londres.

[Seamaster73]

I rang Sky up today, and with very little arm-twisting negotiated a 25% discount off my subscription for the next twelve months.

Does anyone have a number for the state broadcaster, I'd like to negotiate something similar for my licence fee.

[pilotman]

I rang Sky up today, and with very little arm-twisting negotiated a 25% discount off my subscription for the next twelve months.

Does anyone have a number for the state broadcaster, I'd like to negotiate something similar for my licence fee.

ha ha good luck !!!

[AshUK]

I'm please to say that I'm also Sky free now. I got myself a Mac Mini and have been using that on the TV, paired with the freeview, also the crappy selection of TV on Sky, it was time for me to go.

[Groovy Greg]

Cancelled mine within a month they sent me a rejoining offer at half price for 12 months saving me £26 a month guess what I will be doing in 12 months :lol:

[Sweepinghand]

Exactly - they will pffer you 12 months for half price when you go through and actually cancel/ You'll be without sky for a month max - then they want you back.
i didnt surrender- dont miss it one bit either.

[BSB]

I've found this thread quite fascinating as I've been going through the same dilemna myself recently, i.e. do we/don't we give up the Sky. We have the World Package with HD and Chelsea TV and the cost is currently some £68 per month (I didn't realise the price had risen £5 per month over the last couple of years). So, I started to analyse what it is we actually do watch. The only sport I ever watch is football and that will only typically be if it's an away game that for some reason I'm not at that happens to be on one of the Sky Sports channels (I have a home and away season ticket). On the odd occasion that they televise an away game on ESPN that I've not attended, I've gone to the pub to watch it. Chelsea TV (no jokes please) is really only watched when there's a pre-season friendly game they're televising live and pre-season friendlies are meaningless anyway. We hardly ever watch the movie channels and, when we do, we quite often find ourselves watching one on Box Office which costs more anyway. Most interesting programmes can be seen on channels available on Freeview (in HD too) so, I'm struggling to think of any real reason to carry on with Sky. So often we sit there flicking through channel after channel of absolute crap and I think I'd rather ween that activity out of our lives rather than continue to perpetuate such ridiculous behaviour. Eight hundred quid per year is no small saving.

[Sweepinghand]

Hi BSB - why dont you cancel the package alltogether?
They will put you through to disconnection dept who will offer you 6 months at half price.
Tell them no and see it through unless they offer 12 months half price)

I doubt they will do it over the phone - so prep to be Skyless for a few weeks.

You can then await the recall letter - as spoken of prev - and i got mine after about 4 weeks - OR go to QUIDCO cashback site and take out the package in your wife's name or whatever and get about £150 cashback.

i honestly dont miss it - sat most nights with my gf - we never watch her SKY - she has it for the kids - i'd bin the thing off as its just a waste of money - just the basic pack is about £24 a month. ALmost £300 a year.

The broadband can be had for less money - and you have to have a landline currently to get broadband - Chelsea TV is a waste of money - we had it for about 2 weeks - thought we got Chelsea games from the prmiership.....
Had it for the eldest - and he's not bothered about footy or chelsea these days anyway!

Try no SKY for a week - then you'll see the diff. And £10 a month more for HD - rip off - total rip off.

[BSB]

Hi BSB - why dont you cancel the package alltogether?
They will put you through to disconnection dept who will offer you 6 months at half price.
Tell them no and see it through unless they offer 12 months half price)

I doubt they will do it over the phone - so prep to be Skyless for a few weeks.

You can then await the recall letter - as spoken of prev - and i got mine after about 4 weeks - OR go to QUIDCO cashback site and take out the package in your wife's name or whatever and get about £150 cashback.

i honestly dont miss it - sat most nights with my gf - we never watch her SKY - she has it for the kids - i'd bin the thing off as its just a waste of money - just the basic pack is about £24 a month. ALmost £300 a year.

The broadband can be had for less money - and you have to have a landline currently to get broadband - Chelsea TV is a waste of money - we had it for about 2 weeks - thought we got Chelsea games from the prmiership.....
Had it for the eldest - and he's not bothered about footy or chelsea these days anyway!

Try no SKY for a week - then you'll see the diff. And £10 a month more for HD - rip off - total rip off.

Hi Fellow Blue :lol:

Thanks. I think I'm actually further down the 'binning it' route. If I make the call, I won't be taking up any cheapie offers. I feel that I've been a customer for probably ten years and, certainly since HD came out in June 06, I've been paying over sixty quid a month PLUS, I paid the full £300 quid for the box (ouch). Never have they proactively approached me to thank me for my loyalty but, they appear to offer deals to those that have started to see through their blatent profiteering. Why instead could they not simply offer the service at a more reasonable price such that customers wouldn't feel the need to complain in the first place? Oh, and the boxes are shit since they ditched Pace as a manufacturer once they started the build of the HD boxes. We must have to reset the blessed thing once a week.

[PipPip]

We are moving back to the UK in a couple of weeks and I was looking at phone + internet bundles. I came across the BT bundle including BT vision for £4 per month plus for £12 per month the only Sky channel I have any interest in - Sky Sports 1 just for the formula 1 when it sadly partly leaves the BBC. So I've gone for that, no Sky as such but just the one Sky channel for one reason only, F1.

[leechman]

It's so expensive, imply about £90 a month to virgin