Cheaper ways to watch Sky TV?

varkanoid · 4 Jan 2017 at 15:44

smr said:
I want to watch Sky F1 in HD though, and I watch football as well quite a bit so is there any way of getting these still but by paying far less?

NowTv.

tom_e · 4 Jan 2017 at 15:45

I don't think the sports pass on Now Tv covers F1 does it?

varkanoid · 4 Jan 2017 at 15:48

Yep watched it last night

http://www.nowtv.com/sports

Lists F1 too.

Just a tip though if you ever go down this route dont get a normal NowTV box if you want to watch Sky Sports Jerkyvision. Due to it outputting in 60hz its a bit offputting if you are used to silky smooth pictures. I ended up buying the NowTV Smartbox which they had for £24.99 just before Christmas (its about £50 now) and the picture quality is a lot better and outputs at 50hz which makes it smoother.

Really OP should do the cancel shuffle and guaranteed it will be well under £100.

Captain · 4 Jan 2017 at 15:54

Only 720p though, still a good picture but not full HD like you get through sky.

varkanoid · 4 Jan 2017 at 22:03

Clov!s said:
Only 720p though, still a good picture but not full HD like you get through sky.

For the money saved its worth it IMHO.

Captain · 4 Jan 2017 at 23:02

varkanoid said:
For the money saved its worth it IMHO.

I agree, we had the full virgin package and I only watched 5% of the channels, I also have a nowtv box with movies and entertainment, much cheaper than virgin.

wesimmo · 4 Jan 2017 at 23:14

I can vouch for the 60% thing, cancelled on 24th November, by a week before my notice period was up and they would have cut me off I got the 60% offer.

jpaul · 4 Jan 2017 at 23:26

for nowtv, hotuk have had a 3month for £1p/m and *free* 1 month movie pass for existing customers, over last couple of weeks ... just have to find a movie on sky worth watching now , I will check there again when they expire.

varkanoid · 5 Jan 2017 at 11:51

yeah I had there £1.66 per month offer for 3 months upto Christmas but only watched two movies.
I picked up a 6 month Entertainment pass though off the bay for £15 for my Walking Dead viewing, but also watched Westworld and a few others.
Even the basic Sky TV package cant match that over price per channels I watch. (yes I know I`m still paying Sky

)

elbulus · 5 Jan 2017 at 12:07

Contacted sky via live chat last week best they could offer was 10% off. Contacted them again on Tuesday and said we were canceling already had a 50% offer come through got till 4th Feb so gonna hang out and see what else comes through, was paying £74 so 50% is a nice improvement shall see what else comes our way.

Psycho Sonny · 5 Jan 2017 at 12:30

Clov!s said:
Only 720p though, still a good picture but not full HD like you get through sky.

wrong.

Sky HD is 1080i so same quality as 720p just a different res/framerate

smr said:
i rely on my phone number for my business though so i can't risk them cancelling it all, just incase they don't offer me the 50-60 percent and i hard ball them.

you need to get a business mobile tbh rather than relying on a landline number. what would happen if you moved home and were unable to port the number?

you could also use google to find other ways of getting what you want for a lot cheaper

Captain · 5 Jan 2017 at 13:03

Psycho Sonny said:
wrong.

Sky HD is 1080i so same quality as 720p just a different res/framerate

There's still an actual difference in picture quality though.

varkanoid · 5 Jan 2017 at 13:06

Yeah NowTV is 720p but the bitrate is slightly lower than what you get on the Sky Box. However Sky Sports on the Smart box is definitely better picture quality than NowtTV normal box. Cant quite described it but it appears more "colourful" ?

However isnt SkyQ now 1080p so Clov!s isnt wrong ? Or does it take the 1080i feed and upscale to 1080p ?

umkay · 5 Jan 2017 at 14:24

wesimmo said:
I can vouch for the 60% thing, cancelled on 24th November, by a week before my notice period was up and they would have cut me off I got the 60% offer.

I can also vouch for this. We cancelled and they offered us 25% off TV to stay. Didn't take it and a few days before notice period was up they emailed us a 60% off offer.

Psycho Sonny · 5 Jan 2017 at 15:35

varkanoid said:
Yeah NowTV is 720p but the bitrate is slightly lower than what you get on the Sky Box. However Sky Sports on the Smart box is definitely better picture quality than NowtTV normal box. Cant quite described it but it appears more "colourful" ?

However isnt SkyQ now 1080p so Clov!s isnt wrong ? Or does it take the 1080i feed and upscale to 1080p ?

Sky Q uses the same feed as sky HD so still 1080i, I have sky Q and I have set my box to 1080i I let my tv do all the scaling as it's processing is supposedly superior according to everyone on avforums always let the tv do the work not the box or your AVR. I could upscale it to 4K using my AVR but that introduces lag, etc.

The reason why NowTv is worse because streaming vs satellite transmission. in terms of 1080i vs 720p they are equal in my eyes both have their pros and cons. however satelite > streaming due to compression and streaming having to be low bandwidth to accomodate all the people with crap connections.

Jadu92 · 5 Jan 2017 at 16:20

I work for an installation company that is partners with Sky, we have some great deals available however it's for new customers only (someone who hasn't had Sky in their name in last 12 months)

jpaul · 8 Jan 2017 at 11:56

Does the newer NowTv (smart?) Box have any other advantages, than freeview tuner, versus older versions ?;
[I noted Varkanoids comments about 50Hz sport & more 'colourful' any references?]
the older versions are based on older roku architecture, but if the new one is based on roku3 then it might be faster.

The recent tv forum thread on 'what series to watch next' significantly reveals the poor content on nowtv entertainment though (but Ok for £1 p/m vouchers via hotuk I suppose I cannot complain) most series nominated are Amazon/Netflix.
I have never seen any deals for netflix/amazon (other than initial trials, and then buying prime) I guess they know their content is worth more

smr · 28 Feb 2017 at 11:25

yo, my contracts now up so it's rolling... shall i just ask for 60 straight off or see what they offer and decline unless its 60 percent off?

Psycho Sonny · 28 Feb 2017 at 11:28

smr said:
yo, my contracts now up so it's rolling... shall i just ask for 60 straight off or see what they offer and decline unless its 60 percent off?

phone up and say you want to cancel. Get straight to the point and say your cancelling unless they can give you 60 per cent off and you don't want to waste your own time or theirs, you want 60 per cent off they can give you that or you will leave.

if you do cancel and leave, they will call you back a week later to re-negotiate and you do the same again. If they still don't offer it then they will call you back 1 week before it's due to be cut off to re-negotiate again. it's at this point you will get the best offer they can make. which is 100% likely going to worse than cancelling then signing up as a new customer using quidco cashback, etc.

smr · 28 Feb 2017 at 11:31

ask for 60 percent off to the cancellation team tehn? i'm wondering if they might find that a bit cheeky and not oblige...