Sky removing Discovery Packages
- Thread starter Datamonkey
- Start date
My brother and my parents have BT TV. None of us feel it up to the same standard is all. Not saying can't use it however it is slow to load, the menus are poor in layout and my mother finds it very hard to read in comparison.
Not to mention trying to phone BT for any customer service is just plain awful apart from their infinity fibre team who seem to be solely based in the UK for that.
Hit the nail on the head, they have over spent massively on sport to stop BT chomping at their heels and are losing revenue to Netflix and other streaming services. To combat this they are trying to produce original content, but then can no longer afford the channels they already offered.
They need to make a choice what and who the are targeting, no longer can they be the one stop shop they were so used to being.
I want a one stop shop though, I don't want to need to switch between Netflix, Prime, BT, Sky & Virgin to get my TV service. I want to turn my box on and watch my channels.
At the moment I am able to do that at reasonable price with just Netflix being the need to switch at moment. My BT sports is all through Sky which I am getting at £5 a month for 12 months and my Sky deal is £32.50. My brother has the Netflix premium account so I just use that to log in with and we split the bill so all I am at £41.50 for all the TV (less Prime for now) and I don't think Virgin offers anything that doesn't come with the above for now.
Although if their box was better and I wasn't trapped with BT Fibre their Full house movie bundle at £55 a month for all the BT Sport & Sky Cinema with 200Mb internet would be good. But their box really is a dog. I don't know anyone happy with Virgin for their TV service tbh.
Competition forces innovation and price reduction, most of the time. You may have to put up with a a good few years of disruption to your one stop shop to see if any single provider comes out on top.
I am pretty sure that someone somewhere will offer a package deal, where you get Sky Online, Netflix, Prime, etc. All accessible through your smart TV/hub with a single bill until then you'll just have to adapt
Not totally getting the furore here.
If you read the notice then NOTHING is definitely stopping as yet.
The notice says "From 1 February, Discovery Communications’ portfolio of channels are unlikely to be available in Sky TV packages."
Yes, the channels will be available until 1 February. At any point, from 1 February, Discovery may remove them from the Sky platform.
Very obviously Sky and Discovery Communications are still in negotiations.
I would guess that now everyone knows about the issues, Sky are actually in a far better negotiating position, in saying "look here discovery you will loose X million viewers if you stop us showing your channels, so come on accept our deal and lets carry on".
If you read the notice then NOTHING is definitely stopping as yet.
The notice says "From 1 February, Discovery Communications’ portfolio of channels are unlikely to be available in Sky TV packages."
Yes, the channels will be available until 1 February. At any point, from 1 February, Discovery may remove them from the Sky platform.
Very obviously Sky and Discovery Communications are still in negotiations.
I would guess that now everyone knows about the issues, Sky are actually in a far better negotiating position, in saying "look here discovery you will loose X million viewers if you stop us showing your channels, so come on accept our deal and lets carry on".
Sky are gaining far more customers per month than they will ever loose due to this IMO.
My brother is an installer and does over 50 new ones each week and that rate is only going up.
There is a far higher percentage of Sky customers that don't give a whatsit about Discovery packages than those that do.
My brother is an installer and does over 50 new ones each week and that rate is only going up.
There is a far higher percentage of Sky customers that don't give a whatsit about Discovery packages than those that do.
Alternatively Discovery could say "Look at all the customers you're going to lose my not having our package"
Yeah got to agree with Entai, I don't believe the numbers leaving will be anywhere near what the cause in lost revenue for Discovery is from not being on Sky.
At times they will have to suck it and see with what they can get money wise. I would if I was Discovery push for a rolling 1 year on the lesser monies with a review a month prior to the next year where depending on viewing figures will see if Discovery can renegotiate accordingly.
It could have course swing the other way and they end up being dropped by Sky or offered less monies however that is the risk and if they really believe in the shows and what they are giving the customers this should be on the up in 12 months.
The irony is that, despite having spent a fortune on football, if this goes ahead then Sky will basically have no sport in their standard packages. Sky Sports Mix will show the odd thing but is really just a taster channel to try to get you to stump up for full Sports. Sky will basically have nothing unless you stump up £30+ a month extra for Sports, whereas VM and BT will be bundling BT Sport and Eurosport in their standard packages.
Exactly. The current system is ridiculous. In the name of competition we have a farce where customers lose out as all the providers compete to steal content from each other.
Aye, if they could make it so that all channels have to be offered in packages and they need to offer X packages from all providers then the parts that would make people choose is the box/connection/support and that is what we should be paying for and expecting it cost more for a premium service.
It's beyond a joke now.
Sky - no Discovery or Eurosport and BT Sport costs a fortune
BT - no standard Sky channels and can only get a few of the Sky Sports channels
VM - no Sky Atlantic
VM will offer by far the best channel coverage but only if you're lucky enough to be covered.
Yeah watching the tennis on ES1 and it scrolls across periodically.
This is happening, despite the "likely" and "still negotiating" rhetoric.
Its actually based on the Youview gui its not one developed by BT directly. The Ultra HD boxes are a lot faster than the normal HD boxes too.
Just going to say nothing and leave this here and say is this better ?
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/139564-youview-unveils-new-faster-cleaner-tv-user-interface
But competition is for your benefit! Don't you realise that? This allows you to choose different providers if you want to watch some of the football or you want to watch discovery. Many providers have unique content, including BT with the AMC channel, Netflix and Amazon original content and Sky with Atlantic. Sure you end up spending more to watch everything, but that's what the EU said had to happen!
There's a thought, if we're out of the EU by the time the next round of PL rights comes up, could one company get all the games again?
Interesting. My brother has the Ultra HD box as he has fibre too and so got a full package however my parents have the standard box and tbh we haven't noticed a huge difference. Error or issue then maybe? Not great either way.
And YouView is slowly starting to get there from the looks of it. Will be interesting to see once the update drops and can compare again but for now my opinion is still that at least the Sky UI is significantly better and more sleek than any other service provider be it through TV, Online or box.