Rumour: Changes to Sky+HD Subscriptions from 1st October 2010

[Mr Spouse]

Like sky don't make enough profit from HD subs. Reckon they should let you have the HD channels on multi-room for free instead of having to fork out a second tenner a month, to make up for it.

Have you read anything in this thread?

[Mr Spouse]

I have 2 mixes plus sports/movies at the moment, but get Sky News HD, Disney HD and Eurosport HD free of charge. I think that this change will be that unless I fork out another £1 for each of the above (news pack, kids mix?, eurosport pack) I will loose these HD channels from the start of October.

Bizarrely, Eurosport is in the News & Events pack, so if you have to pay for the pack to get Sky News HD you'll get Eurosport as well. If I don't have to pay £10 for the HD pack then a couple of quid on extra viewing packs won't be so bad.

[toppam]

The following is an extract from the letter I received with my Sky Magazine:

We are changing the way we offer our HD channels by aligning them with your Sky TV digital subscription. For example, to enjoy great dramas on Sky1 in high definition, you would need to have the Variey Pack which includes Sky1. This change will take place on or around 5th October 2010.

Whilst you are within your minimum contract term, you can keep the additional HD channels which you currently have access to, if you contact us to have these added for the remainder of your minimum term.

Leaving aside the dreadful English, the implication is that you need to contact Sky to retain your existing access within the current contract period. I did so, but the monkey at the other end of the phone didn't understand anything I was saying. In the end, he suggested that users should only call if the services disappeared during the existing contract period.

In my view, Sky is behaving unreasonably because people (including me) have bought new Sky+HD boxes expecting to get the deal for the foreseeable future - at least for as long as the Sky+HD box lasts for. However, that's par for the course for the monopolists at Sky. If I had any choice at all (and I don't), I would **** can them as soon as the current contract expires.

toppam

[Alan b]

The Sky Sports sub is going up £3 in September, the full story is here:

BBC News - Sky Sports broadcast costs set to rise

[dog-man]

Ah well, I will be cancelling the sports part of my package then.


dog-man

[Exdee]

The Sky Sports sub is going up £3 in September, the full story is here:

BBC News - Sky Sports broadcast costs set to rise

Sucks..
News from sky these days is usally bad news..

[bulldog147]

Sky sports pack going up £3 in september but will drop the £10 HD charge in October but in January 2011 the sky sports pack will also going to increasing 2.5% VAT. Bad news

[Exdee]

Sky sports pack going up £3 in september but will drop the £10 HD charge in October but in January 2011 the sky sports pack will also going to increasing 2.5% VAT. Bad news

Source?

[Isitme]

A poor bit of reporting really. From the article it appears Sky are charging £35 for their Sports channel, which we all know is not the case, as that includes the basic channels. BT Vision also has a basic channel price which they do not mention. It looks like a typical Sky bashing by the BBC.

It looks like Sky have pulled a fast one on BT, who tried to make Sky look bad by undercutting their prices. I bet there is a lot of red faces and gnashing teeth in BT towers

[Alan b]

but will drop the £10 HD charge in October

That is not confirmed. But I can't but think that Sky have something in the wings for us, perhaps the £10 sub will go, perhaps it will not. But as it stands a lot of people are unhappy with the £3 increase and the way the news has come out (the battle with BT). You only have to read around to see people are already cancelling their sports subs and or other mixes so this does have the potential to back fire on them. While they will not want to lay out all their cards to soon you would have thought sooner or later they will have to.

Don't forget that the £3 increase is just for sports subscribers, so it is fair to say that each mix will probably go up a £1 plus a few pounds for the movies, of course if the £10 HD sub is dropped this could offset the price for people that are on it and would be more of an attractive option for those who are yet to go Hi-Def.