After a few months of prevarication, I’ve decided to cut the cord and leave Sky TV. As Sky provides broadcast services via satellite, it’s perhaps more appropriate to describe it as “dropping the dish” but the point is the same. After nearly 25 years as a subscriber, I’m leaving Sky to rely on terrestrial broadcasting and streaming services.
For those unfamiliar with the UK’s TV services, there are broadly three ways to receive TV channels. There’s the digital terrestrial broadcast service known as Freeview that’s received via aerial, which offers channels provided mainly by BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. Then there’s Sky which transmits (mostly) via satellite, offering the previous channels plus a whole pile of its own content including dedicated film and sports channels. Bringing up the rear is Virgin Media, which uses cable for its offering which is similar to Sky.
Anyone who watches TV in the UK has to pay £169.50 per household for a TV Licence. This is a tax that funds public service broadcasting like the BBC. It doesn’t matter how you watch programmes or if you only watch subscription channels, you still have to pay for a TV Licence. In my opinion, it is a good thing.
Virgin and Sky both offer DVR services but Sky offers Sky Q, a clever system that provides a mesh Wi-Fi network that uses TV boxes as access points. I have to say that it works well, allowing me to watch programmes recorded on the main DVR at TVs throughout the house while my children game away on their PCs and PlayStations. This has been one of the main reasons to stay with Sky but it’s reached a tipping point that I can’t ignore.
The decision to move away from Sky TV was driven by a couple of reasons:
- The annual bill for Sky TV was nearly GB£900 – about £73 per month – and I was out of any contract lock-in.
- I’m paying for subscriptions for some streaming services, e.g. Disney+, Amazon Prime Video.
- Relatively few programmes were Sky exclusives.
- All TVs at home are smart TVs or have Rokus.
- Children now spend time gaming or watching social media online rather than broadcast TV.
- Availability of full fibre connection to the home.
The plan is to:
- Cancel the Sky TV package – done.
- Upgrade to a 500 Mb/s fibre connection – installation is coming soon.
- Buy a Freeview recorder from Panasonic, Humax or Manhattan. I’m still researching the best option.
- Look out for freebies, pay monthly and monitor use of streaming services. Cancel if they’re not being used.
Cancelling Sky TV required persistence as they tried to tempt me with all kinds of offers. I did consider Sky Stream, which is their IP offering, but there weren’t really any savings to be made. All that changes is the delivery mechanism from satellite dish to broadband/fibre. If you are in the same situation as me, keep politely powering through when you’re on with the service agent.
Right now, I’m in the 30 days notice period so I’m scrambling to finish any recording programmes on the Sky box. Technicians are coming in a few days time to upgrade the connection to full fibre. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes as I’m not sure how they’re going to bring the cable in as everything is under ground here and they can’t simply drop a cable from an overhead line.
My plan is to write a series of articles, this being part 1. I’m expecting the upgrade to fibre and selection of the Freeview recorder to be the next in line, with a final opinion piece to report how well it’s gone overall. Stay tuned!