Got a letter from Sky....

Forums › Sky, Neon, Lightbox › Got a letter from Sky....

1 | 2

JimmyH

2898 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1554

#1031537 26-Apr-2014 13:11

OldGeek: MySky is your friend. Watch nothing 'live' - record everything you are interested in and fast-forward through the ads. This - and sport - makes Sky worthwhile.

Absolutely, I record most of my viewing. However:

sometimes when channel surfing I still watch some things live, and
it's still damned hard to get drawn into the thread of a programme, when I have to reach for my remote every 9-10 minutes to zap another wall of promos, and then try and get back into what I was watching.

Also, some of the promos are overlaid on the actual show (banners at the bottom, that bloody dancing brain commercial on Nat Geo) which means that you can't forward through them without also missing the show.

It's almost as if Sky doesn't want my business......

nigelj

856 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 125

#1031555 26-Apr-2014 14:02

DickDastardly: However under the "Awesome things to come" paragraph there were some potential sweeteners for the disenchanted - new sport and movies, Soho pop up channels (what exactly ARE pop up channels??) and OTHER channels launching soon.

What bugs me with these statements, is that each time they up the price they seem to mention coverage of major sporting events as if they are hoping that people will think that is the justification for the price rise (I guess in hopes that people will think "oooh more sports, that is fine then". But most of the events they mention are ones they've covered in past years, so the question is, what really is the reason to increase costs.

Secondly, with the pop up channels (which to answer your question Dick - are channels that they only activate for special events, or in the case of SoHo to replay a program on a near constant loop - see http://teev.co.nz/2014/02/07/soho-adds-thrones-pop-up-channel/ for where they replayed Game of Thrones + Special Features on a 'SoHo pop-up channel') they are as I understand it removed from the Sky Box Office channel pool and then relabeled "whatever Pop-Up Channel" a couple of days before the event starts. They used this method during the 2010 Winter Olympics, I'm assuming they are still using that strategy today due to the cited lack of Satellite bandwidth. My point being, they could try and justify the cost as "lost revenue from SBO takings", BUT as more people have MySky now, most of the SBO offerings are pre-downloaded and available 'OnDemand' from the MySky box anyway.

And the obvious reason they could use, isn't even mentioned... inflation.

MikeB4

MikeB4
18775 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 12766

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#1031618 26-Apr-2014 15:45

JimmyH:
OldGeek: MySky is your friend. Watch nothing 'live' - record everything you are interested in and fast-forward through the ads. This - and sport - makes Sky worthwhile.

Absolutely, I record most of my viewing. However:

sometimes when channel surfing I still watch some things live, and
it's still damned hard to get drawn into the thread of a programme, when I have to reach for my remote every 9-10 minutes to zap another wall of promos, and then try and get back into what I was watching.
Also, some of the promos are overlaid on the actual show (banners at the bottom, that bloody dancing brain commercial on Nat Geo) which means that you can't forward through them without also missing the show.

It's almost as if Sky doesn't want my business......

I have a MySki and I am sorta over the pfaffing around. But I am over the high cost of low bit rate repeats.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

Yabanize

2351 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 583

#1031656 26-Apr-2014 16:22

JimmyH:
OldGeek: MySky is your friend. Watch nothing 'live' - record everything you are interested in and fast-forward through the ads. This - and sport - makes Sky worthwhile.

Absolutely, I record most of my viewing. However:

sometimes when channel surfing I still watch some things live, and
it's still damned hard to get drawn into the thread of a programme, when I have to reach for my remote every 9-10 minutes to zap another wall of promos, and then try and get back into what I was watching.
Also, some of the promos are overlaid on the actual show (banners at the bottom, that bloody dancing brain commercial on Nat Geo) which means that you can't forward through them without also missing the show.

It's almost as if Sky doesn't want my business......

Once when I even went to the movies to watch the simpsons movie there was an ad at the bottom, lol

But I agree, You pay so much for sky but you still get ads? What!

tkr001

416 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 69

#1032338 28-Apr-2014 08:36

I have gone from 4 HDi boxes with movies, sport and Soho to none (well it will be today when I ring and cancel the last one). Sky don't seem to care.

Jas777

840 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 111

#1034011 30-Apr-2014 14:21

JimmyH: The repeats don't irritate me much - there are enough enough channels with enough material that there's more of interest to record than I have time to watch.

What does irritate me - and will likely be the reason when I cancel (I keep coming close) is the saturation-bombing of ads and promos that make some channels as unwatchable as free to air TV. Especially the blasted promos. Which is annoying when I am paying circa $100/month for the feed.

History, Nat Geo and Discovery seem to have a 4-5 minute ad/promo break every 10 or so minutes. And theres not even much variety, just the same 10 or so promos repeated over, and over and over at each break.

I guess it depends on if it is a direct feed or they take the source material and on show as to what could happen. If it is a direct feed then they could live screen blank for 3-4 minutes. If it is source material they on show then could remove gaps and have the channel not run to half hour or hourly start times.

You will also get the on screen adverts also if it is a direct feed thru channel.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

Jas777

840 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 111

#1034019 30-Apr-2014 14:28

insane: Sky must be one of the only pay to view providers which have ads mid shows. In the states its obvious that Cable companies don't have ads as their TV shows are that much longer. 30 min vs 23 min, and 60 min vs 43 min.

I get by with Freeview, Huluplus and Premier League Pass. We won't talk about the rest.

Which cable companies are those? I have been in the states many times and have a cousin living there. Most cable companies have adverts, Watch SOHO and see the number of shows that run for 45 minutes.

Benoire

2878 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 681

#1034081 30-Apr-2014 16:03

In the UK, both Virgin Media (Cable) and BSkyB have adverts mid program, very much the same as the terrestrial FTA stuff that isn't BBC, so its not just Sky here.

jeffnz

2870 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 666

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1034090 30-Apr-2014 16:18

I had Sky for years but managed to break the habit earlier this year.

I may be mistaken but I seem to recall where it used to be advertised and Ad free, as I said could be wrong but for pay TV they are double dipping a lot. I realsie they pay for sports etc but the cost is prohibitive to me.

Galaxy S10

Garmin Fenix 5

Yabanize

2351 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 583

#1034426 1-May-2014 00:02

I agree. Pay TV should not have ads. It seems to have more ads than free tv

Jizah

241 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 23

#1035633 2-May-2014 17:58

wasabi2k: If I could get NRL on my Roku or something SKY would be long gone.

I wonder if there is a way to sign up to the NRL digital pass in NZ..

1 | 2