Sky to disaggregate sports channels and slash prices... in the UK

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#1824822 18-Jul-2017 22:13

MikeB4:

This is a good plan and I would love to see it here but I believe it needs a change of leadership at Sky NZ for it to happen.

It needs a change to the 10 year (I think) satellite contract. 2019 I think thats up.

Sky could also go sports only

I have no issue with the leadership, I feel IMHO thats a cop out, no offence intended. Satellite is the bees knees. Its always bee that way :-). They cant just Opt Out, pun intended, of that contract.

But online is cheaper. In some ways Id like Sky to dump satellite 100%, go online, bit cheaper (only a bit due to sports ripping us all off) Then Sky will be using tiodays tech not 1980's as everyone seems to say. Myself I'd prefer satellite.

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#1824826 18-Jul-2017 22:17

richms:

Well if they stop getting propped up by the basic packages and people stop watching, then their pay will drop I guess.

Its not like its an essential service that is deserving of being supported in a very socalist manner.

Maybe if sports bodies ripping us all off, stopped charging so much, the prices would drop. 60% of Sky rights payments are sport. And I agree, remove the basic subsidy so basic is cheap and sports costs more, as it does.

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#1824829 18-Jul-2017 22:20

JimmyH:

They will need to do something pretty soon if they want me to keep my 20+ year subscription going.

I could live with the existing lineup and costs if they just got rid of the blasted ad breaks on most channels. If they won't get rid of the ads, they will need to slash the price. It's pretty much one or the other.And ending the nonsense of +15/m if I want the hard druive enabled, +$10/m if I want the HD ticket and all the other nickel and dimeing would be good. As would taking CGMS/A off the analog outputs so it works with my around-the-home video distribution system like the earlier box did.

Either I pay a premium price for a premium experience, or I pay a cheap price for a mediocre viewing experience. The current model of a premium price for a poor viewing experience doesn't work any more, as there are now many options (both legal and shady) available.

Once the current run of GoT ends in 6 weeks or so, I suspect Sky will go bye-bye.

Do you know how much profit Sky makes off you? Circa $15 per month. So how do they drop costs? One way is to drop satellite, thats up for negs soon.

ockel

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#1824832 18-Jul-2017 22:31

tdgeek:

MikeB4:

This is a good plan and I would love to see it here but I believe it needs a change of leadership at Sky NZ for it to happen.

It needs a change to the 10 year (I think) satellite contract. 2019 I think thats up.

Sky could also go sports only

I have no issue with the leadership, I feel IMHO thats a cop out, no offence intended. Satellite is the bees knees. Its always bee that way :-). They cant just Opt Out, pun intended, of that contract.

But online is cheaper. In some ways Id like Sky to dump satellite 100%, go online, bit cheaper (only a bit due to sports ripping us all off) Then Sky will be using tiodays tech not 1980's as everyone seems to say. Myself I'd prefer satellite.

Foxtel Now crapped out with Game of Thrones.

HBO Now crapped out with Game of Thrones.

Streaming cant handle the avalanche effect of a blockbuster. If you have a handful of people watching something non-time-critical across a long tail it works fine. Broadcast events..... that old broadcast technology cant be beat.

Sixth Labour Government - "Vision without Execution is just Hallucination"

ockel

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#1824846 18-Jul-2017 22:38

lxsw20:

It's not all sunshine & flowers with Sky over here. Because there is a duopoly with Sky & BT you need both if you're serious about your sport. It's not even like you can have just one if you're interested in a particular type of sport. Football is played across both Sky and BT (and sometimes BBC) depending on the game.

So what does your GBP77/mth get you? A swag of basic channels that you may or may not watch plus all the sports plus a bunch of box-sets? Do you get anything else for your coin?

And how much more for BT Sport if you're a football nut?

And what does the price/package look like in moving to the new Sky Sport setup? Just curious.

Sixth Labour Government - "Vision without Execution is just Hallucination"

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#1824849 18-Jul-2017 22:49

tdgeek:

Do you know how much profit Sky makes off you? Circa $15 per month. So how do they drop costs? One way is to drop satellite, thats up for negs soon.

I don't *care* how much profit Sky is making off me. I base my purchasing decisions of whether what is being offered represents value-for-money from my perspective, after weighing up the use I will make of it and the alternatives. I don't base my purchasing decision off any desire to ensure that Sky (or any other retailer) makes an adequate profit off me. If they make a good profit, good on them, and if they loose money, too bad but I couldn't care.

It's simply a question of whether I value what they are offering enough to pay what they are asking. And I'm not sure I do any more......

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#1824860 18-Jul-2017 23:55

ockel:

lxsw20:

It's not all sunshine & flowers with Sky over here. Because there is a duopoly with Sky & BT you need both if you're serious about your sport. It's not even like you can have just one if you're interested in a particular type of sport. Football is played across both Sky and BT (and sometimes BBC) depending on the game.

So what does your GBP77/mth get you? A swag of basic channels that you may or may not watch plus all the sports plus a bunch of box-sets? Do you get anything else for your coin?

And how much more for BT Sport if you're a football nut?

And what does the price/package look like in moving to the new Sky Sport setup? Just curious.

No idea, I don't have sky over here. They do seem to have better features than NZ Sky. I think there is some 4K content some VR bits, and they have Sky Q, which from what I can tell lets you watch recorded content in another room, streaming from the main decoder.

Looks like BT Sport is an extra £22pm, or £27pm if you want it in HD. It is a real PITA to find a pub here to watch some sport, as they will usually have one but not the other!

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#1824867 19-Jul-2017 01:37

richms:

So because you watch so much sport you are quite happy to have those that only care about a one or two supporting your habit?

Except that when things no longer come in a package and get individually itemised, it always costs more for everybody. So whatever you watch will become more expensive anyway.

What needs to happen is to drop prices, not secretly increase prices under the guise of pay per view.

tdgeek

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#1824891 19-Jul-2017 07:09

Batman:

richms:

So because you watch so much sport you are quite happy to have those that only care about a one or two supporting your habit?

Except that when things no longer come in a package and get individually itemised, it always costs more for everybody. So whatever you watch will become more expensive anyway.

What needs to happen is to drop prices, not secretly increase prices under the guise of pay per view.

At $15 a month they cannot drop prices. Maybe if they drop Optus, and we can all remove the dishes, they can then

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#1824965 19-Jul-2017 08:58

tdgeek:

MikeB4:

This is a good plan and I would love to see it here but I believe it needs a change of leadership at Sky NZ for it to happen.

It needs a change to the 10 year (I think) satellite contract. 2019 I think thats up.

Sky could also go sports only

I have no issue with the leadership, I feel IMHO thats a cop out, no offense intended. Satellite is the bees knees. Its always bee that way :-). They cant just Opt Out, pun intended, of that contract.

But online is cheaper. In some ways Id like Sky to dump satellite 100%, go online, bit cheaper (only a bit due to sports ripping us all off) Then Sky will be using todays tech not 1980's as everyone seems to say. Myself I'd prefer satellite.

Problem is if they drop sat service a third of the country would miss out die to lack of or bad broadband.

Regards,

Old3eyes

tdgeek

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#1824980 19-Jul-2017 09:28

old3eyes:

tdgeek:

MikeB4:

This is a good plan and I would love to see it here but I believe it needs a change of leadership at Sky NZ for it to happen.

It needs a change to the 10 year (I think) satellite contract. 2019 I think thats up.

Sky could also go sports only

I have no issue with the leadership, I feel IMHO thats a cop out, no offense intended. Satellite is the bees knees. Its always bee that way :-). They cant just Opt Out, pun intended, of that contract.

But online is cheaper. In some ways Id like Sky to dump satellite 100%, go online, bit cheaper (only a bit due to sports ripping us all off) Then Sky will be using todays tech not 1980's as everyone seems to say. Myself I'd prefer satellite.

Problem is if they drop sat service a third of the country would miss out die to lack of or bad broadband.

Yep I agree. So people bash Sky, stop using 1980's tech, get with the play. So they do, then they bash Sky again for cutting all these people off. But its not cutting them off, the Govt who brought in TV in the 60's hasnt outfitted the whole country, but Sky will get bashed as usual

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#1825155 19-Jul-2017 13:21

tdgeek:

Yep I agree. So people bash Sky, stop using 1980's tech, get with the play. So they do, then they bash Sky again for cutting all these people off. But its not cutting them off, the Govt who brought in TV in the 60's hasnt outfitted the whole country, but Sky will get bashed as usual

What I want to see is no content monopolies, and every content provider offering the same content.

I want to be able to pick a "content provider" be it Sky via Satellite, Vodafone via Cable, Netflix via streaming, or whatever, and have access to every TV show and movie, for a _reasonable_ price.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.

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#1825168 19-Jul-2017 13:29

Lias:

tdgeek:

Yep I agree. So people bash Sky, stop using 1980's tech, get with the play. So they do, then they bash Sky again for cutting all these people off. But its not cutting them off, the Govt who brought in TV in the 60's hasnt outfitted the whole country, but Sky will get bashed as usual

What I want to see is no content monopolies, and every content provider offering the same content.

I want to be able to pick a "content provider" be it Sky via Satellite, Vodafone via Cable, Netflix via streaming, or whatever, and have access to every TV show and movie, for a _reasonable_ price.

That would be ideal however I cannot see all the rights owners agreeing to that. They make more I would imagine from exclusive deals and the contestability of the whole thing.

tdgeek

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#1825297 19-Jul-2017 15:07

Lias:

tdgeek:

Yep I agree. So people bash Sky, stop using 1980's tech, get with the play. So they do, then they bash Sky again for cutting all these people off. But its not cutting them off, the Govt who brought in TV in the 60's hasnt outfitted the whole country, but Sky will get bashed as usual

What I want to see is no content monopolies, and every content provider offering the same content.

I want to be able to pick a "content provider" be it Sky via Satellite, Vodafone via Cable, Netflix via streaming, or whatever, and have access to every TV show and movie, for a _reasonable_ price.

What Mike says. But yes, an ideal

Lias

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#1825418 19-Jul-2017 18:27

MikeB4:

That would be ideal however I cannot see all the rights owners agreeing to that. They make more I would imagine from exclusive deals and the contestability of the whole thing.

Sadly many companies, especially large and/or US based ones, range from either merely putting profits before people to outright fighting tooth and nail to maximise profits. It's why you need politicians who can and will legislate to achieve balance. NZ is very luck in that respect, we have the CGA, DVD region circumvention is legal, Telecom was forced to split, Chorus & the other LFC's are regulated, etc. It's not that much of a stretch to see a future where our politicians are willing to legislate to regulate the media content market and ensure a fair deal for kiwis ahead of the rights of content holders, particularly large foreign/multinational ones that have repeatedly prove themselves to be pure corporate evil (For example any company that belongs to or supports the RIAA, MPAA, RIANZ, FACT, etc)

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