Big drop in Sky subscribers

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#1548547 9-May-2016 10:02

tdgeek:

Deals for new subscribers is not a Sky only scenario.

Yes, but as mentioned earlier in this thread, most deals for new subscribers from other companies are typically only a very small discount - not the massive 60% Sky are punishing loyal subscribers with. And then there's the 6 month stand down imposed on loyal subscribers if they want dare to try and access the cheaper pricing - again, unique to Sky.

Earlier, when you defended Sky's discounting for new customers by saying other companies did it, I asked for specific examples for comparison against Sky's practices. Still waiting for these.

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#1548550 9-May-2016 10:08

dafman:

tdgeek:

Deals for new subscribers is not a Sky only scenario.

Yes, but as mentioned earlier in this thread, most deals for new subscribers from other companies are typically only a very small discount - not the massive 60% Sky are punishing loyal subscribers with. And then there's the 6 month stand down imposed on loyal subscribers if they want dare to try and access the cheaper pricing - again, unique to Sky.

Earlier, when you defended Sky's discounting for new customers by saying other companies did it, I asked for specific examples for comparison against Sky's practices. Still waiting for these.

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tdgeek

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#1548552 9-May-2016 10:16

dafman:

tdgeek:

Deals for new subscribers is not a Sky only scenario.

Yes, but as mentioned earlier in this thread, most deals for new subscribers from other companies are typically only a very small discount - not the massive 60% Sky are punishing loyal subscribers with. And then there's the 6 month stand down imposed on loyal subscribers if they want dare to try and access the cheaper pricing - again, unique to Sky.

Earlier, when you defended Sky's discounting for new customers by saying other companies did it, I asked for specific examples for comparison against Sky's practices. Still waiting for these.

Im not defending Sky. Just being neutral. Telco's discount to new subscribers all the time, but fair enough its not as large as Sky's. The stand down is 3 months, or 2 at times I've seen on here. I was told 3 when I left

ockel

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#1548554 9-May-2016 10:22

Katikati:

To me, SkyTV are the Darth Vaders of the viewing universe. My neighbour quit them last year. So after 6 months they phone him back and offered him Sky basic for $20 a month and a discounted Sky Sport. Foolishly I thought that after 15 years of loyal service that they might offer the same to me. NO WAY! So I quit and 6 months later they offered me the same. But by then I realised (as did my neighbour) I no longer enjoyed or wanted SkyTV. The programming was old, the customer service was worse than poor. And the money grabbing arrogance of their Neon and Soho channels is such a "Wolves of Wall Street" attitude.

And if there's a really important game we no longer feel the need to hide away in isolation. We pop up to the local RSA, enjoy a meal, and watch the game in the company of friends.

I encourage all to liberate themselves from the darkness of SkyTV and transport themselves into a fresh new world of viewing habits.

Regards, Paul from Katikati

Is it bad of business to sell you a product you dont use?

Hey, I've got a newspaper subscription. They deliver a paper every day but it just piles up in the corner unread. Bad publisher charging me and sending me a paper.

Hey I've go a homeline, dont use the landline at all, just my mobile. bad telco charging me for a landline I dont use.

Thats not dumb customer service. Thats a dumb customer.

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Rikkitic

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#1548567 9-May-2016 10:47

Sky gouges its customers. Always has, probably always will. You can call it 'business' or anything else you like, but when Sky had an effective monopoly and people had little other choice, Sky took full advantage of being the only game in town. Is that clever business practice? I know older people who did and still do feel enormously grateful to Sky for providing an alternative regardless of cost and I can see the point of that. But now people do have a choice, and increasingly are voting with their feet. Sky is reluctantly, and far too belatedly, making token moves to adjust to this new reality. Maybe they will eventually be forced to evolve into a company with better ethics that provides a fair product for a fair price. Or maybe their long-suffering victims will not forgive them and they will simply cease to be. What matters isn't what Sky or any other provider thinks is acceptable practice. What matters is only that people have a choice, and these days, increasingly, they do.

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tdgeek

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#1548570 9-May-2016 10:56

Rikkitic:

Sky gouges its customers. Always has, probably always will. You can call it 'business' or anything else you like, but when Sky had an effective monopoly and people had little other choice, Sky took full advantage of being the only game in town. Is that clever business practice? I know older people who did and still do feel enormously grateful to Sky for providing an alternative regardless of cost and I can see the point of that. But now people do have a choice, and increasingly are voting with their feet. Sky is reluctantly, and far too belatedly, making token moves to adjust to this new reality. Maybe they will eventually be forced to evolve into a company with better ethics that provides a fair product for a fair price. Or maybe their long-suffering victims will not forgive them and they will simply cease to be. What matters isn't what Sky or any other provider thinks is acceptable practice. What matters is only that people have a choice, and these days, increasingly, they do.

OMG Study their financial results and tell me how they gouge?

Ethics arent an issue

Long suffering victims? LOL half the counrty has it

Choice has existed for quite some time. The choice not to use it has existed since day 1

wasabi2k

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#1548572 9-May-2016 11:00

ockel:

Is it bad of business to sell you a product you dont use?

Hey, I've got a newspaper subscription. They deliver a paper every day but it just piles up in the corner unread. Bad publisher charging me and sending me a paper.

Hey I've go a homeline, dont use the landline at all, just my mobile. bad telco charging me for a landline I dont use.

Thats not dumb customer service. Thats a dumb customer.

I don't believe that is the point of the anecdote.

Mine serves to point out that SKY are pushing hard to gain new subscribers, but not making any effort to retain their long standing existing ones. SKY are not forcing their product on me or anyone - they just aren't doing anything to make it more attractive, while throwing out massive discounts to new subscribers. Why should I pay $120 when someone else pays $50 for the same thing?

At the same time SKY's own streaming service is largely rubbish and sub standard. They have an opportunity NOW to invest and deliver a world class streaming platform and fundamentally transform their service before Netflix takes a massive bite of their market, particularly amongst millenials - who are difficult to target for fixed services anyway. That window is rapidly closing and their die hard users are going to be aging and passing away.

Sport is always going to be SKY's massive drawcard, but less and less people are going to be willing to pay $100+ a month for it. Offer it in HD, streaming to a decent set of devices (NOT JUST MOBILE DEVICES) and price it appropriately.

Movies etc - Netflix is a major competitor, is it worth it? SKY Movies is expensive and their "premiers" are often months behind. You also have iTunes and Google competing.

Reality TV - blegh - SKY only offers a few channels and most of this stuff is available online. BRAVO will be on Freeview.

HBO/SOHO/Rialto - The only real legal option to get some of this content in NZ - pricing is totally out of wack.You are spending over $120 a month to get this in HD. If we get an HBO NOW in NZ then you are in trouble.

Music - nothing really here anymore - youtube took it over. Edge TV is horrid.

ockel

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#1548573 9-May-2016 11:01

Rikkitic:

Sky gouges its customers. Always has, probably always will. You can call it 'business' or anything else you like, but when Sky had an effective monopoly and people had little other choice, Sky took full advantage of being the only game in town. Is that clever business practice? I know older people who did and still do feel enormously grateful to Sky for providing an alternative regardless of cost and I can see the point of that. But now people do have a choice, and increasingly are voting with their feet. Sky is reluctantly, and far too belatedly, making token moves to adjust to this new reality. Maybe they will eventually be forced to evolve into a company with better ethics that provides a fair product for a fair price. Or maybe their long-suffering victims will not forgive them and they will simply cease to be. What matters isn't what Sky or any other provider thinks is acceptable practice. What matters is only that people have a choice, and these days, increasingly, they do.

And you're entitled to your opinion but there are other opinions out there. For the content I watch every week the amount I pay to watch is extremely good value. So in my opinion Sky is not gouging. And it would seem that there are others out there that differ from your opinion.

But if you dont get value for money in what you're using then you're a mug. There are always alternatives to anything there have always been. Sky has never had a monopoly on the service it provides. If it did then the Commerce Commission is there to alleviate that. Even when Sky bought Prime it wasnt considered detrimental to competition.

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MikeB4

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#1548575 9-May-2016 11:03

Rikkitic:

Sky gouges its customers. Always has, probably always will. You can call it 'business' or anything else you like, but when Sky had an effective monopoly and people had little other choice, Sky took full advantage of being the only game in town. Is that clever business practice? I know older people who did and still do feel enormously grateful to Sky for providing an alternative regardless of cost and I can see the point of that. But now people do have a choice, and increasingly are voting with their feet. Sky is reluctantly, and far too belatedly, making token moves to adjust to this new reality. Maybe they will eventually be forced to evolve into a company with better ethics that provides a fair product for a fair price. Or maybe their long-suffering victims will not forgive them and they will simply cease to be. What matters isn't what Sky or any other provider thinks is acceptable practice. What matters is only that people have a choice, and these days, increasingly, they do.

Sky is not compulsory and there has always been non Sky choices, it is not Sky TV's fault if the choices are rubbish.

ockel

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#1548583 9-May-2016 11:08

wasabi2k:

ockel:

Is it bad of business to sell you a product you dont use?

Hey, I've got a newspaper subscription. They deliver a paper every day but it just piles up in the corner unread. Bad publisher charging me and sending me a paper.

Hey I've go a homeline, dont use the landline at all, just my mobile. bad telco charging me for a landline I dont use.

Thats not dumb customer service. Thats a dumb customer.

I don't believe that is the point of the anecdote.

Mine serves to point out that SKY are pushing hard to gain new subscribers, but not making any effort to retain their long standing existing ones. SKY are not forcing their product on me or anyone - they just aren't doing anything to make it more attractive, while throwing out massive discounts to new subscribers. Why should I pay $120 when someone else pays $50 for the same thing?

At the same time SKY's own streaming service is largely rubbish and sub standard. They have an opportunity NOW to invest and deliver a world class streaming platform and fundamentally transform their service before Netflix takes a massive bite of their market, particularly amongst millenials - who are difficult to target for fixed services anyway. That window is rapidly closing and their die hard users are going to be aging and passing away.

Sport is always going to be SKY's massive drawcard, but less and less people are going to be willing to pay $100+ a month for it. Offer it in HD, streaming to a decent set of devices (NOT JUST MOBILE DEVICES) and price it appropriately.

Movies etc - Netflix is a major competitor, is it worth it? SKY Movies is expensive and their "premiers" are often months behind. You also have iTunes and Google competing.

Reality TV - blegh - SKY only offers a few channels and most of this stuff is available online. BRAVO will be on Freeview.

HBO/SOHO/Rialto - The only real legal option to get some of this content in NZ - pricing is totally out of wack.You are spending over $120 a month to get this in HD. If we get an HBO NOW in NZ then you are in trouble.

Music - nothing really here anymore - youtube took it over. Edge TV is horrid.

And if you had a newspaper subscription but kept getting the "50% off offer to new subscribers" in the mail? How does that reward existing subscribers? Try calling the newspaper publisher and saying "Ive been a loyal customer for years - wheres my discount".

How does the Trustpower customer feel about seeing their neighbour offered cheap services that they cant get. Wanna call them and find out what they'll offer you as an existing customer?

Been to powerswitch lately to see how much you can save if you switch power companies? And when was the last time your power company called to offer you a discount for being with them month after month?

The point was that plenty of firms offer attractive discounts to new customers. And diddly squat to its existing customer base.

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kharris

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#1548622 9-May-2016 11:48

I must admit channel surfing is nice some times when you don't feel like thinking. You don't get that luxury with streaming.

MikeB4:
littleheaven:

MikeB4:

Too early? I mean nationally not geekzone, not everyone is knowledgeable or interesting faffing around to get streaming up and going.

I don't think it's too early to start ramping it up - they're already getting left behind by the likes of Netflix - but for some people, it's not going to be feasible to use SVOD. My parents, for example. They have super slow ADSL and can barely work their Sky decoder, but Dad loves his sport and Mum her UK shows.

I have tried to get my in laws using Netflix as they have UFB but they are just not interested in the hassle they like to turn on their TV and watch for a bit. It's not because they don't understand my father in law was a computer engineer before I knew what a computer was.

Kirk

Rikkitic

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#1548675 9-May-2016 12:56

I have encountered this as well when I have tried to demonstrate the wonders of streaming to some people. I also get impatient with the hassle of setting up a stream I want to watch. Some are better than others, but most of the sites that interest me still seem welded to Flash in all its awfulness. With my streaming computer, clicking on the site is only the first step. Then I have to mouse to the Play button and click on that, then to the full screen icon and click on that, then back to play because it stops when I click on full screen, and maybe along the way also adjust the resolution if I am getting too much buffering. This is painful with an air mouse from a distance. It is made worse by the fact that I generally don't watch multiple channels from the same site, like Netflix, so I have to go through this each time with every different choice. I have looked at other solutions but still haven't found anything suitable for this. YouTube with HTML5 is much better since that at least responds to keyboard shortcuts. I believe this will all get better in time as things become more standardised, but at present it can still be a pain and I understand why some people do not find it worth the hassle.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

davidcole

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#1548676 9-May-2016 12:59

Rikkitic:

I have encountered this as well when I have tried to demonstrate the wonders of streaming to some people. I also get impatient with the hassle of setting up a stream I want to watch. Some are better than others, but most of the sites that interest me still seem welded to Flash in all its awfulness. With my streaming computer, clicking on the site is only the first step. Then I have to mouse to the Play button and click on that, then to the full screen icon and click on that, then back to play because it stops when I click on full screen, and maybe along the way also adjust the resolution if I am getting too much buffering. This is painful with an air mouse from a distance. It is made worse by the fact that I generally don't watch multiple channels from the same site, like Netflix, so I have to go through this each time with every different choice. I have looked at other solutions but still haven't found anything suitable for this. YouTube with HTML5 is much better since that at least responds to keyboard shortcuts. I believe this will all get better in time as things become more standardised, but at present it can still be a pain and I understand why some people do not find it worth the hassle.

You have a much better experience if you use a device over a computer. Especailly in a 10 foot/lean back environment. A roku 3, apple tv 4 (arguably a 3), Fire TV, and bottoming out this list (personally) I'd put the chromecast.

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asjohnstone

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#1548684 9-May-2016 13:15

I got rid of Sky about a year ago, bought a freeview box.

Last week I discovered that the freeview box got unplugged 8 weeks ago when I was re-cabling, no one had noticed.

Broadcast TV has never been a less relevant medium. I used to watch news, but the internet does it faster and better.

I occasionally pay for a fanpass subscription to watch the cricket or the tennis. Only worry is that they'll pick up the EPL rights, I was happy paying $200 a year directly for it.

radomatic

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#1548701 9-May-2016 14:00

I quit Sky about 12 months ago in favour of streaming services. In fact, we don't watch broadcast TV of any kind now. Our UHF aerial got knocked over and we haven't bothered to fix it - net result being the TV does not in fact receive Freeview.

I just don't know that streaming services are 100% ready for primetime/mass market (yet). There's still a few too many steps in it - can you imagine someone's nana (your average nana, maybe not ours') setting up a Chromecast and starting a stream from her phone? Apple TV/10 foot apps make this a bit easier, but still things can go wrong, and not everyone has an app.

But I think we are close to that being a reality.

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