Sky's arrogance regarding HDi

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DarkKnight08

43 posts

Geek

#25991 8-Sep-2008 19:10

I emailed the Director of Communications Tony O'Brien from Sky TV suggesting him to include more HD content to make the $10 ticket worth while. I also indicated to him that some shows such as Austin Powers have the (HD) beside them on Sky Movies Greats but do not run in HD. I also mentioned to Tony to visit this forum to look at the long thread titled "My Sky HDi Bugs/Quirks. Yet Tony instead of acknowleding these problems decided to reply back with this:

Christopher

I have attached a review of MYSKY HDi for your information

We rolled out MYSKY HDi at the end of July, approximately 2 weeks after your email; and to date, SKY has installed 12,500 MYSKY HDi decoders and as of today have a waiting list of more than 5,500.

Tony O’Brien

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4671143a28.html

When will sky acknowledge these problems? They seem to enjoy boasting about My Sky hdi yet the product is ridden with bugs, advertised and promoted falsely (the ad on TV where the parents are fighting about what to watch and then the daughter tells them to record both shows so she can watch the netball) yet we can only use two tuners. I am getting sick and tired with Sky and i am going to email the CEO shortly. Would appreciate if you could dump your dissatisfaction/comments about Sky in this thread so I can add them to the email.

stuzzo

534 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 5

#163152 8-Sep-2008 19:45

At the end of the day Sky have a monopoly on key program content such as sport. With strong demand for the HDi they couldn't care too much about customer service, some of which has been unbelievable even by New Zealand standards.

You are limited in your courses of action but these are some of the ones they will care about:

1) Cancell your subscription entirely

2) Get some of the media such as Stuff interested as a consumer item.

3) Demand they replace a buggy box.

lotech

126 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 2

#163170 8-Sep-2008 21:46

Sky needs to to add some more incentives to want HD, Discovery and Nat Geo HD especially. To be honest though, it's all inevitable, sooner or later most TV broadcast will be in HD - the question is if moaning to the Communication Director will make it happen tomorrow or in 18 months. There's also only so many Satellites pointing at us and with only so much bandwidth from them and we need to be looking beyond Satellite if we want bulk HD content (read - IPTV).

I don't think you can moan too much about the cost structure, its very similar to how they charge it in the USA. Of course they have a few more options in providers but you have to accept that HD is still a premium product and far from the norm. Heck - theres still more 4:3 channels that 16:9 - something far more important than HD.
Sky is just a 3rd world Sat TV provider with a market of only 4 million consumers. It has almost no competition, and of those competitors they basically buy their product from them anyway. It sounds like Telecom and ADSL all over again!

I have a feeling, As soon as my free 6 months free MYSky & HD run out, I'll be canceling my HD ticket (along with movies) but not my MYSky - a PVR is far more important. What they need to do is supply the HD ticket free with Mysky HDi owners/renters.

geekzone.co.nz/lotech

eXDee

4033 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1070

Trusted

#163196 8-Sep-2008 23:05

Sky doesn't think they need to add more HD channels though. Simply them bragging about all the lined up installs shows they already think they have enough.

MattD

663 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 1
Inactive user

#163251 9-Sep-2008 10:44

eXDee: Sky doesn't think they need to add more HD channels though. Simply them bragging about all the lined up installs shows they already think they have enough.

Could it be that they are waiting for an upgrade to the satellite to have more bandwidth to roll out additional channels?

ockel

2031 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 545

#163297 9-Sep-2008 13:42

Before you take the moral highground on content and charges have a quick look around at other paytv providers including with/without competition. I'll give just two examples to consider but feel free to shop around.

For example we do very nicely compared to Foxtel. HD subscribers pay $200 + monthly charge to rent the box. No choice there. Content is 2xsport ($10/mth), 3x general entertainment ($10/mth) or all 5 for $15/mth. Movies are $6.95 per movie.
Compare that to NZ and we do much better than our Australian counterparts (its the same for telephone charges when you look at what Telstra charges compared to Telecom but dont get me started there!). Sky clearly believes that movies are more attractive to subscribers than general entertainment.

In the US DirectTv is now up to 130 channels of HD content. But at no stage is any HD content free for subscribers. Why? Its a premium product that consumers are willing to pay for.
DirectTv started HD before 2004 with ESPN, Discovery, HDNet, and HDNetMovies for $11/mth. Two additional HD channels were offered with the premium packages and other HD movies were on a PPV basis. Sound familiar??
Presently they offer a Basic package at $30/mth - want HD? Nine channels for $10/mth but theres no HD sport or movies in there. HD sport requires a higher package offering and HD movies are a separate package of $5/mth. Want to add a DVR (MySky down here) then add another $5/mth. Even if you're an HD subscriber you still pay the extra for the DVR. And, like here, the DVR belongs to DirecTV. If you dont activate the box like you promise then add $150. If you decide to change your programming committments (24 months) then expect a prorated charge of up to $480.

Remembering of course that DirecTV operates in a competitive market with Echostar and all the cable operators. The bottom line for all operators is that if they dont offer something that is compelling as content and its not at a reasonable price for that content then they wont get the subscribers to sign up. I think that Tony O'Briens comment, while glib, is that the uptake for the new services reflects that currently subscribers see value and like the content. However I do respect that the content is not going to appeal to all people (I dont have the movies cos thats not my attraction). Over time Sky will (as other operators have) expand the HD offering but I wouldnt expect more content for less dollars.

The biggest tragedy is that viewers in Australia and New Zealand have had to wait soooo many years for HD content.

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

stuzzo

534 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 5

#163304 9-Sep-2008 14:00

I think you make very good points about the HD content value.

What's annoyed people in particlar, though, is the number of faults with the box and Sky's customer service attitude when reporting faults.

PayTV operators in general, though, have a poor record as equipment providers and one would have to question the quality control incentives when there is no competition on the hardware.

Samsung

Shop now on Samsung phones, tablets, TVs and more (affiliate link).

ockel

2031 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 545

#163317 9-Sep-2008 14:48

Agreed on quality and poor attitude to customer service. Although I'm inclined to say that there arent too many good customer service results I've had lately!

As to the buggy box - I seem to recall that the MySky1 had a very ordinary introduction. Lost recordings on firmware updates, crashing HDD's etc etc. Regretfully this is indicative of beta testing and I'd imagine a function of piggybacking on the Foxtel hardware but different middleware and software.

I've had two system failures but not for sometime - I should have been more attentive as to whether the software has been upgraded already. I understand that the next generation of the software is more stable (and is in the hands of some original triallists).

Perhaps the best assistance we can give each other is to state the operating system information when quoting the type of issue we're having. Found under System Setup-System Details after pressing your Active button.

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