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When will Sky stop charging for HD Package?

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    SnrDevSnrDev Posts: 6,094
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    Ask her if she gets ITV4HD. Yes - she's onto a winner. No - she has what her level of subscription offers.
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    Jaycee DoveJaycee Dove Posts: 18,762
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    For those confused Netflix charge £5.99 pm for SD and one device. £6.99 pm for HD and two devices. And £8.99 for Ultra HD (if you can get it on your devices and with your BB and only on some programming) but on 4 devices.

    Sky charge £5.25 pm for their entertainment/documentary HD channels and an extra £5 pm for the premium channels in HD (eg Sports and Movies).

    Other HD channels are free.

    Virgin do charge extra for HD but add the cost into package prices up front (though you also still have to pay extra for Sky Sports and Movies).

    You can easily establish that by comparing prices to get all the channels in/not in HD via either Sky or Virgin, If Virgin did not charge they would be clearly cheaper and they are not.

    Really Sky ought to just pull the same trick - absorb the HD sub into the package prices and therefore magically make it disappear. Amazed they have not done it yet as - like Virgin - they would still really be charging but nobody would accuse them of doing it.

    I guess they will argue that by giving you the choice to not add HD then you can lower your costs if you don't need/want it.

    Though in this day and age I suspect that is not helping Sky but harming their image as this thread suggests.
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    chenkschenks Posts: 13,231
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    Really Sky ought to just pull the same trick - absorb the HD sub into the package prices and therefore magically make it disappear. Amazed they have not done it yet as - like Virgin - they would still really be charging but nobody would accuse them of doing it.

    they have done, it's now called the Family pack.
    it's only sports and movies that now have a separate HD pack.
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    Jaycee DoveJaycee Dove Posts: 18,762
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    chenks wrote: »
    they have done, it's now called the Family pack.
    it's only sports and movies that now have a separate HD pack.

    Thanks, did not realise this was HD as standard. We have had Sky World HD for years now or whatever it is called these days.:) Here HD is still an optional add on - though as I noted in an earlier post much cheaper than it used to be in real terms as the sub has never risen and so in actuality fallen over 9 years. And as the second multiroom HD sub has rightly been removed.
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    blueisthecolourblueisthecolour Posts: 20,129
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    For those confused Netflix charge £5.99 pm for SD and one device. £6.99 pm for HD and two devices. And £8.99 for Ultra HD (if you can get it on your devices and with your BB and only on some programming) but on 4 devices.

    I guess that historic customers still just pay the £5.99 for everything though as that's what I pay and I get ultra HD.
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    Moody BlueMoody Blue Posts: 5,688
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    Thanks for the responses, I've just realised that if I cancel then I won't get any Sky chanels in HD.

    Trouble is I only ever really watch the free to air chanels and Sky news. So in essence I'm paying a tenner a month to watch Sky news in HD :(
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    chenkschenks Posts: 13,231
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    Moody Blue wrote: »
    Thanks for the responses, I've just realised that if I cancel then I won't get any Sky chanels in HD.

    Trouble is I only ever really watch the free to air chanels and Sky news. So in essence I'm paying a tenner a month to watch Sky news in HD :(

    watch it in SD then, or simply watch BBC News HD
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    Jaycee DoveJaycee Dove Posts: 18,762
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    For all the moans about Sky BT is by miles the worst offfender.

    £3 pm extra (and double if you want multiroom) for just 3 channels in HD instead of SD is very poor value to what either Sky or Virgin offer - many channels added in HD for marginally more than £3 pm.

    Virgin - though - is the best of all if you want BT Sport as you get their 3 channels in HD as part of their carriage deal with BT- without paying anything extra.
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    Young TurksYoung Turks Posts: 3,262
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    Thanks, did not realise this was HD as standard. We have had Sky World HD for years now or whatever it is called these days.:) Here HD is still an optional add on - though as I noted in an earlier post much cheaper than it used to be in real terms as the sub has never risen and so in actuality fallen over 9 years. And as the second multiroom HD sub has rightly been removed.

    HD is standard as long as you don't mind paying £5pm on top of your package for just HD in this day and age.

    Variety package is £28 Family package is £33 the only difference between them is that you pay extra 5pm to access the HD version of channels that are already in Variety package as SD.

    Basically Sky charge customers twice/double - once for SD version another one for HD version. Good for them their shareholders should be happy if not the customers who pay twice for same channel!
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    chenkschenks Posts: 13,231
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    Basically Sky charge customers twice/double - once for SD version another one for HD version. Good for them their shareholders should be happy if not the customers who pay twice for same channel!

    as has been noted (i'm sure it'll sink in eventually), so do BT, Virgin and Netflix - their shareholders will also be happy.
    why do you never mention them???
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    timo_w2stimo_w2s Posts: 3,382
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    Variety package is £28 Family package is £33 the only difference between them is that you pay extra 5pm to access the HD version of channels that are already in Variety package as SD.

    Family pack also gives you access to box sets on demand.
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    Jaycee DoveJaycee Dove Posts: 18,762
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    HD is standard as long as you don't mind paying £5pm on top of your package for just HD in this day and age.

    Variety package is £28 Family package is £33 the only difference between them is that you pay extra 5pm to access the HD version of channels that are already in Variety package as SD.

    Basically Sky charge customers twice/double - once for SD version another one for HD version. Good for them their shareholders should be happy if not the customers who pay twice for same channel!

    Virgin do much the same but as I noted they just charge a package price and suggest it includes HD for free.

    But its price is higher than the equivalent Sky price meaning that the extra Virgin charge is actually the cost of the HD they are giving you free.

    It is semantics and it works given the impression so many seem to have because it lets them say that their HD is free which is technically true but realistically not.

    We have both Sky and Virgin by the way so I am not trying to big up either one here. They just use different sales techniques. And one of them is working much better than the other it would appear.
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    Jimmy_BarnesJimmy_Barnes Posts: 895
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    chenks wrote: »


    so if netflix put the price up again by £1 next year you'll still be fine with it?
    economics shows that if netflix continues to create more of its own content then costs will rise.

    You're just wildly speculating, there's no indications Netflix will raise their prices. Even when they last did, longtime customers weren't affected. I actually think £5.99, especially when I'm getting HD and multiple devices, is a bargain, and I and undoubtedly many others would be fine with a small price increase.
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    chenkschenks Posts: 13,231
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    You're just wildly speculating, there's no indications Netflix will raise their prices. Even when they last did, longtime customers weren't affected. I actually think £5.99, especially when I'm getting HD and multiple devices, is a bargain, and I and undoubtedly many others would be fine with a small price increase.

    the £5.99 price does not get new customers HD though, so saying you get HD for £5.99 really isn't an accurate account of what it would cost someone to move to netflix.

    that's like someone saying HD on sky is free because they are on a deal that gives them it for nothing.

    yes it is speculation, but i think we can all be sure that prices certainly aren't going to decrease.
    a £1 increase on a £30+ subscription is not comparable to a £1 increase on a £6 subscription. one of them equates to a much higher percentage increase than the other.

    i'm not debating the quality or value for money of netflix (i used the free trial and there was nothing there that interested me), but it is a fact that no intelligent person can deny that netflix do charge a premium for HD content.
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    anyonefortennisanyonefortennis Posts: 111,858
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    Where does it state that HD is only £5 a month on the Sky basic package? It says it's £10.75 a month on their website.
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    timo_w2stimo_w2s Posts: 3,382
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    Where does it state that HD is only £5 a month on the Sky basic package? It says it's £10.75 a month on their website.

    It doesn't but...
    Variety is £28
    Family is £33 (which is Variety + HD + On Demand Box Sets)
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    anyonefortennisanyonefortennis Posts: 111,858
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    timo_w2s wrote: »
    It doesn't but...
    Variety is £28
    Family is £33 (which is Variety + HD + On Demand Box Sets)

    So it's only £5 a month if you have the Family package. It is £10.75 a month if you have the £21.50 Original bundle like me.
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    TuvokTuvok Posts: 1,149
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    Don't have an HD tv, so I don't take HD channels.
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    neyney Posts: 12,516
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    For all the moans about Sky BT is by miles the worst offfender.

    £3 pm extra (and double if you want multiroom) for just 3 channels in HD instead of SD is very poor value to what either Sky or Virgin offer - many channels added in HD for marginally more than £3 pm.

    Virgin - though - is the best of all if you want BT Sport as you get their 3 channels in HD as part of their carriage deal with BT- without paying anything extra.

    Since when did BT charge double for there multi room is £3 extra for the HD bolt on and £5 extra for multi room. Also BT may not offer as many HD channels as Sky or Virgin but they do offer more than just 3 HD channels. I have the BT HD bolt on.

    Darren
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    Jaycee DoveJaycee Dove Posts: 18,762
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    ney wrote: »
    Since when did BT charge double for there multi room is £3 extra for the HD bolt on and £5 extra for multi room. Also BT may not offer as many HD channels as Sky or Virgin but they do offer more than just 3 HD channels. I have the BT HD bolt on.

    Darren

    We had BT Sport for free on Sky via a BT broadband sub and were told it was now £3 if we wanted to carry on watching in HD and twice that if we wanted this in HD on two boxes. Maybe they were offering a deal?
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    Colin_LondonColin_London Posts: 12,729
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    For all the moans about Sky BT is by miles the worst offfender.

    £3 pm extra (and double if you want multiroom) for just 3 channels in HD instead of SD is very poor value to what either Sky or Virgin offer - many channels added in HD for marginally more than £3 pm.

    Virgin - though - is the best of all if you want BT Sport as you get their 3 channels in HD as part of their carriage deal with BT- without paying anything extra.

    You are only considering BT Sport. Actually you can get 23 channels in HD for £3 extra if you are on the Entertainment package.
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    RichardcoulterRichardcoulter Posts: 30,455
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    chenks wrote: »
    you have to have the XL package to get those HD channels though, so you are still paying for them, the charge is simply hidden inside the XL pack cost.

    When HD started on VM, the cost of the XL pack did not increase, so it is provided at no extra charge. Obviously, as you say, the cost will be borne by customers somehow.
    noise747 wrote: »
    They will stop charging if people say enough is enough and we are not going to pay for HD. The problem is people will not and will carry on paying regardless.

    Agree totally.
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    Jaycee DoveJaycee Dove Posts: 18,762
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    You are only considering BT Sport. Actually you can get 23 channels in HD for £3 extra if you are on the Entertainment package.

    If you are with Sky and have BT on your Sky box then you have to pay BT £3 pm extra for HD on top of any HD subs you may/may not pay Sky just to watch in HD the three BT Sport channels you already pay extra to BT to watch in SD.

    At least that was how I understood it. Apologies if this is incorrect.
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    gs1gs1 Posts: 8,392
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    For all the moans about Sky BT is by miles the worst offfender.

    £3 pm extra (and double if you want multiroom) for just 3 channels in HD instead of SD is very poor value to what either Sky or Virgin offer - many channels added in HD for marginally more than £3 pm. .......
    This is not a like-for-like comparison, however, as you're comparing the value of Sky & Virgin Media's HD charges on their own platforms, against what BT charges on Sky's platform.

    BT Infinity TV customers can add a TV Entertainment package of 20 channels for £7.45 per month (standard price), plus free BT Sport, then add an HD bolt-on for £3 per month, to upgrade both to HD.

    This provides 13 Entertainment HD channels (including 2 Eurosport) & 3 BT Sport/ESPN channels in HD for the £3 per month.
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    rfonzorfonzo Posts: 11,774
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    I personally think it is time they stopped charging for HD as it has now become commonplace.
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