No cause its sold at a loss to get you to buy Sky.
Had a devil of a job to get just the free stuff as it keeps trying to get you to buy movies/sports.!!

Actually, that is not really true. (the 2nd bit about being difficult getting the free stuff)

The box is incredibly easy to set up and the only relationship needed with Sky is a free account with them. I have not received any spam on that email address (yet).

Once the device is on, you can have absolutely immediate and unrestricted access to the free stuff, i.e. BBC iPlayer (I would say Demand 5 as well, but that seems to be broken on the Roku platform, including Roku itself)

You just click the BBC iPlayer or other apps and they start, and when inside, they are 100% dedicated to that task - i.e. you don't see Sky branding anywhere.

Outside of the free apps, you do see movie tips at the bottom of the screen that belong to Sky Now, but you can easily ignore them just as most people ignore the ads on this very forum. You don't have to click them and they soon vanish from sight - especially as a user is only in the main screen to switch between apps anyway.

By the way, how is this different to Roku, which costs five times the price (or 10x for the 1080p version)?

On Roku you always have promotions from other pay sights as well, whether Netflix or others.

Also, the Apple TV does this with iTunes suggestions at the very top of their interface.

Sky's is no different - well, one small difference, they do have a dedicated button on the remote, but I have already ignored that by default (and I have a Sky Now subscription)

ovbg.. you mentioned demand 5.. i looked last night and the stream is NOT connectiong , i will contact now tv...

^^ correct, though I suspect Now TV will tell you it is not their problem and to contact Demand 5... which if they did, they would have a point as Demand 5 doesn't seem to be working either on the Roku box or many Samsung TV's.

Demand 5 working again now

I found it very easy to use and set up, why on earth you had a devil of a job getting the free stuff must I can only assume must have been down to your own ineptness, I am not continually nagged to subscribe to Now. One wonders what exact difficulties you had, one has to register with Now, registration is different to subscription and registration is totally free anyway. Actually I'm surprised that they did not tie it in with being subscribed to Sky Now services for at least a minimum period, but they didn't and its a great little device for £9.99 particularly when you consider it has HDMI lead included in the box. Great for the free download services. Never having owned a Roku box I get the impression from reading about the Roku box that one of the differences is that some of the services available on the Roku box, such as Netflix and others are not available on the Now box. I can understand why as Netflix is a bit of a direct competitor to Sky Now service. But a good box and one of the few things I would say is worth giving Sky money for.

One little plus for me with this box is the Vevo channel.

Doesn't have the greatest selection, I agree, but my WD TV Live box has YouTube and DailyMotion.

The PQ seems to be better than VM's music videos too.

Now get a stupid Lexus advert on nowtv Vevo, its stopping me use the service

No problems for me