I friend has bought himself a Sky Now TV box and demonstrated it to me. He says he didn't have to sign up to any Sky deal to use it and only wants to access BBC iPlayer and one or two other services. I stress that he HASN'T hacked into Sky Sports or Sky Movies, mainly because he's not that kind of guy, but also because he's not into sports or movies.

I'm dubious. He says he found instructions on how to set up an account on YouTube and followed them and when I told him that the Sky Movie deal had a 30-day free trial period, he said at no point was he asked for or gave his credit card details.

I would like to do the same for my stepmother, who often missess BBC 4 programmes because they clash with something else she wants to watch. (Sometimes I can set up my laptop for her, but honestly it is a hassle and I can only do it every so often and have to be there because she can't get the hang of using a laptop. She had a stroke a while ago and is 75). If I could set it up, like my friend, so she could catch up on them on iPlayer, that would be great, but, as I said, I'm dubious. Is there a way to get a Sky Now account and just use the features such as iPlayer and ignore the deals as my friend insists, or is he in for a shock in 30 days when his box no longer works?

The shop.nowtv.com states
"What do I need to start watching?
In order to use your NOW TV Box you'll need a NOW TV account. You can create an account by simply signing up to a Sky Movies Pass 30 day free trial, or by purchasing a 24 hour Sky Sports Day Pass for just £9.99"

So, I would assume, that as long as you take the Sky Movies Pass 30 day free trial (which, it seems doesn't ask for credit card details) that everything else will work.
I've just ordered mine so I'll soon find out.

Hi

You do indeed need to create a sky id via the now TV website however you don’t need to enter your credit card details you just cancel when it gets there. Your Sky ID will have been created then you just go to the Now TV box and enter the Sky ID

So say you use BT for your broadband (basic package) and don't have BT vision or anything like that.

Will your iplayer downloads etc eat into your monthly broadband allowance? or is that somehow not counted?

Does it buffer to internal storage, or just live stream (we have a slow flakey broadband connection)

Of course it does, data is data - and iPlayer etc. is a major user of your allowance.

There's likely to be a major backlash about IPTV Internet traffic in the next few years, already in America most Internet traffic is caused by Netflix - and ISP's have begun placing restrictions on Netflix traffic.

I would imagine the end result is going to be that IPTV companies are going to have to pay the ISP's and Internet backbone companies for the amount of their data that is being carried?.


For £9.95 you expect a full PC and HDD

No, it's entirely dependent on fast reliable broadband, like almost all other gear.

I thought Netflix had an agreement with all major ISP's in the UK that they would share the burden of the cost of Netflix HD traffic.

Perhaps it's already happened then

I notice that you actually specified 'HD' though, is the agreement ONLY for HD traffic and not SD?.

I only asked as if you signup to BT vision, the bandwidth used by that is not measured in your "normal" usage, but obviously that's paid for.

So if you want to use a lot if iptv, you have to pay more for an unlimited broadband package, thus killing once and for all any notion that iptv is "free"



no not a full PC but at least some sort of buffer. And at £9.95 it's a subsidised price in the hope you will pay them money for ongoing services.

So with a max 2MB broadband speed, that's prone to just stopping every now and then for no reason, and sometimes struggles to watch real time (sub) SD you tube video's this is really a non started then.

That's because you'd be a BT customer with vision and broadband so any data used is not taken off while using their equipment.
Any data used not via the BT equipment ie: laptop etc comes off usage allowance.

The free iptv services are free as your not paying the providers to use their services.
Your paying someone else for the delivery of the data.

As others have said, in order to try and claim BT Vision subscriber numbers (which are pretty feeble) BT don't count BT Vision data in the normal usage. But that's a specific BT ploy to try and get customers.


I've never had the slightest notion that IPTV is 'free', on the contrary it's a VERY expensive way to watch (often poor quality) TV.


I presumed you were aware it's a Roku box? - none of these types of units have 'buffers'. which really would need to be an HDD in any case.


Exactly - IPTV needs an excellent broadband connection, nice and fast with good reliability.

The only exception appears to be Sky OnDemand, which buffers the incoming data to it's HDD, and doesn't allow you to even start watching until enough is buffered to allow you to watch all the programme without any pauses. An added bonus of this method is the higher quality it allows them to provide, superior to all others?.