Discussing Sky’s plans for Now TV in the UK, Darroch said that in the next few months it would launch a “major marketing campaign” for the service and roll out a new look and feel for the brand.

“We’ll be updating our user interface to drive engagement and consumption and we’ve got an outstanding line up of new exclusive content, which will bring to the next generation of Now TV box which will also upgrade later in the year,” said Darroch.

Full story.

Year, the box will probably look something like this, which is the German version of Now TV.

Just don't wish for too many similarities to the German Now TV box. For a start, they don't get the lovely subsidized £10 box that UK customers do, theirs costs a staggering €70.

Their Now TV service also costs more per month, with far less (fewer channels and no live streams except for sport). Their box also doesn't come with all the great FTA catch-up services that the Now TV box does. It is really quite a bad deal compared to the UK.

I sometimes laugh when I hear the phrase "rip off Britain". Sure, some things in the US are better value for money (even after their sales tax is added which is never seen in the advertised price), but not everything. Outside of the US, Britain often has far better deals than the rest of Europe and the developed world.

So, I hope this new box which will look like the German one, doesn't come with German prices.

I can only assume the HD Now TV box will based on the Roku 1 which supports 1080p and is currently going for £35 on Amazon.

Surely though the console and TV's apps will be upgraded to HD. So yeah I expect a minimal increase in price over the current Now TV box. I also suspect they charge a bit extra for the HD content too, just thay like do on Sky, Virgin etc.

Maybe they'll have a promotional period though?

Hopefully the new box will support the UK's 50Hz standard so there isn't so much picture judder (especially noticeable on Sky News or sports).

I hope they make it easier to subscribe. I'm an account holder, logged in and really found it difficult to find the box to click to sub for a week of sports - so I didn't bother. Found it in the end, a small blue box underneath a flaming footballer.

Barmy. If you seriously want our money, make it easy for us, huh??

Just click on "My Account" and it lists your active subs and the buttons to subscribe. I'm not sure how it could be any clearer or easier tbh.

edit: actually I just had a look at this and it isn't that simple, it only shows Movies (presumably because there's a free trial I *still* haven't used) and Entertainment (most likely because my sub is active). Sport doesn't show on that page at all for me, which is strange, especially as I think that's the only place to apply voucher codes.

Kudo this if you haven't already: http://community.nowtv.com/t5/Ideas-...t/idi-p/122642

You just go to www.nowtv.com/sport and click the big Buy Pass button, you'll be asked if it's a day or week, and then if you have a voucher.

And your proof?

We do well on energy costs compared to prices paid by consumers in the rest of the big EU economies, but in almost every other respect - from new cars to fresh food - we consistently pay more.

I don't think those whose wages have gone into reverse under the coalition will be laughing along with you.

'The UK has the second-highest rate of low pay in the OECD and twice the rate in some other advanced countries.

Last year, figures requested by the Labour Party and collated by the House of Commons library showed average hourly UK wages had fallen 5.5% since mid-2010, adjusted for inflation.

That is the fourth-worst decline among the 27 EU nations.'

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25759780

It needs to concentrate on content. I've had a three-month free trial of Now TV's entertainment service since December (came with a Chromecast) and I'm not impressed. The novelty wore off quickly - much quicker than with Netflix - and I seldom bother with Now TV any more. I won't be taking a paid sub.

I'm hoping for some sort of pause-live-tv functionality- perhaps via a Micro SD card.

I'd go to £50 if the product was right.

No, you don't. Most of the people protesting about rip-off Britain have never lived anywhere else, and have no real idea of what it's like elsewhere "grass is always greener" etc.

Maybe the high street price of something is more than in, say, France, but that's because France has a policy of high income taxes to subsidise other things, just to take one example. French train tickets are cheaper than UK ones, yet French railways get the equivalent of 1000 euros per year subsidy from every taxpayer, etc.

Look at the whole picture, from pay packet to to weekly shop, and the UK is better than the average. It also has an economy that is growing, which is more than can be said for most of the EU!

Yeah, you are basically right steve but what kills the standard of living for most people in the UK is housing costs....

But this is getting way off topic

Are you and ovbg one and the same? I don't think DS allows multiple identities?

What part of 'average hourly UK wages had fallen 5.5% since mid-2010, adjusted for inflation' went over your head?

So if two different people disagree with you, does it make your argument seem stronger in your mind if you imagine it is only one person?

Oh, and you can't just claim a statistic such as your 5.5% without giving direct equivalent examples in other countries

But as it has been said, all this is getting a bit off topic.

On topic, the Now TV box costs 5x less in the UK than what it does in Germany. The packages in the UK offer more channels for less money than the exact equivalent in Germany. In fact, Rip-off Britain (as some like to call it), has the world's cheapest on-demand set-top-box, which incidentally (and on-topic) is the £10 Now TV box.

Oh, and the Now TV box that costs 5x more in Germany, do you think you get all those great FTA apps like the BBC iPlayer, 4oD, ITV Player and Demand 5? No, for 5x more money, not one major FTA television network is available on it.

And finally (I could really go on here), some may like to point out that the BBC iPlayer is in fact not free because the BBC is financed by the license fee - we have a license fee in Germany too, and you probably guessed it by now, we pay more here for it, and get a lot less.

If you found out what we have to pay for health care here, you'll probably have a heart attack - but that is off-topic.

Like claiming prices in the UK are not, in fact, much higher than in the US? You mentioned sales tax to back up your argument. VAT here is 25%. State sales tax across the US seldom goes above 10%. Some states levy no sales tax at all. That's a 15-25% difference on consumer prices right there. Add in the fact that (with some distinct exceptions) real competition exists in most parts of the American market, especially in the retail sector, as opposed to the mere illusion of competition here. Consistently, UK companies seek higher profit margins when compared to the EU 27 or the US.

Are they the equivalent examples you mean?

Edit: BTW the current Now TV box is cheap for no other reason than Sky chooses to heavily subsidise it. Everything else you wrote was specious.

Those low taxes say a lot in themselves. Whilst taxes are lower in the US, the residents there get a lot less from the government - which means in many cases they have to pay for it separately. Take health insurance as an example, something most Brits take for granted (and whine a lot about) but when compared to what most Americans have to pay on top, it is great value for money.

The way America works is that people have more choice of whether they want to pay for things, where as in the UK (and most other democratic industrialized nations) tax is higher, but it pays for more.

To point out that tax is lower in America means that people in the UK are being ripped off is not looking at the whole picture. You have to take everything into account. Wages, taxation and what it provides, the additional insurances required, exchange rates, cost of living etc - it also depends entirely what you do for a living. A waiter for instance in a New York Cafe may have different things to complain about than a waiter working in a London Cafe.

Interesting. Yet Sky then see's competition important enough that they subsidize their Now TV box to £10, and offer an Entertainment package for £7 compared to the cheapest American online-only, contract-free pay-TV equivalent - Sling TV at US$20 (and this offers enormously less on-demand & no subsidized box).

The UK is hardly a competition desert. The major supermarkets compete against each other in the UK no less than the ones in the US do. Same with online stores in the UK. Yes, prices may be cheaper for most things in the US still, and I don't deny that over-all, most things are cheaper there, but it is still just one country and there is a much bigger picture that needs to be looked at.


This is a pointless statement. The economies in all 27 countries are vastly different from each other. I would hardly put the economies of Greece, Romania or Croatia in the same league as the UK for a start.

But looking at major economies that do compare, and the best I can use as an example is Germany where I currently live. I can assure you, that with everything you find cheaper in Germany than the UK, I can find 5 that is more expensive here. Hell, I could find 20 for every one that you find, but I do have a life and don't want to waste it on pointless research.


That "subsidy" that you mention, almost as if it was a dirty word, is a classic example of how competitive the UK market really is, and contradicts your previous points.

The very fact the Now TV box isn't subsidized in Germany, and that they sell it for full price, and offer a lot less once you buy it, is a classic example of how less competitive things are in many countries outside the UK.

And I can assure you, there is nothing at all wrong in that Now TV subsidy. For a start, once you buy it, there is absolutely no obligation to pay for the Now TV service. In fact, you would hardly know the box is a Now TV box as the Now TV apps are no more prominent than the free ones on there (and the free ones are amazing). Ever used an Amazon Fire TV box? That is not subsidized for the most part, and although it can be used without Amazon Prime, Amazon take up 80% of the UI.

At the end of the day Mr Madras, if the UK does so badly, and as you suggest, the entire rest of the EU27 is better. You can move any day to any other EU country and live and work without the need of a visa - check it out for yourself. A holiday isn't enough to figure out what cost of living means - you need to live in the country, pay taxes, pay insurances and get the local wages.

What's the matter, having a hard time believing that two people disagree with you?


What has that to do with anything? There's a worldwide economic crisis, the UK has reacted by reducing costs, so the UK economy is still in reasonable shape.

Over that same period the article you quote says that French wages went up by 0.4%, French unemployment, however, is at a record high of 3.5m. That's up nearly 6% in one year, whereas in the UK unemployment is dropping steadily, now down below 1.9m, while "wage growth outpaced inflation at the fastest rate in almost five years" (also from the BBC).

Which would you prefer, a job with a salary that's a bit lower than it was 5 years ago but has started to rise, or to be unemployed? Average salary doesn't matter so much when you're not earning one!

Netflix needs to suceed in the UK, unlike Sky we need a service that uses entertainment subscriptions for entertainment. Sky have just agreed a £4 Billion contract to show Premier league football over 3 years but the majority won't come from sports subscriptions but instead entertainment subscriptions and other services. Even advertising revenue generated by sport is only a tenth of the estimated £660 million Sky receives. In the recent Ofcom stakeholders report 59.1% of programme content on subscription TV was spent on sport, a gross overspend considering sport generates just 2.7% of the viewing audience.

If people look at the hard facts and what there outlay is on SKY and other subscription services they would be in for quite a shock. Last year SKY signed a 5 year deal with HBO for first run shows such as Game of Thrones for just £275 million. That is equivalent to just 44 pence per subscriber per month. Sky boasted they were spending £600 million a year commissioning and producing home grown original content. Yet in their glossy annual report they claim only to have shown 60 hours of their own original commissioned content. If you consider that it costs £2 million per hour for their biggest production Fortitude shown on Sky Atlantic, then you have to wonder how they arrive at spending £600 million. So where is the rest of the £480 million being spent? If we couple this with the 44 pence per subscriber per month spent on HBO content you can see why I ask these questions.

Then there are all the other add ons. You have to pay £11.25 for your partner or others in the household to watch something different in another room. If you want to add HD to your existing original bundle be prepared to shell out another £11.50 for a family bundle even though you only wish to watch the channels on the original bundle you have chosen. Of course watching in another room or watching in HD is FREE on Free To Air TV Perhaps there is a clue in the name of Freeview or Free To Air. Yes I am prepared for comments that the BBC isn't free but that is another debate altogether.

But the real issue is what are we paying for. Netflix provides entertainment, it is clearly stamped on the box and that is what they deliver. Services like this need to be encouraged and if as what has happened in the US, they gain millions of subscribers here in the UK then I believe it will be spent on securing more entertainment and producing more original content of the calibre of House of Cards.

This may sound as though I am giving a glowing recommendation of Netflix and doing a little bit of Sky bashing but I am stating a case for people who subscribe to any service whether it be Netflix, Amazon, Sky or BT and that is to question what they are paying for. To prove I am not wholly against SKY, I will promote a great service on their behalf and that is in response to Netflix and Amazon, they have launched a stripped down service on NOW TV with the pick of the entertainment channels especially Sky Atlantic. Now here is a suggestion you could have Netflix, Amazon and NOW TV, all for less than what Sky subscribers are paying for the basic original bundle costing £21.50. This will deliver you a huge range of entertainment of TV and Movies exactly what you should be paying for.

Why worry about itemizing it? Sky sells a service for a price. If you like it, pay for it, if not, don't. It's not worth agonizing over.