Current situation: Sky+HD (1Tb) plus further Sky+HD (500Gb) multiroom box, legacy pack which includes F1 and movies. Very little, if any, TV watched at the time it is broadcast. Make most use of Sky 1, Sky Atlantic and Fox, some Discovery and movies. FTV channels make up the remainder. Often watch a recorded series some months after original broadcast.

What we'd like: similar (ideally identical) channel line up (prepared to lose the F1 as it has become an excuse to snooze for a couple of hours and then watch the 'highlights' later). Current 2 rooms still served and add into one further room. No Cat 6 cabling in the house, and not practical to run cables (HDMI or otherwise) between the main box and the extra TV we'd like to watch things on.

Sky Q Silver bundle plus an extra Sky Q mini seems the obvious answer but the cost is a bit steep, even if current subscribers are given the same deal as new ones. Looking at at least £198 upfront for the boxes, £50 installation and then more per month than current subscription.

Is there a better (i.e. cheaper) alternative? We've got fibre (~40Mbps) so could stream. Had Freesat (gen 1) but found the planner to be 'flaky' at best (missing series stuff when Sky+ box found it fine).

What would you recommend?

We dropped Sky TV about a month ago. We now use:

1. a YouView+ PVR (Humax BT Retail DTR-T2110 500GB) to record stuff off Freeview channels (plus it also has players for the BBC, ITV, C4, C5 catch up services and it can also do Netflix). Requires a TV aerial for Freeview, internet connection for Netflix.

2. Subscribe to NOW TV Entertainment pass for £6.99 per month (can be cheaper by buying vouchers). There are 13 channels including Sky1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Living, FOX. The channel lineup suits us, but you may find the selection less to your liking). About one month in three we buy a NOW TV (Sky) Movies pass for £9.99, subject to there being enough films that we want to watch. We have occasionally bought a NOW TV (Sky) Sports pass - these vary in price according to duration (day, week or month). No contract, no notice periods, easy to start & stop all passes as required. Can register 4 devices and use it concurrently on 2 devices. We use it on a ROKU2 (good device, "one box to view them all", can access NOW TV, Netflix, Amazon Video, Google Play plus BBC iPlayer, ITV, C4, C5 catchup services), a NOW TV 2nd gen box (locked down version of ROKU2?), Apple TV and iPad.

We also currently subscribe to Netflix as there's a fair bit of content on there that interests us at present. Have also just dipped into Amazon Video for the first time (via ROKU2).

Like you we have a fast FTTC(VDSL2) service so streaming isn't a problem. Unexpected benefit are reduced outgoings compared to our Sky TV costs.

Other options and opinions are available of course! What suits one person's needs won't necessarily suit another person's needs...

I agree

Now TV is great and it finally works in Ireland

I still have Sky TV orginal bundle in SD for 20euros per month (I have 30% off deal from Sky Ireland) its usually 29.50euros per month
I only have Sky TV for the Setanta pack that includes BT Sport

I use Now TV for my freesat/saorview in a spare room for 9euros per month.
If I got sky multi-room and sky boxed sets with sky TV ireland, it would cost 25euros per month

Now TV's content is in HD

I've read a little about Now TV and most of it has been good. Slightly concerned about the reviews that talk about 'limited time' catchup vs boxset. We rarely get round to watching stuff near its original broadcast date - in which category do most of the american import TV shows reside, catch up or boxset?

We watch series like Suits, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Hannibal, Hawaii 5-0, Blacklist, Elementary etc alongside the FTA offerings. Listed above is small selection; lack of time in any given week means we often watch things from the PVR (Sky+HD currently) months after original broadcast (summer is great when the 'big' shows tend to finish for a while - time to catch up). By ditching the PVR would we be ditching the opportunity to watch some of the content as well? (Not necessarily a bad thing, just worth knowing when weighing up the options).

if its a box sets series the time limits is 6 months while catch up tv series is 31 days time limits

now tv is sky tv when you cancel at any time

If considering streaming make sure your internet package is 'unlimited' and you're not on a capped service.

Streaming in HD over a week will soon use it up.

^^ One night puts a dent in mine, if I wasn't unlimited on sky fibre.

Shows currently being broadcast seem to reside on catchup for varying periods of time, ranging from 28 days to3 or 4 months. It seems to vary according to what it is. I think US stuff probably more 28 days, UK Sky original stuff for longer.


In my opinion, completely ditching the PVR would require either a lot of organisation (to keep on top of when the things you want to watch are available) or a lot of flexibility (watch what's available from your pick of what you want to watch,at the time when you want to watch something). Hence we have adopted a sort of hybrid approach - PVR the Freeview stuff, stream everything else (keeping an eye on pages like this to see what's available:
http://www.artesea.co.uk/nowtv/
http://www.artesea.co.uk/nowtv/catchup.php
http://www.artesea.co.uk/nowtv/movies.php

Just to add something about the vouchers for Now TV.

If you shop at Sainburys you can buy the 3 month Entertainment vouchers for £15 from Argos. If you have enough nectar points, you can effectively have Now TV for free (Sainburys purchases required of course).

Team up the Nector points with Sainburys MyCoupons you can get regularly weekly bonus points. We usually manage around 500 - 600 bonus points every two weeks, plus the points on the actual shop as well.. 600 points works out to around £3.00 to spend in Argos.

Over Christmas it was cheaper to keep buying NOW TV boxes for £15 as they came with 3 months entertainment passes.

What about having a Motorized Satellite System?

I use

Netflix plus US Unblock
Amazon Prime
BBC iplayer
Demand5
ITVplayer (rarely watch).
Youtube has lot of Documentaries
Thinking of Adding Hulu

If I wanted Sport there are many options.

No Tv Licence needed.