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Sky Not Doing Deals Anymore? |
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#126 |
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£39 according to your link.
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#127 |
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Join Date: Nov 2008
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Well, I just finished chatting with a Sky bod and the best deal I've been offered up to now is just 30% off TV for 5 years with a new 12 month contract. It equates to just a tenner off, though, so I stuck to my guns and went through with the cancellation. It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, happens next.
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#128 |
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Join Date: Jan 2012
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Quote:
Well, I just finished chatting with a Sky bod and the best deal I've been offered up to now is just 30% off TV for 5 years with a new 12 month contract. It equates to just a tenner off, though, so I stuck to my guns and went through with the cancellation. It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, happens next.
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#129 |
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Join Date: Nov 2008
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Sky are scaling back the aggressive discounting initiatives so you may not get a better deal.
Just checked Sky Interactive and it's already gone up to 35% off any package. |
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#130 |
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Sky are scaling back the aggressive discounting initiatives so you may not get a better deal.
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#131 |
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Join Date: Jan 2005
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Quote:
Well, I just finished chatting with a Sky bod and the best deal I've been offered up to now is just 30% off TV for 5 years with a new 12 month contract. It equates to just a tenner off, though, so I stuck to my guns and went through with the cancellation. It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, happens next.
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#132 |
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Derbyshire / UK
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Sky are scaling back the aggressive discounting initiatives so you may not get a better deal.
Sky fully understand the game and won't offer their best price first or second time, but even if they're cutting back on discounts they'd obviously rather loose a bit and keep a customer. My loyalty to Sky extends as far as the best offer they have. If somebody has a better offer than bye bye over priced satellite service and hello competitor. It's no longer 1989 or even 1998 and they are no longer the only game in town. |
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#133 |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
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There has been a slight scaleback in discounting- Sky stated in their results, that they estimated the loss of around 10,000 additional customers in the last quarter, as a consequence: Quote:
Churn for the quarter was 10.7%, reflecting our decision to limit discounts; we believe this impacts the quarter by around 10,000 additional customers churning.
https://corporate.sky.com/documents/...%20release.pdfWe don't know the nature of the change in discount policy and to who Sky applied it. However, the fact that Sky admit losing customers as a consequence, does suggest to me, that if discounts are reduced/removed, many won't "fall in to line" and pay full price; despite that argument being given fuel by some customers claiming on social media that they would have stayed had they not been offered a discount. In my view- and despite strong trading recently- Sky will not be able to eliminate discounts aggressively, due to the number of alternatives/ stronger competition (and indeed, discounting) available from other providers; and the number of customers for whom the standard prices are challenging or unaffordable. Indeed, the new Premier League contract commencing August 2016 will significantly increase costs for Sky and make retention of profitable customers more critical, in my view, and therefore strengthen the hand of those who are willing to "walk away". |
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#134 |
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Join Date: Jul 2002
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I wonder if their prediction will be accurate. I also think the wording could mean they're limiting discounts to customers full stop, or limiting the value of the discounts (e.g. doing more 35% deals for 9/10 months than 50% discounts for a year). I suspect it's the latter, so it just means people have to play that bit harder in what's a cat and mouse game.
If they do see more people leave, they'll adjust the discounts accordingly.. just as other companies do. Three did it with a £5 and £10 monthly discount (also to new customers) on the One Plan, which actually gained Three loads of subscribers - but at a cost (£15 for the One Plan being seen by many as far too cheap for what it offered). With Three, a subscriber using the network and consuming data had an actual cost to the network. With Sky, it's arguably better to get anything than nothing as the cost of running the Sky network remains more or less the same either way. |
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#135 |
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Join Date: Aug 2009
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My discounts finished end of last month. Bill went from around £43 to £65. Rang up last night, and couldnt get a deal that I liked. The best they could do was £53. So ended up cancelling my TV service.
Logged into the sky service app this morning and had a 50% discount waiting for me. That will bring the bill down to £49. Will ring up and see if I can get a £5 off my line rental and broadband. The chap I spoke to yesterday did offer me free broadband. So I am hopeful I can get my bill back to the £43 I was paying last month. Although will be aiming for £41, so when the June price rise comes in..I will still be paying £43. My sky services app now shows a 35% discount on the tv package. |
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#136 |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
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..... With Sky, it's arguably better to get anything than nothing as the cost of running the Sky network remains more or less the same either way. ......
Thus, Sky may be willing to test whether some customers will return/remain with Sky at full price if they are denied a discount (or offered a reduced discount); and, they may be willing to lose an element of customers that they deem less desirable to retain. However, the overall discount strategy will continue, in my opinion, to be about adding profitable customers at discounted rates after they have exhausted those who are willing to pay full rate. For the "home communications" element of the business, the calculations are different, because a larger proportion of the costs (e.g wholesale line rental costs payable to BT Openreach) are "per customer". A final point- a customer who leaves Sky doesn't necessarily stop purchasing Sky services e.g. Sky channels via another provider or Now TV. However, such revenue for Sky from customers who cancel Sky subscriptions, is likely to be harder for Sky to guage and of a more occasional/flexible nature. |
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#137 |
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Join Date: Jul 2002
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I'm moving to Now TV and suspect many others are too.
As you say, when it comes to things like fixed broadband, there's a cost to Sky that is increased with more customers/usage. There's no real cost for satellite TV as the cost of the boxes get recovered during the minimum term, and now the new boxes are leased - and can be recovered if a customer leaves (although it's not clear if they will actively do this, or seek to keep boxes in homes and actively seek to get people to reactivate their sub). |
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#138 |
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Join Date: Jan 2003
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I just don't see Now Tv with No recording option as a direct alternative to me for my Sky set up
1st of June when I can place my 31 days notice to cancel Sky,counting down the days |
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#139 |
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Join Date: Jan 2012
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I just don't see Now Tv with No recording option as a direct alternative to me for my Sky set up
1st of June when I can place my 31 days notice to cancel Sky,counting down the days |
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#140 |
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Northampton
Posts: 1,014
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I'm moving to Now TV and suspect many others are too.
As you say, when it comes to things like fixed broadband, there's a cost to Sky that is increased with more customers/usage. There's no real cost for satellite TV as the cost of the boxes get recovered during the minimum term, and now the new boxes are leased - and can be recovered if a customer leaves (although it's not clear if they will actively do this, or seek to keep boxes in homes and actively seek to get people to reactivate their sub). |
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#141 |
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Join Date: Oct 2010
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Now TV is a niche offering for people who are happy with streaming for their entertainment. For most people, Sky is much better because they want hundreds of channels, they want all the recording capabilities, they want the better picture quality, they want surround sound, and they'll want fluid viewing once they experience it.
Better picture quality? 1080i is little to no different from 720p Hundreds of channels? How many of them does the average consumer actually watch? Recording? Yup that could be a big sacrifice to make for some people Fluid Viewing? Stop saying that Now TV has offered this for ages. |
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#142 |
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Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Oxford
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Fluid Viewing? Stop saying that Now TV has offered this for ages.
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#143 |
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Derbyshire / UK
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Sorry but Now TV supports 7.1 audio since 2015
http://www.whathifi.com/news/now-tv-...sound-and-more Better picture quality? 1080i is little to no different from 720p Hundreds of channels? How many of them does the average consumer actually watch? Recording? Yup that could be a big sacrifice to make for some people Fluid Viewing? Stop saying that Now TV has offered this for ages. I can't say I've missed ?TV or Fox News either. Don't forget the Sky guide (and to be fair Freeview and Virgin) is also cluttered with plus ones. I love how some people think that 'fluid viewing' is a magical all mighty power when as you say Now TV, Netflix and Amazon Instant Video all do the same. It's nothing more than a marketing term to make people think it's special, rather like how Apple call it Retina Display while normal people call it HD. |
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#144 |
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Join Date: Jul 2002
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Now TV is a niche offering for people who are happy with streaming for their entertainment. For most people, Sky is much better because they want hundreds of channels, they want all the recording capabilities, they want the better picture quality, they want surround sound, and they'll want fluid viewing once they experience it.
When I had a standalone DVD/PVR I would record stuff to keep (recording to a recordable DVD), but with a Sky box there's no guarantee the content won't expire and be deleted, plus you need to keep a sub to watch it. And does anyone 'export' the content these days? Can you even do that on the latest software (not even looked)? Plus you need to plan ahead to fill the HDD with recordings, when if you see a nice list of content and simply click on it, you'll be watching it in a few seconds as it is streamed. And then the next episode and then the next (yup, box sets aren't a new invention for Sky either). I really don't know what the benefits are of storing it on a box these days. Obviously you need the content to be available to stream, but that's a separate issue. And that's up to Sky. And why do you keep referring to 'fluid viewing'. Fluid viewing is a marketing term from Sky, it's not an actual thing, nor is the idea unique to Sky. If I watch something on my phone on Netflix/Amazon/Now TV and get home, I turn on my TV and carry on exactly where I left off. It's always been like that! Fair point about the hundreds of channels, although - again - when you move towards just having an A-Z list of content the concept of channels disappears. You turn on your box and search for what you want, then watch it. No need to wait for it to be broadcast. In 5 or 10 years, I'd be surprised if Sky isn't moving more customers over to the Now TV model (with more advanced boxes, offering Full HD and Ultra HD quality) and renting less and less satellite space. |
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#145 |
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Join Date: Apr 2004
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Really - I don't think it offers it for On Demand viewng - does it?
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#146 |
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Join Date: Jan 2012
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Surround Sound? Finding conflicting reports on this but yes it looks like it's not currently supported even though the box supports it.
Better picture quality? 1080i is little to no different from 720p Hundreds of channels? How many of them does the average consumer actually watch? Recording? Yup that could be a big sacrifice to make for some people Fluid Viewing? Stop saying that Now TV has offered this for ages. There is no doubt the picture quality is much better on Sky vs. Now TV. It's very visible to the naked eye on big screens. People like having choice regardless of how many different channels people watch on a regular basis. Now TV has very limited choice. Fluid Viewing is very different to the Now TV resume playback functionality that works on some devices for some content. |
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#147 |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
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Now TV is a niche offering for people who are happy with streaming for their entertainment. For most people, Sky is much better because they want hundreds of channels, they want all the recording capabilities, they want the better picture quality, they want surround sound, and they'll want fluid viewing once they experience it.
Sky won't risk destabilisation of profits via drastic changes in discounting policy, in my opinion. It's sensible, however, to occasionally adjust the approach slightly and analyse what effect it has/ how customers respond, over several quarters. |
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#148 |
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Nobody has said Now TV offers exactly the same experience as Sky, but with the new boxes I just got from Amazon today I have another year of movies working out at £4.74 a month and Entertainment working out at £3.17 a month - and I now have another load of boxes that I will sell off, so the cost will be even lower!
I only get 1280x720 video and inferior sound, but to be honest I watch relatively little Sky content these days. I can watch some of the newest films, and my wife can watch some stuff on Sky , but for 90% of our viewing it's Amazon or Netflix - and that's full HD video with proper surround sound. So I'm very happy because the compromise on quality equals a ridiculously large saving compared to Sky even with a 50% discount. Bear in mind that Now TV lets you stream to four devices (albeit with the usual limit of changing just one device every 30 days) and at no extra cost as with Sky for having a second, third or fourth box. And given you can resume viewing on any of them, I'd say that's pretty fluid. |
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#149 |
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I get that not everyone has superfast broadband, but why exactly do people want recording capabilities these days?
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When I had a standalone DVD/PVR I would record stuff to keep (recording to a recordable DVD), but with a Sky box there's no guarantee the content won't expire and be deleted, plus you need to keep a sub to watch it. And does anyone 'export' the content these days? Can you even do that on the latest software (not even looked)?
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Plus you need to plan ahead to fill the HDD with recordings, when if you see a nice list of content and simply click on it, you'll be watching it in a few seconds as it is streamed. And then the next episode and then the next (yup, box sets aren't a new invention for Sky either).
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And why do you keep referring to 'fluid viewing'. Fluid viewing is a marketing term from Sky, it's not an actual thing, nor is the idea unique to Sky. If I watch something on my phone on Netflix/Amazon/Now TV and get home, I turn on my TV and carry on exactly where I left off. It's always been like that!
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In 5 or 10 years, I'd be surprised if Sky isn't moving more customers over to the Now TV model (with more advanced boxes, offering Full HD and Ultra HD quality) and renting less and less satellite space.
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#150 |
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Sky won't risk destabilisation of profits via drastic changes in discounting policy, in my opinion. It's sensible, however, to occasionally adjust the approach slightly and analyse what effect it has/ how customers respond, over several quarters.
I've still got over a month left, so My Sky is still only offering 35% for 12 months. I fully expect that once I'm in the last month it will go up to 50%, or if not it will once my boxes stop working. I also expect Sky will actually keep my boxes live for recording the 'freesat from Sky' channels as it has for a lot of other people, so I am more likely to keep it in use and Sky can continue to try and convince me to reactivate the premium channels. |
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