Moving away from Sky

[Simcfc73]

I've cancelled sky (loyal 17 year customer) as the price has just kept going up and up.

 

What next?

 

Annoyingly I've got 18 months left on my Vodafone fibre or I'd move to Virgin.

 

My tv isn't smart so I'd need a device... looked at Freesat and Roku.

 

Any other recommendations?

[LeMarchand]

How about an Android TV box? Should get you access to most streamers, though obviously you'd have to subscribe to the ones you want. You should be OK for Freeview and you could just subscribe on a monthly basis to whatever has the most you're interested in and then swap to another if you exhaust the content. You can normally get one to three months free of Apple TV (Silo, Foundation) and I use my Tesco Clubcard Points to finance Disney.

[Rob_D]

Depends how much linear/live TV you watch VS streaming/on-demand.

If you're happy with mostly live TV on-demand, then I'd go for a Humax freesat box. (I think some even have netflix and prime now)

If you're more into streaming and on-demand, then something like a firestick would be the easiest option.

 

We had YouView some years ago with somewhat mixed results (was also a bit of a bandwidth hog).

[Ditto]

Google Streamer (previously known as Chromecast) is an alternative to Amazon Firestick that you might consider.

[sigma]

Depends how much linear/live TV you watch VS streaming/on-demand.

If you're happy with mostly live TV on-demand, then I'd go for a Humax freesat box. (I think some even have netflix and prime now)

If you're more into streaming and on-demand, then something like a firestick would be the easiest option.

 

We had YouView some years ago with somewhat mixed results (was also a bit of a bandwidth hog).

 

Our Humax Freesat box stopped supporting the iPlayer back at the end of October, so we went to a “Freesat” box, which does everything a lot faster, which is good on our 5.5Mb broadband. There’s no fibre broadband, nor likely to be. We get a decent 4G signal on o2 or Vodafone, so have got a 4G router and are going to trial run that before our BT contract runs out next year and hopefully we won’t need to renew it.

[Norphy]

Have you considered the Apple TV as an STB? Yes, they’re a lot more expensive, but they’re also considerably more powerful than the likes of the Roku and the FireTV and they don’t push millions of ads at you inside their main interface.

 

I’ve also found with the FireTV that they need replacing every couple of years as the OS gets more bloated and just slows down. Can’t speak for the Roku about though.

[2ilent8cho]

Just get an Apple TV and stream. I have 1 friend with Roku, I find it laggy and slow compared to my Apple TV when I use it, same with another friends Fire Stick. They work, but just not as smooth, and as Norphy says, no Ads in the interface on an Apple TV.

[Simcfc73]

I did have a apple tv box a while ago but like you said.. alot more expensive.

 

I was expecting Sky to call up and beg me to stay but they haven't yet. Everything on one box is really useful.

[Ditto]

I did have a apple tv box a while ago but like you said.. alot more expensive.

 

I was expecting Sky to call up and beg me to stay but they haven't yet. Everything on one box is really useful.

 

They probably will and if they don't I can only see them losing customers at speed only a little behind ESS. I'm abandoning them for all TV and ISP as soon as contract is up. All because the 'puck' is useless and adverts oppressive to the point I watch very little recorded sport anymore. I here many comment it is because of the takeover by Comcast. I don't know, but my plan is back to BT/EE, even though it's more expensive by a fair bit - or was when I last looked.

[Accura2k7]

Depends what you want access to really. We have EE TV at home, all the freeview channels with recording function and all the streaming services on the box available (Although I use my Chromecast for voice control as its easier for that.

 

Maybe look at Freeview boxes if thats the way you want to go.

[AlistairB1983]

I did have a apple tv box a while ago but like you said.. alot more expensive.

I was expecting Sky to call up and beg me to stay but they haven't yet. Everything on one box is really useful.

A lot of the companies seem to be putting their money/priorities with the wrong departments, and it's making them look like the old mobile phone providers of the early 00s - it's only at the point you threaten to (or increasingly, actually do) leave that they bother to make a serious offer.

 

We left Virgin over the summer after our deal ran out and they wanted to increase our TV/Broadband from £35/month to £90/month. Called up and asked what they could offer - their "best offer" (which we asked for, and received, in writing) was £85/month. Just about managed to not laugh directly at them down the phone whilst politely saying we'll be taking our business elsewhere. Signed up to UW (also moved gas/electric at the same time, so win/win - only lost TV which, it turns out, we didn't really need anyway) and got the new broadband installed. Phoned up Virgin to ask to cancel and suddenly we're put through to the retentions department who could offer us £40/month. Pointed out they were about 2 weeks too late, but still insisted on telling us how much faster our virgin broadband would be (turns out, it isn't) etc. doing everything to try and get us to sign up again. Eventually got through to someone who could actually process the cancellation (after speaking to another 2/3 individuals who all tried to convince us to stay) who did all that, only to get about another half a dozen or so calls in the following weeks asking us to change our mind and stay.