Pay TV subscriptions – one in five want out – do you?

Though I’m not really thinking of completely un-subscribing from Virgin – I an thinking of heavily reducing my subscription.

Was there any questions in the survey with regard the amount of content theft freesat users indulge in using their BB subscriptions?

I want out of my licence fee altogether. Make the BBC pay per view. End of.

I shall be ditching Sky Movies at the end of my 12 month contract, but will retain the basic package with the HD add-on. I can receive 4 Freeview HD channels, but ITV HD sound (no Dolby Digital) cuts some of the entertainment value. Freesat has (as far as I can ascertain) only 2 HD channels, one of which is ITV (see earlier comment), so not worth me considering.

I enjoy watching sports so Sky Sports is a must for me. I might drop the film channels although last time I checked this would make little difference to the monthly cost.

I’d had virgin for a couple of years but didnt feel i got much out of it. Dropped it & went freeview. that went well, but HD channels started to appeal (in a way that 3d doesnt) so i’ve shifted to freesat using a humax box & a panasonic tv. I’ve been recommending it to all friends & family that have a chance to swap as contracts come to an end.

I dropped movies some time back and agree that a lot of the Sky channels never get looked at. Cricket and Rugby (both codes) keep me tied to Sky Sports.
Currently unhappy as just before Christmas Sky upgraded the software on the HD boxes and since then its started to freeze, locks up and is very slow to respond.
Customer service not at its best!

When my sky+HD contract ends I shall seriously consider cancelling. There are hundreds of channels that I am paying for but never watch. I am also agrieved that I have to pay a licence fee and a subscription fee, and basically watch the same channels. When HD becomes widely available subscription free then that platform will be my choice. As an aside, if the mainstream channels repeat the old Christmas programmes again I shall go nuts!!

I watch Sky when I stay with family and I suppose that if you want to see live Test Cricket and Premier League football it is a must. Otherwise, however, Freeview is quite good enough ~ Test highlights on ITV4 ~ provided your reception is up to it. Unfortunately for some of us it never will be, even after Switchover in 2012, so we shall have to install Sky, Freesat or one of the others. Bring back Analogue TV !

I use 2nd hand SKY boxes to view the free channels , easily obtained for free from Freecycle or for around £20 (tested and guaranteed) from our charity shop.

I have no general objection to paying to watch TV but do object to taking out a 12 month subscription when all I want to watch is a few cricket matches over the year.
What is needed is a Pay to View as you Go service.

The only reason I keep my Sky subscription is to access National Geographic and Discovery group of channels. Everything else I watch can be received on Freesat or Freeview.
Most of Nat. Geo. and Discovery programmes on repeats. If only Freeview/Freesat would include these channels instead of some of the shopping and gaming channels… !

Am I the only one who gets really angry because despite paying through the nose to SKY, I still have to endure adverts? I find I have to record most things on SKY+ then fast forward through the breaks. You can’t do this watching things like live cricket though and get assaulted by an awful advert (Go Compare anyone?) every few overs or after a wicket, when discussion and analysis would be much more welcome.
It will be argued that adverts help reduce subscriptions but in reality they wouldn’t dare charge any more and the extra money just enables SKY to price everyone else out of the market and to inflate the wages of primadonna Premiership players.

Two reasons for subscribing to Virgin. BT had started sending me emails to say I was nearly at my download limit – absolute rubbish as I hardly ever download anything apart from numerous Microsoft updates. Also, when Freeview was switched on in my area, because we receive it via a Relay transmitter, we only get 15 channels (this includes radio channels). I now get TV, phone and unlimited and broadband fo £1 per month less than I paid for my phone and broadband. Although this is an introductory offer and will no doubt go up in future, I find it is well worth it as I do watch quite a lot of the digital channels – especially the HD channels – to which I do not have access under Freeview.

Some interesting threads which seem to have a common theme – pay to view TV is expensive and lacks any real quality programmes. I use Virgin and am hooked into their XL TV package due to needing high broadband and good telephone service. I have to congratulate virgin though on its standard of service in my area as I have had little or no disruption to service in the last 5 years. I too am a rugby fan and get frustrated as virgin do not have the red button option so when my team (Ospreys) are not being shown, I have to go to relatives house who have sky. The choice of HD channels on virgin is growing and this is now my main reason for staying with pay to view TV.

I work as a volunteer adviser dealing with people with debt problems. I’m all too often horrified at what they are paying out of limited incomes (often only benefits) for Sky in particular – they live under a delusion that they can’t get anything more than the 5 basic channels unless they subscribe to Sky, that they can’t get HD except via Sky and that nobody else shows kids channels or any sports. They also don’t understand that Sky broadband is as restricted as BT’s or anybody else’s that has to come down a phone line and paying Sky for extra bandwidth is money for nothing!

Freeview/Freesat really needs to up its game and prove to the great British public that the Sky propaganda about “Only on Sky” is for the most part untrue and misleading (Advertising Standards Authority actionable??) as it would benefit many families on low incomes to abandon their Sky dishes.

If you need bandwidth on broadband you need at the moment to be in a cabled area (usually Virgin) or adjacent to a business park to which BT has already brought fibre optic.

I like the catch up tv you get with virgin.
Its nice to watch a good documentary when there is only rubbish on the “live channels”

I have used SKY for a while until the HD box I bought failed within less than 3 years. The replacement was duff and at that time I saw an advert for Humax Freesat HD. Bought one & connected to the SKY dish – perfect. Cancelled SKY and have already saved the initial outlay for the Freesat box. Miss SKY slightly for some channels, but with Freesat AND Freeview, I’m saving a fortune!!!!!

I had Sky for several years, but they kept jacking up the price.
There were too many advert breaks, sometimes only a minute or two into a program, or the same before the end. Plus the long charity adverts tried to make me feel guilty for affording a TV, by showing lingering shots of some abused child whimpering. Enough!
I gave them notice of terminating my contract, then they kept pestering me, offering 3 months free.
I managed to extracate myself, and found I could still get all the free channels with my cardless box.
That was intill I powered the box down one day to avoid wasting power on standby. After that, the box never worked again.
These days I no longer watch broadcast TV, and watch only DVDs. I don’t even have a license anymore.

Because of poor terrestrial signal in my area, I purchased SKY. After only 2 years 6 months my SKY HD + box failed. I contacted SKY and was told that I’d have to purchase ANOTHER box – I mentioned the Sale of Goods Act, but they were NOT impressed. I threatened to cancel my subscription and they sent another box free – this one didn’t record in HD. That was the `last straw`. I saw a Freesat HD box which could record 2 separate programmes at once and would plug into my SKY HD dish. I bought one and cancelled SKY. Two years on and the Freesat box still records in HD and it paid for itself within the year. Goodbye SKY!!!

I signed up to a 12 month contract with Sky T.V. + MULTI ROOM. However I am now pregnant and will soon be on maternity leave. Myself and my partner would like to terminate the contract early. It ends June 2012. However we contacted sky and they said we cannot terminate the contract before June 2012 without paying charges. Does anyone know of anyway around this?

What I need assistance with is cancelling my Sky TV subscription. I have phoned up three times tonight and wasted over an hour of my time waiting to be put through to the cancellation department. The initial call is answered and some details are taken as in I want to cancel my subscription. I was told there was a short wait and was put on hold listening to looped details of sky programmes. After half an hour I hung up and phoned again complaining vociferously about wasting my time, during the wait (I am on line too but the chat button is greyed out and marked busy) I log into my bank account and cancel my subscription. Hang up and phone a third time and tell the person on the end of the line what I have done, again I am going to be referred to the cancellation and am assured it will be answered in a short space of time. Just like the last two call answerers he lied.

It is scandalous that I have to jump through these hoops and waste my time to cancel a subscription I no longer want. After making my best endeavours to cancel do I have any liability because they prevent me cancelling by not answering my calls?