Is Sky past it now?

[BrabusMog]

alock said:

toon10 said:

A lot of people are on Netflix but I must be missing something. I used to spend about 30 minutes every time I loaded it up searching for something to watch. All I could find were straight to DVD Danny Dyer movies. I started watching OITNB but lost interest after a few episodes. Is normal Freeview and netflix really a valid replacement for Sky?

The search only really works to find you something if you know the name. You have to just pick several things based on reviews/recommendations and after that it starts suggesting other things to watch based on what you have already watched. I would suggest watching some of their big-name shows such as Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Gotham, Daredevil, Narcos, Marco Polo, Dexter, etc... Pick one based on the type of show you like such as historical, political, crime and it'll suggest other similar shows to then watch.

After a couple of months you'll have thousands of hours worth of stuff you want to watch waiting in your list and hence always be able to jump straight into something without waiting for adverts or for it to be broadcast.

There is also an iPhone app called Upflix which lists every single show Netflix has in your region, very handy for the region hoppers.

[wiggy001]

Flip Martian said:

I would love to bin Sky but my wife and stepdaughter are addicted to drama and scifi tv... And there is no way in the world I will ever get my wife able to use something like Kodi, never mind put up with "channels not found" messages etc. I have watched a few footy games on the laptop or PC via streaming but there's no comparison really - its far better in Sky HD.

Kodi is pretty good for on demand stuff such as movies and boxsets if you can run it through a TV, but I agree it's no replacement of Sky for live TV. That said, it's good enough to mean I don't pay for movies/sports/ppv on Sky, but it's not yet "Wife friendly".

[toon10]

alock said:

toon10 said:

A lot of people are on Netflix but I must be missing something. I used to spend about 30 minutes every time I loaded it up searching for something to watch. All I could find were straight to DVD Danny Dyer movies. I started watching OITNB but lost interest after a few episodes. Is normal Freeview and netflix really a valid replacement for Sky?

The search only really works to find you something if you know the name. You have to just pick several things based on reviews/recommendations and after that it starts suggesting other things to watch based on what you have already watched. I would suggest watching some of their big-name shows such as Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Gotham, Daredevil, Narcos, Marco Polo, Dexter, etc... Pick one based on the type of show you like such as historical, political, crime and it'll suggest other similar shows to then watch.

After a couple of months you'll have thousands of hours worth of stuff you want to watch waiting in your list and hence always be able to jump straight into something without waiting for adverts or for it to be broadcast.

I think it's probably because I've always series linked the TV I wanted to watch on Sky although house of cards is one I missed and have heard good things about. I'd already watched Breaking Bad on box set and didn't really see anything else I fancied. I used it more for movies but there weren't that many good ones on there. I didn't realise the actual TV content was that broad, I thought it was more just a handful of box set shows, most of which I didn't fancy.

Does anyone use Prime and is that any better than Netflix?

[Tuvra]

wiggy001 said:

Kodi is pretty good for on demand stuff such as movies and boxsets if you can run it through a TV, but I agree it's no replacement of Sky for live TV. That said, it's good enough to mean I don't pay for movies/sports/ppv on Sky, but it's not yet "Wife friendly".

The annoying thing about legally watching sport, sometimes you just cannot watch what you want to watch without it being illegal. On top of that, unless you got Sky & BT theres still a chance you will miss a lot of big games i.e. Champions League / Super Sundays.

I wanted to watch Swansea V Liverpool on the weekend. The only place I could watch it was via KODI. I found it in 720p being Broadcast on some kind of "Official Premier League" Channel, it had commentary but no half time analysis or adverts, before, during or after the match. In the "deadtimes" it just played theme music and loop highlights of the build up/game. It was pretty weird to be honest but I actually liked it. I'll try it again with the 3pm Kick Off's

[BrabusMog]

Tuvra said:

wiggy001 said:

Kodi is pretty good for on demand stuff such as movies and boxsets if you can run it through a TV, but I agree it's no replacement of Sky for live TV. That said, it's good enough to mean I don't pay for movies/sports/ppv on Sky, but it's not yet "Wife friendly".

The annoying thing about legally watching sport, sometimes you just cannot watch what you want to watch without it being illegal. On top of that, unless you got Sky & BT theres still a chance you will miss a lot of big games i.e. Champions League / Super Sundays.

I wanted to watch Swansea V Liverpool on the weekend. The only place I could watch it was via KODI. I found it in 720p being Broadcast on some kind of "Official Premier League" Channel, it had commentary but no half time analysis or adverts, before, during or after the match. In the "deadtimes" it just played theme music and loop highlights of the build up/game. It was pretty weird to be honest but I actually liked it. I'll try it again with the 3pm Kick Off's

Yeah, for some matches (usually Monday Night Football or League Cup) the show starts 5 minutes before the match and halftime is just first half highlights and then goals from the weekend which is handy as I am always asleep by the time I could find a stream for the Beeb so I could watch Match of the Day 2 on a Sunday! I know it sounds awful, but I really like Hollyoaks, so I stream channel 4 on a Sunday morning to watch the omnibus if I can - it feels weird to be "stealing" channel 4 when I'm abroad

[Adam B]

Keep meaning to explore the options as I pay Sky about £100 per month

this covers phone/unlimited BB/movie and sports channels/HD

the BB is not high speed but is fine for our needs
never use phone
TV wise I watch series including some on Sky Atlantic, movies and some sports
For sports is mainly football (don't care about F1), although become increasingly frustrated much is now on BT Sports which I refuse to pay yet more for

[ukaskew]

a7x88 said:

Exactly the sort of thing I was imagining. There no reason why Netflix et all couldn't by the rights to these events as they got bigger. I would have thought their distribution costs etc are far lower than those of Sky's etc. It uses a service most people already have and pay for. They just need the rights, content storage and app development. Sky has all of these plus delivery infrastructure to manage

The issue at the moment, would be that anything 'live' automatically attracts the licence fee. So you could completely do away with conventional TV and just watch catch up, Netflix etc, but the moment you switch over to live sport...licence fee.

[patmahe]

Simond S said:

Is there any need to spend £78 per month

This is the thing that gets me about Sky, its incredibly poor value for money in my eyes - others in my family have it and I've never seen the benefit.

Personally I have a freeview setup and certainly don't feel like I'm missing out, I am considering netflix and a Chromecast or similar for on demand content as there is a 1 month free trial to see if it suits me, I reckon this is how TV will work in future.

[TommoAE86]

patmahe said:

Simond S said:

Is there any need to spend £78 per month

This is the thing that gets me about Sky, its incredibly poor value for money in my eyes - others in my family have it and I've never seen the benefit.

Personally I have a freeview setup and certainly don't feel like I'm missing out, I am considering netflix and a Chromecast or similar for on demand content as there is a 1 month free trial to see if it suits me, I reckon this is how TV will work in future.

Agree with this, although I have finally caved and got Virgin with a TiVO box to satisfy my Motorsports needs, it's also a whole lot cheaper than Sky especially compared to the "renewing" costs. Our friends seem to be paying close to +£50 on our Virgin service and all they are getting differently is Sky Sports...

[ukaskew]

patmahe said:

This is the thing that gets me about Sky, its incredibly poor value for money in my eyes - others in my family have it and I've never seen the benefit.

I wouldn't have Sky again, but they make it very easy to 'game' the system once you've had it for a year, they fall over themselves to keep you by offering fairly significant incentives, attach rate is absolutely everything to them.

My brother-in-law is paying under £50 for a complete package (i.e. line rental, broadband, HD Sky TV including Sports and Movies) which isn't bad considering line rental alone is nearly £20.

When we left a few months ago they offered us the full HD pack with F1 (but not movies) for £17 per month without any prompting at all from ourselves. We would get letters/emails with ever lower prices week on week before they finally gave up. It's frustrating though, we were paying £44 for all of that beforehand!

[London424]

For me, as a sports nut, SKY is the best choice.

It's actually got quite annoying now that BT are making a play for things as they've now bought the Rugby, MotoGP, Champs League Football etc meaning that I'd have to fork out again which I won't be doing.

One of the instances where more competition in the market is a hinderance.

[Flip Martian]

Yeah I'd agree - there's no way in hell I'm paying out another sub to watch all the footy. I just have to miss out - like I did before Sky came along. What a backwards step. Still, BT customers are no doubt happy...