My transition from Sky+ to Freesat+ HD

I know this isn’t music based, but since I merged my AV/Home Cinema blog into this one some while back, I’ve nowhere else to put it. And this will only be relevant to UK based readers, so apologies to everyone else!

So, it’s been almost 2 months since ditching Sky for Freesat. I often read many posts and comments online from people debating whether to do the same thing, and whether it’s worth doing. I asked myself the same a while back and found myself looking at it like an addict would when deciding whether to kick their chosen habit (and trust me, I’ve had to kick a few over the years, but that’s a whole other story!! LOL)

Freesat

Until recently, I had been with Sky since the days of analogue. I think I signed up in the early 90’s and was an early adopter of Sky Digital and then Sky+, paying the various premiums before switching to the Sky World package. I even had Sky Talk back in the day when you had to dial a prefix to gain the benefits! I then got multi room to keep a teenage boy happy in his bedroom and paid handsomely every time I moved house.

And all the time, the subscriptions went up.

Then Sky+ HD came into being and Sky wanted yet more money for a bunch of channels whose content was questionable in terms of quality but they had oh so pretty images and sound. Hmmmm. Another £10 on top of my then, £48.50pm. I think not. When Sky+ came out, there was a £10pm charge, which prompted me to get multi room as they then waived the fee. Then Sky+ became de rigeur and the charge vanished completely. When the eldest left home, I cancelled the multi room and was £10pm better off. Something you can’t often say about Sky.

Sky

So, what prompted the change for me? Well, times are tight, as we all well know, particularly for those of us with debt hanging around our necks. I needed (and still need) to trim my outgoings wherever possible. But given that we rarely go out much, TV is our main source of entertainment, so getting shot of Sky was never really considered. But the more I looked at my outgoings, the more that £48.50pm seemed ridiculous, especially as our viewing habits tended to favour the FTA stuff. Sure, I love my football and movies, but to pay that much money for the frequency that I watched that stuff seemed ludicrous.

The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back was HD. I called Sky and enquired about the package. After a while, it came down to cost and Sky were in no position to offer a long term customer, who pays through the nose for the maximum channel package, the HD pack for free. Back then, they even wanted to charge me £60 for a man to come around and swap the boxes over.

Then, after a few months had passed, I tried again. Same thing, except they now had the “self install” option, negating the £60 charge. But still no sway on the £10pm. Finally, Sky contacted me direct (along with several thousand others, no doubt) and offered me HD with free box, free install and 6 months HD free (the further 6 months being normal price). It was at this point that I sat down and really looked at my TV usage and when and what I watched. My Sky+ box was an older model, so I wasn’t even getting the Anytime features that other users were getting for free. Sky told me I’d have to buy a new box for this. When it came down to it, the stuff me and my family watched was almost all FTA. There really was very little reason for me to keep paying Murdoch and his family £48.50pm.

So I looked at the options and Freesat seemed the best. Freeview HD is not switched on here yet and I have my reservations, rightly or wrongly, about future bandwidth for additional HD channels. I already had Freeview built in to my TV, so adding Freesat seemed like the most sensible option. Sky’s free service is OK, but I’d lose the PVR functionality and it wouldn’t be HD without paying extra. I looked at this forum and others and saw that the Humax Foxsat HDR box seemed to tick all my boxes and so, I went and bought one. I cancelled Sky, who did the usual haggling to get me to stay, but the cheapest they went down to was about £28pm. No dice, I’m afraid.

Humax Foxsat-HDR

Even though I had one month left on Sky, I unplugged it straight away and fired up Freesat. After an initial period of familiarisation, it all began to make sense. You have to hand it to Sky though. They make their EPG and navigation around the functions very simple, although having since seen the latest Sky EPG, it’s not that much more simple than Freesat or Freeview.

The first thing I noticed was HD. Nadal was playing at Wimbledon that day and I eagerly switched over to BBC HD. To say I was impressed is an understatement. I’ve read much about the BBC reducing quality on their HD output, but nevertheless, I was pretty much bowled over. And yes, I know, I’d gone from SD via SCART to HD via HDMI, so it wouldn’t take much

Anyway, after 6-8 weeks of Freesat, I haven’t missed Sky one bit. There has been no occasion where I have found myself saying, “Doh! I wish I still had Sky”. Channel content aside, I really do think that Freesat, and particularly the Humax box, out do Sky in terms of features and functionality. For example, the other night on BBC Four, there were three programmes about music in New York in the 70’s. Now, if I had Sky, I’d have to set each programme to record individually. But Freesat saw the three programmes as part of a series and prompted me to do a series record. One click, done!

The PVR functionality is far better, with programme recording starting and stopping right before the programme starts and as soon as it has finished. No wasted time at the beginning or end, as on Sky. The ability to store recordings in folders is great. The thumbnails are very handy. The external USB connectivity is a real boon. The ability to store and playback MP3’s and photos is great too. And yesterday, I hooked up the box to my broadband and got to experience iPlayer on my TV for the first time, and again, I was extremely impressed.

There’s plenty more about the functions of Freesat and the Humax box that impress me. Sure, the remote and navigation takes some getting used to after years using the idiot proof sky system, but once you have the hang of it, it’s far better. There’s so much more detail about programmes and other stuff. One thing that always rankled me about Sky was the inability to look at detailed advance programme info direct from the banner. Freesat handles that with ease.

So now my old Sky+ box resides in my bedroom, feeding FTA channels for the missus in bed (although Sky still haven’t sent the kill signal to my card so I’m still getting my Sky World package!), and the kids have their old Sky SD box in their room, also on FTA. But the Foxsat now rules the roost downstairs and with the added bonus of the non Freesat mode giving me more channels (admittedly not all great, but hey, it’s free) I can proudly say I’m a convert.

And interestingly, everyone that has come over and seen the Freesat offering for themselves has gone away thinking about converting themselves.

Ultimately, and for the foreseeable future, Sky dominate the market in terms of channel offering. ITV‘s recent actions regarding their extended HD offering being Sky only calls into question their involvement with Freesat. But they are a struggling channel who need to boost ratings and save money. The only HD channel I wish was on Freesat is Channel 4. Hopefully we won’t be waiting too long for that. Sky have the financial clout as well as the biggest installed user base so they are naturally the first stop for all channels when it comes to delivery and inclusion on the EPG. But by all accounts, Freesat numbers are climbing and advertisers will see that and hope to take advantage. In this so called “age of austerity”, people are naturally going to be looking at cutting back and if there is a viable option, and with Freesat, I believe there is, they will migrate, if only to keep their money in their pockets and not those of the Murdoch family.

And last week, I got what I suspect will be my last Sky Magazine (which usually gets tossed straight into the recycling) and saw that from September, subscription is going up by £2.50pm. This would’ve meant me paying £51pm and then they wanted £10pm on top for HD??? Here Rupert, pass the KY and go deeper, why don’t you???

So, to return to my addiction analogy. I think that long term users of Sky get addicted to it’s offerings. We see that it’s the only place to watch so many things. Yet, when we closely look at our viewing habits, we see that we simply can’t/don’t watch all that is on offer. And it simply isn’t worth up to £612 per year on top of the regular licence fee (or up to £732 if you go HD). But we are constantly bombarded with suggestions and implications that we would lose so much if we didn’t have Sky.

Well, you don’t. You really don’t. A combination of Freesat and/or Freeview will give you much of what you already watch. Sure, that’s a very subjective view because we all have different tastes and if you watch Sky Sports every minute of the day, or you cannot bear to not be one of the first people to see Lost or 24 or whatever, then, if you can afford it, Sky is for you. But there is no doubt that the best quality programming comes from the likes of the BBC and Channel 4. Everything else is filler.

I’m a happy convert and I’m £50 a month better off for it