With the house move up and coming, Hannah and I looked into getting Sky. Now, I’m a huge advocate of High-Definition (HD), so I would only really be interested in Sky HD to benefit from Sky Movies HD 1+2. The costs of this are high - £249 for the Sky HD receiver, £30 standard installation fee, and then for the package we would want it would cost £44 a month (Variety mix, Movies mix, Sky HD subscription). That’s a whopping £807 for the first year of Sky service, and a still huge £528 for each consecutive year.
I’m glad we didn’t even bother calling because we’ve decided on something a lot cheaper. Introducing the wonder of Top Up TV! Currently, TUTV is offering a free 160GB receiver with a 12-month subscription at £10 a month (ends June 30th). This gives you all the decent extra channels that Sky gives you (UKTV Gold, Paramount etc.), and the recording/playback/pause etc. ability for a quarter of the price. What about the HD movies? Something like Lovefilm.com would be ideal. For £12.99 per month, you can have up to 2 DVDs/Blu-Ray at any time. So I can satisfy my urge for HD content with unlimited rentals just as I would’ve with Sky HD. This totals at £22.99 a month, and we get the same features we want out of Sky for half the price.
To summarise:
Sky HD: £807 for first year, £528 after
TopUp TV + LoveFilm.com: £276, every year.
On the first year, we will save a massive £531, and after that £252 per year compared to the equivalent Sky package. This also leaves us open to getting a service like freesat in the future… I know which option I’d prefer to take…
Who said a bit of consumer research never hurt anyone!
June 16th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
You forgot about Freesat HD. The HD box will cost you atleast £100 less than the Sky HD box and you don’t pay a subscription. The downside is you only get a few channels currently, BBC HD, ITV HD and one or two others. You can even use an existing satellite dish previously used for Sky.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Actually, I did mention Freesat, just not Freesat HD. I like movies in HD, hence why I’d prefer to use what I already have (my Blu-Ray player). Personally I’m not interested in BBC HD or ITV HD. I’m all about the movies! If you read the article properly, I also said “This also leaves us open to getting a service like freesat in the future…”
I have also removed your link, I’m not taking part in your advertising for referral programs, thanks.