Freesat

[Bellringer]

Can anyone offer any advice, comment,observations on Freesat as an inexpensive TV system, ie no subscription.

I currently am on Sky but a bit fed up of paying £20 odd a month for a load of repeats and uninteresting programmes. I am thinking I could watch the same 'rubbish' for nothing but the licence fee!

[Ian]

Freesat's pretty good, Stan, although nowhere near the choice offered by the expensive Sky option. Butyou do get the main channels, although relatively few HD offerings.

[Bri Roberts]

Stan, I am paying £87.50 per month to Sky and I would dearly love to reduce my monthly outlay.

The same goes for my telephone and broadband.

I spoke to BT this morning and found out I was paying for 'Caller Display' when it is now free. I also established I am paying for 'Friends and Family Mobile' which I never use.

I wish there was somebody local who I knew and I could trust to come into my home and sort the whole thing out for me.

[Yorkie]

Get a good Freestat box such as a Humax which will do all your recording, single or series, and delayed.  It will give you 100's of Vision and Radio programs and will run from your SKY dish which by now you probably own.  Humax uses Foxstat.

Then get someone such as Plusnet for your Internet and phone.

Job done.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humax-FOXSAT-HDR-Freesat-Digital-Recorder/dp/B001L5YU36/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296318519&sr=8-1

http://www.plus.net/residential/affiliate_offer_promo.shtml

[DaveR]

"A large number of digital TV channels can be viewed on a Sky Digibox without a Sky subscription or a viewing card, as the signal is not encrypted - see Sky's Free to Air channel list. Over 200 TV and radio channels are available, including the BBC channels, some of the news channels, and most of the shopping channels and radio stations.

If you have an old Sky box and a satellite dish, you should be able to watch these free-to-air channels. For a list of the free channels that can be viewed on a Sky dish and decoder without subscription, see Sky's Free TV channel list.

A small number of channels are available "Free-to-view", which means they can be viewed on a Sky box for free, but they require a viewing card. These are the Channel 4 and Five channels. Sky used to supply cards originally known as Solus Cards, as part of Sky Freesat. If you need a card, but don't want to take out a subscription, give Sky a call and ask for a Sky Freesat viewing card."

http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/satellitefree.html#fta

[Fester]

Paying so much to Sky eh?

Every six to twelve months I phone them up to ''CANCEL' my SKY subscription.
When you do this, they put you through (eventually) to the customer retention team in Scotland.
They exist to keep you on their books at almost any cost.

I just tell them I don't think its good value for money, and they just offer me halp price subscription for 3 months, and sometimes  6 months.

With SKY, I always cancel my Sports subscription in Summer also, (when the footy season is over) ... but they just offer to leave it on for free!

[Ian]

If you have an old Sky box and a satellite dish, you should be able to watch these free-to-air channels.

Depends on the age of the box. Boxes produced within the last three years, however, don't even need the sky free-to-air card.

We have all three: Sky, Freesat , and Freeview. Freesat is very useful for those days when there's too much on Sky, as we record everything so we can watch progs without commercials.

[Fester]

Thats a good point Ian makes there, about adverts.

I'm surprised that SKY actually wanted to introduce a product such as SkyPlus,   give the revenue that come thier way from advertising??

I too record everything, and (attempt) to watch it later.

[Bellringer]

Thanks guys, I will 'wade' through the information and sort out the possibilities appropriate to our needs (and resources!). I do like Fester's strategy though - I recently challenged my broadband provider and they offered a new contract at the same price as before BUT with TWO FREE MONTHS to start with.

[Fester]

It works every time Bri,  for the last 5 years or so.

SKY deserve all they get, the product is getting worse.... and the customer service is so appalling they can give you a heart attack.

[Merddin Emrys]

Stan, I am paying £87.50 per month to Sky and I would dearly love to reduce my monthly outlay.

 
have I read this right £87.50 per month? I'm happy with Freeview and the free skybox (no subscription ever) mind you we never want sport!

[Bri Roberts]

Thank you everyone for focussing my mind.

I shall phone up tomorrow and adopt Fester's approach and threaten to cancel.

[Fester]

Although not always the case, on THIS issue.... FEST KNOWS BEST !

The beauty is, you can do it time and time again too.

Just make sure that you get quickly through to the Cancellations dept,  the call centre operators try to debate the issue at first, but soon give up and transfer you, once they see you are adamant.

Let me know how you go on.

[TheMedz]

Might be worth checking you can receive a good freeview signal before you make any outlay. There are a few black spots round here especially if you haven't got a direct line to the transmitter. Ask a few neighbours if they can get a good signal. The other thing of note is that Freeview do offer some HD channels(ITV and BBC I think!) without subscription so if you've got a HD TV then you get those for free.

[TheMedz]

I have been told that if you try cancelling Sky with a view to getting a reduced rate or free months always try and do it as close to the beginning of the week and and the beginning of the month as possible. All the cancellations team have a personal quota of the freebies they can hand out and once they are gone they can't do any more until the start of the next period.