BSkyB profit knocked by BT footie struggle and O2 broadband costs BSkyB has felt the pinch from huge operating costs as it continues to battle with its pay-TV archrival BT and absorbs the buyout of O2's consumer broadband network. The giant media firm reported a jump in total revenue of £1.84bn for its first quarter this morning - up 7 per cent from £1.71bn in the same quarter a year ago. It …
*** Unless you actually want the same as what BT is offering, then we will give you more TV channels that you will never watch, tell you that the maximum line speed you can get is half what BT can offer you and after you add this up we are now 20% over BTs price....oh wait we need to add installation costs...
I just received a letter from Sky stating the following:
At Sky we strive to improve the service we offer our customers ...*edited load of marketing crap*... therefore we are raising your subscription costs by 50p per month.
I'm sorry, but how is that improving my service? I know its a meager amount, but the way that letter was worded had me livid. Almost as angry as pensioners got when stamp duty went up a few pennies last year.
This is in wake of the fact that they completely fucked everything up and tried to charge me for 2 months where I had no service. Obviously I took zero crap from them and forced them to give me 6 months half price and a refund on my installation.
Thats besides the point though. Unless you're a cold stubborn bastard like me when dealing with these companies, you get shafted. And for a company that size, it's just not on. Welcome to capitalism friends!
"At Sky we strive to improve the service we offer our customers ...*edited load of marketing crap*... therefore we are raising your subscription costs by 50p per month.
I'm sorry, but how is that improving my service? I know its a meager amount"
It's not a meager amount when 5 million subscribers are paying it every month!
"during the first quarter ended 30 September with 111,000 customers signing up."
That would be the fact that Sky pretty much begged O2 customers to sign up early.
As for me, I jumped ship and went BT, made all the quicker by the useless. rude pieces of shite that Sky employed to try and flog the move.
I am still with Be - have been since launch in 2005. Sky still haven't moved me over yet, and I'll change ISP if they remove my static IP option.
Still the network is lovely and quiet since most people have either migrated to Sky or left, and they haven't yet rationalised the uplinks - or if they have, I haven't noticed.
>"during the first quarter ended 30 September with 111,000 customers signing up."
I saw that and then noted that no figures were given for the current number of O2/BE legacy customers. From the stats released in the summer, they were haemorrhaging customers at a rate that I could believe that 111,000 is the number remaining who have actually been transferred across to the Sky platform and contracts...
Sky movies (on it's own) seems to be £8.99 a month through (Sky-owned/run) nowtv. I thought it was more like £15 a month last time I checked - so either they're hiding the true price or they've reduced the price somewhat (or I made the £15 a month up).
So, significantly less than £50 a month, and with a lot more choice of new movies than freeview. You pays your money (or not), you takes your choice...
I think you meant £145.50 a year, whether you actually watch any of their junk or not.
I gave up on TV years ago, around the same time as the introduction of "reality TV". I figured why watch people getting pissed in Ibiza when I could just go there and do it myself?
"Watching TV on the internet
You need to be covered by a licence if you watch TV online at the same time as it's being broadcast on conventional TV in the UK or the Channel Islands. "
If you only watch catch up tv then no license is required. Can you even watch live tv over the internet?
There are lots of TV channels that offer live streams of their broadcast programs off of their web sites. This includes the BBC.
"Live TV" means that it is possible to watch it over the Internet while it is still being broadcast. An example of "Live" would be a 30 minute sit-com that is available over the internet 20 minutes after it starts on a broadcast medium (overlapping by 10 minutes). For things like football matches, this means that it must not be available on-line before the broadcast program finishes, i.e. at least 1:45 (and maybe longer) after the match starts.
The distinction about whether you do watch live TV online or not is very blurred. Iplayer, for example, allows both archived (catch-up) and Live, so how to you prove that your use of Iplayer is only for catch-up. It all looks a bit murky to me.
I wonder if the TV licensing people are able to get a court order to request your browsing history from your ISP?
I still wonder whether an analogue TV without a digital tuner still counts as TV receiving equipment. In my view, it shouldn't.
Ah yes, Horsey, I stand erected. TV viewers do in fact get gouged in a multi-dipping scam, where they pay for essentially the same content over and over again, in each separate medium in which it exists.
You could also add the cinema and ye olde plastic disc media to that list. Think about it: same film, one "license", multiple payments.
No.
Watching a streaming broadcast over the Internet requires a TV license, not merely owning a computer. Indeed no activity other than "watch[ing] or record[ing] TV as it's being broadcast" on any sort of device requires a TV license - not owning a computer, or owning a TV, or even owning a TV antenna or satellite dish.
That minor point won't stop the TVL goons from harassing you, though. They have to: it's the only way they can establish if you're actually watching TV.
In that sense the TVL are basically just "salesmen" ... in the same sense as Al Capone, or possibly Scientologists. They've just missed that whole inconvenient "sales" thing and gone straight for the debt collection.
Only if it is connected to an aerial. You only require a TV license if you have equipment capable of receiving a TV signal that is connected to an aerial. The only way they can determine if it is connected to your equipment is to come in to your house, and they have no right to do so, so don't let them.
Of course, if you do watch broadcast TV, you should have a TV license.
Fibre box apeared at the end of my street.....
rang up O2 sorrry SKY I want my MAC code..
"Why, have you not heard of our offers for O2 customers and we do Fibre too"....
5 Mins of sales talk offering full sky package for "free" for 12 months....
"Do you provided fixed IP?"
"No, a lot of O2 customers keep asking about that....."
"MAC code please"......
Now a happy customer on Plusnet, gone from 2.5-3meg to 67Meg and yes I have fixed ip!
TV Licencing is so that you can enjoy the "Wonderful" programming provided by the BBC. If you have no interest in BBC TV you cannot still own a TV and promise not to watch any BBC Channels. Because you have a device that has the capability to receive BBC signals. Apply the same logic to computers. There is no measure in place that stops you firing up iplayer and Getting free entertainment without the licence fee.
Until some form of IP blocking is put into place that restricts use, you will be stuck having to pay the licence fee even if you don't own a TV.
Though it will be easier to abolish the fee and just have adverts instead. But that would mean many big wigs getting a pay cut.
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