Future of Sky?

It's still one of their main outlets for their original productions, which arguably could be more important for them as they lose other, third party, content. That said - very little of their high-end stuff rates at all well. It always seems to be just a little bit 'off' compared to similar productions on the terrestrials.

For me it was only The Simpsons, until Disney+ came along, then it was a no brainer of having to choose one. This is the problem of having multiple Sky entertainment channels is that Sky One becomes a bit diluted and less relevant. Sky Atlantic gets all the good top drawer US imports. Sky Witness gets all the crime dramas and Sky Comedy gets all the top US comedies. Back in the day the shows from those channels would have ended up on Sky One.

I've given up my Sky subscription too, there is barely anything on Sky's pay channels that I watch so I've cancelled my £70-odd per month subscription to TV, phone and broadband and gone with a fibre broadband supplier for under £20 per month.

Odd they persist with that considering with Now TV you can get sport or movies without an entry package. Indeed with all the Sky branded entertainment channels launched over the last year or so surprised they haven't at least launched a simpler entry package based around those.

That's the way it has always been, Movies and Sports are (or were) classed as "Premium channels" to buy on top of the basic package, you can't take them on their own. Sky can and will knock down on their TV package prices if you plead poverty enough, take enough channels in the first place and are happy to commit for a while longer so you can get it down. Last deal I got for my parents they got the entire lot (near enough) at a saving of £540 over the life of that contract, though I'm not entirely sure when it ends now as their sports package was suspended over the pandemic and the price I can see in their online portal hasn't shot through the roof so... I'll have to follow up on that.

However in terms of pay TV on the satellite front Sky have an effective monopoly. While there are other platforms like Freesat and no doubt copious other free satellite streams/channels that you could get if you had a motorised dish, little else comes close to the number of channels on Sky. Whether you think its worth spending £30 a month for them is up to you.

Now TV is the poor man's Sky. Part of its USP is the no contract option and in terms of sheer price it undercuts Sky by some margin. But you get a clunky box/interface and an experience that is disappointing if you're used to the main Sky hardware/software, and Sport is more expensive than Sky's own sports package which is offset by the need for the basic package.

I got rid of Sky in July, primarily because I only really wanted the movie channels and although I had a deal at the time (Movies for £10 for 18 months or whatever it was), it wasn't worth spending £40 a month for a bunch of channels I didn't even watch (and what I was watching were also on Freeview) and because I'd lost a large chunk of income over the pandemic it really didn't feel right to commit to another 18 month contract, as I didn't know at the time when I would be working again, so it had to go. Now TV sort of compliments Freeview in my mind, if you get it at the right price (which is not full price).

I would respectfully suggest that NOW TV is the rich man's Sky because he's not spending money on things he doesn't want. I understand entirely the interface and experience is not as good as the Sky Sat system, but it's the content that matters. If it plays without buffering it is worth the huge savings. I got a stick months ago and I keep getting offers for half price this and that. I'm currently on a 3 month package for Entertainment for 10 euro which ends at the end of February. I have a friend in London that doesn't seem to have paid very much for the service, because of free vouchers and better than half price offers.

Without straying too off topic I think other than not having more than a Now/Next TV guide, not that linear TV is the selling point of Now TV, the interface isn't too much of a problem - though I would say following the recent update I do find it more difficult to navigate now than I used too.