R.I.P Sky TV (for me)

Today marks a sad day for me. My family is to cancel our SKY TV subscription as of the end of this week. It may be sad but this my own little tribute.

We've always had SKY TV from as long as I can remember, well since about 1989/90 I think. I've actually been doing a lot of web searching lately looking up websites with info and pictures of the old day back then found some great stuff recently pictures and screen shots of those old TV channels, channel line ups from the old days. Astra 1a, 1b, 1c etc etc. Good times, Anyone else remember all those German channels that were on there? and all those scrambled channels that would come through sometimes? aah great memories. I remember how thrilling it used to be for those of us who saw The Simpsons each Sunday on Sky One those were days.

In 2000 like many we made the switch to Sky Digital and that was a revolution in itself, as the most important for me was we went from having just 2 music channels MTV and VH1 (and they actually still played music back then!) to suddenly having 10 oh my delight of M2, MTV Extra and VH1 Classic excellent stuff, but slowly over the years it seems that every single channel that I watched regularly and enjoyed has demised 1 by 1. MTV Extra, .[TV], Granada Plus, UK Play all have long bitten the dust. Channels like MTV2 and Kerrang TV which was brilliant once have also just faded in recent years and the excellent 'The Amp' has just gone under also, all music channels that are somewhat alternative or 'non mainstream' slowly get eaten and taken over by pop and/or r'nb. Q is be totally overtaken by FHM TV By the end of the end of this month also.

Today with my discovery of internet torrent downloading, freeview and the availability of movies on DVD and TV Show box sets (although many of them may be bootleg) however Sky TV has nearly become redundant not just for me but the whole family. We've never had Sport channels ever because non of us have any interest but we just cut off the movies last November but now were just letting the whole thing go. It will be sad for me to see it 'cut' out after what must 15-16 years. Ive seen channels come and go like the Children's Channel and Ive watched Bravo totally transform from an 'Classic' TV channel that played nothing but really old shows/movies from the 50's/60's transform over 15 years into a Lad Culture channel that shows 'Blue' tv and reailty programs about the police. Like I say it will be like the death of a dear Friend as well, but at the end of the day its no longer needed anymore. I've got every Simpsons episode ever on DVD now and I download latest Simpsons episodes each week, and ive collected everything elese I want on DVD now (be they bootleg in some cases)


The Swift family SKY TV 1989-2006 RIP.

My last little tribute of SKY TV over the years.


http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/otherchannels/childrenschannel/tcc_close.jpg

http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/otherchannels/skychannel/skyone1991b.jpg

http://i1.tinypic.com/v6hlk7.jpg
- Remember this? When channel's were scrambled?

http://home.clara.net/jim.edwards/ukplay4.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/v6hrx0.jpg


1 RTL 2
2 RTL Television
3 TV3 (Sweden) [Eurocyrpt]
4 Eurosport
5 Lifestyle/Vox
6 Sat-1
7 TV-1000 [Eurocyrpt]
8 Sky One
9 Teleclub
10 3 Sat
11 Filmnet + [Eurocyrpt]
12 Sky News
13 RTL 4
14 Pro 7
15 MTV Europe
16 Sky Movies
17 Premiere
18 The Movie Channel
19 ARD - Das Erste
20 Sky Sports
21 DSF
22 MTV Europe
23 UK Gold
24 JSTV
25 N3
26 Sky Movies Gold/TV Asia
27 TV3 (Denmark) [Eurocyrpt]
28 CNN International
29 n-tv
30 Cinemania [Eurocyrpt]
31 TV3 (Norway) [Eurocyrpt]
32 Documania [Eurocyrpt]
33 ZDF
34 UK Living
35 The Children's Channel/ The Family Channel
36 Sogecable 3
37 Cartoon Network/TNT
38 QVC
39 West 3
40 Sogecable 4
41 Country Music TV / The Discovery Channel
42 Bravo / The Adult Channel
43 MDR
44 Galavision
45 Bayern 3
46 Nickelodeon / TV Japan


PS, Has anyone out got a screen shot of what eurocypt looked like? I can remember it clear as anything in my head, plus the test cards from channels 30 & 32

You do realise you can still use your Digibox to receive FTA channels without a subscription? So you still have Sky... of sorts.

I cancelled Sky when I moved house recently, and have since got Freeview, originally as a temporary measure before starting a new Sky sub.

However, I'm finding I miss Sky a lot less than I was expecting. I've discovered most of what I was watching was on channels available on Freeview anyway. I'm now considering not going back to Sky at all.

a nation mourns..........................

http://thetvroom.com/images-bbc-one/bbc-one-02/ident-ballet-a.jpg
www.thetvroom.com

Welcome to the wonderful world of free to access TV.

Anyone had an experience of freeview+ boxes...those are freeview boxes with all the sky+ stuff like recording, live pause, rewind etc
but only with a quater of the channels....

Thats what were going for now. Anyone elese been down this path?

Yes - I've a Freeview PVR (Humax 9200T) and an ordinary Sky box - and pretty much everything I record (apart from young Dan's hilarious BBC Wales junctions) is on a Freeview channel - so the Humax does the job. And in my experience since last autumn, does it superbly. Twin tuners, record one channel, watch another; record two channels, watch a third (if on the same multiplex as the other two).

I think the only thing I'd really miss about satellite would be (strangely enough)... the regional FTA channels!

Well with Sky's Horendous subscription charges i think i will soon be joining in with free to access tv.

I actually really miss that ident! Curse who ever thought it'd be a good idea to "rest" them.

Ahh, Sky. Well I personally find that it's much the same (in terms of my viewership) as what I receive on freeview.

I cancelled my Sky around Christmas and have only had a few instances where Freeview has proved slightly incapable, particually with the signal quality, that is a major let down at times!

The main thing I miss about Sky is the format of the EPG and the search & scan banner. Everything I've seen on Freeview is decidedly fiddly in comparison.

I also miss being able to get other ITV & BBC regions... but I can't really justify a Sky subscription for that reason alone.

The thing about sky is daytime is CRAP! but at night there is stuff on worth watching, but me living with a family of soap addicts it means they are always watching it at night. If I was living on my own and had it all to myself tho... well I'm Alternative and Coranation Street, Celebrity Ice dancing etc doesn't interest me at all. I'd find stuff for myself all right. I mean I'd start watching stuff like Aaahh Real Monsters & Rocko's Mondern Life on nicktoons tv again I would (8-9 each night I've spotted) but with a family around you can't do that sort of thing you know.

I'm sure i'll get it again with a basic package for myself when I move out will be able to get full use of it then. Me not bothering with 95% of mainstream TV I'd sit and watch the simpsons on sky1 every single night and watch only fools on uktv gold etc. You just can't when you live with your family and have to share.

I'll be on my own with every I just said.

I recently let my basic level Sky subscription end due to financial difficulties, and I don't miss it except for about one or two specific programs. However I've found alternative ways of catching up with those !

I haven't tried Freeview but if the bandwidth / picture quality is as bad as it was with OnDigital then I wouldn't be interested anyway.

I've never had satellite TV. My Grandparents had the old Amstrad Astra Satellite back in 1994 and I used to flick through the odd channels on a Sunday morning.

My mum bought me a Pace Free To View (Freeview) box back in 2002 (as a reward for passing my GCSEs) - when it was just taking off and apart from the menus freezing occasionally I've had no problems with it.