Sky+HD offer

My mum recently got a letter from sky through the post, saying that from September 1st, any Sky+HD box covering a multiroom subscription will receive HD at no extra cost. The set up in our house, with multiroom, is that the living room box is a Sky+HD box, the box in my room is a Sky+ box. My mum says that I will get HD ont hat box as well. I say I can't. whos right?

You are- you'd need a new box to get HD. Although if you got a second HD box it (now) won't cost you any more per month.

What is being dropped is the extra charge for getting HD channels on a second box. Currently you have to pay for the HD package on each box, from 1st September if you're paying for it on one box you don't have to on any others. So at present if you've got a second HD box you pay the multiroom charge (£10) and for the HD pack again (£10). From 1st September you'll just have to pay the £10 for multiroom.

So in effect its becoming a 'per house' charge for HD rather than 'per box'. Given that multiroom is meant to be a mirror of the subscription on your main box this is the way it always should have been.

As others have said, the change in September is that the £10/month charge for HD subscription channels is becoming per household, not per receiver, so all HD receivers in a household with multiroom subscriptions (£10/month per receiver) will get the HD variants at no extra charge (previously HD multiroom was £10+£10 month)

Of course you don't have to pay the HD subscription (or any other) at all to get BBC One HD, BBC HD, ITV1 HD, C4 HD and Five HD on a Sky HD receiver - so if you have a Sky HD receiver (which you'll need for HD multiroom) you'd already be getting these.

You have to have an HD receiver to receive HD transmissions. Until very recently the only HD boxes from Sky have had Sky+ recording in them, though Sky have now released an HD Digibox without any recording for multiroom viewers who don't want recording on the box. This is also now what is included in a Freesat from Sky set-up.

The new HD Digibox DOES have an Ethernet socket, and there is a strong suggestion that this will be networkable with Sky+ HD boxes elsewhere in the house, to allow you to remotely play recordings made on the Sky + HD box, as well as to access Anytime+ VOD via Sky broadband. At least one US satellite operator already allows this. No idea of timescale - could be years.

There are three distinct types of Sky HD receiver (the 1TB Sky+HD box which is glossy black, the bigger original Sky HD box which has between 320 and 500GB of storage and has a two-tone case, and the new HD Digibox which has no hard disc in it)

A move in the right direction, but can't really see the justification for multiroom or HD additional fees now. Indeed Multiroom is the major barrier to me getting Sky - once you pay for the content and equipment I don't see why Sky should dictate how you watch it within your own home.

Is it perhaps something to do with discouraging you from taking the viewing card they've sold you for the second box, and using it in a different home?

I got a letter from Sky about their price changes, which was headed "Good news! your prices are staying the same!" Which made me suspicious that they were changing something else about the service... There was mention of the Entertainment pack and Entertainment Extra - would I be right in thinking that the Entertainment pack will be what's currently called Variety; and Entertainment Extra will be all six bouquets listed on this page?

You can't do that for any length of time. Sky require that all boxes on the same multi-room subscription are connected to the same phone landline, and that number can't be blocked from Caller Display. Sky get all the boxes to ring them on a Freephone number every so often, and check that they are connected to the same phone line via the Caller ID of the box when it rings in. If any of the boxes don't ring in you will get a nagging letter. (We re-decorated our bedroom when we had multiroom and powered down the box for a month or so, and got one. It just meant we cancelled the sub and went down to the FTV/FTA channels only on that box)

Yes and no.

I can see that Sky need to charge for the viewing card and card management. However I don't think that this is £120/year (Freesat from Sky cards are only £25)... That said, Sky are a commercial company and will make money every way they possibly can that they think their customers will accept. If they didn't offer multiroom you'd be forced to take out a second subscription I guess...

In other countries they often break down the subscription into payment for the channels and payment for the card and card management separately. When you go to multiroom you don't pay for the channels, but you do pay card rentak and management fees for the second card. In Sweden this appears to be about £8/month.

Interesting, seems to imply that Style&Culture is getting added in to Variety. Since I currently subscribe to Variety, Kids, Style & Culture and Music does that mean my Sub is going to go down by £1/month?

Effectively, instead of customers being able to pick and choose each Entertainment Pack separately, they will have a choice of two:

Entertainment = Variety, Style and Culture
Entertainment Extra = Variety, Style and Culture, Children's, Knowledge, Music, News and Events

As I understand it existing customers would retain their existing Packs for the time being, but when it comes to making any changes post September 1st, you'd have to decide whether to drop to the basic Entertainment Pack, or upgrade to the bigger Entertainment Extra pack.

My letter reads that I'll be moved to Entertainment Extra pack. I currently get 4 packs, Variety, Style and Culture, Children's, News and Events so looks like I'm gaining Knowledge and Children's packs for free.

I assume that after the price freeze I'll be charged whatever Entertainment Extra pack is (£25 currently, so an increase of £2.50 for the two packs that were previously £1 each).

Interestingly, Sky News is in the new Entertainment Extra pack. Well, Sky always advertised it as being in the News and Events pack while it's free to air.