SKY+ - The £10 per month subscription dropped from 1 October

[q1aqza]

For Premium Subscribers http://www.plusworld.co.uk/?


Full official statement on Sky+ charges

BSkyB unveils Sky+ marketing drive

BSkyB announced today that it would accelerate the roll-out of Sky+, the integrated digital video recorder and satellite receiver and service, by introducing a new pricing model later this year.

With effect from 1 October 2003 - the fifth anniversary of the launch of Sky digital - the monthly Sky+ subscription fee of £10 will be waived for customers on any package with two or more of Sky's premium sports and movie channels**.

Customers will still continue to purchase the Sky+ equipment at the current price of £199. This new pricing structure is expected to drive penetration of Sky+, which attracted 105,000 subscribers by the end of June 2003, extending the benefits BSkyB derives from the unprecedented customer satisfaction levels achieved in Sky+ homes. It is also anticipated that higher take-up of Sky+ will contribute to further growth in the number of subscribers to Extra Subscriptions, which enables independent viewing of their Sky channels in another room by others in the household. The Extra Subscription option will now cost £10 per month when taken in combination with Sky+.

Later this Autumn, BSkyB will launch a major advertising campaign to promote the benefits of Sky+ to a wider audience than ever before. Focusing on the control, simplicity and convenience that Sky+ brings to television viewers, the campaign will re-assert Sky's status as a technological innovator and will further differentiate digital satellite as the leading platform for digital television.

Jon Florsheim, BSkyB's Sales and Marketing Director, said: "Five years after launching the UK's first digital television platform, BSkyB is as committed as ever to bringing its subscribers the most advanced television services. By reducing the cost of Sky+ ownership for our most valuable customers, we aim to increase penetration, further stimulate take-up of premium channels and ensure that Sky remains the leading brand in multi-channel television."

Details of Sky+ costs:

** To qualify for free a Sky+ subscription, a customer will need to subscribe to a Sky digital package that includes two or more of Sky's premium sports or movie channels (excluding free and stand-alone premium channels), i.e. package options 1A-6K inclusive in the Sky digital subscription contract. Sky premium channels are Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2, Sky Movies Premier and Sky Movies Max and eligible packages cost from £30 per month.

If at any point a customer ends their digital subscription contract or changes to a package that does not qualify for the free Sky+ subscription, he or she will be charged the £10 per month Sky+ subscription.

* The £10 per month Sky+ subscription will continue to apply for customers who do not subscribe to a Sky digital package that includes at least two Sky premium channels. "

Existing Sky+ customers who subscribe to a package with two or more Sky premium channels will benefit automatically from the free Sky+ subscription. Details of Extra Subscription costs:

* To qualify for the £10 per month Extra Subscription, a customer must also have an active Sky+ subscription for the same household. If the customer at any time cancels their Sky+ subscription their Extra Subscription will revert to the standard £15 per month price.

* The £15 per month Extra Subscription price will continue to apply for customers who do not qualify for the reduced price.

* Existing Extra Subscription customers who also subscribe to Sky+ will benefit automatically from the new £10 per month price. Standard Installation Costs:

* For a new or existing customer just purchasing just Sky+, standard installation will remain £50

* For a new or existing customer purchasing Sky+ who wants to relocate their standard digibox to another room in the same property at the same time as having Sky+ installed, the standard installation and relocation price will be £60.

[RabidDog]

summarize please I'm too stoopid to read thru that bilge.

[energy80s]

SUMMARY - Rupert is still a bastard! Sky Plus won't take off when you have to pay more for the same old rubbish. Maybe if the picture quality of Sky Digital was any good, then it would be worth getting, but at present you're better off with a multi-satellite setup and DTT. Really shows up the 1/4 resolution pictures that Sky tx on most of their channels!

[q1aqza]

Errm, I thought this was a summary..

"SKY+ - The £10 per month subscription dropped from 1 October

For Premium Subscribers".


To save you some reading Rabidog , if you subscribe to two premium channels e.g. one movie and one sport or two movies or two sports thenm your existing £10 per month subscription for SKY+ will be dropped from 1 October. Those that subscribe to to a lesser package, e.g. the Family package, will still need to pay the £10. Thats where Sky are probably hoping to make gains as it would only costs a few extra pounds a month to upgrade to a couple of premium packages with Sky+ included.

[jinky]

does anyone know how to get sky on to a computer? and is there any way
of recording to the hard drive?
thanks

[indolikaa]

SUMMARY - Rupert is still a bastard! Sky Plus won't take off when you have to pay more for the same old rubbish. Maybe if the picture quality of Sky Digital was any good, then it would be worth getting, but at present you're better off with a multi-satellite setup and DTT. Really shows up the 1/4 resolution pictures that Sky tx on most of their channels!

Interesting. We get FOX Sports World here in the States. I watch Sky Sport News on a pretty regular basis. The picture quality isn't very good and the audio sounds like an MP3 recorded at 32kbps. I always thought maybe that was the price we paid for watching an on-the-fly PAL>NTSC conversion. I guess not.

[red lion]

unprecedented customer satisfaction levels

These words and sky dont go together they are the biggest arse of a company i have ever done buisness with
they give you sky talk when you dont ask for it then they cut you off when you dont pay it even if your not on it.
then after about 100 phone calls they have still not sorted out the mess
sorry for this post but i feel very strongly about this company..

[MeTaLgEaRsOoTy]

i thought it was just me that thought the picture quality of Sky Digitaland + was sh.it.
it looks,half the time like some crap svcd with all the blockiness,and sh,it colors.

[Mrdogno8]

so that's only £60 installation charge for someone to plug your new decoder box into the power outlet and the scart lead into your telly. A bargain, not.

[red lion]

so that's only £60 installation charge for someone to plug your new decoder box into the power outlet and the scart lead into your telly. A bargain, not.

and about £300 in phone calls to get you registered with these clowns

[q1aqza]

so that's only £60 installation charge for someone to plug your new decoder box into the power outlet and the scart lead into your telly. A bargain, not.

At time of the original post back in September, Sky were, and still are, offering £1 installation charge on Sky+ if ordered online (I actually ordered mine by phone and still got it for £1). This included installation of the Quad LNB and a new cable to the second tuner and the engineer makes the necessary calls to get synced up and recording facility turned on. A bargain, yes.

[Hardcoreruss]

I like the new advert.

1. For existing customers to upgrade to sky wank sorry plus it is £199

and in small letters at the base of the advert

2. £120 if you are a new customer

Lets just screw all of our existing customers then

[q1aqza]

I like the new advert.

1. For existing customers to upgrade to sky wank sorry plus it is £199

and in small letters at the base of the advert

2. £120 if you are a new customer

Lets just screw all of our existing customers then

I haven't seen that advert - b@stards !!

[Hardcoreruss]

I see that you are in essex, wherabouts ?

[q1aqza]

I see that you are in essex, wherabouts ?

Near Maldon.

[Hardcoreruss]

I own a house in Leigh not that far from you.

[SatStorm]

I have my third PC dedicated to capture analogue from Sky Digital those days (also some analogue aerial transmissions).
Realtime mpeg 2, xvid or whatever I wish that way, with the price of about 50 euro (the cost of a simply K-world mpeg 2 studio card...)

Sky Digital compared other European Subscription services in europe (I receive them all, don't ask me how...) are average in picture quality terms. Some channels looks good, some channels look bad.
Unfortunatelly, all the good channels look bad.
I know that most sky digital channels transmits 544 x 576 with an average bitrate 3500 kb/s. This is bad you know... This bitrate is fair only to 1/2 D1 framesize

But, Sky Digital is the closest thing in Europe for American programming. The stupid european law forcing all TV channels having 60% European program and only 40% non european, simply don't allow most of the other European subscription services to transmit interesting programs. This limitation doesn't exist in UK, so Sky Digital is the only digital platform in Europe, which you can watch in English the current US shows with a small delay (few days, weeks or 2 - 3 months).

By the way, which sky digital channels (expept the pay per view ones) includes AC3 audio? I read somewhere that sky movies turned 16:9 and AC3, is this true? Currently I'm subscripted to family pack, so no movie channels from me (not that I miss something, those channels shows old movies, compared other european subscription services, like spanish Digital Plus)

[bugster]

By the way, which sky digital channels (expept the pay per view ones) includes AC3 audio? I read somewhere that sky movies turned 16:9 and AC3, is this true? Currently I'm subscripted to family pack, so no movie channels from me (not that I miss something, those channels shows old movies, compared other european subscription services, like spanish Digital Plus)

AFAIK, only sky movies transmits Ac3 audio, and then only on some movies. (I guess they don't have the Ac3 'rights' to many). The number is increasing, but it is still a small proportion. Also, the only device capable of outputing Sky digital transmitted Ac3 to an external decoder is the Sky+ boxes. None of the normal receivers can handle this. I know one of the old Sony receivers had an optical audio out but it was never used and cannot output the current Ac3 streams (or so I believe). This receiver is no longer available anyway. So if you want Ac3, get Sky+ !

W.R.T 16:9, many movies and quite a few shows on Sky 1 are now broadcast in 16:9

[Hardcoreruss]

The box in question is the SONY VXT-S750U I have one, bought it off ebay, you can still get them from there. When they come the optical out is not activated. You need to update the firmware by pressing a culmination of buttons and then it somehow updates (be it through your phone line or wether it just enables something that it was already shipped with I dont know). It can process ac3 but as bugster says the only channel to do so is sky movies. Before sky plus a few of the films were transmitted in dolby digital but since the launch of sky plus they appear to of withdrawn dd soundtracks to sky plus only. I beleive that there is one other box capable of processing ac3 made by Grundig I think. I will have a look around and see if I can post a link of the second one.

[q1aqza]

I own a house in Leigh not that far from you.

I have a couple of work colleagues from Leigh and my accountant is based there. A small world.

[rhegedus]

i thought it was just me that thought the picture quality of Sky Digitaland + was sh.it.
it looks,half the time like some crap svcd with all the blockiness,and sh,it colors.

Just like NTL.

[SatStorm]

@ bugster
Using Dragon Cam and a special DVB2000 version, some people are able to receive most of the sky digital channels with Nokia 9600 receivers (this is not digibox...) using a legal sky digital card. SkyStar 1 PCI cards also reported that worked with dragon cams.
So, if those channels have ac3 audio, maybe I'll be able to grabb them direct, like the germans use to do with Premiere world channels
I have done it couple of times for test reasons in the past, and it was really easy!
Sky one and Skyone mix started some 16:9 transmissions untill Augost.

Did I ever mention that I love DVB transmissions?

[bugster]

@ bugster
Using Dragon Cam and a special DVB2000 version, some people are able to receive most of the sky digital channels with Nokia 9600 receivers (this is not digibox...) using a legal sky digital card. SkyStar 1 PCI cards also reported that worked with dragon cams.
So, if those channels have ac3 audio, maybe I'll be able to grabb them direct, like the germans use to do with Premiere world channels
I have done it couple of times for test reasons in the past, and it was really easy!
Sky one and Skyone mix started some 16:9 transmissions untill Augost.

Did I ever mention that I love DVB transmissions?

Interesting!!

I always though the Sky card was 'locked' to the receiver, so using even a 'legal' card in any other receiver would not work.

So with this set up are you able to capture the mpeg-stream directly? That would be a great thing to do.

Just one warning. If you do manage to capture the Ac3 stream but find dropouts, its probably not your capture process but a persistent problem Sky have been having with Ac3 for several weeks/months.

[Craig Tucker]

i thought it was just me that thought the picture quality of Sky Digitaland + was sh.it.
it looks,half the time like some crap svcd with all the blockiness,and sh,it colors.

Just like NTL.

Yes, the blockiness on some NTL channels is on a par with you avatar rhegedus

[SatStorm]

Hi Craig

Those are only reports from very advance forums I have access...
The card is locked with the reciever on Videoguard, as it is done with nagravision.

With Nagravision (as you probably know) you can emulate this lock with any freecam/ magic like cam today. Using almost same technics, you can emulate your digibox on Dragon Cams, so the card believes that it is inside a digibox. And so it decrypt the channels
Of course, you must own your digibox, so you don't have to plug it on the phone. That means you forget the PPV channels, but I can live with that...

The amazing DVBRecorder 1.19d, fills broken AC3 frames with null ones on the fly. Also, you can set the delays so to synth AC3 with the m2v on the fly! In short terms, if the transmissions is 720 (704, 352) x 576 and has AC3 (like the german channels Pro7,Sat1,ZDF and the austia's national ORFs), you have ready DVD like files to burn!
Why you think I study Germans those days?

With Sky Digital channels, I believe that this would be more coblicated, but possible with some extra steps. Let's say you could grabb on the fly, so ac3 broke frames fille realtime with null ones. Then you demux the file and you re-encode the m2v (picture) to 352 or 704 x 576 (depending how good is the source...). Then you remux the new m2v with the ac3 and that's it! Ready and legal movies, with ac3!

I love DVB transmissions....

[energy80s]

However all Sky Digi channels have MPEG2 audio which is fine for DVD burning - it's only the Americans that have problems with it. Also the Sky Digi Card is only locked to a reciever for the premium movie and sports channels for all else it can be swapped with any box! Of course all the BBC channels are now free to air, so no problem grabbing them.

[SatStorm]

Yes, the mpa audio (or mp2, which is the same but without streaming infos) is nothing more than musicam, which on papers still is the official audio standard for DVD Video in Region 2 discs! For us in R2, AC3 is an audio alternative to musicam.

I didn't know that for sky digital. That explains why a friend of mine, also a family pack subscripter, has this message "not a valid card" on some coded channels, mostly sport and movie ones.

And energy80s, I repeat: BBC channels are FTA but the reception of those channels are only possible with typical dishes on UK, France, Germany, Benelux, overall the northwest Europe and Portugal/Spain. East, South and Southeast areas, are out of the footprint! In Hellas you need 3 meter + to recieve them, in Athens even more (4 m for all day). In practice, those channels are unrecievable there.
Anyway, I still can watch Top of the Pops 2 from BBC Prime (viaccess).

Since you work to BBC, this transmission of BBC 1 - 4 radios on Eutelsat W2 is permanent or just a temporary feed?

[energy80s]

I suppose you know the reason for the Beeb moving to Astra 2D was to allow for free to air txs without paying Murdoch £85 million for encryption and also to placate the US film studios who were more than a little concerned about most of Europe getting access to recent US TV series in English for free. The official line is that the 2D signal can only be received in the UK & Ireland and a little bit of France!!!

As for the radio side of things, I didn't know that 1-4 were on Eutelsat. Probably only temporary. I know that Radios 2 & 4 are back on 2A for better European coverage.

[SatStorm]

Yeah, I pretty well know the reasons of BBC, I also happens to know many British in Italy, Greece and Cyprus, very unhappy with the decision!
The bottom line is that West Europe, which always had good TV, can watch BBC for free via satellite with small (>1.20) dishes, while we need huge.

The main problem are the Brits around E.E. BBC Prime is not enough for them as you know! Anyway, as I said, I already watching what I want to watch from BBC. TOP2! And since I can receive BBC prime, I am ok.

Well, I hope this ain't temporally, BBC Radio 1 is an oasis of european music, expecially from the Dance Scene, the only european active one currently.

[curryman]

hardcoreruss wrote:
I like the new advert.

1. For existing customers to upgrade to sky wank sorry plus it is £199

and in small letters at the base of the advert

2. £120 if you are a new customer

Lets just screw all of our existing customers then

The £120 is the connection fee for new users (£50 for exsisting customers or £1 if ordered online)
They still have to pay £199 for the box itself