Having been a Sky subscriber for over a decade, I've grown weary and the cost and the fact that anything worth remotely watching gets locked away in the sky store until you get your wallet out again.
Sky Movies put films out , but generally just poor romcoms. I have all the disney channels for the kids too - and naturally the sports package for the boxing.
But since the next fight is PPV, when in reality its a mediocre domestic fight for zero titles and should be part of the regular sky sports package, it was the feather that broke the camel's back.
After speaking with a few mates, they put me onto Netflix - and got to admit there was more than enough content on there, and the kid's choice for the youngsters is better than sky imo. Whole series/seasons of shows i never caught on sky have been pretty much on loop the last month. Sons of Anarchy 10/10 so far - and now halfway through breaking bad.
Im using the netflix app on the xbox one, and now have just got my free trial of amazon video - again, tons of stuff on there so will keep that too. For both services it's like £16 a month and a far cry from £80+ i was paying for Sky , which whilst might be better in some ways, is no way worth the extra spend.
I rarely watch anything 'live' and so this service suits me fine. I can watch stuff at my leisure when it suits me. Instead of worrying my sky hard drive is getting full, this is all there at the touch of a button.
Ive got a pretty fancy home cinema set up (3D philips tv, onkyo amp, B&W sub and surround speakers) and the picture and audio is actually crisper than Sky.
Im also looking into getting rid of the TV license as my next money-saving idea. It looks like I can do it if i take out the sky box as wont have the equipment to view live broadcasts which is the basis of needing a licence.
I will be about £800+ a year better off, and i can simply pre-order the blu rays of top films off amazon as and when i want them, and if i watch them and dont think i will watch them again - i will list them on ebay straight away and pretty much recoup that money too.
I forecast in around 3-4 years, Sky will be on its backside. Competition like BT is eating into the sports bidding and taking them. I reckon all television will be over the internet soon and the days of needing a dish will start to end.
On a website i read that the amount of new home starters in their 20's are not having sky fitted. Having got used to netflix etc on their ipads etc, they are choosing a IPTV player like Roku or Amazon Fire TV and using that instead of signing up for 12 months at a big cost. Plus the amount of flats make having a dish a pain to organise, so that approach suits them better too. As these internet tv companies grow, so will their titles.
If i ever really want to watch a sky-produced sporting event etc, then i will just use the Now TV app and buy a weekend pass , rather than hand over hundreds a year for basically four or five things i actually WANT to watch, rather than grifting through stuff and picking the best title from a heap of stuff im not that arsed about.