Cable Forum - View Single Post - General What would stop you cutting the cord?

Chad · 24-07-2015, 00:49

I'd say Virgin, SKY and other TV providers need to allow greater flexibility with their TV packages at reasonable prices.

Here TV Player is offering 25 channels for £4.99 per month, that's 20p per channel!

http://tvplayer.com/plus

NOW TV offers 13 channels for £6.99 per month, that's 54p per channel. You can get that down to 38p per channel if you buy a 3 month pass for £15.00.

Between the 2 services your paying roughly, on average, 29p per premium channel. Imagine how much you could save if you could tailor your TV package, for the exact channels you want, for 29p per channel per month.

So say both SKY and Virgin offered all Freeview channels for free, as a standard starting point, but you had to pay £5.00 per month for a standard set top box or £10.00 per month for a recordable PVR. From there you get to choose the channels you want over and above Freeview. For me it would be:

1. SKY Atlantic
2. SKY One
3. SKY Living
4. SKY Sports News
5. FOX
6. MTV
7. Discovery
8. National Geographic
9. History
10. H2
11. Boomerang

And that's pretty much it. On top of Freeview, those are the go to channels in our house. £3.19 is all that would cost on top of the standard set top box fee of £5.00, or standard£10.00 PVR box.

But what about HD, on demand and catch up TV?

Freeview catch up would be free however if you want catch up for the channels you've selected over and above Freeview I accept there would have to be an additional fee per channel, as would HD. As posted above NOW TV can work out as little as 38p per channel which includes on demand and catch up for each channel plus the content is 720p. If that's the going rate I'd happily pay 38p per month for my selected channels to get them in 720p plus have catch up and on demand content for each channel too.

This for me would be the dream TV service. A PVR, all channels I want to watch in 720p plus on demand and catch up for £14.18 per month. No paying for channels and content I'll never watch.

The trouble for SKY and Virgin is I'm already edging towards this. I already own a dual tuner recordable Freeview HD PVR. My Smart TV has Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, NOW TV, iPlayer and Demand 5 apps built in. 7 of my 11 channel choices are available through NOW TV plus most content I'd watch from H2 and History is available via either Amazon Instant Video or the American version of Netflix. You can get NOW TV for as little as £5.00 per month, Amazon only 2 weeks ago where offering a full years prime subscription for £59.00 which works out at £4.91 per month and Netflix is from £5.99 per month. £15.90 per month all in.

I think SKY have reacted to cord cutting with NOW TV but I'm not sure what Virgin can do? In general pay TV needs a major pricing shake up, and flexible options, or people will continue to migrate to cheaper streaming services which delivers the content they want at the right price. I've had both the VIP bundle with Virgin Media and the Complete Bundle from SKY. Both offer hundreds of channels and thousands of hours worth of on demand content however both really are a waste of money if your only watching about 20% of the channels you pay for.

24-07-2015, 00:49	#14
Chad cf.mega poster Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Edinburgh Services: SKY Family, SKY Broadband Unlimited, YouView, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Boxnation Posts: 5,137	Re: What would stop you cutting the cord? I'd say Virgin, SKY and other TV providers need to allow greater flexibility with their TV packages at reasonable prices. Here TV Player is offering 25 channels for £4.99 per month, that's 20p per channel! http://tvplayer.com/plus NOW TV offers 13 channels for £6.99 per month, that's 54p per channel. You can get that down to 38p per channel if you buy a 3 month pass for £15.00. Between the 2 services your paying roughly, on average, 29p per premium channel. Imagine how much you could save if you could tailor your TV package, for the exact channels you want, for 29p per channel per month. So say both SKY and Virgin offered all Freeview channels for free, as a standard starting point, but you had to pay £5.00 per month for a standard set top box or £10.00 per month for a recordable PVR. From there you get to choose the channels you want over and above Freeview. For me it would be: 1. SKY Atlantic 2. SKY One 3. SKY Living 4. SKY Sports News 5. FOX 6. MTV 7. Discovery 8. National Geographic 9. History 10. H2 11. Boomerang And that's pretty much it. On top of Freeview, those are the go to channels in our house. £3.19 is all that would cost on top of the standard set top box fee of £5.00, or standard£10.00 PVR box. But what about HD, on demand and catch up TV? Freeview catch up would be free however if you want catch up for the channels you've selected over and above Freeview I accept there would have to be an additional fee per channel, as would HD. As posted above NOW TV can work out as little as 38p per channel which includes on demand and catch up for each channel plus the content is 720p. If that's the going rate I'd happily pay 38p per month for my selected channels to get them in 720p plus have catch up and on demand content for each channel too. This for me would be the dream TV service. A PVR, all channels I want to watch in 720p plus on demand and catch up for £14.18 per month. No paying for channels and content I'll never watch. The trouble for SKY and Virgin is I'm already edging towards this. I already own a dual tuner recordable Freeview HD PVR. My Smart TV has Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, NOW TV, iPlayer and Demand 5 apps built in. 7 of my 11 channel choices are available through NOW TV plus most content I'd watch from H2 and History is available via either Amazon Instant Video or the American version of Netflix. You can get NOW TV for as little as £5.00 per month, Amazon only 2 weeks ago where offering a full years prime subscription for £59.00 which works out at £4.91 per month and Netflix is from £5.99 per month. £15.90 per month all in. I think SKY have reacted to cord cutting with NOW TV but I'm not sure what Virgin can do? In general pay TV needs a major pricing shake up, and flexible options, or people will continue to migrate to cheaper streaming services which delivers the content they want at the right price. I've had both the VIP bundle with Virgin Media and the Complete Bundle from SKY. Both offer hundreds of channels and thousands of hours worth of on demand content however both really are a waste of money if your only watching about 20% of the channels you pay for.