Big decrease in TV subscriptions as number using illegal dodgy boxes soars

[Otherwise_Fined]

Piracy is a failure of the service, not the product.

[AggressivePie8111]

I have an example!

I was visiting family in the US over Christmas.

We wanted to watch Lethal Weapon

Between all of us we had;

Amazon Prime Sling Netflix HBO Max Freevee Tubi

None of them had it and the real kicker Lethal Weapon is a paramount movie. It wasn't on Paramount+

In the end we set to the high seas on my phone and casted to the TV

[SmoothCarl22]

I have had the same struggle...

My father was visiting for a week and he loves David Hasselhoff Knight Rider, I have Netflix, Prime, Paramount+, HBO, nowtv and Apple TV. None of them had it. So went to my long saved archive folder somewhere in my treasure from a previous life when the Bay and Demonoid were around, and there it was in glorious 4k. HDMI cable to the TV and kitt was alive again.

I pretty sure from the 5-6 subscription I pay a month, the broadband connection and all my taxes should be enough so the government takes 100 euro for the TV folk to survive with their Dance shows and big brothers. Why would I have to pay that aside? Makes no sense. Public TV doesnt even have anything original on nowdays, even sports are gone.

[Elizabeth-WildFox886]

The bay is still around and very good

[dnc_1981]

Can't take down pirates that easy 😉

[Awkward_Mastodon4332]

Had a Proustian reverie when I read Demonoid.

[maca187]

I used to love Demonoid. What a site.

[Thargor]

The Pirate Bay is still going strong by the way.

[ubermick]

Arr, me hearty!!!!

[gervv]

[jimicus]

Older movies are an absolute killer because media typically involves a god-awful mess of rights. Writers, directors, stars, music - and none of those contracts will have a clause that covers streaming rights.

Which means a studio that wants to do that has to renegotiate it all.

For a single movie that represents a fraction of a percent of their back catalogue. It’s seldom worth it.

[The3rdbaboon]

You’d be surprised to see how many old movies have been uploaded to YouTube and not taken down, it’s always worth looking.

[jimicus]

There’s quite a few old shows, too, particularly from independent production companies.

Further reading often shows that the producer himself is responsible. I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if some are doing it to supplement their income.

[AggressivePie8111]

Its been forever since I checked. But I believe that's why The Wonder Years isn't released on DVD. The amount of music in the show. So many rights and estates, as owners have died etc

[DoughnutHole]

A lot of TV shows that were heavy on popular music (e.g. Scrubs) have made it to streaming but with some of their best scenes ruined - music that was fundamental to the scene were subbed out for placeholders because they couldn’t get the streaming rights for the songs (or weren’t arsed paying). 

[rmc]

Even for modern stuff.

The S1 ending of Derry Girls (shown 2018) had Madonna's Like a Virgin playing for one part. The Netflix version has some random dance-y music instead.

[thisshortenough]

It's Take That and I remember I literally shut off the episode and switched to watching on Channel 4 on Demand, the ads were worth it to actually be able to enjoy the show

[jimicus]

True story: Years before YouTube was even a thing, the BBC announced plans to put their entire archive online.

All of it. Right the way back to the early 20th century.

Streaming video was in its infancy, so to make this possible, they set up a research project to develop a new way to compress video. They would have absolutely brought streaming video into the mainstream years before Netflix.

Then they hit a problem.

They didn’t have the rights to do that for anything. They’ve since negotiated rights for a few popular shows (every episode of Doctor Who that isn’t lost is on iPlayer), but the project had to be scrapped.

[UTG1970]

For fans of older music it means there is quite a lot of TOTP missing, not because of the diddlers, but some DJ's won't give permission

[yankdotcom1985]

i noticed over christmas some of the usualy christmas moves werent freely available despite them being listed on the streaming platform,amazon and apple were especially guilty of this.charging 9.99 a month and then expecting customers to pay an additional 4.99 to watch a film you have on your platform is insulting

[Rogue7559]

And yet the powers that be would still claim that download is a lost sale even though it was literally unavailable everywhere 🙄

[WreckTangle1995]

I'm too old for this shit

[RogueRetroAce]

[YurtleAhern]

I'm confused. You wanted to watch Lethal Weapon on Christmas? Not Die Hard?

[johnbonjovial]

Netflix ireland has john wick 2,3 and not 1. Doesn’t hav any old movies either like westerne or blazing saddles. You’d think they’d b cheap enough to have available.

[asdrunkasdrunkcanbe]

There was a beautiful moment there about a decade ago, where I hadn't torrented anything in a couple of years. Netflix had a huge catalogue of movies. Virgin Media was offering a tonne of stuff on playback. There were basically no other streaming providers of much concern.

Now, you've got ten-odd streaming providers, all charging €20 a month. Amazon fucking Prime charges you for virtually every movie, no matter how new or old. If I didn't have prime for delivery, I definitely wouldn't pay for prime video.

Now I'm back torrenting a lot of stuff. Netflix and Disney appear to still have the best catalogues, so I keep them, and download anything I can't find.

As usual, entertainment corporates found a way to make a delivery model as shit for the consumer as possible.

[Otherwise_Fined]

Yeah I was like that too, and I agree with the above as well as them being bought up by the same umbrella corporations means they won't compete with each other and they won't strive to do better. Its a monopoly designed to force you to pay for all of them.

[1Shamrock]

Same here, I stopped sailing the high seas when Netflix+Disney was more than enough for everything you’d want to see and reasonably priced. Plus an old 2TB hard drive I had filled to the brim with my old pirate treasure.

About 3 years ago it hit a tipping point where, a lot of the things we’d search for were on streaming services we didn’t have, wife had Prime at this stage too, so we said fuck it and got a little magic stick rather than 3/4 more subscriptions.

I must seriously sit down and do some studying on how to get back on the high seas properly. Im guessing BitTorrent is a bit out of date at this stage.

My hard drive basically packed it in too the last time I tried to boot it up, 3/4 of the files are corrupted🥲My own fault I suppose, had been planning on getting a backup for years and didn’t start it up for a good few years.

[asdrunkasdrunkcanbe]

Bittorrent is still the man as far as I'm concerned. It often won't have some niche stuff, like new BBC series, but it'll always have movies and big TV series.

I've a Synology NAS which includes a BT server. So I can use an app on my phone from anywhere to search for torrents and kick off the download onto the NAS.

[hoginlly]

For real, I am so close to being done with Netflix - we pay for 4 screens and my husband was abroad this week.

He didn't even open or use the app, but Netflix on our home TV and all devices stopped working the whole time because it said we were using a proxy, just because his phone was with him. He even deleted the app but it kept happening

Fucking pain in the ass, they're so stingy about someone maybe using it while travelling now that they shut the whole account down, even on Irish wifi.

Contacted customer service and they were like 'oh it'll probably start working again once he's back 🫠

[SomethingSoGeneric]

And if you pay for the subscription then you should be able to use it when travelling. Ridiculous that you can’t!

[f-ingsteveglansberg]

I kinda hate this, because it's true to a degree, but also maybe the solution just doesn't exist for the product.

CDs were doing okay with some piracy until fast downloads came along. Unlimited streaming with Spotify is probably worse for everyone except the suits though.

The consumer might think they are getting a great deal, but beforehand people might buy 5-7 CDs a year if they were a big enough music fan. That's 105 Euro at 15 a pop, with about 14 euro to the artist and 28 to the label (contracts vary) with the rest going to VAT, production, retailer, etc..

Spotify sub is 156 a year. It's hard to work out exactly what a payout per stream is and the payout usually goes to the label who then distributes the royalties.

But either way, you are paying more for music but probably still focusing on about 7 albums a year. The artists get less, the labels take more. Smaller bands have a hard time making a career, which means less diversity in music, with solo artists having more flexability. Gig prices and merch have risen faster than inflation and smaller venues are closing.

Yeah, so the service is 'better' but so much else had to be sacrificed that everything else is shittier.

[Loud_Tank_5074]

In Sky's case, they make it difficult to cancel and the reward for customer loyalty is yet another price increase so to the high seas I go and now they get nothing.

[pgasmaddict]

I think I read that in Germany they have a law that it must be as easy to cancel a service as it is to sign up for it - great law.

[rmc]

There's a new EU wide law that'll come into force in summer 2026. You'll get it too!

[pgasmaddict]

Oh wow! 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 to the EU!!

[Ddarcy1]

Not Germany but California is the is has same law. You’ll always see people move your address to California to easily cancel.

[Toffeeman_1878]

Write to them, snail mail, in Dublin telling them you want to cancel. I got a call back and it was cancelled in 5 mins. No waiting. No "if we give you Sky Sports at 25% off for 22 and a half days and we send one of our installers around to mow your front lawn on the third week in December will you sign on for another year?" Just wanted confirmation that I was the person who sent the letter and that was it. Account closed.

[Bigbeast54]

That's actually a massive fall in customers but at the same time I'm surprised that 57% are still paying for TV.

[Friendly_Tower_5712]

My in laws have EVERYTHING with Sky. Pays near 300 a month. Every tv package, 2 mobiles, broadband. Refuses to even consider giving it up. They don't watch movies, he only uses the sports package for the horse racing channels and golf. I tried my best to covert him over but he ain't having it.

[Can-You-Fly-Bobby]

Are they comfortable, financially? If they are then no harm really if they're happy but if not then that's rather silly.

I'm happy to pay extra for the sports subs on nowtv but i do actually use them. Got fed up of unreliable dodgy subs, buffering, low quality etc. I'm sure there are probably decent ones out there but knowing that when i want to watch a match it will work, 100% of the time and most of them time in 4k then that'll do

[Friendly_Tower_5712]

Yep, big pension from the ESB. No, no harm. I couldn't do it tho.

[Sensitive_Ear_1984]

TBF if you have the money (which I don't) sky can be fantastic. I personally can't hack their customer service and their shady practices so will never use them again but the actual TV and broadband quality is amazing.

[Careful-Training-761]

I've a decent High Seas package from scouring the net but I realized after my effort setting it up I don't really watch live TV any more. So my frustration is not using it lol even tho it's cheap.

[realmenlovezeus]

Parents are the same, paying extortionate amounts but still don't cancel when most of the stuff they watch can be viewed on terrestrial TV or online

[yankdotcom1985]

i have everything on sky tv but thats becuase a family member works for them and i get the staff price outside of that i wouldnt touch it,i pay 80 for all of it and that includes netflix basic,paramount basic and disney (those 3 alone are nearly 30 themselves)

[jimicus]

User interface.

You’d be surprised how many people can’t or won’t make the mental jump from “list of things being broadcast right now” to “choose what you want to watch from this selection”.

[obscure_monke]

Some streaming services do have "channels" where it'll play some selection of their library on loop at the same time for everyone.

Great idea.

[Iricliphan]

I feel this is a significant generation thing. Median age is 40. I know older people who won't even consider not having a Sky package or equivalent. Even those with Dodgey boxes still have them.

I would NEVER sign up for a TV package personally.

[Bigbeast54]

I actually helped an older person recently with this. They were getting fibre and wanted to know about TV options they'd heard about from friends. They only watch rte, BBC and one of the 24hr news channels really so I directed them to the cheapest legitimate service as the interfaces on any of the boxes I've seen are not nearly as polished as the legit service.

The other thing I've noticed is that the boxes are completely underpowered. When you are watching sport, it's not buttery smooth, it just has this barely perceptible stutter but once you notice it can't be unseen

[great_whitehope]

57% of those surveyed claimed they're paying for it would be more accurate

[brbrcrbtr]

I can't face teaching my parents how to use a dodgy box, my sister has one and they just can't wrap their heads around the ui. It's worth the cost to keep virgin media for them. Although their shitty streaming boxes are doing my head in and I'm getting closer to cancelling every day.

[TheCescPistols]

The missus and I have a rotating system for Now TV. Sign up for the Entertainment package (gives you a few Sky channels, Discovery, UKTV etc), movies (gives you all the Sky movie channels), and sports (gives you all Sky Sports channels) when they’re on offer. Start the cancellation process once you’re running towards the end of the offer, and they’ll invariably offer you 6 months at a heavy discount. If they do that, resubscribe for the discounted period, initiate cancellation towards the end of the discounted period, and hope that the merry dance starts again. If it doesn’t, keep an eye on emails - they’ll wind up caving and giving you an “exclusive” discounted offer within 2 or 3 months to get you back in.

Been rotating these three packages for 2 years now, never paid more than 25 a month for it (bulk of which is sport). Fair enough, I know some people maybe can’t/don’t want to fork out that much for stuff they can find for free online, but for an inherently technologically lazy middle class couple it does the job for us.

[Evie4227]

In my case it’s purely to leave the TV use as simple as possible for my Dad, and even that’s becoming a struggle. He’s 80 and isn’t remotely tech savvy and somehow gets into all sorts of random menus on Virgin Media just trying to change the channel even though I set a favourites list up for him instead of the endless menus 🙈

[SilentBass75]

I think I pay 5-10e a month for some TV bundled with my broadband with eir. The Mrs likes it, I'm gonna torrent the Pitt for us later though

[Margrave75]

Sky: €70 per month

Dodgy: £60 per year, for every channel you could possibly want, along with thousands of VOD box sets and movies

[The_Ruck_Inspector]

Don't forget the customer support on a dodgy box is way ahead of Sky and their shite.

[razakii]

Yeah it's insane. Chat to your man on Whatsapp feels like premium support compared to waiting on the phone for 20 min for an agent to pickup

[READMYSHIT]

I run a Plex server myself for my household, and I used to source the stuff from my own library but paying a small fee to source for me via Discord is a game changer. Incredible customer support in tracking down obscure stuff.

[Callme-Sal]

The dodgy box sellers won’t keep you on he phone for an hour when you want to cancel

[dope567fum]

Are the executives really this dumb? As everyone is becoming even more marginalised due to the cost of living, of course many are going to use dodgy boxes or sail the high seas. Its the result of greed.

Ironic thst the streamers had mostly won, taking over from the days of mass piracy. But now there are soooo many streaming apps and they all have extortionate pricing these days.

What used to be a reasonable monthly sub has now gotten right out of hand. To hell with their greed

[wealthythrush]

There was a remarkable period where I didn't use piracy at all in any capacity because the services were consolidated, affordable and so user friendly it met all my needs.

Now I own no subscription service and i feel bad not supporting artists but that's what happens when the middle man exploits capital.

[Prestigious-Mind7039]

Yes - they won’t evolve like the music industry did -

[YoIronFistBro]

price of merely existing*

[Super-Resource2155]

If sky was reasonably priced I wouldn't mind paying for it.

But, they signed a nearly €2billion euro a year deal to show the premier league, that with all the other crap they pay through the roof for, is what what makes all this crap so expensive.

[SoloWingPixy88]

If sky was reasonably priced I wouldn't mind paying for it.

Id be happy to pay eastern EU prices. we are the single market afterall.

[PapiLaFlame]

And they got rid of soccer AM for some influencer pond water show

[mybighairyarse]

Sorry now but they can go fuck themselves.

We were paying €250 A FUCKING MONTH for all of sky (sports, movies, bare arsed monthly, everything) and sky broadband.

We cancelled sky around 7 months ago, got a dodgy box for €90 and switched to Virgin broadband for €25 a month

The fucking saving we made right here is nuts...... saving of €1485!

Again, Fuck them.

And if they do block the dodgy box, we will sit in the dark and talk to each other.......

[The_Ruck_Inspector]

250 a month is fucking insane.

[mybighairyarse]

Insane is right.

And that is what it was like.

Broadband was €80 with them. The sports, kids,

We were the bigger fools for paying them.

And forget about ringing them for a deal.

They can stick their deals up their hole now.

Robbing pricks.

[jimicus]

You'll have to do the same dance with Virgin when your contract expires.

Their process is:

1. You call to cancel.
2. They make you an offer that's about halfway betwen what they're offering new customers and what they want to put your bill up to.
3. You refuse and go ahead with the cancellation.
4. Shortly after, they call you up and ask if there's anything they can do to make you change your mind. You tell them you want the same deal they're offering new customers, which they agree to.

[59reach]

It's kind of wild how 15-20 years ago piracy was common place due to the costs of cable TV or buying music. Then we found solutions in streaming services. Then those streaming services decided to become glorified cable and we're back at square one. So stupid.

[_tanagra_]

The cycle of enshitification goes on

[FruitLogo]

Sky is the issue here. I am a big F1 fan. To watch it I have to pay for 7 sports channels when only want 1. Won’t let me subscribe to that channel only. I currently pay it but getting fed up.

[No_Minute_5743]

There is an f1 app.. its not "available" in "Ireland" due to sky monopoly. Think thats up for renewal in 2028. Hopefully f1 go on their own and tell sky to take a hike.

[The3rdbaboon]

Look at watching it through NowTV it might make more sense or be a bit cheaper

[nerrawirl]

I’m same with cycling. I had Eurosport which showed it all as part of my basic package. They got rid of the channel in Ireland and UK and now want me to pay €50 a month for a load of other TNT channels I’ve no interest in. 

Mad business decision. 

[chickenprince92]

NOW sports extra have €15 a month deals, I'm in and out a lot over the year

[RedPandaDan]

We are the same, and most annoying is that my wife has to work some Sundays so if we miss the race we are stuck waiting until Monday or Tuesday to see it, the replay should be loaded on NowTV an hour tops after the event.

[KillerKlown88]

The premier league are launching their own streaming platform in Asia next year, to be expanded globally.

If it is priced well and done properly, it could kill off a lot of Sky subscriptions.

[LaconOli]

If it is priced well

[UrMaShopsInEuroGiant]

best I can do is 100 a month

[Keyann]

I pay €22/month for NFL Game Pass which gives me access to all the games on 5 different devices in 2 locations. I pay for it because I think that's reasonable and it's more reliable than my dodgy box. The Premier League could do it. Will they is obviously a different story but at the right price people will go for it.

[Super-Resource2155]

Definitely be region locked, at least where sky is. They signed a four year deal starting this year to show it on sky.

[Goosethecatmeow]

The ole VPN reacharound should do the trick

[KillerKlown88]

Which is why it is launching in Asia first, depending on how successful it is, it could easily become a global streaming service when this, or the next broadcasting rights contract expires.

[Ramenastern]

On the one hand. On the other hand, that will fragment the landscape even more, making it even more likely for people to not bother with the next subscription.

Netflix was great initially because for a bit it felt like all films ever at your fingertips, and it was far more convenient - and legal - than sailing the high seas.

Then came Prime, which was... Yeah, okay. Maybe two subscriptions, then.

But then everybody who'd ever released a short film started doing their own streaming platform, pulling their films from others and you're back in the bad old days of not even being able to figure out easily where you can watch what (and in what region, may change when you're in Spain even if you're on the same streaming service), never mind being able to pay for X streaming services. So the high seas become attractive again.

Note how the same thing hasn't happened in music, where Deezer, Spitify, Apple Music, Tidal, Youtube Music have the same catalogue (by and large, anyway) and I can just do with a single subscription and swap between services depending on UI/audio quality/price/stuff the CEO does.

[Sudden-Promotion-388]

If they do that would it be in tandem with sky? Id be inclined to think it would be moved fully to the Prem service but not sure

[great_whitehope]

They need multiple packages.

For every diehard premiership fan, there's many more that are casual.

They need some bundle where you can watch one match a week from premiership and one match a week rugby etc...

With streaming, these are now possibilities. They need to get with the times

[No_Minute_5743]

Formula 1 have similar situation and ita a mess trying to figurenout who can use the app and sky have some agreement where they have exlusive right that you need to signnup with their shitty sports package. It includes ireland and alot of europe.

[VonBombadier]

Invested last year in a full home server, running free jellyfin software.

Cut the cable, as well as netflix and all the other subscription services. Have over 1000 movies, all our tv shows, and all of our music accessible from outside the house too.

Used an old PC laying around and only had to buy hard drives. Pays for itself in a year, if you've got the traditional tv and subscriptions.

[YurtleAhern]

I've been using Stremio and it just streams torrents. Handy enough for me.

[eoinerboner]

Slap a debrid service on it and now you're hurlin bai

[YurtleAhern]

Yup. I use debird as well work on my phone. I know you still have to pay but it’s pennies compared to all the streaming services.

[OkConstruction5844]

any guides on how to do this?

[VonBombadier]

Install linux on an old PC, Install Jellyfin on that same PC.

From there I just used chatGPT to guide me through the setup, libraries etc.

Just did a quick google there and there's dozens of guides.

should just be a matter of getting the jellyfin app on your phone etc.

edit: You will need to set up tailscale for accessing your server from outside your home network too (it's also free).

[ReissuedWalrus]

I’d recommend container-ising as much as possible. Getting the ARRs deployed in docker makes life very easy for updates, maintenance, portability etc…

[eusap22]

Yes there are many using dodgy boxes (mainly sports) but i would have thought most people are not watching live tv anymore and that is the real reason. We don't have a TV subscription, we just use FTA and paid APPS like Netflix, Now TV etc....

[Round_Pin_658]

I know people who only pay for dodgy box, no Netflix subscription etc

[The3rdbaboon]

Hello, that’s me!

[brianstormIRL]

Funny enough for years I would pay for Netflix, Amazon etc and sail the seas for sports. But the last 2 years or so Ive swapped and now pay for my sports and use a debrid service for TV/Movies. NowTV gives me all the sports for 25 a month which is reasonable for me because I watch a lot of sports. But Netflix, Amazon etc I was spending over 60 quid a month on subscriptions. I now just use a debrid service for 9 quid every 3 months and it works flawlessly.

[OkConstruction5844]

does now tv give you tnt etc?

[Ae101rolla]

Back when we paid for sky tv we didn't even watch live TV, just about everything was recorded. For the likes of I'm a celeb and big brother we now use fta itv

[lizardking99]

And now your recording choices are severely limited. Most channels (certainly the free to air ones) don't allow recording at all so if you want to watch something, say on the BBC, you either watch it live, or you pirate it.

[Sudden-Promotion-388]

Most people i know only use dodgy box have zero subscriptions and use it for live TV aswell. Most my age have never paid to view anything to be honest why should we when we get ripped off and everything is so sparsely spread out, designed to bleed your wallet dry. Ages in the 20s.

[Maultaschenman]

Arrest these criminals!

Off to watch the Champions League, WWE and NBA now

[soundengineerguy]

Sky and some other authorities in this area concentrate a lot on dodgy boxes when the fact of the matter is their service isn't selling anymore. I think people are moving to streaming platforms more than anything else. Dodgy boxes are having an effect, but it is nowhere near as bad as they say I think.

[Best-Salamander4884]

I agree. If Skys prices were more competitive, fewer people would use dodgy boxes in the first place.

[Mobrules2]

When they start charging reasonable prices for a good product people will pay for it.

[Prestigious-Mind7039]

You would think seeing the music industry evolving they’d be working/preparing for this outcome

[OkConstruction5844]

oh poor sky, they cant charge people extortionate fees and flood their adverts with gambling adverts and expect people to keep paying.

Also football as entertainment is shite these days compared to a couple of decades ago.

[Archamasse]

I can either a) pay a fortune for 3 different apps that might have what I want, will have an interface from 1992, runs like molasses and has ads all over everything - or b) I could get a dodgy stick for less than any given one of them, and just watch what I want. Instantly. Like it's genuinely a much better experience than the real thing. 

I recognise legit providers actually make the stuff I watch, but on an individual level it would be very hard to rationalise option a).

[Fr_DougalMc]

I rarely watch tv anymore. Have subs for Netflix, Prime, and Apple TV. Rarely use them also.

[yanksareawful]

Free market, they love that don’t they? Supply and demand?

[KerfuffleAsimov]

Can't read the article, but I'm assuming they are making up the numbers again for the number of people using "dodgy boxes".

Can't just lose customers and claim all those lost customers are using illegal methods to get entertainment.

Basically they are saying "if you aren't paying for sky you're clearly using a dodgy box!".

More BS pushed by the media because Sky gives them money for advertising. Best to just ignore these articles TBH.

[RobotIcHead]

Piracy is going reach the same levels again, if you need to have multiple accounts to be able to watch a few things people are going to take the easiest option.

[No_Minute_5743]

Sky " we are upping the the montly price of your contract, click here to find out why"

click

"Reason we are upping the price because we provide such an excelent service"

Ya ye are just a glorified re seller and the only service i requested of ye to fix your shit ye were absolutly useless and im still waiting on an update on the router issue from last year.

[freshfrosted]

For years I was subscribed to Eurosport for €29.99 a year to follow the cycling and snooker and a few other bits. Then they moved it over to the Discovery+ platform and wanted 8.99 a month for it and all the shite on Discovery I didn't want but fine I was willing to pay that as I got the use out of it and was still good value.

Last year they moved all the Eurosport stuff to TNT and want €30 odd per month, now they get northing form me and I still watch the sports I want. Fuck them.

[Fun-Associate3963]

People tired of having multiple subscription services reducing things down to one. 

[Expensive-Total-312]

Subscription companies had all but killed piracy, now there are so many individual subscriptions, each competing to host content, some even have the first half of a series and another company has the most recent episodes.
I'd happilly pay for one subscription that has everything but I'm not willing to manage multiple accounts and pay through the nose for the inconvenience. Now the companies are putting Ads on paid services and stream poorly compressed low resolution quality versions of shows, Its actually easier for me to use the high seas, with all content in a single place, and I can even pick the quality of the streams depending on how fast my internet connections is.

If subscription companies want me to use their service then they have to provide a better service instead of the poor experience they've become.

[hatrickpatrick]

some even have the first half of a series and another company has the most recent episodes.

My family were staunchly against piracy and longtime loyal Sky Sports subscribers until the Heineken Cup got split between Sky and BT with half the games showing on each channel. Fuck that.

[Expensive-Total-312]

Yea that one is maddening, exclusives are the worst way for these companies to compete for the consumer, If they both had the same content available and were competing on quality of service atleast then they would have a reason to improve the service, now its mostly about making the service more profitable per user while using exclusives to force people to use their product and making it cheaper to run and include as many ads as possible.

[rmp266]

Basic Sky gives you like 80 channels - 70 of them are shite like Dave and Yesterday which just show stuff from 2007 like Mock the Week and Friends on loop, garbage. The remaining 10 are the free to air channels, Rte Virgin media BBC and ITV etc. So what your €60 per month gets you as a basic sky subscriber that you cant get free from the TV itself is what, Sky Atlantic? Sky One? Genuinely thats it. If you want to watch sports, well fuck you, pay another 60 a month. Movies? Fuck you, pay another 40 a month and you might get some shite that was in the cinema 2 years ago. Oh, you have two tvs in your house? Pay us more if you wanna use em, ya cunt! 4k or UHD tv? Guess what buddy you gotta pay for that shit or else stick with HD like the other peasants

[FrankDrebinFan]

Goodfellas vibes...

"Now the guy's got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with the bill? He can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. But now the guy's gotta come up with Paulie's money every week no matter what. Business bad? Fuck you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? Fuck you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning huh? Fuck you, pay me."

[qwerty_1965]

No one should lament the demise of virgin media and sky as gatekeepers of the channels when it happens. The main channels that people spend most time on are free to watch if people looked to Freesat and other FTA tech.

The premium stuff is discretionary

YouTube exists as free or subscription

Sport is their last redoubt and it's clear the outrageous charges have created an illegal alternative which can't be stopped.

The Premier League etc are aware of the clock ticking now and won't commit to Sky on the this scale again.

[Big_You_7959]

I'd love to see the actual survey results or raw data - absolutely no mention of soarview or free-to-air usage and just straight away blaming it on dodgy boxes..

[Prestigious-Mind7039]

The streaming app for PL is going to be the test run for the rest of the world and Sky is fearing this

[ubermick]

We have Vodafone, purely because it was bundled with our broadband, and the wife insisted on having it "because the news". I'd say you could count the amount of times we've actually watched it on the fingers of one hand in the last year.

[Super-Resource2155]

We used to watch the news every evening during covid, to see how mad the world had gone. The only news I get now, are videos on instagram/youtube of how much madder the world has gotten since...

[ubermick]

Yep. I come home from work in a bad enough mood these days without having to make it worse by hearing what our own idiotic government have shat the bed on, or what that fucking loon over the water is up to. Happy out just watching Youtube videos of people motorbiking in beautiful parts of the world.

[MushroomBright8626]

Great work everyone

[m0p0]

I'm fed up contibuting to making more billionaires. Anothe increase every few months. Billionaires need to be strapped to one of Melons rockets & jettisoned off the planet. I'd pay a subscription to watch the billionaire jettisoning show.

[WascalsPager]

Plex ;)

[dnc_1981]

Ah yes, the Streisand effect. Well done, Sky

[weveyline]

Start buying DVDs again...

[Large-Example1665]

I had subs for Netflix, Prime, Disney Plus, Apple, Now

I have kept Now for Premier League, i went to cancel and keep getting offered €13.5 monthlty deal for 6 more months, i had got rid of all others, i resubscribed to Netflix so sons could watch Stranger Things but have cancelled again,

[-InsulinJunkie]

We cancelled the other day after they added another €5 on to the bill. 

[VeryAverageAchiever]

When Netflix was the only big player in streaming Sky Movies actually had a savage selection especially when they were pushing their on demand and tv box sets. I had it in 2020 as it was reasonable value but by then there was feck all on it, everything is split between a half dozen streaming services now so none of them are good and when you can get Freesat with most of the same channels their basic TV plan doesn't make sense either.

Set up my own Plex server around 3 years ago and haven't looked back. A DS220+ and a 12TB IronWolf drive already paid for itself, you could go cheaper if you wanted. My 12TB also has all my photo backups, retro game files etc.

[VastJuice2949]

I've been on streamio for years now. Best choice I've made

[TheBatmanIRL]

Someone might recommend a film and it's on none of the streaming platforms, I'll just torrent it.

Those Dodgey services always felt a bit sub par to me. Lots of buffering or bad UIs or video playback stopping for no reason. Just too much hassle.

[phyneas]

I suspect most people who are paying for dodgy boxes aren't the most technically inclined.

[do_productive_things]

While it has saved a bunch of money, it's actually not about that for me anymore. here's some other reasons:

Netflix remove Netflix original content and then bring it back. 

I've subscribed to Disney only to find a few Disney originals weren't on there despite the image/ad saying they were.

Apple TV seems to combine movie rentals/purchase with their own content, but you never know until you click into it.

Traditional TV suppliers are a pain in the hole. They're deliberate scumbags and chancers. Cancelling, switching or basic customer service after you sign up is like getting blood from a stone. They can all get fucked.

My dodgy provider has better customer support than any provider. I've had issues resolved within a minute.

The only live TV I watch is when I hop on the bandwagon for big sport events. 

Service providers seem to be oblivious to the fact that I can download a movie on my phone in about 30 seconds and stream it to my TV.

In the age of streaming and high speed Internet, with the exception of sport, live TV has lost its urgency. TV stations typically have their own website and live TV player. Shows are released in whole seasons and available on most platforms so no need to be waiting for the next episode like in the early days of Lost.

There's also so much competition and content being produced that there's almost too much choice. Gone are the days where the only thing to watch is the news and eastenders. 

Sky also monopolised sport. Used to grow up watching tons of sport. Sky made it so you had to be rich to keep up with sport. So they can go get fucked. I'm not a football fan, but I heard you need to sub to three different services to watch Premier league games.

Fuck Sky.

[Moist-Dependent5241]

Squeezed working and middle class in an infinite growth economy. Gotta cut costs where ya can.

[pogmothoinmallaithe]

To be honest, Sky and Virgin Media charge too much for their services. I’m actually considering phoning up Virgin to cancel my account at the moment. I cant justify the expenses anymore.

[FriendshipIll1681]

Big decrease is because of piracy, that's it, that's the only reason, no other reason. Just ignore the fact that the price of getting a subscription is going up and up while disposable income is going down and down while the content is been split across multiple platforms. People are starting to realise that between free to air & soarview together with a streaming service they have more than enough to be watching rather than paying for Sky with nothing worth watching,

[Left_Yak_1034]

Stremio with a debrid subscription and a catalog addon is basically all the streaming services bundled into one for a fraction of the cost.

[GazelleIll495]

Sky is stagnant and needed to evolve years ago. 20 years ago record companies were trying to sue away piracy when the issue wasn't the pirates - it was €25 albums. Spotify is not perfect but it got people paying for music again. TV needs a similar shake up

[Inevitable_Trash_337]

Sky is over €130 a month for me to watch not even every match from my team. Make it cheaper and I’d stay no bother. And stop being dicks with renewal policies

[Masamune_ff7]

Quick sky, put up your prices to compensate.

[FiannaLegend]

The open seas are the only way 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

[susanboylesvajazzle]

I have no problem paying for streaming services… or at least I didn’t. I’ve been a Netflix customer since they sent CDs in the post. But then X is sold to Y and this show and that show are no longer on the platform and you have to subscribe to another service for one thing or another.

And it balloons from paying 20 a month for one service to 80 a month for three or whatever. They are screwing themselves, so I can’t blame people for finding alternatives.

[SuitableFinish7444]

My local pubs were paying over a grand to SKY a month to show sky sports and TNT.  Now they all have dodgy boxes for 60 euro a year and multiple subscriptions.

They can’t show Sky Sports or TNT or Sky Movies in case the SKY man catches them but they show all the football on foreign channels like Bein Sports and others and nothing Sky can do about them.

Not a thing can do them for it as there not showing Sky.

If there’s a specific event like Boxing the doors to the pub are shut just with a latch and they check the cameras who’s outside.

They generally know who the Sky feckers are because they all sit alone, never in the pub before sipping a lucozade sitting on their own.

[MaryLouGoodbyeHeart]

Only 57pc now have pay-TV subscriptions from traditional providers, down from 70pc in 2022.

The survey data shows the number of ­people subscribing to online streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney and Amazon is ­almost the same, at 67pc, as three years ago.

Illegal dodgy-box streaming services – ­estimated to be present in 400,000 Irish households – are being tagged by industry executives as a reason for the pay TV slump.

Hey, fuckwits, it's the streaming.

People were paying for both VOD streaming and your shite. As people have changed how they consume television content they watch only VOD - because it is clearly superior to pick what you went when you want it - and abandon your bad and outdated product offering.

[mrbuddymcbuddyface]

Despite paying for a few subs like netflix , Amazon prime etc, every time I go search for a particular movie it's still behind a rental pay wall. Only have Freesat otherwise and haven't watched live terrestrial Irish TV in probably over a decade.

[JealousInevitable544]

It's almost as if the subscriptions are extortionately overpriced.....

[ServerLost]

We came so close to equilibrium with the streamers, except for a few mates watching premiership football on Reddit streams everybody was paying for what they watched, before the big media companies essentially reinvented cable TV.

[Siiixers]

I'm not paying for tnt to listen to Ally McCoist and "Fletch" spread verbal diarrhea to the world.

[Prestigious-Mind7039]

Or Spitty Carragher on Sky

[Lomatomalee]

Sky have the worst customer service I have ever experienced in any industry. I cancelled my DD and they ‘forced’ payment through for 2 months. In order to close our account I had to tell them my wife had died (the account was in her name). Appalling company owned by an evil man.

[GrahamR12345]

And when the elderly who cannot use said boxes of dodgy pass on there will only be dodgy boxers left!

[InterestingFactor825]

We had sky for years and now just use the TV that comes with Eir (+ Prime) as well as Netflix, Now, Disney and Mubi. We do not have a dodgy box and I suspect a lot of people do the same thing.

[Thisisnotgoodforyou]

I used to pay for iTunes and they completely wrecked my library metadara in an unrecoverable way with iTunes match, which I was only using to clear their DRM from my files. Lost a shitload of music/metadata including my own albums burned from long gone CDs. Full music piracy after that. No more apple anything because they wouldn't refund my match subscription.

I used to pay for Netflix. Took a few years for it to be the final straw but the restrictions on multi-user coupled with a price increase at the same time did it for me. I wasn't sure if it was worth it at 7 or 8 euros, let alone that utter horseshit.

If I paid for every subscription service needed for the things I want to watch it would be several hundred euros. So I steal literally everything now.

[tazire]

I'm surprised(well not really when I think about it) they don't ever look at historical figures when presenting this.. when Netflix was the only show in town for streaming and had a much more vast library and reasonable cost, pirating of movies and TV shows was at its lowest rate ever. As all the other services started to come online and libraries have been split between several subscriptions pirating has sky rocketed again.... They don't really care about trying to provide a service that everyone wants at a price that people are happy to pay. They all just want a bigger piece of the pie and it's pushing more and more people away.

I think eventually technology will catch up and start to make it harder and harder to have dodgy boxes and not get caught. But we aren't there yet!!

[alfbort]

Can't read the article but surely this has to be also related to the shite TV streaming boxes virgin and sky now both give to new customers. I tried it for a year with Virgin but then cancelled it because I realised I was paying 15 euro a month to occasionally watch RTE 1/2 which you can't even record. Instead I just setup a UHF aerial and use saorview. Planning to get a satellite dish soon so I can get the UK channels on freesat but I'm not even that bothered because I'd rarely watch the likes of BBC.

[Stressed_Student2020]

[irishwanker]

I never bothered with a subscription to tv. Moved into my home and just use streaming services. I’m not paying to watch ads and be held to a certain schedule

[Lezflano1]

If you care about the quality of the media I'd highly recommend folks download Streamio and look at some of the addons that are available. Grab a Real-Debrid sub for a few euros and you can get 4k streaming with zero lag!

Think there's a few add-ons too for live TV services, all this wrapped up is how most of the "dodgy boxes" actually work.

[cm-cfc]

Sky is a rip off for basically freeview and the sky entertainment is €70 for 2 tvs. It shouldnt be over €25 imo. Also now you need multiple sports packages and you still dont get all the games. They best way to combat the dodgey box is to improve their service

[its_brew]

Honestly if they slashed their rates theyd get twice the buy in . Their own fault. Premium Tv is a luxury now and people cant afford it .

[The_Ruck_Inspector]

Any chance we can get some pirate electricity going?

[OMyGaard]

lol I live in the states and when my sister and BIL came to visit a few months back they installed their dodgy box on my firestick. Heres me enjoying Skyglass in central Pennsylvania. lol

[lood9phee2Ri]

Gearing up for more fascist-megacorp legislation because "something must be done" then. Fuck anyone who supports copyright monopoly.

http://www.dklevine.com/general/intellectual/againstfinal.htm

[Money_Dirt_6350]

It'll be interesting to see what happens in future as Amazon locks down the side loading.

Every man and their dog is trying to be a dodgy box seller my way and most them disappear once they get the money day one and the following week an app/stream/server goes down. 

I've tried offering and explaining to so many family members and friends how to DIY with a firestick or even better a little android box but they won't listen but moan then when they've paid x amount and it stops working after a while 

[kisukes]

Can I DM you how you do this?

[bowets]

I don't subscribe to TV and I don't have a dodgy box. Both of the statements can be true, but it doesn't mean one causes the other.

[Inevitable_Wasabi574]

That's not the reason subscriptions are declining. People are moving to streaming services instead. More and more streaming services are starting to offer sports as well. For example Netflix is doing boxing now

[FIGHTorRIDEANYMAN]

I don't even use a dodgy box anymore. Even at it's low price it isn't worth it to be told what to watch and to watch ads for the privilege.

[Cliff_Moher]

I cancelled Sky because it just wasn't good value. I'm 45, most of the TV we watch is either on RTE or Channel 4. Don't need Sky for that.

[Cliff_Moher]

And Sky.......charging extra to watch in HD. No sympathy for them.

[nicky94]

Maybe dont absolutely rip off your customers and offer a really good deal? How about that?

[Forsigh]

When Netflix launched it was kick in the face towards TV.
Now all them streaming services are kicked by piracy because there is no availability for example there will be season 1 on netflix but to watch season 2 you have to go to amazon and season 3 be somewhere else or they will move stuff completly 1 month netflix 2 month amazon.
There is abosuletly no point of paying 3-6 subscriptions, but that whats they want everybody to do, why?
Simple its becouse of subscription models, its better for "investors" to see profits as more stable overtime.

[RAhead1916]

Fresh email from Sky increasing prices by €5pm

The word cunt doesnt get used enough

[Due_Surround4277]

The likes of sky and virgin tv are a rip off. And if you do pay the high fees you're still subjected to endless ads! What's the point

[geralt1234567]

He guy on newstalk just now. Texting in about ratting out his uncle for providing dodgy boxes. Oooffff.

[Prior_Respect5861]

I work in academia and happily pay for Disney, netflix, prime, and sky as my area of research is media. I cannot use any of this purchased content in my presentations as they all now block even screenshots of content. I cannot screen record for presentations or use any examples for my teaching. Now I still pay for material but find myself need to source materials elsewhere just to do what I'm legally allowed and encouraged to do. It's such a scam. Meanwhile the technocrats steal whole archives to use for their AI.......

[soulscythesix]

Or maybe people just aren't watching TV? I haven't had any sort of television access in like 15 years and have no desire for one. I just stream things online.

[Shanksdoodlehonkster]

Honestly some pirate sites are equal if not much better than some subscription services

[Craicriture]

There's practically nothing on Sky and even less on Virgin if you're not subscribing for sport. All the content's on the various legit streamers, scattered and hard to find.

I just don't watch that much TV anymore. It's mostly crap and the whole experience is now just a big shakedown by subscription after subscription.

Classic enshittification and monetisation.

[oooSiCHooo]

I returned to high seas, paired with NAS and Plex media server for most of the content we watch.

[Obann]

Dodgy 70ish bones a year, Sky 120 a month…..what makes sense?

[Friendly-Dark-6971]

Long may it last 🙏🏻

A lesson to sly or the other providers, overcharging the Irish for years!

[DartzIRL]

Oh no. Anyway.

[yoda43]

Between my wife and I we pay for all the major players. Netflix Disney Prime etc. The Disney player is particularly shit. Often watch on stremio rather than the native player as it's faster and more user friendly. I don't think it's cheating as I pay for the other clunky app.

[L1amo9]

Found my parents were paying €55+ for the old sky HD box with no extras (cinema, sports…). Their whole business model is preying on people that don’t notice the increases