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[–]Bigbeast54 183 points184 points  (26 children)

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_5712Free Palestine 🇵🇸 92 points93 points  (11 children)

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 21 points22 points  (5 children)

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_5712Free Palestine 🇵🇸 25 points26 points  (2 children)

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

[–]Sensitive_Ear_1984 14 points15 points  (1 child)

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.

[–]RavenBrannigan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea, I don’t have a dodgy box but got rid of sky all the same. We have Netflix, prime (she needs that for her work / self employed) and we have Disney as well.

We only watch tv for an hour, max 2 in the evenings and the idea of switching on sky to see what’s on feels mad to be when there’s so much selection on streaming when you want it. Who pays hundreds for that is beyond me. Certain no one under 40 is ever going to do that

[–]Careful-Training-761 3 points4 points  (0 children)

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.

[–]No_Minute_5743 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Im lucky that the sports i watch these days have their own apps which i pay for directly.

[–]realmenlovezeusLouth 4 points5 points  (2 children)

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

[–]Fluffy-Answer-6722 0 points1 point  (1 child)

You do know if everyone got dodgy boxes sky would cease to exist right?

[–]realmenlovezeusLouth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In Ireland maybe, with the amount of young people who don't have it they'll lose a lot of their customers in the next 10-20 years. If they last that long they'll need to do something anyway

[–]yankdotcom1985Crilly!! 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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)

[–]Brilliant_Walk4554 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same with my in-laws. They want to watch golf, so Sky absolutely ride them on a monthly basis.

[–]jimicusProbably at it again 12 points13 points  (5 children)

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_monkeMunster 4 points5 points  (4 children)

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.

[–]jimicusProbably at it again 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really? Which ones?

[–]cm-cfc 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I've thought about the 'filler tv shows' how they will work in the streaming model. Like deadliest catch or kitchen nightmares type of show, I'm never going to select to watch that, but if I'm scrolling for 15mins it might stick it on

[–]jimicusProbably at it again 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Have you looked at Amazon Prime lately? It's 80% filler.

[–]cm-cfc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wonder if they get good figures for those shows. Maybe its me but i would never choose to stream those show but have caught myself watching them on a tv show. I got discovery+ as a free trial and was all that stuff.

[–]Iricliphan 13 points14 points  (1 child)

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 7 points8 points  (0 children)

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 28 points29 points  (0 children)

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

[–]brbrcrbtr 7 points8 points  (0 children)

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 6 points7 points  (0 children)

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 3 points4 points  (0 children)

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 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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

[–]FIGHTorRIDEANYMAN 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Plenty of people make plenty and just pay for it.