topic HD charges for Sky Q subscription why in Sky Q

HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

T2K — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 12:18:36 GMT

I am a long term subscriber to Sky and have a Sky Q box but my bill has all these added extras for HD Sprts HD £4 Sky HD £9 Ultra HD £4

I find it unfair that we have to pay for HD when this is the now the normal broadcasting format. The BBC do not even broadcast in SD on Sky. All the filming is done in HD or probably better. New customers do not get this charged so why do I.

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

xenon81 — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 12:25:16 GMT

Sky seem to have been wrongly telling some customers that they need to pay the HD fee to continue to receive the BBC but this is incorrect. You don't need to pay the HD charge for HD versions of BBC (or ITV, Channel 4* and Channel 5).

* E4, More4 and Film4 are not included - the HD charge still applies for those

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

T2K — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 12:51:05 GMT

But why do they charge extra for HD. Does it cost them more for me to recieve this format. It should be all included in Sky TV package as the normal broadcast format. They dont use seperate cameras for SD. It is just another way existing subscribers subsidise new subscribers

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

Laing1 — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 13:32:18 GMT

@T2K wrote:

But why do they charge extra for HD. Does it cost them more for me to recieve this format. It should be all included in Sky TV package as the normal broadcast format. They dont use seperate cameras for SD. It is just another way existing subscribers subsidise new subscribers

@T2K It actually does cost Sky more to broadcast in HD as it costs more for the extra bandwith of the satellite than it does in SD and even more for UHD

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

TimmyBGood — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 13:51:41 GMT

@T2K wrote:

Does it cost them more for me to recieve this format.

Yes: that's inherent to the nature of satellite transmission, where channels pay for data volume transiting the ground stations and orbital platforms (which are not owned or run by Sky)

This is a significant factor behind the BBC and ITV decisions to stop duplicating broadcast in SD too, as they need to save money in a time of declining public funding and advertising revenue.

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

T2K — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 14:03:52 GMT

@Laing1 That is interesting so why dont they stop SD like the BBC. Do you feel £15 is a fair charge for HD.

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

PandJ2020 — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 15:04:42 GMT

@T2K wrote:
Do you feel £15 is a fair charge for HD.

The undiscounted list price is £9...

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

MightyQuinn — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 15:12:30 GMT

Hi @T2K

You are paying way too much. You need to call Sky and negotiate same discounts. For example I pay £5 for Sky HD and £2 for Ultra HD. Note you can ignore the Sky Sports HD, which is a legacy bill breakdown and is compulsory as you cannot get Sky Sports in SD only.. Another example, I pay £21 for Sky Sports Complete, which is shown on my bill as Sky Sports Complete £19 + Sky Sports HD £2 = £21.

They cannot stop transmitting SD, even in 2024, as there are many subscribers that don't have HD TVs. Also, they would lose the income from hosting SD channels (something like 66% of their EPG).

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

T2K — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 16:15:09 GMT

On My Bill before discounts Sky HD is £9 and Sky Sports HD is £6 and both listed separately. I did negotiate discounts in Sept

My Bill is as follows for Jan to Feb

Sky Signature £23.00

Sky HD £9.00

Ultimate TV Add on £7.00

Sky Sports - Complete Pack £20.74

Sky Sports HD £2.00

Multiscreen £15.00

Ultra HD £3.00

See It First £0.00

Broadband 35Mb £26.50

Total £106.84

The problem with Sky discounts is they have to be asked for and customers will end up paying at different rates so you are never sure you are getting a good deal.

So is this a good deal?

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

GJ84B — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:16:02 GMT

But they'r ebraodcasting it anyway. They're not gonna stop broadcasting HD and save money if 1 or many people cancel the HD subscription!

I think it' a bit of a joke that they add this onto the normal subscription, surely 90% of people have HD tvs now. Fair enough charge for for UHD (although things that are UHD only don't work on our extra box though as the TV isn't 4K, which is another joke)

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

GJ84B — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:18:38 GMT

It's ok, but after the last price rise i rang up to threaten to cancel to get a discount and have HD for £7, multiscreen for £5 and UHD for £2, so you could probably call them and make a bit of a saving (although i think i was past the initial 18 month contract so that might have helped)

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

TimmyBGood — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:38:51 GMT

@GJ84B wrote:

I think it' a bit of a joke that they add this onto the normal subscription, surely 90% of people have HD tvs now.

A rough calculation suggests the HD supplement brings in at least £750,000,000 a year for Sky: to bundle that into the baseline subscription would have a real impact on subscribers who currently choose not to pay it.

All the HD television sets are upscaling broadcast SD to HD anyway, and apparently that's fine for millions of households.

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:58:09 GMT

@T2K wrote:
On My Bill before discounts Sky HD is £9 and Sky Sports HD is £6 and both listed separately. I did negotiate discounts in Sept

My Bill is as follows for Jan to Feb

Sky Signature £23.00

Sky HD £9.00

Ultimate TV Add on £7.00

Sky Sports - Complete Pack £20.74

Sky Sports HD £2.00

Multiscreen £15.00

Ultra HD £3.00

See It First £0.00

Broadband 35Mb £26.50

Total £106.84
The problem with Sky discounts is they have to be asked for and customers will end up paying at different rates so you are never sure you are getting a good deal.
So is this a good deal?

It's not particuarly good I'm afraid, if you check your future bills you're likely to see another £5.50 I think added to that.

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

PandJ2020 — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 09:19:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@T2K wrote:

It's not particuarly good I'm afraid, if you check your future bills you're likely to see another £5.50 I think added to that.

Anecdotally it's not 'bad' either given the recent reports on available discounts. (Realistically you'd struggle to get it near 20% cheaper)

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

GJ84B — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 09:49:52 GMT

I'm not suggesting they bundle it in and charge everyone more, it should just be standard or cheaper at least and they don't necessarily need £750m a year extra do they?!

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 10:07:11 GMT

@PandJ2020 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@T2K wrote:

It's not particuarly good I'm afraid, if you check your future bills you're likely to see another £5.50 I think added to that.

Anecdotally it's not 'bad' either given the recent reports on available discounts. (Realistically you'd struggle to get it near 20% cheaper)

I'm speaking to them right now so I'm not going to disagree with you 😞

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

MarkW4 — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 19:29:18 GMT

I understand sky are a company and need to make a profit BUT charging £9 for HD is a complete rip off! The cost of transmitting in hd per subscriber must be pennies??

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

Skyuser1981 — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 22:45:01 GMT

seems like sky is moving towards only high definition and yet are still charging a huge amount for the privilege of something that as you say should be the standard

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

Skyuser1981 — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 22:57:00 GMT

I'm beginning to think they're gonna charge for HD forever

Re: HD charges for Sky Q subscription why

TimmyBGood — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 23:03:26 GMT

@Skyuser1981 wrote:

I'm beginning to think they're gonna charge for HD forever

Until the end of life of the satellite platforms*, quite possibly.

There's no separate charge on Glass & Stream.

* which may well be 2029