Leaving Sky, what are my options late 2024

[thash1zn1t]

I currently have Sky Q and was an early adopter.  I pay for the following products. 

Sky Entertainment - £36.50

Sky Q Multiscreen Pack - £15.00

Sky HD - £9.00

3 x Sky Q Mini boxes connected via ethernet 😉 - £0.00

Total £60.50

I have BT Broadband.

I am not currently in contract with Sky so can cancel anytime without penalty (well that is my understanding)

I would like to investigate the possibility of reducing my payment to sky or cancelling completely if possible but retain the following features.

I want to be able to watch and record all the freeview SD and HD channels currenly provided by my Sky Q subscription in any room and i dont want to sign up to Sky Broadband.  From what i have read about Sky Essentials nobody seems to be able to confirm if the same HD channels are available on Essentials as i have now on Sky Q with Entertainment package and am i able to record all those HD channels and watch them on any of the Sky Q mini's? 

If this is possible how much is this a month and is it a rolling contract?  Some say its £5 some say it's £15 and no review as yet in 2024 on somebody actually taking this offer up.  

[Chodley]

Call Sky but I am pretty sure HD works the same on essentials (for all the channels it includes) and multiroom is available at £15. It wasn't originally

Thanks for sharing the approximate date in the title, I'm never sure 😁

[nigea99]

hi @thash1zn1t 

---

@thash1zn1t wrote:

I currently have Sky Q and was an early adopter.  I pay for the following products. 

Sky Entertainment - £36.50

Sky Q Multiscreen Pack - £15.00

Sky HD - £9.00

3 x Sky Q Mini boxes connected via ethernet 😉 - £0.00

Total £60.50

I have BT Broadband.

I am not currently in contract with Sky so can cancel anytime without penalty (well that is my understanding)

I would like to investigate the possibility of reducing my payment to sky or cancelling completely if possible but retain the following features.

I want to be able to watch and record all the freeview SD and HD channels currenly provided by my Sky Q subscription in any room and i dont want to sign up to Sky Broadband.  From what i have read about Sky Essentials nobody seems to be able to confirm if the same HD channels are available on Essentials as i have now on Sky Q with Entertainment package and am i able to record all those HD channels and watch them on any of the Sky Q mini's? 

If this is possible how much is this a month and is it a rolling contract?  Some say its £5 some say it's £15 and no review as yet in 2024 on somebody actually taking this offer up.  

---

hi @thash1zn1t 

I am not too sure if  HD add on is available with essentials (although I could be wrong) Several of the FTA channels are available in HD without it (e.g. BBC, ITV, Channel 4 & C5)

There are some quirks C5 & I think channel 4 can watched & recorded in HD but not downloaded in HD from catch up

Some channels are FTA in SD but not in HD e.g. U&W , U&Dave and U&Yesterday

Freesat list of channels may help - look out for which have HD icons or not

https://www.freesat.co.uk/channels

As @Chodley says Multiroom was not previously available but we think they have now allowed this

Many people save in the long run but cancelling completely and buying a Freesat 4K box with recording capability but I don't think this would provide you with the ability to watch in any room 

[thash1zn1t]

Many thanks for the responses.  It looks like it may be an option if i can take it without Sky Broadband.  As y ou say Freesat would be a good option if there was a multi room option.  Just noticed EE TV hav an offering which allows recording and has "mini boxes" but you do have to have BT Broadband which ties you in but i have that at the minute so could be another option.  I think i will investigate that and ring Sky to confirm the exact HD channel lineup for Essentials.  THanks again for responding.

[nigea99]

---

@thash1zn1t wrote:

Many thanks for the responses.  It looks like it may be an option if i can take it without Sky Broadband.  As y ou say Freesat would be a good option if there was a multi room option.  Just noticed EE TV hav an offering which allows recording and has "mini boxes" but you do have to have BT Broadband which ties you in but i have that at the minute so could be another option.  I think i will investigate that and ring Sky to confirm the exact HD channel lineup for Essentials.  THanks again for responding.

---

you can drop to essentials without having SKY broadband

Personally, I would be wary of asking SKY Call centre staff for confirmation of which HD channels are included or not  without the HD add on as I am not sure they have that info and may get it wrong  if they give details (dare I say , be tempted to make it up) - I think the link I gave is a better source 

[lettice]

The current list of free to air channels available on Sky Q is in link below.

This wiki is kept up to date regularly.

List of channels on Sky Q (United Kingdom & Ireland) – TVCL – TV Channel Lists

[thash1zn1t]

Many thanks for the confirmation regarding requiring Sky broadband.  That would have been a deal breaker.  Also thanks for the heads up on calling Sky.  Thinking back you are right they will say anything to get you to sign up and dont actually have that information to be able to confirm either way!  Its channels like ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 in HD that i think are in doubt due to licensing or FTA agreement with Sky.  I was hoping to find somebody who had moved to Sky Essentials with Multi room on youtube who could confirm for real as there would be no turning back i assume once you have committed.. 

[thash1zn1t]

Many thanks for the link but it is coming up empty when i click on it.

[lettice]

---

@thash1zn1t wrote:

Many thanks for the link but it is coming up empty when i click on it.

---

Try again.

My previous one seemed to have added a character at the end. 

List of channels on Sky Q (United Kingdom & Ireland) – TVCL – TV Channel Lists

[thash1zn1t]

That is fantastic, many thanks.  Exactly the list i was looking for.

[TimmyBGood]

---

@thash1zn1t wrote:

  Some say its £5 some say it's £15 

---

Because both of those have been offered historically: the lower figure was reported more frequently during the pandemic as Sky sought to retain some contact with users who would otherwise have cancelled entirely.

[thash1zn1t]

Thankyou, that makes sense.  I have always thought that the Sky offering was excellent just overpriced.  Even when we were one of the first to get Sky Q and we were basically guinea pigs helping them bug fix their mesh technology.  Once we got it onto ethernet it was a fantastic service.  

It will be interesting to see how freely pans out.  I totally get why content providers want to go streaming from a cost perspective but handing off to the individual channel catchup services is still messy and not the slick experience we all want and need.  Is it to much to ask for a central recording capability and multi room?

[PandJ2020]

---

@thash1zn1t wrote:

Is it to much to ask for a central recording capability and multi room?

---

'Recording' will become a thing of the past.

Q still does this extremely well though (if you have a stable multiroom setup) - there aren't really any viable alternatives that record and act as a slave to remote locations.  But eventually, you'll just stream direct to the device and no need to host locally.

[TimmyBGood]

@thash1zn1t 

As @PandJ2020 indicates, 'recording' is/was a historical anomaly which the rights owners and distribution platforms will be glad to see the back of: they'd much rather have us locked into perpetual subscriptions to maintain content access.

[thash1zn1t]

Yeah i get it about the recording but as you say nobody does that recording, multiroom thing as well as Sky Q and that is the real issue here for my Mrs at least lol.  I am already consuming content on any device and only paying when i want to watch something which is great.  I just wish i could get her indoors onboard with it.  You cant beat Sky Q for fast forwarding adverts and the slick interface which she will miss if we are forced to do use something else...