Sky Stream - Competitive?

[MrTPN]

Hi folks! 

I am struggling with the business model of sky stream, compared to its competitors it doesnt feel like good value for money or a service worthy of your investment. The consistent 'nickle and diming' feels incredibly frustrating. 

Let me provide some examples, of 'features' that pretty much every other streaming service offers for free or as part of their standard offering:

• Whole Home Access (£12/mo)
  
  • The fact you are physcially limited per device rather than No. Streams makes no sense) 
  • Customers should be able to stream on any device, anywhere at any time and pay for extra 'seats' rather than being bound to a phyiscal device. 
• UHD and Dolby Atmos (£6/mo)
  • This is something every major provider (Netflix, Disney, etc) offers as a base offering, and even on some where they charge extra (e.g. Netflix) the content is actually available.
  • My experience of sky was that despite paying extra it was 50/50 if the content was UHD or Atmos. Infact we purchased the latest John Wick (costing more than Apple Store) and it wasnt ATMOS, but was with apple. 

These additional 'basics' already add almost £20 onto your monthly plan with Sky, which is more expensive than the top tier of a full netflix, Disney or Amazon plan - and these are just for the 'extras'.....

Am i the only one to think that sky needs to move away from this model of complexity and nicle and diming its customers and align itself with its competitors of baking these offerings in as part of a standard service.

Alterantively, if sky -is- going to charge a premium for these 'premium extras' they should be part of the content on the platform they are offering. The latest movies and shows SHOULD have UHD and Atmos - there really is no excuse for it Sky.

I have contacted sky about this, and their answer was that they are at the mercy of the contracts they have with the studios, but if this were the case i think its a little unfair to charge your customers for something to which you cannot readily provide. 

Its like being charged for an IMAX ticket and then being given a VHS tape....

One very dissapointed Sky Customer. 

[dearstar1990]

Just haggle with them. I got ad skipping and uhd free for 18 months.

[Jporch316]

@MrTPN 

- Sky store does not have any uhd content 

- not all content on Disney etc is available in uhd 

- on Netflix you need to pay extra (top tier) for uhd content 

- many of the streaming apps you mention are currently running at a loss (which is probably not sustainable long term)

- there are other benefits to sky such as live tv and a host of content not available elsewhere 

- you are getting hardware from sky, maybe a better comparison would be with another provider such as virgin media or BT as they run similar streaming platforms 

[nmbailey]

What about Ad Skipping - £6 a month for the shaky, flaky "bonus feature"  to press Fast Forward? Bad enough having ads on a subscription service but to charge for FF-ing them is just plain wrong. 

[Jason+Golding]

No one is forced to take Sky or sky stream or any sky service. If you are 'struggling' with the business model. Then dont take the service.

Lastly, the longer stream and glass are around the better the discounts will be, as with Q.

Sky Stream, I pay £20 for sports, £5 for cinema, £2.50 for Ad skipping, kids £0 , £0 for UHD, £6 for multi room and currently £13 for the main pack that includes Netflix until November. That includes Netflix, discovery plus and paramount plus's £46.50 a months. Speak to sky 

[Suskha]

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@nmbailey wrote:

What about Ad Skipping - £6 a month for the shaky, flaky "bonus feature"  to press Fast Forward? Bad enough having ads on a subscription service but to charge for FF-ing them is just plain wrong. 

---

Well, dont pay it then - simple enough ?

[Jason+Golding]

In regards to your point about every major competitor offering UHD/Dolby Atmos as standard - this isn't correct. You need to be on the premium tier of Netflix to receive this, secondly Disney are likely to be offering different tiers within the Uk soon, with i suspect Amazon prime to follow. If you look at services like HBO Max in the USA they follow exactly the same model of only offering UHD to top tier customers as do many other companies within Europe 

[nmbailey]

Sky have adopted the "Ryan Air" pricing model - strip out as much as possible (and sell them as "optional extras) to make the base price appear artificially low. It's not just with the Stream service - Sky's NOW is SD unless you pay an extra £6/m

[TimmyBGood]

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@nmbailey wrote:

Sky's NOW is SD unless you pay an extra £6/m

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https://help.nowtv.com/article/what-is-highest-streaming-quality-for-my-device 

[Gincap]

You've got to play clever with these services often you get freebies. Go to sign up but don't complete in hours or a day or two you'll get an offer to complete your service.

● NOW - Boost had free never paid and only paying £12 for movies and entertainment.

● Discovery+ - never paid it just works I think its a leftover login from my Sky days.

● Apple TV+ offers everywhere for free 6 months etc. never paid.

● Disney+ Check your Samsung Members on your phone giving 12 months free. Samsung always giving Disney away and again never paid for it.

It's horses for courses but provided you are happy to shop around it works out far cheaper to stay away from Sky, Virgin and BT.

Most major TV stations stream live and have apps so not an issue really. If you like more "obscure" channels then a provider is the way you probably need to go but be prepared to pay for entertainment packs.

As for sport not interested but this is a whole different animal for fans, I've not looked into it so...

[MrTPN]

Hi Folks - The comments i made were in aid of making Sky stream (arguybly the future of sky) the best it can be. The current model just doesnt seem to make sense to me. 

A few points folks ahve pointed out i wanted to call on:

• You have to pay extra for UHD and Atmos on Netlfix!
  • Absolutely you do, but the top tier for this is still LESS than sky charge in these nicke and diming 'extras' 
  • Secondly, the service pretty much, as per disney and apple; also offers the majority of the content in UHD and ATMOS unlike sky which feels like im rolling a dice everytime i put something on
• You dont have to pay for sky or sky stream, dont use it!
  • I think this is missing the point, this is about providing critical feedback to help the service develop and improve, i have since cancelled MY service, but i would love to use it but not at the current model.
• Most of the competition are running at a loss
  • Not exactly true, but i get the sentiment here - and to be clear i dont have an issue paying money for QUALITY content what i dont like is paying money and gambling if i get the thing i paid for (See above).
  • If you review skys Year on Year paying customers, its steadily decreasing (and a lagging indicator as many are in 12+ month contracts) so evidently the model need refining (hence the feedback). 
• The packages are similar to the USA
  • Fair enough, and honestly id prefer that - do away with all these annoying 'bolt-ons' and just create a competitive bundle and stuff that should be standard service, make standard. The question here is does Sky want to 'match' their competition or leapfrog the competiion and differentiate itself? 
  • Again though, the majority of content on other platforms is UHD and Atmos - with sky its a gamble, and made more confusing by if you buy a movie for example (Which is more expensive than say apple, and doesnt offer the same as apple of UHD and Atmos).
• Whole Home
  • Your Sky package should include one STREAM / Viewer as standard and be viewable on any device, not locked to a specific device and then forced to pay £12/mo just so you can watch it in the lounge instead of your bedroom. 

Again i dont have an issue paying money for quality content, what i dont think is fair is to charge customers all these confusing addons that dont actually deliver the thing they state they should (Ad Skipping, Whole Home Access, UHD, Atmos).

If you look on any major review platform (Trustpilot, Reviews.io, etc) customers are all leaving hefty negative EXPERIENCE reviews of the platform. with nothing exc

So rather than trying to justify why something should remain the way it is, i think providing critical and constructive feedback should enable Sky Stream to be the new industry standard, right now its not and feels a long way from it. This space is primed for disruption and i would love Sky to be the ones that do it, and do it right. 

Sticking to their old business model and shoe-horning it into a streaming product, wont cut it and i gurantee the younger generations (the next target customer for sky) simply wont entertain it either. 

[Mark39]

There's nothing wrong, of course, with constructive criticism, but I would suggest that Sky knows best what works for them.

If a product doesn't meet the sales targets Sky undoubtedly set, I'm quite sure they won't hesitate to do something about it. 

[MrTPN]

Well that was kind of my point, its already been widely reported that their Sky Glass sales were, to quote their last financial report 'underwhelming'

So this new business model is not returning what they expected, so now is a great time to provide critique and feedback to help them improve the offering. 

The customer 'experience' is the most vital thing that will seperate sky amongst their competitors, and right now its not looking so hot for them when you look at the data. A small few tweaks could turn things around for them. 

[best+of+the+best]

---

@MrTPN wrote:

Hi Folks - The comments i made were in aid of making Sky stream (arguybly the future of sky) the best it can be. The current model just doesnt seem to make sense to me. 

A few points folks ahve pointed out i wanted to call on:

• You have to pay extra for UHD and Atmos on Netlfix!
  • Absolutely you do, but the top tier for this is still LESS than sky charge in these nicke and diming 'extras' 
  • Secondly, the service pretty much, as per disney and apple; also offers the majority of the content in UHD and ATMOS unlike sky which feels like im rolling a dice everytime i put something on
• You dont have to pay for sky or sky stream, dont use it!
  • I think this is missing the point, this is about providing critical feedback to help the service develop and improve, i have since cancelled MY service, but i would love to use it but not at the current model.
• Most of the competition are running at a loss
  • Not exactly true, but i get the sentiment here - and to be clear i dont have an issue paying money for QUALITY content what i dont like is paying money and gambling if i get the thing i paid for (See above).
  • If you review skys Year on Year paying customers, its steadily decreasing (and a lagging indicator as many are in 12+ month contracts) so evidently the model need refining (hence the feedback). 
• The packages are similar to the USA
  • Fair enough, and honestly id prefer that - do away with all these annoying 'bolt-ons' and just create a competitive bundle and stuff that should be standard service, make standard. The question here is does Sky want to 'match' their competition or leapfrog the competiion and differentiate itself? 
  • Again though, the majority of content on other platforms is UHD and Atmos - with sky its a gamble, and made more confusing by if you buy a movie for example (Which is more expensive than say apple, and doesnt offer the same as apple of UHD and Atmos).
• Whole Home
  • Your Sky package should include one STREAM / Viewer as standard and be viewable on any device, not locked to a specific device and then forced to pay £12/mo just so you can watch it in the lounge instead of your bedroom. 

Again i dont have an issue paying money for quality content, what i dont think is fair is to charge customers all these confusing addons that dont actually deliver the thing they state they should (Ad Skipping, Whole Home Access, UHD, Atmos).

If you look on any major review platform (Trustpilot, Reviews.io, etc) customers are all leaving hefty negative EXPERIENCE reviews of the platform. with nothing exc

So rather than trying to justify why something should remain the way it is, i think providing critical and constructive feedback should enable Sky Stream to be the new industry standard, right now its not and feels a long way from it. This space is primed for disruption and i would love Sky to be the ones that do it, and do it right. 

Sticking to their old business model and shoe-horning it into a streaming product, wont cut it and i gurantee the younger generations (the next target customer for sky) simply wont entertain it either. 

---

@MrTPN the UHD and Dolby Atmos Pack is for Sky Content 

All depends if you have more than one UHD tv 

Sky Q mini connected to a 65 inch 4K OLED tv no UHD content available 

Sky Q mini connected to a 43 inch 4K UHD tv no UHD content available 

Now if I added Sky Stream and I purchased Whole Home and an extra Sky Stream Puck  I'd get UHD content on both tv's provided I've a decent Internet Speed and added the UHD and Dolby Atmos Pack but that's only for Sky Content 

Extra tv in Man Cave for PS5 for watching Sky TV subscription via Sky Go

Extra tv in Games room for XBOX S for watching Sky TV subscription via Sky Go

So really not locked into a specific device

Also AppleTV and Sky Go having Sky multiroom or whole home allows you to watchtour Sky TV Subscription on other devices not just sky Stream

https://www.sky.com/tv/stream

Here's the legal bit

Ultra HD and Dolby Atmos Pack required to watch Sky content in UHD/HDR and with Dolby Atmos – minimum broadband speed of 30mbps recommended. £6pm extra. Not all content available in UHD and/or HDR. Content must be optimised to watch in Dolby Atmos.

Whole Home required to watch Sky TV on multiple compatible devices - minimum broadband speed of 30mbps recommended for Whole Home plus one Sky Stream Puck. £12pm extra. Additional 5mbps recommended for each Puck added. Sky Stream Puck (£50 with £39.95 set up fee) required to watch on another TV with compatible HDMI port. Watch on other compatible devices via Sky Go.

[WelshPaul]

I ditched Sky stream and purchased a Apple TV 4K box. I paid a one off fee of £4 for the TV launcher app. This not only gives me a 7 day TV guide, it takes me straight to the live feeds.

I currently pay the following subscriptions:
Sky Cinema - £4.99

Sky Sports - £14.99

Entertainment (inc kids) - £2.99

Boost (HD, Multiroom and add free) £1

Discovery Plus - £3.33

Netflix Basic - £4.99

No long term commitments, I can bail at any time. Total monthly cost is £32.29. I have zero issues, it just works!