Cancelling sky subscription and keeping equipment

[Anonymous]

Hi.  We are pensioners, and we have decided to cancel our sky subscription as we really cannot afford it anymore, and don't even make good use of it.  However, we do want to be able to watch the basic free channels....bbc, itv etc.   I read somewhere that you can keep the sky equipment and still watch the free channels.....is this correct??    We've been with sky for over 10 years, so the equipment is old anyway.   Will definitely be cancelling but want to know in advance what options we have.....and whether we'll need to replace tv aerial to get freeview as we only have the sky dish now.

[caesarome · Accepted solution]

If you cancel your Sky subscription then you can keep the box as you own a Sky+ box and it will continue to receive the free channels but you will be unable to record them or watch any recordings back you might have made.

[Anonymous]

Thank you!   That's good to know 😁

[Bigdaveyt]

Would you still be able to pause and rewind live TV? I'm thinking if doing the same but love being able to pause.

[Annie+UK]

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@Bigdaveyt wrote:

Would you still be able to pause and rewind live TV? I'm thinking if doing the same but love being able to pause.

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That requires an active sky TV subscription

[manjup]

Hi

I have cancelled my Sky TV this month and have a Sky + box. I have been told i will be able to view all the Free to view channels fom sky. Do i need to do anything else i.e. any connections or will my box automatically pick them up? Sky offered me the record/pause facility for £7 pm but i declined. I have a Now TV stick and can watch everything back on catch up.

[Anonymous]

Hi. I posted the original question about cancelling sky and keeping the sky box.  It was all straight forward, we just automatically carried on receiving the free channels.  Our only problem is we want to be able to record, but being in lockdown has stopped me looking into buying the relevant equipment for that, and also not sure whether we will also need to have an aerial installed again....at the moment we only hav the satellit dish.

[manjup]

Thanks for your reply.

I think a record box would be cheaaper but its not somerhing i hv looked into. I have Netflix now aswell so am watching loads films.

Can i ask, did u leave your Sky box plugged in and everything comes up as normal? I dont want to be messing about with cables. I still have an aerial its all connected with my box thats why I dont want to mess anything up.

[robjc]

@Anonymous 

You could buy a Freesat box which will allow you to record and pause live TV.

The latest Freesat 4K boxes will work with a standard LNB such as yours or a SkyQ LNB.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/search-keywords/xx_xx_xx_xx_xx/freesat%2Bset%2Btop%2Bboxes%2Bfreesat/xx-criteria.html

Only you can decide as to whether it is worth the upfront cost or to pay Sky a monthly fee to re-enable the Sky+ functionality you had.

Also note that CH4 HD all the All4 catchup service is not currently available via Freesat.

Regards

[jim8sky]

@Anonymous 

If you live in a strong signal area  a modern indoor tv aerial should work well with out the need for an external one.

[Anonymous]

We just left if plugged in.  Gave the 30days notice for cancellation, carried on using it as normal and then when the 30days were up my husband became aware that certain channels he had occasionally watched were no longer viewable.

[manjup]

Thanks for the information.

That will be ok with me as i have catch up TV and was finding i wasnt watching any of the Sky channels im subscribing to so hopefully wont miss anything.

[Anonymous]

Hi, I've just been reading these answers because I am looking to cancel my sky subscription as well. However, I spoke to an sky advisor through chat about a week ago and he said if I cancelled I would have to return all equiption back to sky regardless of whether I am in a contract or not (my contract has now ended). I am very confused, so if I cancel will I have to return my box or not????

[Mark39]

@Anonymous @The answers here relate to Sky+ as this is the Sky+ forum. If you have Sky+ you own the equipment and it's yours to keep when you cance

If you have Sky Q, the equipment is loaned to you free of charge all the while you have a subscription but has to be returned when you cancel.

[lavish99]

I keep wanting to chat to an advisor via the text messaging service or live chat but I'm told that that isn't available yet and I have to ring which I don't want to do. Was it via the live chat that you spoke to an advisor last week? 

I normally manage to get everything sorted out quite quickly when I'm doing the text message conversation service. The only options at the moment seem to be either ring or email, and the email responses are robotlike and repetitive without reading the question being asked. I'm so frustrated I want to leave sky even though I've been with them over 20 years, but I'm worried about losing the channels I watch and not been able to record/pause. I have just bought a brand-new HD ready 4K TV and there are channels on there that I think I could still get if I cancelled, such as iPlayer, itv hub and All4.  I just don't know what to do and I'd feel happier talking everything through with an adviser on the text message service but there is no indication of when that service will be resumed. : (