Sky Broadband

Well I gave up Sky and my TV license around a year ago as it was costing too much, however, SKy plan to offer free broadband which combined with some kinda cheap SKY phone may well temp me back:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5190710.stm

I use Orange (was wanadoo) with the free wireless router (I could buy another one so no big deal) but they also offer cheap Internet to landline calls via the router. Admittedly I prefer Skype which is totally free to other skype users.

Some guy BBC news (i think) said that he doubted Sky Broadband would have good customer service.

The thing that shocks me the most is that you don't watch TV!

.

unless you make the TV

.

yeah it was a big waste of my time, and for the money I wasn't getting good value. I spend more time on the PC now getting stuff done or just researching game development e.g. reading blogs, forums, playing games etc. If I watch anything now it's Kung Fu DVDs I've got cheap off ebay or a movie with Helen that we've hired. Also the kids get obsessed with TV and won't switch it off for dinner/bed/going out etc, it's bad.

I miss it occasionally as I had Sky Plus which I set to record my favourite stuff but I'm not paying £40 per month i.e. £10 per week for SKY + TV licence. What galls me is having to pay a TV licence for only 2 channels and without the license you are not allowed to have SKY.

We don't pay for TV in Australia, thats what the adverts are for...

I did read somewhere that under UK law you can't pay for a subscription to a service and pay a license fee for the same thing.

Don't know how accurate this was but the chap seemed intent on taking it to the courts.

Guess it didn't get very far as I haven't heard anything about it.

The sooner they abolish the TV license the better.

Did read of someone who had satellite and a monitor (without a demodulator) as the license states its for the ability to recive terrestial signals (hence you have to pay if you just have VCR)

But, they touted the case that satellite channels often replay old BBC programs and so you still had to pay.

Which I would of thought changed the purpose of a license.

They make the rules up to suit themselves I guess, so you're over a barrel here in the UK.

yep Sky has the BBC channels and radio on it so you are stuffed. It's pretty unfair. I wish SKY paid a bit of it's revenue towards the license or something.

Well i think your right, you should perhaps be able to opt out
of paying for bbc channels - and perhaps you will be able to
when everything goes digital.
The BBC do produce some good programs, and are less prone to
the pressures placed on channels that use adverts as theyre
main source of revenue - the BBC are more likely to report
damning information on big business, after all they dont
need theyre money...i think this is important.

heh..anyway - yeh - SKyBroadBand..cool now i can have more adverts :] :p ;)

I dissagree with scraping the license.
Whilst I hate paying for them, I think four TV channals that are not driven by the need to make money is a good thing.

I would pay double the licence fee if required if it meant that we could still enjoy TV with no ads on at least a few channels.
I love watching things like football on the BBC - there are no ad breaks at all even during half time.
Well worth the money to have a little oasis free from the commercial hysteria and never-ending ad breaks of the rest of the channels.
Sky are greedy barstewards - they charge a massive subscription and then fill 50% of their airtime with advertisements. Shouldn't be allowed - a TV channel should either be funded by advertising or by subscription - but not both. Why should we pay to view advertising ?

The good thing about Sky Plus is you can forward wind the ads at 32x speed.

@Smiff

Totaly.

I dont think any channel with adverts should be allowed to broadcast the cricket. OR, (AND THIS IS STUPID) formular one. What is the point of waiting 15 laps to watch a cunning overtaking move, if the adverts come on, and you miss it.

And how much better is Star trek without adverts. Mind you 24 is stupid without ads. (cos its not 24 then, even on dvd, its sort of 20 in the first serieses, and 18 in the latter ones) It ruins all the timeing, when he says, "I'll be there in two minutes", and then without adds hes there in like 2 seconds.

lol @ 24. Yeah Star Trek is way better without the ads. On BBC2 (no ads) you could see these funny fades every 10-15 mins an knew there was an advert there in the US.

Leagaly the whole thing is a mess. You have to pay a licence if you have equipment capable of receving BBC. Yet with the BBC going dititial, and scrapping "Normal" broadcast. (in 2008 round here), this means that broadband is now "Capable" of reseving the BBC. So does this mean that in a couple of years, even not having a TV wont be an excuse not to have a licence, if you have a connected computer?

Thats the way it has been in switzerland for quite some time now ... you have to pay radio license if you have something that is capable (PC with broadband), you have to pay tv license if you have something that is capable (pC with broadband)

Funny is if you ask them how they define capable and how to make it uncapable, they answer you, that the technical/software stuff isn't their job?

And beside that you have to pay cable or whatever you use to get TV addinionally, because the license is only to feed the "official TV", none of the others nor does it guarantee that you even can get it.
Worse is it if you want digital, as digital TV is an extra service that you have to pay another time for.

So to see the official TV on digital you pay 3 times: license, regular fee for TV cable connection, digital service fee ... amkes altogether somewhere around 50-60$ per months and that for crap like football ;-)

I'll rebell if they try to make me pay a license just for having a PC. Who says I'll even watch the crap!

You sound just like those rebels in the colonies

Grey, although I had to explain myself, when I first got my flat I had no TV (still wish I hadn't). I had to explain that I had no receiver and after a few arguments they verified i had no need for a license.


..Then I bought a TV, and then I had to pay for a pissing license.

I don't even watch the thing.

Cyg: If it's just for consoles, chop the arial off at the wall and cancel your license and if they ever come round (they won't) say "go on prove it".