Sky WILL lose customers in this rip-off! (Sky Box Office)

Member Name: Nirm

Product:	Sky Box Office
Date:	17/11/02 (3606 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Don't need to go to video shop

Disadvantages: Prohibitive cost, Can't tape (copy protected)

I have been a subscriber to SKY TV for over 10 years, in the main to watch movies (and don't watch sport), however in the past 18 months or so, due to the nature of my work, I barely have had time to catch one on their regular "SKY Movie World" package costing £32 per month. As a result I started scaling back on subscription costs to their basic "SKY Entertainment Package, Value Pack" and decided to watch movies, as and when, via SKY Box Office, paying per movie.

The only way to have access to Box Office is to be a SKY subscriber, hence when I scaled back to their Value Pack late last year @ £5.00 per month, I found this to be acceptable, paying for each movie I watched (perhaps 1 to 3 a month) and certainly better than driving 10 miles each way to my nearest BlockBuster shop. Earlier this year, SKY doubled this package price to £10.00 per month (which made me choke then) and a few days ago I received notification that the same package would now cost £12.50 as of January next year!

This means in order to have the priviledge of watching just one SKY Box Office film per month, I am paying £16.00 (£12.50 + £3.50 per movie). I feel that this is a total "rip-off" as for the price the only real subscription channel you receive is SKY 1 (which I do not watch), especially as virtually all the the channels offered in this package are now offered "free" via Freeview (see http://www1.sky.com/skydigital_packages/; all these prices are current prior to January 2003 increases).

After 10 years, I am seriously considering terminating my contract, who say I now own the equipment, and can watch all the Freeview channels at no extra cost, however, interestingly not ITV2 (which is free!) which must be paid for via their Family Pack, which costs an additional £6.00 per month over the Value Pack - have they got a screw loose?!

With Freeview around, their package costs are seriously out of alignment, howev
er, more importantly, I feel that I should not have to pay such a high basic subscription fee in order to watch a Box Office movie. I hear lots of moans from my colleagues and neighbours regarding the cost of SKY, however they do nothing about it (like many companies, SKY rely on this apathy),and living in a village with no access to cable (NTL let you customise their offerings and can offer better value if you get your choices right!), I feel that SKY are really creaming their profits from here.

Don't get me wrong, the Box Office facility is very good and works well (especially using the Electronic Programme Guide - EPG), however, SKY have fallen behind in developments like renting DVDs/ Videos via the Internet and post and being able to keep them for a week, and all without subscription. SKY need to be fairer.

I have written lengthier opinions, however, the sheer cheek of the matter does not warrant anything longer...

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