Sky TV
Sky’s digital satellite TV service is the UK’s number one premium digital TV provider. Approximately 9 million households subscribe to Sky TV. Below is information about the Pros and Cons of choosing Sky, the equipment you need, the best deals and much more.
Most popular Sky TV packages
| Sky’s best value TV, Broadband and Phone packages | ||
| Sky 3 for £16.50 | Sky 3 for £26.50 | Sky 3 for £55.75 |
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£50 Tesco gift voucher when you order online |
£50 Tesco gift voucher when you order online |
Sky TV at a glance
Sky’s satellite TV service offers the biggest range of channels in the UK. Sky now also offer an excellent broadband and telephone service that you can bundle with your digital TV service to save money on your bills.
Pros
- Sky TV has the biggest range of TV channels in the UK including Sky One, Sky Sports and hundreds of special interest channels.
- Sky TV let you customise your TV package to include as many or as few channel mixes as you require, with the option to add premium channels such as Sky Sports and Sky Movies.
- Sky TV offers a range of HD (High Definition) television channels for Sport and Movies, with new channels launching all the time.
- Sky offer free broadband and telephone packages with your TV service to save you money.
Cons
- To get Sky TV you need to put a satellite dish on your house. You may not be able to do this if you live in a flat or if there are planning restrictions in your area.
- Sky’s broadband service isn’t as fast as Virgin Media’s fibre-optic cable network.
- At present Sky does not offer a video on demand service or BBC iPlayer, unlike Virgin Media TV
Who should get this?
- Great for TV addicts – Sky has something for everyone, and you can add on Sky Sports and Sky Movies
- The See, Surf, Speak packages are great for households who use broadband and their home phone, and who want to save money.
Sky TV Prices
Sky TV packages start at £16.50 per month for the basic TV service and free broadband. with one off set up costs starting at £30, depending on the package you choose. You normally get a discount or credit for applying online - e.g. a £25 Tesco gift voucher or £50 credit on your bill.
What is Sky TV?
With 9 million TV customers Sky is the leading subscription based digital TV provider in the UK, and offers everything from the most popular TV shows, latest movies and of course, Sky Sports. Sky offers the widest choice of channels, which it has structured into ‘entertainment mixes’, allowing you to choose up to 6. Sky has some of the best technology on the market, like the very popular Sky+ box, which allows you to pause, rewind and record live TV; and High Definition TV (HDTV) which you can access via the new Sky HD Box which gives you amazingly clear, high resolution pictures and super sound quality if you have an HD ready television set. Sky now offers Sky Broadband and the Sky Talk phone service alongside their TV packages, which customers can take as part of their See Speak Surf package .
Can I get Sky TV?
Sky TV is available to 98% of the UK so pretty much everyone should be able to get it. You will need to erect or have access to a satellite dish in order to receive Sky TV.
What channels do you get with Sky TV?
Sky TV offers the widest range of channels, and the way it has structured its channels into ‘Entertainment Mixes’ means you can pick and choose as many or as few mixes that you want to watch. Buying just one mix costs £16 per month and each additional mix costs £1 on top of this. The mixes are:
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- Sky TV Variety Mix: This gives you over 30 channels, including Sky One, Dave and Paramount Comedy; offering the best drama, sci-fi and films.
- Sky TV Kids Mix: 15 child friendly channels with educational and entertaining programmes for kids of all ages. Includes Boomerang, Nickelodeon and Disney channel.
- Sky TV Music Mix: There is something to suit everyone music wise with this mix. MTV, VH1 and The Box are just a few of the TV channels included.
- Sky TV Knowledge Mix: Want to know more about Earth, people or history? This mix has it all, with channels such as Discovery, Animal Planet and National Geographic.
- Sky TV Style and Culture Mix: This mix includes everything relating to lifestyle in this mix of channels, from food to fashion, travel and the arts.
- Sky TV News and Events Mix: Keep up to date with the latest breaking news, sports and weather reports with 24 hour coverage.
Sky also has two premium mixes which they are famous for – Sky Sports and Sky Movies. The price of these depends on how many of the standard Entertainment mixes you have chosen.
Sky Sports Mix: Made for sports fanatics. Catch live coverage of some of the best and biggest sporting events around the world. Sky Sports 1, 2 and 3 and Sky Sports Xtra give you over 100 sports.
Sky Movies Mix: Perfect for film buffs. 10 movie channels, each dedicated to a specific movie genre, in total showing 850 different films per month, with no adverts!
No matter which mixes you choose to get, Sky will also give you access to 120 free TV channels, including E4, Film4, BBC Three, Five Life, and 80 radio channels too. You can also access a range of interactive services at the press of the red button to see extra news stories, check sports results, travel information and weather forecasts, or play games. Visit Sky TV’s site to choose your mixes and check the latest prices and deals Already have Sky TV and want to change your package? Visit Sky’s site and update your choice.
What equipment will I need to receive Sky TV?
To receive Sky TV, you will need a phone line and a TV set. As part of the set up, Sky will provide and install everything else you need – the Sky technician will install a minidish (satellite dish) and set up your chosen Sky set-top box.
What equipment is available for Sky TV?
Sky offers a range of equipment so you can customise your package to suit your needs.
- Standard Sky Box: Sky’s entry level set top box gives you basic access to Sky TV. It has parental control, and access to interactive services through Sky Active.
- Sky+ Box: This iconic gadget set new standards for the set top box. It allows you to pause and rewind live TV, and record one programme while watching another. It’s easy to record a whole series at the touch of a button, and you can even set a recording via your mobile phone. As the Sky+ Box has a built-in PVR (Personal Video Recorder) you can record up to 40 hours of TV shows onto the hard drive so there is no need to mess about with DVDs and video tapes.
- Sky HD Box: Sky’s HD box has the same functionality as the Sky+ Box but with the addition of HD TV, so you can enjoy television as you have never seen it, with vibrant colour, amazing clarity and deep detail, as long as you have a HD Ready TV.
- Sky Multiroom: This allows you to watch different Sky channels in different rooms of your home, so stops the arguments about who wants to watch what. It mirrors you choice of mixes and only costs an extra £10 a month per box installed.
Visit Sky’s site to choose your equipment
Already have Sky and want to upgrade your equipment? Visit Sky’s site and update your choice.
What else can you get with Sky Digital?
Sky now offer you the chance to get your Broadband and Home Phone from them too, saving you money.
Sky Broadband
Available to all Sky customers, new and old, as long as you live in an area where it is available. All Sky broadband packages come with a free wireless router and McAfee Internet Security. Sky offer three different broadband speeds:
- Sky Broadband Base: this is available for free with Sky TV when you also sign up to Sky Talk and gives 2Mb speed with a 2GB monthly download limit. It’s fine for you if you use the internet just to browse and email.
- Sky Broadband Mid: gives up to 8Mb speed with a 40GB monthly download limit, which is great for fast everyday browsing and downloading photos and music. It only costs £5 per month on top of your TV subscription.
- Sky Broadband Max: an amazing speed of up to 16Mb with unlimited download (to a point of course), perfect for the whole family to use multiple PCs and download movies and music. Only £10 per month on top of your TV subscription.
Read more about Sky Broadband at Sky.com
Sky Talk
There are two great call plans available to Sky customers:
- Freetime: Free evening and weekend calls to UK landlines for free!
- Unlimited: For £5 per month you can get unlimited anytime calls to UK landlines and 20 international destinations.
If you get TV, a call plan and broadband from Sky they call this their See, Surf, Speak packages. You can pick any combination of the three to get the Sky package that best suits your needs.
Read more about Sky Talk at Sky.com
Know you want Sky TV? Visit Sky’s site to choose and customise your See Speak Surf package
Already have Sky and want to upgrade to See Speak Surf? Visit Sky’s site and upgrade your package to get broadband and phone.
How much will Sky TV cost?
Sky’s monthly subscription depends on how many mixes you want, and whether you take Sky Sports or Sky Movies. Buying just one mix costs £16.50 per month and each additional mix costs £1 on top of this. If you want Sky Sports
Sky TV Bundle Calculator
and/or Sky Movies, the monthly subscription depends on how many entertainment mixes you take, the more you have the cheaper the subscription to Sky Sports and/or Sky Movies becomes.
Sky have a handy tool on their site for calculating the cost of any combination of their TV, Broadband and Phone services (see image to right).
Sky TV packages start at £16.50 per month for the basic TV service and free broadband. with one off set up costs starting at £30, depending on the package you choose. You normally get a discount or credit for applying online - e.g. a £25 Tesco gift voucher or £50 credit on your bill.
Visit Sky’s site to find out more.
#1 by garland dawes - September 5th, 2009 at 13:19
only want Sky tv with Sky sport mix and kids mix