Black Friday 2020 Prediction

[Gizmo]

Here is my prediction for NOW TV’s Black Friday offerings - NOTHING

Comcast’s interest in NOW TV was nothing more than their need to asset strip it for their Peacock product.

Offering discounts is in direct conflict with the need to make it unpalatable compared to Sky. Once all the vouchers have timed out it will be overpriced except only for those who wish to dip in and out.

[Anonymous User]

Agreed, the offers bare no relation to what you’ve watched or what service you have... it’s all about upselling...

We have now cancelled our vouchers and they run out in the next few days.

Overpriced service from NowTV...

Acceptable for the £99 for the year for both but £22 a month for what they offer, no thanks...

[Gizmo]

I think we are all going to have to get used to the situation. This is not neglect by NOW TV but a conscious business decision.

Consider the following recent events:

1. The withdrawal of the third-party seller gift card/vouchers
2. The weird random sport offers targeting specific users
3. Withdrawal of Tesco Club Card Reward relationship
4. The lack of annual or even 9-month offers to pull new customers in
5. The lack of a retention offer when to cancel a rolling-subscription
6. The lack of TV app updates e.g. on Samsung and LG - still no Sport on Demand
7. The ever absent Apple TV app update

Clearly NOW TV are trying to hit some sort of goal. These could include:

1. Make NOW TV profitable when compared to a Sky subscription to push "customers" toward a Sky subscription
2. Maybe Sky are going to finally launch Sky X  - "Dish-less" Sky
3. NOW TV are preparing the ground to shutdown the direct to customer service.

I don't really care what NOW TV do - I would miss F1 coverage but I'm never going back to Sky. I think a large percentage NOW TV "customers" are more like "users" and will be quite happy to abandon NOW TV without a second thought - They just need a little push.

Only time will tell.

[Anonymous User]

Food for thought...

I will never return to “Sky” and looks like I am an ex NowTV subscriber as well...

Too many other offerings out there at a lot less now...

[SweetBlitz]

Consider the following recent events:

1. The withdrawal of the third-party seller gift card/vouchers - Probably because of the issues with unactivated cards and the time spent dealing with them buy customer services
2. The weird random sport offers targeting specific users - There are so many offers and all marketing targets specific users.  I gave away a couple of  sports codes when asked on forum, they weren’t user specific
3. Withdrawal of Tesco Club Card Reward relationship - Never used it so maybe the lack of use prompted this.
4. The lack of annual or even 9-month offers to pull new customers in - After the refunds for F1 season tickets and the extra passes for football season tickets maybe it is more trouble than it is worth in COVID times.
5. The lack of a retention offer when to cancel a rolling-subscription - I got a retention offer on cinema when I cancelled 2 weeks ago
6. The lack of TV app updates e.g. on Samsung and LG - still no Sport on Demand - the on demand is there, but you have to use search to access it on now tv sticks 
7. The ever absent Apple TV app update-  Don’t use it so I can’t comment

Clearly NOW TV are trying to hit some sort of goal. These could include:

1. Make NOW TV profitable when compared to a Sky subscription to push "customers" toward a Sky subscription - The competition is Netflix and Prime so why do that? 
2. Maybe Sky are going to finally launch Sky X  - "Dish-less" Sky -  Err that is Now TV
3. NOW TV are preparing the ground to shutdown the direct to customer service. - All there is is chat anyway.

==================

Now TV obviously has to hit goals and be profitable.  It is not a charity.  Everyone knows the advertised prices (Cinema £12/month; Entertainment £10/month; Sports £34/month) make no sense when compared with Netflix, Prime or even Disney+ so they have offers.  The costs are kept down with limited customer support, limited app upgrades and right now limited stick availability.  Sky are not about to give up on the streaming market when so many people are cord cutting. I have Virgin for broadband; the £5 tv box and BT sport at £12/month is a bonus.  But would have no qualms moving off.

Ultimately Now TV has a fairly fickle subscriber base.  They cancel after free trials, they take a month or two during school holidays, they watch a week of cricket etc.  These are people who won’t buy 18 month contracts.  

When tomorrow comes, Now TV will have some fair to middling Black Friday offers.  But in all likelihood there will be many more over the next 12 months.

[gavs82008]

@GrumpyDonkey 
On what proof do you have that it is not?

[GrumpyDonkey]

In 6 years, there has never been an offer in that section of my account, regardless of what I have watched over the previous year or 5.

[gavs82008]

@GrumpyDonkey 

Unfortunately its the way Now TV appear to be moving towards.

I myself have been a customer for 8 years. Over the past 2 years Now TV has seen the most changes. Most likely down to the ownership of NBC Comcast. 

That being said, when you “cancel” Netflix or Amazon I don’t recall having any offers to retain my custom. 

[Enapace]

@gavs82008 

They have added more features lately in fairness though it is still far behind competition honestly would of expected all sports channels in 50FPS this year.

[gavs82008]

@Enapace 

Absolutely couldn’t agree more. When BT released their BT Sport apps for “TVs” it was 1080p and 50fps by default, along with catch up.

Disney+ launching with Profiles and 4K content, Amazon adding Profiles. 

Whilst Now TV has indeed improved. Some features not present just make it relatively poor when compared to other services.

[Enapace]

@gavs82008 

Not sure if you noticed update from BT but BT this weekend are launching Dolby Atmos for a game so that means now BT are doing 4K HDR 50FPS with Dolby Atmos that is a huge huge advantage over NowTV or even full fat Sky.

NowTV have literally only just launched Red Button/Extra Stream and On Demand and pretty sure BT had that from launch. 

I love my Disney+ subscription can't wait watch Narnia Voyage of Dawn Treader tomorrow never seen that one.

[gavs82008]

@Enapace 

Oh yes I had completely forgot about BT updating sport in 4K. That is a huge advantage to say the least. 
And yes I remember when it launched on big TV  it did indeed have the red button feature.

For me I’m very intrigued for Disney+ Star, hoping that it’s a similar content lineup as Hulu and having more 20th Century productions. 
My hope it’s an add on to Disney+ using the same profiles. 

The main thing I have noticed that the bigger improvements to Now TV as ironically been during the helm of Comcast. Although they still have a long way to go. 

One thing I do recall is from a survey I had from All4 and even they are considering profiles. 

That being said the lack of 4K content, even at an additional cost for Now TV is disappointing. Although not surprising at all. 

[Enapace]

@gavs82008 

I was always surprised Comcast brought Sky instead of Virgin Media as that would of linked up far better with there US businesses and since they brought SKY Q over Fibre has completely died.

[gavs82008]

@Enapace 

Personally I would have rather “FOX” win the auction for Sky over Comcast, at least then fundamental changes would have happened under Disney ownership. 

[Enapace]

@gavs82008 

It was obvious to anyone that Disney didn't even try in the auction for Sky it may of made Disney+ easier to launch in UK but all the legacy Fox and Disney Contracts have either expired now or are due to expire soon so they have saved money.

[Anonymous User]

@gavs82008 thank you for pointing out where they are 👍

[SweetBlitz]

£66 for 6 months of entertainment and movies is half price! What more do people want?

Free!   To be fair to Now TV there are frequently offers, so why wouldn’t they have some this week.  

my prediction

Half Price movies for 6 months

Half Price entertainment for 6 months

Sports for £25/month for 6 months

Boost for £10 for 6 months

Kids half price for 6 months

Hayu - who cares? 😂

[SweetBlitz]

Nothing on the site, but my prediction wasn’t too far off...

Half Price movies for 6 months. (Yes -Via offers)

Half Price entertainment for 6 months (yes- via offer)

Sports for £25/month for 6 months (yes - via email and just £20/month)

Boost for £10 for 6 months. (No)

Kids half price for 6 months (no)

Hayu - who cares? 😂

[Anonymous User]

Not exactly a prediction when you were already aware of the first few offers on your list being made available to certain customers.

And that’s the point really, these offers are only available to some customers. There does not appear to be a criteria, or an actual process, it’s basically pot luck.

So if you don’t get lucky, you’re expected to pay full whack & it simply isn’t value for money with the other streaming providers out there.

[Anonymous User]

I have left and will be getting them to close my account as I never want anything to do with Sky or NowTV ever again, crap service from a crap money grabbing company.

[Gilli1]

Not when you have Netflix and Prime plus a Virgin bundle. 
Now Tv has always been for me Entertainment and Movies for the whole year for under £100. Otherwise I just won’t bother. I can catch most of it on Virgin that I watch. I just follow a few shows on Now Tv and I like that they are advert free. But so much of its so called amazing offer is unsuitable, and more and more of the box sets carry warnings for strong language and violent content. So given the shrinking amount of suitable stuff I’m not paying more. I realise not everybody feels like that of course. 

[Anonymous User]

Well it BF and there are NO offers specifically for passes. Very odd, but I consider Gizmo to have rightly predicated the situation.

like many others here, I won’t be able to fork out £22 a month and Prime, Netflix Disney+ all await!