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chai
Scholar 3

Sky Sports themed channels coming to NOW TV?

Sky Sports to replace numbered channels and slash prices in revamp

 

Broadcaster to launch themed channels for football, golf and cricket, with cheapest package costing £18 a month

 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jun/27/sky-sports-channels-prices-football-golf-cricket

 

Coming to NOW TV?

 

 

83 REPLIES 83
SeeMoreDigital
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Issac,

 

Let's not forget that if you're a Sky TV subscriber you can't just purchase the 'sports' service as a stand-alone package. And you are tied to a contract...

Anonymous User
Not applicable

@Issac wrote:

Sure they could offer us the choice of buying 1 or 2 channels via the Now TV for £18 or £22. I would say most hardcore football fans don't really care about golf or F1 or the other themed channels.


There are 41 different combinations of three channels (6+15+20).  Plus the whole lot making 42.

And what would happen for those who have one, two or three channels who decide to add one channel for a day/week? You can't even  store weekly/daily passes in the same account so how Now would manage this I don't know.

 

Having more passes and more combinations is not the way to go for an online service.  Netflix have one pass with three service levels and Amazon only really have one, though their new channels offering does muddy the waters.  Now TV already has six different and judging by by some of the posts how difficult it seems to be for some to apply and cancel these correctly it is not a good idea.  Adding this extra complexity which would make it near 50.  

 

As a hardcore football fan myself, I'd happily take the Premier League channel on its own.  But to be fair, buying two or three day/week passes a month as I do isn't that different from the £18/£22/£26/month channel offer from Sky which in reality ain't so great as you can get the whole lot for £20/month if you have it for 18 months.  And you have to pay at least £22 for the base package to get Sports, so in reality it costs more.

 

Oh and you can't get this channel subscription offer with Virgin either.


@Issac wrote:

£18 per month is the cheapest package ? Yet the good old Nowtv box man will still be paying £33.99 if he wants a month of sport? WTF? Sure they could offer us the choice of buying 1 or 2 channels via the Now TV for £18 or £22. I would say most hardcore football fans don't really care about golf or F1 or the other themed channels.


@Issac

 

Compared to the equivalent minimum cost of having the full Sports pack via Sky dish of £49.50 (that's £22 for the Original Entertainment bundle plus £27.50 for the full Sports pack), the NOW TV Sports Month pass at £33.99 for "720p HD" (depending on device) is still cheaper.

 

It would still be a minimum of £40 (i.e. £22 for base entertainment bundle plus £18 for the cheapest Sports pack) to get a cut down Sports pack on Sky, so NOW TV is still cheaper on a price-wise basis.

 

@Furthermore, @Anonymous User also mentioned earlier on this thread that:

"Sky Q Monthly costs

  • Cheapest option: Sky Q + Original Bundle (£22) + Sky Sports (£27.50): £49.50/month
  • Cheapest option with HD: Sky Q + Original Bundle (£22) + HD (£6) Sky Sports (£27.50): £55.50/month
  • Cheapest option with 4K: Sky Q + Original Bundle (£22) + (£12) + Sky Sports (£27.50): £61.50/month"

And of course with NOW TV you can dip in & out as needed, whereas Sky requires a minimum 12 month commitment when you join up (although Sports is effectively a rolling 1 month).

 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

@dr_necessitor wrote:

...with NOW TV you can dip in & out as needed, whereas Sky requires a minimum 12 month commitment when you join up (although Sports is effectively a rolling 1 month).

 


I agree. This is the BIG advantage.  Mostly ther is just one match I want to watch at a weekend and more often none.

 

The only time I get sports from Virgin is when they have their six months for half price offer taking the monthly cost down to about £16 (and I can add movies for another £4).    But if I didn't have the virgin box, the basic costs soon add up and for Sky you are spending at least £50/month with no broadband nor phone.  I only have cable for sport (BT Sport and Premier Sports) and just dip in and out of these on 30 day durations.  

Anonymous User
Not applicable

@Miketurn wrote:

@Anonymous User wrote:

Have to admit this channel reorganisation is pretty good from the NOW TV perspective with a couple of extra channels including Mix. Main event makes little odds as it is the same as another channel.

 

Now if only those red button streams could be provided as and when...


I can't see the point of having Main Event at all. Even on Sky you have to have the full package to get it! 

 

It might make it easier for people with Sky to find stuff without having to go through all the EPG's for the sports channels, but as Now TV only does now/next it's still completely pointless for us! Smiley LOL


The ONLY point for Main Event seems to be to replace SS1 for BT customers.  They also get a channel called Sky Sports Extra (where have I heard that before?) which is mainly there to show premier league games if they get trumped by another main event.  

 

A weird thing is happening on Main Event this weekend.  After the Open coverage concludes at 7.55pm they will be showing live GAA.  All well and good except for the fact the GAA game starts at 7pm on Sky Sports Arena.  So Main Event will show Half Events!  Well less than half because with just 35 minutes per half, the game should be about 5-10 minutes into the second half.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi,

 

Whereas Sky customers get the choice of 1, 2 or 3 sports channels from the 10 available for different rates etc. Why is NOW TV staying the same. 

I buy day passes just for football. This means that for a month on Sky I could get Premiership and Other Football (2 packages for £22 per month) but on NOW I have to pay for all 10 packages (monthly).

Will there be a new day rate [rice for individual Sky Sports channels?

Seems NOW TV customers are getting nothing out of this new set up and NOW TV is part of SKY?

Will be interested to reply and reasons if not changing.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

@Anonymous User wrote:

 

Seems NOW TV customers are getting nothing out of this new set up and NOW TV is part of SKY

 

This means that for a month on Sky I could get Premiership and Other Football (2 packages for £22 per month) but on NOW I have to pay for all 10 packages (monthly).


Now TV customers are getting Sky Sports Mix plus another couple of channels though Main Event can be disregarded.  Virgin customers won't be getting Mix nor News (unless they have a entertainment bundle) nor the option of individual channels.

 

This paying for individual channels is marketing spin.  If you had Sky you can get all the channels for £20/month if you commit to 18 months, so it is only a £2/month saving which is what the basic pack went up by recently.  To get one Sports channel with Sky, you would probably have to pay at least £40/month (or £44/month for the two football channels) because they won't let you just have Sports unlike Now TV and to a large extent Virgin.

 

Also Sky charge £27.50 on a 30 day rolling basis which is £6.50 less than Now TV, so the cost of a single channel were it to be implemented on Now TV would be more like £25.  Two channels £29 and three £33.  So not exactly massive savings.

 

And I don't see how Now TV could even implement the 1/2/3 channel choice without a massive revamp of the passes.

 

Besides there are so many offers on the monthly sports pass what is the point?  This summer there was a £15/month offer along with 3 months for £20 when cancelling.  There will probably be another in early August prior to the start of the footbal leagues.  These prices are better than the stand alone cost of having two channels.

 

I think Now TV customers have done pretty well out of the channel reorganisation.  For the likes of me who only uses daily and weekly passes to watch two or three different sports the access to the extra channels is probably more important than saving £9/month.

 

 

 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Interesting that the extra channels have been added without a system upgrade being needed - I was expecting a new version of the app.

 

So if extra channels can easily be added, come on Mr Sky, let's have Red Button sports as extra channels.

 

Does anyone else think the channel logos are a bit small - they are pin sharp, but there's room to expand them.

 

And what's happened to having a months access to Sky Sports news via the app on a NowTV box after using a pass? If we don't have that, what's the point of the stand alone app ?

 

Overall nice to have the extra channels though and hopefully the issues with stuff being only on Sky Sports Mix are now resolved.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

@Anonymous User wrote:

 

So if extra channels can easily be added, come on Mr Sky, let's have Red Button sports as extra channels.

 

 

And what's happened to having a months access to Sky Sports news via the app on a NowTV box after using a pass? If we don't have that, what's the point of the stand alone app ?

 



  Yes, red button streams. That must be easy. 

 

Has the news access stopped? Must admit I use roku mostly so not noticed.

Miketurn
Scholar 3

Do we really need two large 'lions head' DOG's on screen at the same time , as well as the Sky Sports 'Premier League' DOG as well?

 

NO, NO WE DON'T! Smiley Mad