NOWTV BOX & Membership…

[GIDU1]

Hi everyone…

I bought NOWTV monthly Sports membership on 22/7/2023, but since I’ve been unable to cast it onto my tv screen…all sorts of errors came up. I’ve done all sorts to cast from my iPad/iPhone, and still to no avail.

I decided to abandon it and bought an all inclusive NOWTV Box to include all Sky sports channels. It says, “ NO SUBSCRIPTION “. It arrived today(13/8/23); I’ve connected it all up & it’s working nicely on my tv screen. I got the sports I wanted, no problem!!!

Now I want to cancel my previous monthly sports subs but seem to be having issues with that too!!! Sky/NOWTV are not making things easy for me. I’m assuming that now I’ve bought the box, I don’t need to continue with my monthly subs…because it also says that I don’t need any paid subscription.

Help…the NOWTV Box cost a lot of money, & I most definitely don’t need to pay any extra monthly subs.

Please help. Every time I try to cancel my subscription, it keeps telling me that my subs will revert to full price at renewal…12 months away. My next monthly charge for the subs is due on 21/8/23, & I want to cancel it now to avoid paying that charge in just over a week now. Help please. Sorry to be long.

[RoyB · Accepted solution]

@GIDU1 

There is no such legitimate Now TV box, so it looks like you might have bought a pirate device 😢

AAMOI, how much was ‘a lot of money’?

And did setting it up include giving your Now details - account name, password, credit or debit card details?

Best case scenario is that it is an old, but genuine, Now box, that is actually using your current Sports subscription, and you have been mildly scammed.

Worst case is that you have given your bank details to who knows who. Best get your bank to put a block on your cards until this is sorted out.

Now will be very interested in where this box came from, though, so expect them to contact you soon.

[RoyB]

@GIDU1 

Me again.

Was it this you bought, or perhaps just the £99 one?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NOW-TV-STREAMING-CONTRACT-SUBSCRIPTION-NO/dp/B07JVL1XJR

If so, the good news is that this is a legal and genuine Now box. So just the mild scam.

The bad news comes in three stages:-

While it can be used for some things without a subscription - so the description is merely misleading, without actually being incorrect - you can’t get Now Memberships this way. So as I surmised, the box is probably using the subscription you had just bought previously.

Secondly, this is an older and discontinued Now box; though having said that, it is still entirely current and not obsolete in any way.

Thirdly, you could have got all its capabilities, except one, in a current Roku Express 4K Box for £30.

The one capability the Roku doesn’t have is the Freeview (aerial) tuner in this box. But if your TV gets all the Freeview channels anyway, including the HD ones, you don’t need this. (And even if your TV won’t do this, there are cheaper ways to get the TV channels, and with a proper TV guide, not just the Now & Next of this box).

So the box isn’t exactly a scam; a rather misleading description, and a wildly inflated price (these things were about £43 when they went on sale, IIRC), but they do fill a very small niche, and are still sought after by the people in that niche, hence people selling them.

But I see they allow returns up to 30 days, so it may not be too late to get your money back, and spend a small amount of it on a Roku Express 4K. Much more convenient than casting, and you will get hundreds of ‘channels’ (apps) you can choose to download to it, many of which really are ‘No Subscription’.

But Now Sports you gotta pay for monthly, no matter what device you get it on 😢

[schnapps]

Hi @RoyB 

The NOW 4K Smart box doesn't have an inbuilt Freeview tuner.

The only NOW branded box that has the inbuilt Freeview with a TV aerial connection on the back of the box is the NOW Freeview Smart box has shown in the picture below.

[RoyB]

@schnapps 

Thanks. That makes @GIDU1 ‘s choice easier then.

So the Smart box 4K is the logical follow-on from the black Now box, which I think was a rebadged variant of the Roku 3?

And I guess it’s probably based on the Roku 4.

Chasing down what Rokus are what, though, I’m startled to find that there hasn’t been just one Roku Express 4K, but two of them, and four versions of the Roku Express:-

https://developer.roku.com/en-gb/docs/specs/hardware.md#current-roku-models

https://developer.roku.com/en-gb/docs/specs/hardware.md#updatable-roku-models

https://developer.roku.com/en-gb/docs/specs/hardware.md#legacy-models

(These all lead to the same area)

Its hard to keep up with what devices Roku have made, and their Now variants, and now I find I can’t even keep up with their current products 😢

[schnapps]

Hi @RoyB 

Comparing the NOW model numbers against the closest Roku model numbers on Wikipedia the NOW Smart Freeview box is based around the Roku 4 box (minus the Freeview inbuilt TV tuner or any TV tuner which the Roku 4 doesn't have).

The NOW Freeview Smart box was the third box released by NOW mainly has a free supplied box for NOW Combo customers to compete in some lesser degree with the BT Youview and TalkTalk Youview boxes without a hard drive for live recordings , though you could buy this NOW Freeview Smart box separately from NOW or third party retailers before they was discontinued.

The NOW 4K Smart box was the last hardware released by NOW and came after the NOW Stick, where the NOW Smart 4K box was based around the Roku Premier box.

I own both boxes and at the time before they was discontinued, you could pick them up brand new for £20 to £25.

Going off topic now and I hope @GIDU1 can get their money back if it is the Amazon link that you posted.