I initially did as I was on a very crappy ISP. But the hassle of trying to get the Dish up was not ideal. It would have been fine if I wasn't a fussy customer.
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I initially did as I was on a very crappy ISP. But the hassle of trying to get the Dish up was not ideal. It would have been fine if I wasn't a fussy customer.
The sooner they offer “skygo” as a standalone streaming service the better. Basically all the fat margin they get from skybox customers, without any of the associated upfront costs (dish/box install, box maintenance/replacements etc), and also wholesale it out to others.
Possibly need to simplify the lineup again to just 3 primary content choices: starter, sport & Neon (premium TV+Movies)
- make a $10 a month skybox rental fee mandatory (no more free boxes)
- charge $99 for satellite install, no charge if using skybox over internet connection.
- recombine “entertainment” package back into “starter”, keep same pricing as “starter” currently is ($26 - or maybe increase to $29.99)
- potential to break out “news” into a $5-$10 a month bundle.
- combine movies/soho, but decrease new combined package to be essentially the same pricing as Neon ($16 - it’s almost identical content anyway, perhaps increase Neon to $19.99 anyway)
- INCREASE sky sport pricing to align with skysportnow pricing ($40 a month or $33.33 month if annual pass), but allow people to have it without any other Sky packages (so skybox & sport only would be $50 or $43.33 a month)
- do not offer skygo for free to skybox customers (that is a debatable call, but I know a lot of people who give another household essentially a free sky subscription by letting them use the skygo streaming app, at the very least charge a “multi room fee”). This could be solved another way if the new skybox can reject skygo being used while someone is watching skybox, so subscribers could still have skygo streaming for free, but only when no one is watching the skybox).
so monthly fees would be
~$40 for skybox+starter,
~$50 for skybox+sport.
~$60 for skybox+starter+NEON
~$70 for Skybox+sport+NEON
~$80 for skybox+starter+sport.
~$100 for skybox+starter+sport+NEON
potentially give some bundle discounts if it’s really warranted for the top end bundle.
add Sky broadband to any of the above packages for +$69
$10 discount on above prices if not using skybox (using skygo online or viewing channels on Vodafone tv etc)
(personally I would go for a Sport+NEON+News+Broadband bundle for $140 a month no questions asked)
I think something like the above will happen if people are still disconnecting in droves, but who knows maybe the secret unsaid plan they will never admit to is simply to keep charging as much as they can to skybox customers and keep letting it dwindle to terminal levels while they build the streaming user base.
I did have a chat with Martin before he left, and one of the things I asked him was why we have not released Sky GO as a standalone yet.
He pointed out that Sky do not currently have the right to do this. In all of the many MANY contracts we have...Sky GO is written into those contracts as a companion app to a Sky BOX. In order to have Sky GO as a standalone streaming service, all of those contracts need to be rewritten and potentially renegotiated.
This is not an insurmountable problem, and it is just a matter of time I think before it happens...but it is not as easy as just flicking a switch so that Sky GO is offered standalone.
I agree that, as a streaming service, there are more opportunities to simplify bundles and make them more attractive from a cost perspective. We need to remember though that the MySky fee generates a lot of cash for Sky - over and above the upfront costs of setting customers up, sending new boxes when the old one breaks (which hardly ever happens - the current boxes last forever).
So yes there is room for improvement in pricing, but if everyone handed back their STB and just took Sky GO there would be a revenue hole.
I still think it is absolutely the right way to go long term, and new management are not afraid to cannibalise old business units...but it is a consideration for 'how' you make the change.
I do not agree though with the notion of charging STB customers for Sky GO. STB customers will continue to generate the highest $$$ per customer by far for a long time to come, and if anything we need to be finding new ways to add more value.
The whole password sharing thing is an issue, sure - but you find that if you add a lot of value for a reasonable price you will have no issues growing your paying customer base. Sky GO only allows you a single stream. I would not share my password with anyone because if someone is watching something on the STB and I want to watch something else...I might not be able to use Sky GO (that I am paying for) because my mate is streaming something on it. I would have to ring the person up to tell them to get off... just a hassle.
I think the sharing issue is more of a problem for NETFLIX. a Premium account is about $20/month? But you can have 4 simultaneous streams! A household could easy share their log in with 1 or 2 other households with no issue.
I think they have said publicly they are working on standalone skygo (or am I wrong on that possibly?) - agree on the rights negotiations trickiness to get that done. But it’s common place in the US now to be able to get cable bundles via an online service (HULU offers this), so hopefully most content providers are happy to add this as they realize it’s in their best interest.
agree restricting concurrent skygo access would be a big move and would be seen as a negative by most, but if done at the same time as a big drop in entry pricing I think many would understand and take the tradeoff of lower pricing or paying extra for ability to unlock concurrent use.
Reckon he’ll be back if the price rises too much before close tonight. Gotta keep that 5-day average anchored.
Or maybe I’m just trying to wind you up even further.
On a completely unrelated note... I was browsing Sky GO earlier and came across a program called 'Cheat'.
It is only 4 episodes but man it is really good!
It is on NEON too so if anyone is looking for something to binge this weekend, that's my recommendation!
I love British TV.
Warner bros.
Discovery
(In the SKY)
Well spotted, lol
Absolutely pie in the sky.
Discovery have shown that they have no interest in buying Sky TV. They are happy to own TV3 and have a co-exclusive deal with Sky.
Otherwise they would have made a serious offer for Sky by now. They would have pounced when the market cap was below $200M - God knows they have the money to do it.
If someone else makes a play for Sky, I would be very surprised if Discovery complicated things by putting in a counter bid.
I would be pleasantly surprised! But surprised nonetheless.
Cricket from Lords pretty boring last night ....maybe SKY not worried about being able to show it