Yeah my sky Sport NOW annual pass finishes in July. Looking forward to dropping it and adding Sky Sport to my Sky Box sub.
Picture quality is so much better it’s not even funny.
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Technically the Sky box is set and forget. I have had mine for years and it always works. It is $15 a month but with the ability to record and rewind I would not be without it.
Personally, I think they should get rid of the explicit $15/month fee and bundle it in with their content packages as part of the review on fee structure.
They can't just eliminate the $15/month fee right now because it generates so much money.
But, when they re-jig the bundles and pricing structure I think there is a chance to revisit how this fee is charged. The default is that everyone should get MySky (not the basic Sky Box). I mean, in this day and age the ability to record and series link is the MVP.
Let's see what Sophie and the team can do. I personally think it is bs to charge a customer a $15/month rental fee past a certain point.
Imagine you are a customer for 10 years. Over that period of time you would have paid Sky $1800 for a Sky Box that probably costs them $200. Maybe $250.
I remember reading an old Annual Report when John Fellet was describing the depreciation rules for Sky Boxes. The standard Box is written off over 5 years, however he described how MySky can be written off over 4 years because it has more 'moving parts' that add to wear and tear. Of course, in reality, these boxes last damn near forever.
So a 10 year loyal customer pays Sky an extra $1800 for a Box that probably only cost Sky $200 and doesn't even exist on the books past year 4.
Needs a rethink if they are serious about looking after the customer to cement their loyalty.
I bought a Freeview box which allows you to record a couple of channels whilst watching another channel also has live pause etc.Cost was $199.00.Perhaps Sky should look at selling their boxes and also look at giving them free with a signed contract for a specific bundle,similar to some broadband providers who offer a free modem with specific plans.
Yeah, they used to sell the boxes back in the day but put a stop to that. I think you were able to buy the box and then if your Sky Box ever broke Sky would send you a replacement with no extra charge. When Sky was a monopoly they quickly realised that they could get rid of that option and just charge the $15/month - consumers would have no real alternative than to pay it as this was before the time of OTT SVOD.
As their bundles are priced right now, they can't really do much other than charge the $15 monthly fee. If they gave it for free with a 12 month contract etc it would hit the bottom line too hard.
They do need to scrap the fee, but I think it has to be done as part of their overall bundle review. So the MySky fee ends up being priced in to the new bundles, but done in a way that is still attractive to consumers.
At a guess perhaps the $15 a month fee would be waved/changed as part of a existing bundle when Sky releases their new improved Sky box.
Speaking to friends and family a lot of them would love to jump back into being a Sky sub, but the likes of these $15 fees etc just makes it too costly... And so what if you can record, the likes of Netflix etc already has episodes you want ready to go.
The freebies they have for New Business make it all good for the first 12 months imo.
It is after the first year when you are still paying the damn $15/month fee it begins to annoy.
My package of Starter + Entertainment + Movies + SOHO + MySky is about $87/month.
Without the MySky fee it would be about $72/month. Well, maybe they should just structure the bundles in a way that I end up paying $79.99/month without an explicit MySky fee.
$79.99/month ($2.63/day) feels a damn site cheaper than $87/month ($2.86/day) even though it is only actually 23c a day dearer. And all they are doing is effectively reducing the MySky fee and providing a price point that is more attractive to consumers (making it less likely that they will leave after 12 months).
ARPU does drop, but you keep the customer for longer.
To be fair, it does sound "oh so easy" when I am saying they should do this and that...I suspect there are other issues they are grappling with and it is not quite so straightforward. Obviously they need to do the sums and make sure it adds up, but they have to do something here as the current price structure is a deterrent to many would-be Sky Box subs.