Sky, Now or BT TV

[Maidenfan]

For years we have had sky for our TV and BT or our phone/internet. I am looking to change partly as the Sky dish is an eyesore (I've always hated it) but we now live in a very windy area and the dish is constantly been moved. We had the man come last year after we lost 10 channels and looks like I will be calling them again this year. With that and the cost of having both subscriptions I am looking for a change so heres the question...

Which would be best for internet, BT Sports/Sky sports (for the husband and daughter) and internet speed for both myself and our Autistic son. I am disabled so cost comes into it. So far I am favouring BT as it seems to be the only one that can provide all three. 

I would like to everyones thoughts before I take the plunge. 2 year contract is a long time if I mess up.

[Sportbuffer]

If you're already a BT customer it might be easier to upgrade that package rather than switch your phone and broadband to Sky. I have BT broadband which includes the BT Sports online player. I don't have BT TV, I just use Freeview, but I also have a Now tv box, which gives me Sky Sports,and most of the catch up channels and can give other Sky and Freeview content with the right pass, all online, so that could be regarded as back up for broadcast channels. The Now TV passes may be dearer than a Sky sub, but you can suspend them if your sport is not in season. Admittedly this means that I watch most of my sport online - I have Eurosport online only, too - but I have a mini pc connected to my tv, so can watch on that screen. The reservation I would have about this is that BTSport online can be erratic. I don't know why - I'm about to post a question about it.

[NigelB72]

We've been with BT for everything for 5 years and only had a couple of minor issues. We switched to the VIP TV pack when it launched and it meets our requirements for entertainment and sports. 

Multi-room isn't an issue either because we work around that with various apps and online players such as NowTV, TV players, BT Sport app etc. 

We've also got Prime, Disney and Netflix and to get the best possible quality from these services, I bought a Roku Streaming Stick+ for £50... 

My whole package comes in around £110 a month for stupidly fast internet, mobile and VIP TV pack. 

Can't fault it personally... It's a 👍 from us 

[Maidenfan]

Thank you both for your reply. I was leaning towards BT purely for the problems in post and also (just to prove Sky's dish problem) the weather knocked out TV off and upset the picture again today. I also like the idea of everything in one package and less cables in the room, honestly its like spaghetti junction the amount to connections everything needs. At the moment we have the small You View box, Sky Q, BT hub, smart TV and BT extenders for the You View. Too many cables that makes the house look untidy and also a pain when you want to move things around. I think we would get a new box, one that would be wireless so that's a bonus also it runs off the internet so weather would have no effect. 

Looks like its BT. 

[NigelB72]

The majority of channels run from Freeview and it's the extra channels that are broadcasted by Multicast streaming. Check on the Freeview website to make sure that you can receive all channels so that you don't feel short changed. The current boxes aren't WiFi compatible so if the box is going a long way from your socket you will need homeplugs or one of the products BT has available

[Maidenfan]

Thank you for your help and info. We already have BT You View connected via Extenders so going that route would be no problem.

[VeteranISPUser]

Hi @Maidenfan   As already said, check your local terrestrial transmitter is enhanced. I seriously considered moving to BT TV but discovered that the number of entertainment HD channels I could receive was very small. I couldn’t even get BBC4HD.

[Maidenfan]

I rarely watch TV and then its mostly documentaries. We have HD on Sky but its never used and as its Sport that my family watch its not something they would miss.