How do you watch TV?

Bob

Well-Known Forumite
Our electric bill - although expected has given us a bit of a shock and it's forced us to take a look at outgoings. I genuinely cant believe how out of hand things have got.

Sky is stupid money so that's gone along with Disney+

But what to replace it with..... do you still need and aerial for Freeview? All tv's are smart but I'm not sure how smart that actually equates to as only one telly was able to log in to Disney+ and all have different options for apps.

I need to replace the broadband provider, yesterday we were paying £36 for that +£75 in various telly packages (plus tv licence and prime which I don't count as a TV package - I only have it for the same day/next day postage) and I'm not wanting to get back to anywhere near that amount again.

Spotify is also gone - with the view to switch to Amazon music which is half the price.

Do I need a landline for broadband? We don use it, am I paying extra for something that's unnecessary?

Do I need a TV licence if we're only streaming from Prime or Netflix?

I'm starting from scratch here, I like a good box set and an odd movie but want value for money. What does everyone else do?
 

Lucy

Well-Known Forumite
We have prime but that's it. We do have a TV licence because we watch and listen to BBC a lot.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Do I need a TV licence if we're only streaming from Prime or Netflix?

If you’re watching TV showing live on Amazon Prime, you need to be covered by a TV Licence. You don’t need a TV Licence if you’re only watching on demand programmes on Amazon Prime.

You don’t need a TV Licence if you only ever use Netflix or other online TV services to watch on demand or catch up programmes, except if you’re watching BBC programmes on BBC iPlayer.

 

Bob

Well-Known Forumite
We have prime but that's it. We do have a TV licence because we watch and listen to BBC a lot.
Do you have Freeview too? is it plugged into an aerial?

We've had sky for 15 years and its crept up slowly from £30ish to over £100 a month and that without movies or sports channels.

I'm not sure what other options there are for us, I don't really want to have someone climbing on the roof and dropping cables all over the place for Freeview boxes if we can get away with it but I think we want to be able to watch normal TV as well.

Only one of our smart TV's seems to have Freeview built in, but we can't get it to work - Presumably because of the lack of aerial?
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Are you in a cabled virgin area? And do you need any other services or just broadband?

For TV there are usually ways to get what you want cheaper, you just need to decide how legitimate you want to be! I no longer use free services, I pay for what I use, but I pay in a country that is advantageous to me in the same way they pay tax. Currently, despite a 40% increase, I still only pay just over £4 for netflix HD as I pay in Turkish Lira for example. This is against netflix terms, but they seem to ignore it because the alternative is I don't subscribe at all!

EDIT: https://www.hotukdeals.com/discussions/netflix-premium-ps315-pm-tl5499-via-netflix-turkey-3879525
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Do you have Freeview too? is it plugged into an aerial?

We've had sky for 15 years and its crept up slowly from £30ish to over £100 a month and that without movies or sports channels.

I'm not sure what other options there are for us, I don't really want to have someone climbing on the roof and dropping cables all over the place for Freeview boxes if we can get away with it but I think we want to be able to watch normal TV as well.

Only one of our smart TV's seems to have Freeview built in, but we can't get it to work - Presumably because of the lack of aerial?
What 'normal' TV do you watch, which channels?
 

Lucy

Well-Known Forumite
Do you have Freeview too? is it plugged into an aerial?

We've had sky for 15 years and its crept up slowly from £30ish to over £100 a month and that without movies or sports channels.

I'm not sure what other options there are for us, I don't really want to have someone climbing on the roof and dropping cables all over the place for Freeview boxes if we can get away with it but I think we want to be able to watch normal TV as well.

Only one of our smart TV's seems to have Freeview built in, but we can't get it to work - Presumably because of the lack of aerial?
We do and it is. Never had Sky. You need a TV licence in this case. You'll only get on-demand without an aerial. Ours is in the attic...
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Have Sky Q broadband, Amazon Prime and Netflix. To tell the truth I don't really give a toss about the expense as I can't complain about the Sky broadband service and would miss Ultra HD. Don't mind the licence fee either as I watch the BEEB a lot both on Sky and terrestrial (aerial in attic) if I want the teletext (which some mornings I do as I want total silence courtesy of Capt Morgan's Rum.)
If I had to dump any of these it would probably be Netflix first. Amazon Prime I originally got purely for the deliveries, the streaming turned out to be a bonus. Sky is the most expensive, but that's the entire package and includes telephone and landline, and I've kept the landline phone on as out this way mobile signals can be twitchy. FTTC with the last few hundred metres on copper gives me all the speed I need.
I have TV's in most rooms some doubling up as monitors, but I rent my living room tv from the village Euronics shop. The rent has just been dropped as I've had it 3 years but it's a cracking 65 inch Sony set which performs perfectly, and the service from the shop is top notch..
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
Terrestrial TV, free view, Netflix, amazon prime & now TV.

Most watched are.... Bbc1, bbc2, c4, Netflix, prime, freeview and on odd occasions now TV...... Thinking about it, by chance (not cos we subscribe) we have disney+ which includes discovery....
 

staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
All tv's are smart


What does everyone else do?
Ours isn't a smart TV. It's plugged into the aerial socket and that's it. The freeview channels we get with that are enough for us. We just pay the TV licence each year . I just watch corrie on ITV , a few programs on BBC1 and hubby the occasional other channels we can get.

Son keeps wanting to buy us a bigger & smart TV for a present .But we are quite happy with our old fashioned Panasonic telly , which can get freeview , until it finally conks out.
 
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Glam

Mad Cat Woman
Ours isn't a smart TV. It's plugged into the aerial socket and that's it. The freeview channels we get with that are enough for us. We just pay the TV licence each year . I just watch corrie on ITV , a few programs on BBC1 and hubby the occasional other channels we can get.

Son keeps wanting to buy us a bigger & smart TV for a present .But we are quite happy with our old fashioned Panasonic telly , which can get freeview , until it finally conks out.
We had an 'old fashioned' big back grey thing (Asda £85 in 2005) right up until about 3 years ago, when it just decided it'd worked hard enough and didn't want work again.
Couldn't tell you what we have now, It's just one I got off the internet. It is one of them there flat black ones though, plug the Virgin box in the back and away you go.
 

basil

don't mention the blinds
Usually watch TV horizontal with mug of tea and a packet of Aldi's chocolate oaties........
 

kilmaccumsey

Well-Known Forumite
Going to try to ring sky to cancel unless they come up with a good deal. Wish me luck I hear its hard to get through the lines.
 

kilmaccumsey

Well-Known Forumite
Wahoo got thru straight away haggled and rehaggled. They tried to push Broad band but we OK with whst we currently have so same package £21.cheaper a month. Worth the phone call
Now to look into water meter.
 

Bob

Well-Known Forumite
We’ve just agreed to stay with sky, no changes to the packages we had but now reduced by £42 a month. Disney is still cancelled, for now at least, I might take a look at new customer offers and get hubby to sign up in his name.
 
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