Sometime ago I wrote that I was considering future TV cost savings. Like most, with the cost of living crisis, I am looking for ways to save money. I am currently tied into an expensive Sky Q contract and do not feel that we are getting value for money for quite an old product.
We no longer watch a lot of the content like Sky Cinema and Sky’s own original shows.
Finally at the end of the year we can do away with the expense. We pay £83.50 a month for the TV package which includes cinema and 4K.
I’ve already decided to use an Apple 4K TV (that we already owned) and we will save much more money. The monthly cost will then be £10.99 along with some annual subscriptions. I already pay for ad free versions of ITVX and 4+. Then as we like Paramount +, I will subscribe to that annually for £70.
I am opting for the standard Netflix sub rather than the 4K as we don’t watch much Netflix anymore. Most programmes that we view are on BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Paramount.
I have already tested the Apple 4K TV and we are impressed. All the apps are better as they run faster and in some instances, run later app versions with more features. When we used to have issues with some apps on Sky Q, we found that they worked perfectly on Apple 4K TV. The other good thing is that Apple has pretty much all the streaming apps to download. Whereas Sky Q is more limited.
The only additional expense has been to buy a second remote. So as well as the standard Apple 4K remote, we bought a “ One for All – Streamer” remote for £23. It works really well (apart from poor setup instructions).
For those wondering about watching live TV, all of the terrestrial TV apps stream their channels live. Also to help with a general TV guide we have downloaded TV Launcher 2 This was only about £5 and allows you to stream up to about 160 channels from the same app platform. To watch some channels, you may need a sub like for NOW TV. But it also supports all the free streaming app channels.
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/tv-launcher-live-uk-channels/id1622598042
Talking about NOW TV, I have loaded the app on the box. In the instance we want to watch Sky, we may then buy entertainment or cinema passes when we need to catch up on any Sky programming.
Cost wise, we had been paying Sky £1002 annually for TV. Whereas by moving away, we will now pay £282 a year with monthly Netflix subs and some annual subs. A £720 saving cannot be bad!
Do you have Sky and are you thinking of ditching it? Comment below.
