Just recently I received yet another increase to the cost of our Sky TV subscription. Within the space of a year we'd seen our subscription increase four or five times so I cancelled Sky.
Then, after the cancellation went through, Sky got in touch to offer a far better deal and I decided to stay. About a week later though, I found that the new deal was going to increase in price too, so I cancelled again.
A couple of days ago the Sky service stopped. I've still got a Sky HD+ box and I still get the funky menu system, the channel lists, the interface and everything you're familiar with but, what you don't get is that pause / rewind / forward and record functionality. Sky rather cruelly cripple that service, even if you've had the box for years.
Yes, I know – it's annoying. You've got a hard drive inside the box, it can easily do it, it won't really cost Sky anything to turn it on but – if you do want it – you'll need to pay £10 per month for that functionality.
I think that's a bum deal, but a lot of people just rely on Sky or Virgin or whoever they choose to provide an "app" or a "box" to connect them to a service. There's better ways out there, but for many it's the "not knowing" and the confusing equipment choice. If you don't want to pay for broadcast TV there's a variety of different user interfaces depending on what TV or box you choose.
Sky in particular have a fantastic interface and a brilliant set of satellite boxes – they've won endless awards over the years and rightfully so, but without a subscription this box now becomes far less useful than other satellite TV PVR (Personal Video Recorder) receivers.
So if you're looking for a great box which builds in streaming services, stay tuned to Coolsmartphone and we'll be letting you know what to do.
Before all that, my Sky TV service has now been disconnected. In all honesty, I didn't noticed until I tried to pause a show and received this message.
You cant play back the recordings you made when you WERE paying either
Just what channels do you end up with after cancelling? Well, there's a list of the free channels here. However, what I can tell you is that, without a Sky subscription, you're going to lose the following..
Sky One, Sky Witness, Sky Atlantic, W, Gold, Comedy Central, Sky Comedy, Syfy, Sky Crime, Sky Arts, E!, Fox, Discovery, NatGeo, History, alibi, ID, the Discovery channels , Animal Planet, Vice,
You'll still get Dave, all the BBC channels, local TV, all the ITV channels (ITV2, ITV3, ITVBe etc), all the Channel 4 channels (S4C, E4, More4, 4seven, 4music,), Food Network,, all the Channel 5 channels (5Star, 5USA, 5Select,), Really, Drama, Quest, CBS Reality, CBS Drama, CBS Justice, Quest Red, Paramount, Challenge, Pick, Yesterday, Sony Channel, HGTV, Smithsonian TV, Blaze, Together, DMax, BET, PBS America, Live 360, Travel Channel, Sony Crime, Fores TV, Channel 7, Travelxp, Yanga.
For movies, you still get Film 4, Horror Channel, Sony Classic, Sony Movies, Sony Action etc. You don't get the Sky Movies channels but to be honest I've never subscribed to those.
Music-wise you get channels like Box Hits, Box, Kiss, Magic, Kerrang, all the Trace channels, Now 90s, Starz TV, Now 80s, Clubland and so on – just no MTV Channels.
For Kids, you lose quite a few here though. Gone is Cartoon Network, Boomerang, the Nickelodeon channels, Disney Junior, Disney XD and Disney Channel. You get CBBC, CBeebies, POP, Tiny POP, CITV, POP, Tiny POP and POP Max.
Sky will continue to list the channels you can't view, but that's fairly expected. What I miss though, is that pause button. I know that "on demand content" is the future, but I think the ability to pause the news while you grab a drink or rewind something – it's just something I'd like to keep, but I don't want to pay each month for the privilege.
Also, as I have a Sky HD box, there's iPlayer and ITV Hub but again – Sky cripple all these services so you can't use them. This despite the fact that the content isn't theirs.
So, instead of paying Sky for basic services, I'm going to buy a new satellite TV box and pay a big fat nothing per month.
Stay tuned for the next part! 
The post Ditching Sky. What you're left with after the subscription ends.. is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.
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