Sky has announced some great deals on their Sky + HD boxes – but only for the Granada television area.
It just so happens that the first region to be able to receive Freeview HD will be… wait for it…. Granada, and this is due to launch in December.
Sky typically ask customers to sign up for a 12 month contract, so enticing people to sign up now before other HD services are available seems like a marketing reaction to the imminent arrival of Freeview HD.
The offer gives you a free HD box when you subscribe to a HD and either sports or movies package for 12 months. these boxes would normally cost in the region of £50. In addition, new subscribers also get a £25 Marks and Spencer voucher.
To check whether you are eligible for the offer, Sky have launched an online postcode checker. Considering recent announcements from the BBC that some areas of London will also be turned on in December, it will be interesting to see just how many areas, other than Granada, can take up the offer. Try your postcode and let us know!
Related posts:
Loading ...
Just tried my postcode in central Manchester. Apparently, I don’t qualify for the offer.
Perhaps Sky need to finetune their idea of which postcodes receive Granada.
Freeview HD for me then.
Why pay Sky?
Their minimum annual rental is £18pm + £10 for HD + £13 line rental pm = £492 every year!!
I have an old Sky dish which is perfect for Freesat – just plug it in! Many people don’t seem to know that – for a lot of us there are no extra aerial/installation costs. Perfect reception too – Freeview is a bit dodgy around here. And no monthly costs at all.
Sky will reluctantly sell you a Freesat-by-Sky system but it ain’t free. They want at least £20 for a Sky card and they’ll charge you a fortune via their 0870 phone number just to get one. And they insist you connect the box to a phone line so they can bombard you with ads for their expensive paid service. Why pay for umpteen channels you’ll never want to watch!
I live in Bolton – again, well within the Granada region – and the postcode checker says that I am not eligible for this offer. So, it would appear that the offer is available to people in the Granada region, unless they live in the Granada region. Brilliant!
It looks as though Sky are using this page to target different areas as and when they are affected by the digital switchover / Freeview HD … the small print at the bottom of the offer page now says “This offer is only available within the Wales, STV North and West transmitter areas.”
Again, it just so happens that these areas are undergoing the switchover to digital TV (not necessarily Freeview HD – just standard Freeview) in February and March 2010, so the timing seems perfect.
As there are currently no Freeview HD boxes on the market, Sky may well decide to reactivate the Free Sky HD + box offer once there are Freeview HD boxes available. These are due in March. I’ll keep an eye and report any changes back on this site.
Hope this helps..
I have seen Freeview HD receivers available on a well known auction site…Just put ‘Freeview HD Receiver’ as your search. Only 1 or 2 but nonetheless they are available now. I have a HD satellite receiver which is more readily available to free HD channels not only in the UK but if you get a bigger dish and stick a motor on it, you can view one or two free HD channels around Europe. There are many models on the market to get Free HD channels in Europe so just get googling and find which suits you best.. HD satellite has been going from different providers for a while whether you get a subscription provider or a free transmission is up to you and your needs.
search the net…….its a great tool
Just to add to my earlier comment, I think Freeview has moved forward rapidly with the Freeview+(plus) systems and I hope they keep going as the competition they bring can only be good for us the consumer. Showing us now that they have HD within our grasp, albeit in certain areas at the moment, I think they are making some other overpriced items through subscriptions available to the man on the street. in another form like a one-off-payment. Not bad considering we have been waiting for the digital switchover wondering what will happen. Lets hope all the Tech companies keep battling it out for our attentions to give us better services and more options.
John… I think we have to be careful in believing what some sites will tell us. I searched ebay for Freeview HD receiver but can only find the Humax PVR9150T – which is definitely not a Freeview HD receiver. The HD in this case stands for ‘Hard Drive’ and as you can see from http://www.freeviewrecorder.org.uk it is a very popular Standard Definition recorder, but not Freeview HD.
The other way in that some people will try and deceive us is by saying it does HD – for example the Humax PVR9300T does have an HDMI connection and will ‘upscale’ standard definition pictures to what it calls HD (720p i think it is) but the effect of this isnt true HD.
You are right about Europe, other countries, especially the US, already have HD, but no where uses the DVB-T2 standard that the UK will use so there isn’t any hardrware available. I still believe that Humax will be the first company to market within 2 months from now.
Thanks for you input, good to know people are keen.
I apparently already have access to BBC / ITV HD via the Freeview HD service. Channel 4 to come soon. I assume this is because I can get the Crystal Palace transmitter signal. That said, Sky seem to suggest their £30 off offer isn’t good for me. Lucky for me, I already have a Sky contract i got at half price, which is due to end in March. Hey, roll on March / Freeview HD
Now we just need someone to produce a Freeview HD box at affordable cost.