Sky high profits
0 commentsI've never understood the logic behind paying for British Sky Broadcasting. Other than the movie channels, there is really very little on, yet somehow Sky manages to get an average of over £400 from each and every subscriber.
That works out at around £33 a month and doesn't seem too bad. For that you get two basic channels and one premium package. Let's call that Entertainment and Kids, and either Movies or Sport.
You want to be able to record Sky? Not only do you need to purchase a separate box (shouldn't this be the standard Sky box by now?) but you will also need to pay extra and extra tenner if you don't have a premium channel.
How about being able to see the TV you have paid for in more than one room? Short of an elaborate array of mirrors, you're going to have to pay another tenner for that.
You're now at or passed the magic £33 figure and well on the way to funding a shareholders picnic. But wait, that film that just came out has come onto Box Office (or whatever the hell they call it these days) and that's another 3 quid gone.
With their subscriber base getting close to 8.5 million (yes, that many people can still be wrong) that's around £289m a month that Sky are pocketing.
Oh, did I mention that you still have to watch the adverts? Hell even with the Sky+ package I'll bet you still recognise each ad as you shuttle past it.
These days though, every decent program you could want to watch has been captured and put on the net in some form or another, whether it's a messy streaming video (about as good as the original Sky signal after it's been compressed far too much), or a more sizeable download you can sit back and enjoy on a nice big screen like back in the good old days, so why bother with Sky in the first place?
I used to wonder why Sky subscribers complained about the 100 odd pound for the licence fee, but as they're now paying over 5 times that in total for their TV and there's still fuck all to watch you must start to think that maybe they have a point. They're getting taken for every penny but they're loving every minute it, they've got Sky!
Now have you heard about HD, it's going to be great. All the same content and channels you hate already, but in higher definition. Oh, that'll be another tenner. And you'll need a new box.
Just something to think about while Sky takes in an estimated £3.4bn this year.
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