NOW TV to Hit UK Customers with Entertainment Price Hike
Sky’s sibling UK ISP and video streaming service, NOW TV (NOW Broadband), are due to inform those that take their popular “Entertainment Pass” and “Hayu Pass” to expect an 11.1% and 25% increase, respectively, in their monthly rental prices from 1st September 2020.
The “Entertainment Pass“, which gives live and on-demand access to various TV channels including some of Sky’s most popular ones (e.g. Sky One, Sky Atlantic, FOX, SyFy, Discovery etc.), currently costs £8.99 per month and this will rise to £9.99 from September.
Similarly, the “Hayu Pass“, which is dedicated toward reality TV shows (better known as torture to some of us), normally costs £3.99 and will be going up to £4.99 per month.
Separately, we should point out that NOW TV can be a little cheeky because in order to get proper 1080p HD quality (requires a broadband speed of 12Mbps) and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound you have pay for an additional boost costing £3 extra per month. This makes it quite expensive compared to some of their rivals in this space (we’d expect 4K for that), but otherwise you’re stuck on 720p.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Seen that coming with the introduction on new channels recently.
I just took Sky Q UHD with multiroom for £33 a month, get Netflix Premium in with that so not much price difference (£8 extra a month) for more channels and will take the pressure off my 4G connection when trying to stream live.
Thanks for this i use Entertainment pass and hadn’t received an email about this. I may consider cancelling as it was already expensive
If you go through the cancellation process they will always offer a discount. I am on £1.80 a month until October with entertainment and separate £20 a month sky sports offer.
Also checkout cdkeys I buy passes at a reduced amount from there. But cancel first, as previously mentioned, as NowTV may we’ll make you a good offer when cancelling.
I expect Hayu is increasing simply because that’s the price Hayu themselves charge so Sky is either losing money or had to renegotiate contract. I wouldn’t watch if you paid me to watch stuff on there but sadly i know it is very popular for some.
NowTV are full of rubbish! Always buffering! Cheeky to pay extra for 1080p Full HD
I disagree that its full of rubbish – for those of us who don’t want to be locked into the premium Sky Q service, its good value for money, especially if you can get it on a good deal. I have never encountered any buffering on my VM 200/20 service – must be your set-up.
I am currently paying £8.50 per month for the entertainment + HD pass. No more than you would pay for a Netflix sub.
I wonder who this is…. anyway, I’ve used Now TV for a while and its been great, if its buffering I would look closer to home as I’ve genuinely never had issues with buffering except in cases where I had terrible WiFi a few years back and recently due to switching to 4G connection thats limited by signal.
Hello there Max
Yes thanks Max for your waffle.
It’s about time sky TV starting IPTV, apparently the Q boxes are capable of it but they haven’t done anything yet.,
Have NowTv for sky sports pay the extra for 3 streams + HD have no problems but then do have rock steady 200+ virgin media always wait for discounted offer at start of football season no complaints.
I still can’t get over they charge extra for 1080 which isn’t that great anyway. The SD stuff on a 4k TV looks awful I get charging extra for 4k but really 1080 is taking the p@ss as an extra. I cancelled when I had a TV upgrade
There is a reason they have less than 20% of the subscribers that Netflix have. Worse player and UI, poorer selection, fewer number of devices and more expensive. If it were not for all their offers I would have left for now
Now TV helps Sky to get subscribers who can’t get/can’t afford/don’t want Sky. There is an appeal in having no contract and those keen on GoT have to get Now TV. I don’t see Netflix as being a competitor to Now TV.
I honestly can’t see my self subscribing to anything related to sky (especially when it comes to content) I’m happy with YouTube, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix for dosage of Tv series, films and content creators etc.
My*
Out of interest what other options are there for receiving IPTV over broadband in the UK? Over here in Switzerland it’s now uncommon to use an aerial with Swisscom TV, Teleboy and Zatoo being well established offerings which include a full suite of UK channels.
The slew of on-demand apps doesn’t cut it for you? Iplayer, 4oD if that’s still a thing, uk tv play, My5 etc.
It’s a bit clunky having to change to a different app each time.
I suspect that James is referring to the more narrow definition of IPTV, meaning linear TV over broadband. We have Freeview, Freesat and Freesat from Sky which are all free to view once you have the necessary aerial or satellite dish. Then there are hybrid boxes for Youview (mostly provided by BT TV, TalkTalk TV and PLusnet) and Freeview Play which provide Freeview plus a bunch of on demand content over broadband. And speaking of hybrid boxes: Sky is focussing on its own Q box which it sees as a better bet than developing its all-IP box which was announced in January 2017. In the meantime Virgin Media provides everything via cable.
So, it’s hard to see a business case right now for delivering linear TV over broadband if BT, TalkTalk and Sky won’t do it.
if they put the price up, I’ll cancel my subscription
Word of advice, ALWAYS cancel a NowTV pass when paying full price.
I had the Cinema pass for about a year getting constant >= half price deals when I attempt to cancel, I actually went through with it last time but I was still offered a deal.
If I didn’t have Sky, not my choice, I would have Now TV but I would try to get it on a constant deal. But it is a damn cheek to charge you more just for 1080P…
Now tv just stopped taking payments,never really found out why,I also phoned my bank and they said payments were no longer being taken,spoke to someone on now tv live chat and that wasn’t much good,so have now gone elsewhere for entertainment package ….
Now tv just stopped taking payments,never really found out why,I also phoned my bank and they said payments were no longer being taken,spoke to someone on now tv live chat and that wasn’t much good,so have now gone elsewhere for entertainment package ….
Curry’s/PCworld are selling Two month NowTV passes for £10
I think Hayu is largely kept afloat by the Guantanimo Bay subscription after they stopped water boarding.