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Prices are beginning to drop on the Freesat digital boxes, with the Goodmans Freesat HD reduced from £149.99 to £119.99, and the Goodmans SD from £69.99 to £49.99.
It makes much more sense that all the Alba Group Freesat boxes are price matched against each other, considering they are all effectively the same unit with the same internals.
Expect to see the price of the Grundig Freesat HD to come down from £149.99 soon too.
As far as the Humax Freesat HD, there’s every possibility that this will also drop too, with plenty of room for movement in the existing trade price, certainly for the major retailers anyway.
If you can’t wait though, check out our price comparison on the right hand column, for the best prices online.
June 10th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Its good to see prices dropping but I haver to wonder how much of this is due to time elapsing after release and how much is due to lack of demand through lack of advertising and thus public knowledge of the existance of the BBC Freesat system.
Also, wonder how many people having heard of “Freesat” get the Sky box by mistake because of the fact the BBC are continuing to allow Sky to use the same name (I read (rightly or wrongly) that the BBC actually own the “Freesat” brand name even though Sky have used it much longer).
It amazes me that the executives at both firms consider it ok to have two different products on the market with the same name. THEY NEED DISTINCT IDENTITIES GUYS WITH VASTLY DIFFERENT NAMES - and it doesn’t take a wage probably in the region of of £ several hundred thousand a year for me to tell you that!
Imagine the confusion at the supermarket if “Vanilla” ice cream was used as a brand by 2 different production companies and they supplied all the other generic brands with their supplies.
Imagine the confusion if it meant vanilla flavour at one and lemon flavour at the other and the only way you knew flavour which you’d got from the generic brand was after you’d got it home and tried it by which time the company wouldn’t take it back!
June 10th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Al - We would beleive that the drop in price is down to time elapsed rather than lack of demand. Prices at trade have remained the same, and originally the mark-up was significant, its now down to a level we expected.
Agree on the “Freesat” name issue though, BBC own the trademark, so would be wise to ask Sky to remain their product…but the likely fact is that Sky won’t continue with a free service once those remaining encrypted channels go FTA. Sky refuse to offer a complete free service alternative, they want to remain subscription only hense the lack of advertising themselves.
June 10th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Tha ‘Alba’ boxes are not exactly the same. The slightly more expensive versions have surround sound.
June 10th, 2008 at 9:48 am
I realise this can only be a good thing, but its only been out a month it must leave a bit of a sour taste in the mouths of the early adopter. Also if the wholesale price is the same and to begin with they were funny about the independent stores getting them. It makes the hole thing smell of price fixing.
June 10th, 2008 at 10:24 am
@admin - agreed that Sky don’t seem to advertise the free service themselves, but since Freesat has been launched there’s seems to be a huge marketing push by Sky to pursuade people to take up Sky + with adverts featuring Ross Kemp, Michael Parkinson and others on at a high rate of frequency on tv and in the magazines / press.
It seems to me that with BBC Freesats lack of advertising this is capturing people who might otherwise choose Freesat were they not ignorant of its existance - good for Sky and no doubt the aim of the campaign, but bad for Freesat as ultimately if the take up doesn’t grow exponentially, the content, advertising revenue and HD won’t grow either and the service could even go under.
Also, on other forums, I’ve already seen several instances of people buying Sky Freesat and then posting and asking where the other BBC Freesat channels / free HD is. Having 2 products from different companies with the same name is very confusing for often ill informed consumers.
June 10th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Al - Agreed, Sky are pushing Sky+ massively at present, but thats a subscription service, they’ve never pushed the free service, which is why its kind of funny that after Freesat’s launch Sky got all ratty and claimed “well we’ve had a free service for 4 years”!!! Maybe its the satellite industry as a whole that aren’t capable of advertising. This website and certain forums are the best advertising Freesat/Sky have!
June 10th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Well i’ve been itching at the chance of buying into the BBC freesat service since having an independant installer put my dish up about a month ago… But haven’t joined the bandwagon yet due to the channels and poor boxes.
I’ve inherited a sky+ box (which incidentally works on freesat with no sub), and have just activated the “pay once watch forever” deal, as well having another spare sky box.
Their freesat service is just superior at the moment, and until there is more hd channels and a DECENT pvr (i stress decent, ie the talk of Tivo coming back to the UK, a topfield, or the humax with good reviews)… I won’t be buying into the itv/bbc freesat.
June 11th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Gordon, do you work for Sky? you did notice this is the join freesat not join Sky website!
I am sure that Sky+ boxes won’t record unless you pay Sky at least £10 per month!. I am also sure Sky+ boxes won’t let you watch HDTV. Also Sky+ boxes have had their share of problems, and the Thompson HD boxes are terrible due to the infamous capacitor problem
If the Humax freesat PVR is anything like my Humax 9200T it will be a rock solid. Remember Humax give 2 year warranties on their equipment, how many times have Sky offered to replace a box for free outside a year!.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:20 am
No i don’t work for sky….
I know this is joinFreesat…. and i do want to join Freesat, and will join freesat when the service is good enough. My point is simply that i can get a better service elsewhere for free.
If the humax pvr is decent (and not extortionate) then i’ll buy it.
Oh and regarding the sky+ box not recording without a £10 sub. It’s been recording for 2 weeks, whether or not it’ll continue to work i don’t know. But for the past 6 months the box has been sat in an attic, so i’d imagine if sky were going to shut it off they’d have done it already.
June 11th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Gordon,
Fair enough if you got given a free Sky+ box, but if I wanted a free Sky+ box I would have to subscribe to Sky for a year and that would then be much more expensive than freesat.
I assume you have 100’s of Sky encrypted channels in your EPG, together with lots of rubbish channels i.e. bid/babe that you can’t delete and have to scroll through each time….hardly better than freesat. Also freesat now support scanning for the extra FTA channels as well.
I’m sorry to say the record function will be disabled by Sky if you don’t pay them a sub, I assume if you have activated the 4 month deal “Pay once watch forever” on Sky the record function might last that long, other members might be able to confirm this.
Please remember Sky has worked on their software for years now and the freesat boxes are very new, given a few months of working on the firmware I have no doubt the freesat boxes will be superior for FTA viewing and recording.
June 11th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Yeah the list of channels you don’t receive are really annoying.
I haven’t activated the 4 month deal yet : the new box is coming on saturday… Sky+ box is seperate from this.
Lets just hope the arrival of the Humax PVR gets more people (including me) on board.
June 11th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I’m waiting for the Humax PVR myself, I’m prepared to spend around £250 as I appreciate it is not subsidised as part of a subscription contract, and the twin HD chipsets and large HD must add to the cost. I was prepared to spend £199 on the Humax 9200 two years ago, so this price point is about right.
I will be reading the reviews closely though, as I want an SD picture at least as good as a Standard Sky box, but it should be better as it will be upscaled through the HDMI. Hopefully a more integrated method of accessing the extra FTA channels as well.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
I too have Sky+ and am waiting for the Freesat PVR. Sky + is excellent - but expensive and no HD. Rarely watch live TV these days so PVR is essential and it’s frustrating that there’s still no expected launch date. Will pay 300 - just put one in the shops!
June 13th, 2008 at 7:58 am
I still find it crazy that if you buy a Sky+ box you can’t use the record function unless you pay Sky at least £10 per month. It’s a bit like buying a car, then paying the garage a monthly fee to use the radio!
June 13th, 2008 at 9:38 am
@ Lee - yep tell me about it - I’ve just finished my sub to sky for my sky+ box (12 months) when I took it out I thought about the costs of sky and offset it against having a FTA channels PVR at the end of it - sky never told me at the start they’d switch off the record features once my sub ended, I found that out after some research of my own a few months ago
June 13th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Tim, I think its time to think Freesat PVR, Sky are really only interested in your wallet!. I would imagine the Sky subs and box cost over what the Freesat PVR will cost.
The Sky+ box as a freesat PVR would be less than ideal anyway, due to all the 100’s of channels listed that you can’t watch or delete and would have to scroll through all the time.
June 13th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
HI Lee - I tended to find most of the time the stuff I was recording on the sky+ box was FTA anyway - I was paying £17 a month for 12 months so - £204 in total - but like I say I set this against having a PVR at the end - oh well I shoulda checked it out better. Series link withdrawal is hitting me quite bad now lol.
I agree totally on the freesat PVR - it’s definately what I’m waiting for (along with everyone else lol).
June 15th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Hi… just some info I thought may be useful. I bought a BUSH HD FreeSat box from Argos last week mainly to watch the football from Switzerland and Austria in HD on BBC HD & ITV HD. What a great decision this was even though I already have Sky+. To watch the Bush HD I took out LNB 2 connection on the Sky+ and put it in to the LNB input on the Bush. Everything about watching TV through the Bush whether in SD or HD blows the Sky+ images away because of the HDMI upscaling.
Of course the Sky+ box is then reduced to operating like a standard digibox with only a record what you are watching at the time possibility! On this if you are upgrading to a Sky HD it will reduce your sophisticated Sky+ box to a mere digibox… though there may be the possibility of accessing some features if you pay Mr M even more?
The HD on the Bush is superb, as is the SD also. This box is now are domestic choice above Sky+ to watch the terrestrial channels. I am really impressed with the upscaling on HDMI of the SD channels and with a HD ready TV they are superior to what you’ll see from your Sky+ box.
The BBC & ITV should have committed much more to advertising this service and it seems odd that they have not though things seem to be stepping up.
One more thought… how perverse is it that you pay a TV provider to watch their programmes in your own home and then should you want that same flexibility in another room they say you have to pay extra… and we put up with that astonishing slap in the face to their paying customers!
So invest in a FreeSat HD box and watch some quality terrestrial satellite TV!
June 26th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I do hope that Humax are taking note of the fact that there are many out there who want an upgraded receiver before they join Freesat. I have a Humax 9200T PVR and it is great and would certainly buy the equivalent for Freesat. However, when I contacted Humax they did not seem to be considering producing an upgrade to the initial Foxsat, at this time. Hopefully, demand will encourage them.
July 8th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Sorry but a basic question. I have an old Sky installation, can I plug the Sky dish into a BBC Freesat box and get all the channels - or does the Freesat dish need pointing elsewhere ?