Sky TV customers in the UK are being posed an interesting choice by the Murdoch-owned network — watch adverts or pay £5 per month (around AU$9 ) to skip them.
The broadcaster introduced the new monthly charge for customers with the Sky Glass TV or the Sky Stream set-top box and has been automatically added to the bills of customers who signed up to Ad Skipping.
However, that extra charge doesn’t allow you to skip ads on other streaming services that you might access through the Sky box or TV such as Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify.
Sky had introduced the Ad Skipping TV package earlier this year and bundled it — for free — with Sky Glass and Sky Stream contracts. However, and presumably to the chagrin of viewers, that free period has expired.
The move certainly seems interesting from Sky. The business makes vast amounts of money through advertising. However, being able to equate one customers’ ad value to around $9 per month seems remarkably low.
Whether the company receives any pushback from advertisers over the move — or whether any users will sign up for the extra charge in the midst of a very acute cost of living crisis in the UK — remains to be seen.
Sky are going to charge £5 to skip ads. Like we’re not paying loads as it is 🙄 @skytv
— Cazbert (@oceanicitl) December 5, 2022
Dispicable. Sky will charge if you skip ads £5 a month. Insanity.
This is like being back to the times of terrestrial TV .. Two steps forward, 1 step back. #skyhttps://t.co/c5ax8geBzn
— Rishi – Investor (@AngelInvestorUK) December 2, 2022
Hats of to Sky for its amazing business model.
It overcharges for a service which most use to watch free-to-air channels. Gets revenue from the channels it distributes and then gets revenue again from people who don’t want to watch the ads.https://t.co/qUsyGkwqz7
— jorge 💛💙 (@antartica81) December 5, 2022
