Sky offers Sky+HD box for under fifty quid as satellite giant pushes high definition

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Sky has decided that it’s time to get really aggressive when it comes to high definition in the UK, and to that end has slashed the price of its Sky+HD box to just £49. That’s a third of the price it was early last year (£150) and is the satellite broadcaster’s hope of getting many more subscribers hooked on pay-for-HD.

In fact, thanks to a lot of enticing marketing and the lure of a variety of sports, films and other content in high definition, Sky has just had its best quarter — in the three months to the end of December, 188,000 people signed up for high-def services, taking the total number of subscribers to nearly 800,000…

RUMOUR: Sky launching its music subscription service in April

Many have tried to make the all-you-can-eat subscription model work for music, but it’s never taken off due to incompatibilities between different portable music players and the lack of any big companies really getting behind it. Well, we’re hearing a rumour that Sky will finally launch its previously-announced subscription service in April.

Last we heard, we were promised a mix of both streaming and downloadable tracks. Over Christmas, pricing was allegedly leaked – unlimited free streams, plus a set number of MP3 downloads each month. £5.99 for 5 downloads, £7.99 for 10 and £9.99 for 15.

I’ve asked Sky for more details, and I’m waiting to hear back. I, for one, am convinced that it’s not only possible for a subscription service to work, but it’s actually the future of mass-market music consumption. There’s too many people who don’t care about anything beyond the top 40 for that not to be the case.

Related posts: NOISE GATE: Why music subscription services will eventually work | Sky and Universal Music partner to launch subscription music streaming and download service

Sky launches mobile TV service for 3 customers

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If you’re dead keen on squinting at a tiny phone screen to see watch TV, and a 3 subscriber, then you’ll be excited by the announcement this morning that Sky’s Mobile TV service will be coming to a handset near you in the near future. You’ll get Sky Sports channels, Sky News, At The Races and CNN, for a monthly fee of £5, or a daily fee of £1.

It seems that you’ll need a data package to receive the content, too, which will set you back £2.50 a month for 10MB. I suspect, however, that you’ll need substantially more than 10MB if you’re going to watch the service for more than a few minutes.

Sky looking to take over Tiscali broadband

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Not only is Sky spending heavily on advertising at present, hoping to improve upon its recent increase in subscribers, but it could be about to bid a cool £450m for the broadband provider Tiscali.

If Sky’s take-over of Tiscali, with around 1.2m broadband subscribers, is successful it would put its broadband business into third place, behind BT and Virgin Media…

Sky offer 50% off HD box for new and existing customers

If you’ve got a massive 42″ plasma, but you’re still watching standard definition TV and DVD on it, then I’m sure you know you’re not getting the most out of your technology. What you need is some kind of HD provider, but so far they’ve been rather prohibitively expensive. That’s why I wanted to point out to you that Sky are extending their 50% off HD box offer. They haven’t been shouting about enough – it’s a good deal…