I’ve had Sky TV since the early 1990s, back when satellite dishes were new and the idea of hundreds of channels felt exciting. Over the years I stuck with Sky through the switch from analogue to digital, through new boxes, new features and—unfortunately—ever‑increasing monthly bills. A year ago I finally decided enough was enough. I cancelled Sky, switched to Freesat, and to my surprise I’ve saved hundreds of pounds without losing the TV I actually watch.
My Journey With Sky TV Since the Early 1990s
As I was repairing TVs and Video recorders, it wasn't long before I was asked if I could repair satellite boxes. I soon got my hands dirty repairing the analogue boxes of the day such as Amstrad and Pace. To test them, of course, I needed a satellite dish which I had installed. This opened up the world of Sky TV with many free channels such as sky news, cartoon network etc that you couldn't get on terrestrial TV. There were many occasions when I had a box in for repair that had the viewing card inserted so this went on 'test' for a few days, enough to watch vintages episode of Top of The Pops on Sky Gold and the Simpsons on Sky 1.
The Move to Digital and How Sky Changed Over the Years
Around 1998, Sky went digital. Gone was the round 50cm dish in favour of the smaller meshed minidish. These dishes had to be pointed to a new location at 28.2 E rather than 19.2E for the analogue stream.
Sky had an offer to supply a box with the basic package for £6. It wasn't going to break the bank, so I delved in starting a 25 year subscription journey with Sky.
In those days, you could get the BBC channels which were free to air, meaning you didn't need a subscription to watch, channels 4 and 5 were available as long as you had a subscription. You could not get ITV on sky for a few years for contractual reasons although channel 103 was always kept in reserve for when it did eventually arrive on the platform. Most people still had a terrestrial aerial plugged into the back of the TV which was the only way to get ITV.
Sky +
Wanting to be ahead of the game, sky started to introduce new boxes with hard drives that could record programmes, pause and rewind. They also added another tuner so that you could record while watching something else on sky. This came at an extra cost of £10 per month on top of the subscription so another £120 per year. I managed to pick up a Panasonic DVD RAM recorder for £100 which did the same job as the Sky +, lasted years and saved a small fortune.
Why I Finally Decided to Leave Sky
The Rising Costs
That initial £6 subscription didn't stay at that price for long. Every so often the price would increase, Sky's TV packages were configured in such a way that the popular programmes were in different packages, you couldn't choose which ones you wanted, which meant you would have to take out multiple packages at a higher cost. Every year the price would go up and I'd ring them to haggle.
The Final Straw
This came last year February 2025. I got an email to say the subscription would be increasing again from the £32 I was now paying each month for the variety package. I tried the usual haggle trick to get the cost down or at least for it to stay the same, but this time was told there was no deal on offer not even for a VIP customer that had been with them for 25 years. I asked how much notice I needed to give to cancel my TV subscription expecting the adviser to soften a bit and have a word with their supervisor, but no, "you have 30 days", I was told, "do you want me to cancel it for you now?" I was a little surprised at this cold response, but in the time since I got the original email, I looked into other alternatives and I already knew about Freesat and so was determined to cancel if I didn't get a good deal, so I gave instructions to cancel there and then.
The Move to Freesat
When I received the email from Sky informing me that the cost of the TV subscription was increasing, it made me evaluate what I was actually paying for. It turned out that we were mostly viewing content that was free on terrestrial TV anyway. There were some things that myself or the family would watch on Sky that we found interesting, but this wasn't very often, certainly not to justify the £32 monthly subscription that was about to increase again. What we would miss with the Sky box is the ability to record up to 4 programmes at once and being able to pause programmes, we used this feature a lot.
Recordable 4K Freesat Box
The answer was a Freesat box. There are boxes made by other manufacturers that can receive Freesat and even display the Freesat EPG, but these are getting older now. The boxes that are endorsed by Freesat are made by Arris. They come as just a receiver with no recording facility if you just want a way of receiving Freesat channels. You will, of course, need a satellite dish, but if you've had Sky, just plug one of the leads into the box using the screw in F connector. The Recordable version can record 4 programmes at the same time, depending on the type of LNB. If your Sky box could record 4 programmes at the same time, then you have the wideband LNB which will work with the Freesat Box. If you have the older LNB, then you can only record 2 programmes at once with the Freesat Box, but this would be the same with a Sky box.
Choose The Right Hard Drive
The Freesat Box comes in 3 different hard drive sizes, 500 GB, 1 TB or 2TB.
I thought the 500GB would be too small for my use, so I opted for the 1TB as this was also the capacity of my old Sky box. If you intend to do a lot of recording, then you might think about the 2TB.
The 1TB has been more than adequate for our use and has never filled up during the past year, but we have had to delete programmes just like we did with the Sky box.
Make Sure To Get The Recordable Freesat Box
If you intend to record programmes, don't make the mistake of ordering a Freesat 4K TV Box, it has to be the Recordable Freesat 4K TV Box. There is quite a difference in price between the two.
Sky TV vs Freesat - What's The Cost?
With Freesat, there is no subscription whatsoever, but there is the initial outlay for the box which may be off putting to some. I did a price check and the 1TB recordable Freesat box is coming in at £329.95 on Amazon - " I'll stick with Sky" I hear you say, but wait! You can buy a refurbished 1TB box directly from Freesat for £219 - over £100 saving. I'll put a link to the website below.
Refurbished Recordable TV Box
This is what the website says - "Our set top boxes are refurbished to a Grade A standard, meaning that they are functionally like new. Cosmetically, there may be some minor scratches but these should be minimal, barely perceptible and will not have any impact on the box’s performance. The product has been re-packaged with the latest versions of our Quick Start Guide and Freesat-original accessories (such as remote control)."
"A refurbished Freesat 4K TV Box was a pre-owned or returned order. However, it has gone through a rigorous testing process as our brand new devices do, so any faulty part found is repaired or replaced. They still come with the same 1 year warranty."
Although it says 4K, there is no 4K content being transmitted, but the box is 4K ready if that changes.
You can also stream 4K through the Apps if the content is available ( The BBC will be showing the majority of world cup matches in 4K HDR which you will be able to stream through the box using iPlayer, providing your internet speed is up to it and you have a 4K TV) If you haven't got a smart TV, this box will turn it into one as you will be able to get all the free terrestrial channel players, as well as the subscription ones such as Netflix, Prime and YouTube.
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| Freesat Remote |
The Freesat Test - Is It Worth it?
I got my refurbished box a year ago when they were £175 for the 1TB. We can see how the price has increased since then which shows how sought after these are. I've had no problems at all with this box. Was it worth paying up front? Absolutely!
Consider, I was paying Sky £32 per month = £384 per year, so I've well had my money back and more within the first year. Have we missed Sky? Not one bit, and now it's costing us nothing for more or less what we had with Sky. Even with the increased cost to buy the box today, it's still worth it, and with the year guarantee, you know you won't have to pay again for another year at least and that's only if the box breaks down after the guarantee has expired. Mine's still going strong.
Click HERE for the link to refurbished freesat
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