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03 May 2006
Sky's high-definition television service has signed up more than 40,000 users across the UK and Ireland and will begin its first installations on 22 May.
"There has been encouraging customer demand with over 40,000 advance sales, which is more than the total number of Sky+ sales in its entire first year," said a BSkyB statement.
Bookings for the HD service were first opened to the general public on 13 April and Sky confirmed the 22 May launch date in its financial results statement today.
According to market research firm GFK, 2006 sales forecasts for HD-ready television sets have increased from 1.4 million to two million, with the cumulative total expected to be 2.7 million at the end of 2006.
GFK found that 46 per cent of all TV sales in February with screens larger than 26in were HD-ready.
Sky's list of HD programming highlights for the week commencing 22 May includes Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith on Sky Box Office HD; National Trust: National Treasures on Artsworld HD; 24 on Sky One HD; and Test Cricket on Sky Sports HD.
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Do you agree?
Waiting Time
I rang Sky today with th eintention of ordering the HD service and upgrade from my current 2 box Sky+ package. After going through the terms/ conditions/payment process, the operator then went to arrange an installation date. The earliest date they could give me was 8 August, 3 months time. I thought I misheard. What a joke. Needless to say,I declined.
Posted by: D.Finnegan 18 May 2006
You pays yer money............
No, it's not cheap and yes, the hardware will come down in price, probably dramatically, in the future. That is the same for all technology that is newly available. If you don't want to pay then don't. Myself, i am quite willing to forfeit other luxuries to avail of this one. It's all down to personal choice.
Posted by: Dave 16 May 2006
Sky HD - rip off
£300 for the box if you get multiroom as well, otherwise it's £460 or £520 if you don't want the sky HD subscription (£10/month for less than 10 channels - what a joke). Wait till they 1) cut their prices, 2) make more channels are available in HD, 3) bring out the box with bigger memory - the new box allows only 30 hours of HD recording.
Posted by: Fayaz Roked 07 May 2006
40,000 Plonkers more like
I have sky digital and sky+ and for that Privilege I pay sky £50+ per month. I bought both my boxes for the full asking price as they were released, only to find that six months later sky practicaly gave them away at knock down prices to attract new customers. Now they want me to cough up £300.00 for a HD box plus £10.00 subscription for a few added channels. No more Sky, I'm gonna change over to Telewest.
Posted by: Mr Brian Davis 04 May 2006