Sky Sports Football Fixtures On TV

I know existing Sky TV customers will be saying that’s not fair to themselves but it’s not my fault. For those that want to take Sky up on their half price subscription for 12 months the SkyTV1 discount code I used has expired. However cheap televisions has had a tip off that the discount code SkyA is valid until 8th September 2011 and SkyTV3 may also still be valid. It would be much better if Sky would stop charging people to view the channels in HD though, £10 a month, £120 a year is expensive in this economic climate and isn’t helping forward the world of HD television viewing for the masses.

So as I now have the luxury of being able to watch the nations favourite spot on my 50 inch plasma television (I can’t wait), I’ve been hunting through the TV listings for what football games are being televised this coming week on Sky Sports.

This Weeks TV Football Fixtures starting 20/08/11

Saturday 20/08/22
Arsenal Vs Liverpool – Premier League – 12pm Sky Sports 2
Peterborough United Vs Ipswich Town – npower Championship – 5pm Sky Sports 2

Sunday 21/08/22
West Ham Vs Leeds – npower Championship – 1pm Sky Sports 1
Bolton Vs Manchester City – Premier League – 3.30pm Sky Sports 1

Monday 22/08/22
Manchester United Vs Tottenham – Premier League – 7pm Sky Sports 1

Tuesday 23/08/22
FC Zurich Vs Bayern Munich (various other games on the red button – Champions League Qualifying Play-Off – 7pm Sky Sports 2

Wednesday 24/08/22
Exeter Vs Liverpool – Carling Cup – 7.30pm Sky Sports 1

Thursday 25/08/22
Scunthorpe v Newcastle – Carling Cup – 7pm Sky Sports 1

Friday 26/08/22
Barcelona v Porto – UEFA Super Cup – 7.30pm Sky Sports 1

It looks like it isn’t going to be a good week for the telly belly! But a great one for football fans. We might make this week long Sky Sports football fixture guide an ongoing feature here on the cheap television blog.

Fine the Sky Movies HD TV advert isn’t amazing and really just shows a 1980′s montage of the best parts of each movie, played over emotional music, with a man talking over the images with a cool voice, but it does make you want to get Sky Movies! Still not sure loyal customers are too pleased they can’t take advantage of the deal mentioned above.

Half Price Sky TV Deal

The reasons at the time was I just wasn’t watching that much of the Sky broadcasts on my television to justify the cost of the Sky subscription. A hundred billion channels but I was still mostly watching the BBC and Channel 4! Since then Sky have introduced Sky Arts and Sky Atlantic which seem to have programming that better suits my viewing taste. So I have to say the 12 months half price Sky subscription offer is pretty tempting.

You do however have to feel sorry for the loyal Sky customers that wouldn’t be able to take advantage of this Sky deal! It’s a bit crazy that those (like myself) who happily chop and change their television services to get the best price get all the best offers to return to Sky. Yet those that stay loyal and have had ongoing Sky subscriptions for years have to pay the full price.

Save Money On Your Television

1. Cancel your Sky TV or Virgin Media subscription! I know it sounds like the end of the world especially when more of us are spending more time at home in front of the television rather than going out. However cancelling your TV subscription or just reducing to a lower package is the biggest way of cutting your annual television bill. The monthly price of the Sky+ with Variety Pack is £19.50 so cancelling this and changing to Freesat or Freeview would save you £234 a year! Obviously if you have a bigger Sky TV package like the Entertainment Pack or Sky World your savings would be even higher! I put my money where my mouth is and cancelled my Sky Entertainment package so now only have Freesat and I can honestly say apart from the odd TV show here and there I haven’t really noticed the change, but have noticed the extra money in my pocket. Not strictly television related but if you are on a bundle deal just make sure you are also getting the cheapest broadband and phone deal that they offer, my broadband with Sky was £12.50 a month until I phoned up and switched to the new deal which is £10 for exactly the same service saving an extra £30 a year.

2. Stop leaving your television and home entertainment equipment on standby. Ok so we all know this but start doing it and reduce your energy costs for running your television. Don’t just turn your television off at the plug when you have finished watching television but unplug any devices you’re not using whilst watching your TV. Most of us have a host of home entertainment equipment plugged into the same extension lead as our televisions, so if you’re not using the stereo, home cinema surround sound, Xbox, Playstaion or whatever, unplug it.

3. Stop watching television! Ok this sounds a bit odd but stick with me. I previously mentioned in another cheap television blog post about computers, laptops and tablets becoming more popular than televisions. So if you’re using one of these turn your television off. I recently went round a friends and he was sitting looking at Facebook on his laptop with Radio 2 on in the background and for some odd reason his 42 inch plasma TV was on (muted). Lots of people do the same though, like making dinner, having a bath, putting the kids to bed etc, if you’re not watching your television try to turn it off and again save some more cash.

4. Stop buying DVD and BluRay movies. Think do you really need to add another movie to your collection that will sit in your DVD rack gathering dust? Let’s be honest how many of use watch a movie over and over again on our televisions? Ok Die Hard and Apocalypse Now may be a couple of exceptions, but really we normally only watch a DVD movie a couple of times at the most. So be a bit more picky with the movies you do buy or wait until the sales come along (but don’t just buy DVDs in the sale because they are cheap). Also if you’re a LoveFilm member ask yourself if you really use it, cancelling your membership is another easy way to save cash.

Hopefully some of these ideas will help you reduce your TV bill and get a cheaper yet still rewarding television viewing experience, so you can spend your hard earned money on more useful things. If you have any other ideas or suggestions please add them via the cheap television comments section below.

Sky Vs Virgin Media 3D Television

The story is reported here on techradar (very good site) as they reported a press release from Virgin Media saying they had a 3d TV showing the public bits and bobs in their Oxford Street store. Techradar were then contacted by Sky explaining that it was them and not Virgin who had been first (come on kids this is a bit childish lol). A Sky spokesperson apparently told techradar “Not only where we first UK broadcaster to deliver a 3D TV experience into the home, we were also the first broadcaster to successfully broadcast 3D TV live, and at this year’s Hay Festival we also showcased 3D publicly for the first time too,”.

ok we like a bit of a battle but rather than having one screen that only a limited number of people can test 3d tv out in for a limit amount of time how about you both focus on making it a reality for the masses! Just a thought.

Sky Player Xbox 360 Television X

Griff Parry from Sky On Demand apparently said “The general idea is we’re reassembling the set-top box proposition. Those channels are part of that. But I think they would be among the last things we would look to add. The focus is a mainstream proposition.”. If there’s a market and demand for those television channels like Television X and Sky to make some money I’m pretty sure they will roll it out. I think the main thing holding them back would be Microsoft which is still trying to portray it’s Xbox 360 as a family entertainment console to compete with the Nintendo Wii.

Samsung Plasma HDTV

So buying your new TV is now more complicated, and all the marketing terms and funny names for the TV sets just increases the frustration for many people trying to work out which television would be right for them. When flat panel technology began to get popular with consumers the TV’s were expensive, but now I think we have reached a level where a LCD or Plasma TV are at a relatively good price point especially with the finance and credit deals available even during this recession.

HDTV has changed the television viewing experience for the better, but again it has confused people a lot who may not understand it as well as others. I can only guess the number of people who have spent a bit more money buying a Full HD TV with the theory it will be better than a HD Ready telly (bigger numbers always equals better right?) but I bet its high. These people have actually spent more money but receive no HD signal via the likes of SKY HD or a Blu-Ray DVD player when a 720 HD ready set would probably suit their needs much better (cheaper can be better).

But it’s future proof right? Well yes, but by the time HD TV signals make their way to Freeview for the masses to enjoy I would imagine a new even higher definition technology would probably appear. Personally cheap televisions love HD but with the current financial crisis going on we can’t afford the cost of an extra £5 a month on our Sky TV subscription for Sky HD and normal standard definition DVD’s are so much cheaper than their Blu-Ray DVD counterparts we can’t justify spending the extra even though we know the quality is that much better.

It’s doesn’t matter if you’re searching to find yourself a cheap as chips television set or a top range monster, LCD or plasma or LED (LED TV’s are just LCD televisions with LED’s to backlight it instead of the old way of using florescent tubes) just make sure you do your research before giving your cash to the guy in the shop o the online store. You could save yourself some cash, get a cheap television and not get any less features or quality for your money.

Good news for all UK Xbox 360 owners (including cheap televisions) the deal to bring the Sky Player to the Microsoft Xbox 360 games console on the 27h of October! Apparently it will only be in standard definition (why all these HD Ready and Full HD televisions when there’s no free HD content, not the best marketing!) to start off with, and may include Premier League Football and boring boring Cricket.

Sky Player Xbox 360

I’m going to try and find out more information about the Sky Player on the Xbox 360 tomorrow. But for any cheap television readers in the USA I also read this on one of the Xbox 360 forums “For any US users that are annoyed, this is pretty much exactly like Netflix, apart from we need an additional monthly subscription and a whole load less content. But yes, we do get live streaming TV too, apparently. I wouldn’t be surprised if thats a ‘Coming soon’ feature”.

To be fair if you already have a TV and Sky and an Xbox I don;t really see the point.

If you want one of these designer Sky HD boxes be prepared to pay between £199 to £299 for the privilege.