Not entirely off topic - sky sports and equestrian disciplines

[Shay]

Does anyone know if you can get sky sports in blocks of short periods of time? They've taken over so many equestrian sports I would really love to watch. But it costs just over £20 a month for me on top of my normal digital / broadband service and I only want to watch the horse stuff! Their coverage of the Hickstead Derby etc was really good (my sister has it....). They've got the RIHS next week, plus some of the horse trials, WEG, Olympia etc. But £300ish a year is quite a lot to pay for channels I'd only watch a few times no matter how avidly!

If it helps any tech heads I'm with virgin media cable but I also have a freesat (because I wanted to watch horse and country TV!) I'm not keen to switch because my broadband, phone etc are all the same package - but I'm not entirely adverse either.

 

[BBH]

I asked about Sky the other day and the rep told me that for SJing I'd need Sky sports 1 & 2. It would cost £36 per month and the trick was to cancel the blocks when there was no SJing and increase them when there was if that makes sense. That sounds very complicated to me and probably designed to make you either forget to cancel it and end up with a permanent full package or if ' admin' take too long too action your request you could end up paying extra months anyway. Also you have to sign up for at least a year.

I decided not to on the basis that i've been told a lot of it is repeated stuff,
The RIHS was not on Sky Sports 1 OR 2 but 3 and 4 so even more expensive. The little coverage over the year wasn't worth the cost or hassle IMO.

The BEEB are covering Olympia and a few other bits and at some point may increase what they show. You also have FEITV and other mediums if your desperate. SJFAN would be good to ask as she has a handle on how to view everything SJing related including European stuff.

Some of the SJers were pleased with SKY for getting the rights and the coverage was good but really the sport will stay a niche sport when so few people have viewing options.

 

[sonjafoers]

I don't have Sky Sports as part of my usual package, but I added it last year to watch some Olympia coverage. If I remember correctly you can add it for a minimum period of a month and then cancel again - the way my billing dates work I had payments all over the place but it did work out that I paid only for the extra month.

I wouldn't know how it works through Virgin as they aren't my provider but it's worth a phone call.

It does annoy me that with all the channels you get with Sky you still can't get to watch big equestrian events without paying extra for it. I thought with having Eurosport and Horse & Country I might get to see some Hickstead or WEG coverage but it doesn't look likely.