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Disney+ now with advertising: The 10 most important questions and answers
by Luca Fontana
Price increase, advertising, changed names: What you need to know about the new Sky plans
16.4.2024
Translation: machine translated
Sky Show is reorganising its plan portfolio. This includes new packages, new names and new benefits - and higher prices. You can find the most important questions about the Sky reorganisation here.
Sky subscribers will find a new email in their inbox today. Among other things, the streaming service announces: The prices for streaming plans are being increased. Of course, it's worded differently: "Your Sky Show offers are changing". The days of "Entertainment" and "Cinema" are over. The new subscriptions not only cost more, some of them also contain adverts. However, loyal customers will receive a discount. What you need to know:
1. What does Sky's new subscription plan look like?
The previous plans, "Entertainment", "Cinema" and "Entertainment & Cinema" are disappearing. There are now three new subscriptions: "sky show light", "sky show standard" and "sky show premium".
Source: Sky.ch
The "Cinema Pass" will only be continued for existing customers. The monthly price will be increased from 9.90 francs to 10.90 francs.
2 How much do the new plans cost?
If you are a new customer, you will pay 12.90 francs for the Light plan, 17.90 for the Standard plan and 24.90 for the Premium plan. If you already have a Sky subscription, you will receive a loyalty discount. If you opt for the Light or Standard price plan, you pay two francs less per month, i.e. 10.90 francs. You pay four francs less if you opt for Premium. That would be 20.90 francs.
Source: Sky.ch
Sky promises that you will keep this loyalty bonus even if you change your plan afterwards. With no time limit.
3. When do the new prices apply?
Subscriptions and prices will change from 27 May 2024. This means you still have around five weeks to buy one of the previous Sky plans if you want to continue to benefit from the lower prices.
4. Will I see less content with the cheaper plans?
Yes, the content in the "Hollywood Blockbuster" and "Sky Cinema Films" categories is reserved for the Premium plan. Otherwise, the content is the same for all three plans.
5. What are the technical differences between the subscriptions?
The main difference is that the Light plan includes adverts. On a technical level, the plans differ in terms of the number of parallel streams, the number of devices with download and offline playback and the audio and picture quality. Premium is the only subscription to offer 5.1 support. In addition, you have to make do with a resolution of 720p with the Light plan. With Standard it is 1080p and with Premium "up to 4K".
6. What does "up to 4K" mean with the Premium subscription?
It does not mean that ALL content is available in 4K. However, Sky does not have a clear concept of what content you can and cannot watch in 4K. You can recognise series and films that are available in 4K by the "UHD" mark. In my experience, films are more likely to be available in 4K than series.
Source: Sky.ch
It also affects more recent productions. However, if the film and your playback device support 4K, it will be played back automatically. You don't have to set anything manually.
7. adverts with a light plan: when, which, how much?
One thing up front: Sky does not say how many adverts will be shown. Nor how long a block of adverts will last. This is variable, say the experts at Sky. But one thing is clear: if you select a film or series, adverts may appear before the start. You can assume that the frequency and duration of the adverts will be based on other streaming services. Unlike Sky, Disney+, for example, provides very specific details about its advertising schedule, as our colleague Luca Fontana found out. Whether the advertising is also age-appropriate is not entirely clear. I assume that there is an option to block the adverts that are unsuitable for children.
Header image: Shutterstock
I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue.
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