Sky Ireland is to reduce the price of its personal television video recording service, SkyPlus, in an attempt to boost sales and increase its subscriber base.
SkyPlus enables viewers to pause programmes during live transmission or automatically order a complete series of one show. This means viewers can choose and record programmes and watch them at times that suit them. But so far sales have been sluggish in the Republic and Britain.
Sky is heavily promoting the product to increase the amount each customer spends on their Sky package. Only 105,000 customers in Britain and Ireland have signed up so far.
Under a new pricing structure, which begins next month, subscribing to SkyPlus will be free for customers who subscribe to one of Sky's digital sports or movie channels. For all other customers the price will remain at €15 per month.
The SkyPlus box itself will now be available at the reduced price of €299. The cost of installation will be €75.
Mr Mark Deering director, Sky Ireland said: "We know that people who already have Sky Plus are passionate about it this blissfully simple TV recording device. By making SkyPlus even better value, we are now making it easier for Irish people to effectively create their own TV channel bringing them primetime TV at any time".
"By reducing the cost of SkyPlus ownership for our most valuable customers we aim to increase penetration, further stimulate take-up of premium chan nels and ensure that Sky remains the leading brand in multichannel TV," said Mr Jon Florsheim, sales and marketing manager director of BSkyB in Britain.
The technology, which allows viewers to pause and rewind live programmes and record every episode of a particular series, is seen as a key part of Sky's strategy to persuade customers to buy extra services and remain loyal.
If at any time a customer ends their Sky digital subscription contract or changes to a package that does not qualify for the free subscription they will be charged the €15 a month charge once more.
Existing SkyPlus customers must subscribe to two or more Sky premium channels to get SkyPlus for free.
Sky is in fierce competition in the digital area particularly with NTL in the Dublin region. While Sky has far more subscribers at this stage there have been signs in recent months its subscriber numbers are startingto plateau.
At present NTL does not have a SkyPlus type package and Sky hopes this will give it an advantage. But NTL offers its customers several Sky channels via its ordinary cable service.
