[Thomas Clifford]

I used to pay for Sky, found it a pretty good service overall but got bored of the same interface and poor quality remote. I also realized I was only really interested in the Live Sport.

Another thing that frustrated me was not being able to access my recordings on different devices. This was probably the deal breaker for me.

I don't use Kodi to stream anything and I pay for Netflix and Amazon Prime subscriptions and have a TV license. that I have no issue with whatsoever. I access these all through my Kodi box including live TV that I can stream all around the house without cables.

I play my own ripped media including music, movies and TV shows that I record from TV.

Overall the reason I use Kodi most is because I can modify it to my liking, and have complete freedom of my own media.

I appreciate your simplistic yet detailed answer Docwra. Much appreciated.

[Thomas Clifford]

Have you saved money on Sky bills?

Yep.  I was paying £58 a month plus the cost of my TV License, which is £147 a year.  So in total it was costing me £843 a year just to watch TV.  I now have Netflix/Amazon which is costing me about £190 a year, so a massive saving.

Do you find Kodi easier to use?

No easier or harder really.

Do you find that there is more content on Kodi than there is on Sky's streaming services?

Kodi provides no content.  I do use some 3rd party addons namely ITV Player, UKTV Play and YouTube.

How do you think Kodi has had an impact on companies like Sky?

I think Sky and BBC must be feeling the impact of online TV services.  If 1 million households dropped the TV Licence like I have the BBC would be in serious trouble.

Do you stream a lot of content on Kodi?

The odd show on ITV or UKTV Play, loads of Netflix/Amazon shows and a massive amount on Youtube.  My kids are never off Youtube.  I also watch a lot of ripped Movies from my Media Server.

What do you think are the positives and negatives of Kodi?

I think it gives me freedom of choice.  I used to watch TV just because it was on, now I watch because I have something to watch.  Kodi has also taught me loads of stuff about home networking and tweaking software to my taste.

Thanks for that response Speedwell

[Hitcher]

Ultimately I think it's Sky's model that is killing it - making people pay for channels they don't want in order to watch the ones they do.

PS Ditched Sky a long time ago because of the above; also ditched terrestrial TV because there was next to nothing worth the TV licence fee; happy pay for Prime and Netflix these days as I can watch whenever/wherever I like.

[stammie]

 Couldn't agree more, unfortunately I do watch live sport, that's literally the ONLY thing I watch live, so I unfortunately have to pay both the BBC tax and the Sky tax (the one where you have to pay for all of the rubbish you don't want to get the sport you do want in HD...).  

I only has Sky for the kids channels and the Formula One.  ... I could no longer justify the expense, just for the F1 (I now go round my Dad's house to watch it).   

If I could find a legal way to get F1 in HD in the UK and also all of the American Football I would drop Sky like a hot potato and could then also drop my TV license as I would be in the same boat as you.

Although I do have other sports on in the background whilst doing other things and will occasionally have Soccer Saturday on I can happily do without those, I can't do without my F1 & NFL however. 

 Although not cheap (I think it was around £150 I paid last season) there is NFL Gamepass that would cover your NFL needs.
I believe that F1 are starting their own streaming service this season but I haven't looked into it so know nothing about its costs or availability.
There is also the alternative for you or any other sports fans who don't like paying for a ton of channels to gain access to the ones they do want which is Now TV,
at the moment Sky have a promotion on ahead of the F1 season where you can get all Sky Sports channels for 9 months for £150,
unfortunately I can't take that offer up as I'm already on another offer from them, but I would say to anyone interested in the Now TV route I probably only pay the full price for the sports channels a couple of months a year,
the rest of the year I get offers for £20 a month or less.

Back on topic,
Kodi has not cost Sky or VM or BT a penny where I am concerned, I haven't paid for a TV package for a few years now, preferring to pay for streaming options.
I use Kodi as my live TV/PVR (Freeview) machine via a HD Homerun Connect and then stream that content as well as my locally stored media around my home.
It would be nice if I could use Kodi for all my streaming needs but unfortunately not all content providers want to play ball, so currently I have Eurosport, BBC Iplayer, NFL Gamepass, UKTV (via the catchup tv and more addon), ESPN Player and ITV installed.
There are many reasons I prefer using Kodi but the main one is probably its ability to auto switch the framerate between the different video formats I play,
I also like the ability to custom zoom the picture, its most likely sacrilege to some but when I watch letterboxed content I will quite often zoom the picture up a bit to fill more of my TV screen.
There are other little things I like that no commercial operator seems to think of like a menu going back to the beginning when you reach the end rather than making you scroll all the way back again.
I also prefer Kodi's customisation, it can be as simple or complicated as someone can handle but I can get my setup exactly how I like it not how someone thinks I should have it.

I could bang on for ages about what Kodi does great that the commercial sector doesn't but I wont bore everyone and finish by saying thank you to everyone in the team for all they do on this great project.

[Mnementh]

I only has Sky for the kids channels and the Formula One.  ... I could no longer justify the expense, just for the F1 (I now go round my Dad's house to watch it).   

If I could find a legal way to get F1 in HD in the UK and also all of the American Football I would drop Sky like a hot potato and could then also drop my TV license as I would be in the same boat as you.

Although I do have other sports on in the background whilst doing other things and will occasionally have Soccer Saturday on I can happily do without those, I can't do without my F1 & NFL however.  

 Although not cheap (I think it was around £150 I paid last season) there is NFL Gamepass that would cover your NFL needs.
I believe that F1 are starting their own streaming service this season but I haven't looked into it so know nothing about its costs or availability.
There is also the alternative for you or any other sports fans who don't like paying for a ton of channels to gain access to the ones they do want which is Now TV,
at the moment Sky have a promotion on ahead of the F1 season where you can get all Sky Sports channels for 9 months for £150,
unfortunately I can't take that offer up as I'm already on another offer from them, but I would say to anyone interested in the Now TV route I probably only pay the full price for the sports channels a couple of months a year,
the rest of the year I get offers for £20 a month or less.

  

I looked at the NFL Gamepass but discarded the idea as the games that are shown live are blacked out, I'm not sure if that has changed now or not, it was a few years ago I last looked at it. Also at the time I looked at it it would have been an extra expense on top of what I was already paying.

I've not heard of the F1 streaming channel so I will look that up thanks for the info if it's good quality and worth it I might look at that and the NFL Gamepass if it no longer blacks out live games.

As for Now TV, that still requires a TV license and is also only 720p max, on a 4K TV that's not ideal. F1 in Ultra HD is awesome, I doubt I could go back to 720p just to save a few pennies. I looked into Now TV a lot before deciding to go the Sky route and while it may be cheaper the quality just doesn't compare.