Why I Cancelled Sky TV. The BBC is next.

Every year, Sky UK raises the cost of my television subscription. Every year, I negotiate it down again. 12 months ago, I informed them that I was bored of this haggling; xxx was the price I was prepared to pay for my modest package of channels. Should they see fit to raise it, I would cancel. They raised it in April. I duly informed them that the contract would not be renewed. Straight away, they offered me special deals and reductions. No. I had grown bored of this annual bartering; like some bizarre mating ritual among birds of paradise, I could no longer be bothered to play their game. Today, the features of Sky and my recorded programmes are no longer available; I have ceased to be one of their television customers. Perhaps they’ll offer me an enticing deal to bring me back; maybe they’re as sick of my meanness as I am of their avarice and they are glad to be shut of me. I continue to pay for their broadband, which is excellent.

Like most companies, Sky UK seeks to make as much money as possible; their shareholders would expect nothing less. Every day, they raise their customers’ prices and customers more loyal than me haggle them down, allowing them to think they got a great deal at the corporation’s expense. Its 2017 revenue was just shy of £13 billion, so I think we know who generally does well out of this negotiating. This highlights one of the problems with capitalism. Employers will always pay workers as little as possible; producers will always charge customers as much as possible. This market greed generally succeeds at arriving at the correct wage and the right price- but it is still greed.

Now I have so few channels to watch and no means of recording them, I’m able to consider getting rid of the television altogether. Although the set provides me with the only company I have on some occasions, it's in danger of becoming my one-eyed idol, an entry-point through which worldly values, vain philosophies and sexual immorality enter my home. I would dearly love to cancel my television licence, anticipating the satisfaction at no longer subsidising the Biased Broadcasting Corporation. If capitalist Sky irritates me for its coveting my money, the state-owned BBC is just as maddening for attempting to force on me its progressive liberalism, and billing me £12 per month for the privilege.