SKY Plus Holds the Ground

The Sky Plus box is Sky's not so secret saviour. Back in February the company announced that the recorder is now driving subscriptions. But, we ask, are there other areas Sky might look to for continued customer loyalty?

"The device," reports The Telegraph, "which allows viewers to pause live television and skip ad breaks, is now in 3.1m Sky homes, an increase of 434,000 over three months, the company will announce at its half-year results.

Customer numbers grew by 323,000 in the previous quarter - and the number of homes with Sky recorders is almost equal to the 3.5m subscribers that take Virgin Media's cable TV service."

The big news last year of course was Sky dropping the £10 monthly subs on the box and it turns out to be very good indeed for the broadcaster.

As subscriber numbers begin to flatten though, we wonder where Sky will go with its customer service policies. Our recent experience with Setanta on Sky has been abysmal but as yet there is not recourse within the Sky system for us to complain about a channel's obnoxious customer service attitudes.

We'd suggest there's an important and neglected role here for Sky to police the system with a light hand, making suggestions to the channels it carries to protect the good name of a l the channels. And t4o keep the customer happy.