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Binge-watching is big business. But if you can’t face forking out for endless DVD box sets, you can catch True Detective, Game of Thrones, The Wire and loads more heavyweight TV shows on Sky’s Now TV on the cheap — and even get paid to do it.
A monthly Now TV Entertainment pass currently costs £4.99. That buys you the first series of sweaty crime drama True Detective starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, which is part-way through on Now TV right now, while Series 4 of Game of Thrones returns to Sky on Monday 7 April.
While you’re waiting for the new series you don’t even need a dish to catch up with all three previous seasons of Game of Thrones online — making it just one of the shows which you can enjoy in their entirety, from pilot to finale, for just a fiver per month.
Now TV is Sky’s online streaming service for those of us who don’t subscribe to Sky through a dish. You can sign up for Sky Movies, Sky Sports, or various TV shows with a Sky Entertainment Pass. The Entertainment Pass, costing a fiver until 28 May, opens up a range of shows on channels including Sky 1; Sky Living; Comedy Central; Fox; and Sky Atlantic, home of HBO shows and other quality US programming. There’s no lengthy contract so you can cancel whenever.
For your money, you can enjoy the whole of Game of Thrones from snow-swept start to head-lopping finish, as well as every episode of 24, Mad Men, Scandal, Girls, Modern Family, Revenge, Castle, The Walking Dead, The Wire and other shows old and new.
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Plus there’s the first season of Seinfeld and the latest instalments of new shows like Looking and Fleming. That’s a lot of good telly.
So that’s the quantity — what about the quality? Now TV streams up to 720p. Your actual experience may depend on your broadband connection and the time of day, but in my experience of using Now TV’s Sky Movies service, streaming looks better and buffers far less often than Netflix.
Cashback of the net!
If you have a Now TV box, retail incentive site TopCashback offers you £7.35 when you sign up to a months Entertainment Pass. If you don’t already have the £10 set-top box there are other smaller cashback rewards.
TopCashback also offers £10.50 when you sign up to a Sky Movies Month Pass. The Sky Movies Month Pass only costs £8.99 and you get a months free trial — which means that you’re actually getting two free months, plus a handful of change.
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Other cashback sites include Quidco, which has its own set of deals to earn you some moolah when you buy five days of Sky Sports, or six months of Movies or Entertainment.
HBO
Other streaming sites include Blinkbox, where you can buy Game of Thrones in HD; Amazon Instant Video, which replaced LoveFilm; and Netflix, which has a wider range of programmes than Now TV and bundles films and TVs into one affordable £10 monthly payment.
What’s your favourite online film and TV service of choice? Are Now TV and Netflix good value, or is your telly still the best place to watch? Tell me your thoughts in the comments.
