Sky Angel Will Suspend IPTV service on Midnight January 14, 2014

Bodo Fenrirsson

On Vacation
Original poster
Jul 21, 2009
14,068
2,606
Grovetown,GA
I just received this notice in the mail. At January 14th, 2014 on Midnight,Sky Angel & Fave TV will cease operations. Angel One,Angel Two,& KTV will still broadcast on Dish Network.
 
If you are leasing a bo:mad:like me),a UPS email will provide a return label to send your receiver back. You must send your leased receiver back by February 14, 2014 or be charged full price for it. Last payment for Sky Angel & Fave TV services was December 15.
 
Indeed...sad

I just got off the phone with Sky Angel Support after receiving the same letter. Now I'm wondering what alternatives I might have to access some of the channels I could previously access on Sky Angel, especially the Christian channels such as the NRB Network and Cornerstone, just to name a few. Especially the ability to go back in time and grab programs from the past 48 hours...I've done that for years now...and I have a Vulkano Blast for just that reason...anyone have any suggestions ?
 
I just got off the phone with Sky Angel Support after receiving the same letter. Now I'm wondering what alternatives I might have to access some of the channels I could previously access on Sky Angel, especially the Christian channels such as the NRB Network and Cornerstone, just to name a few. Especially the ability to go back in time and grab programs from the past 48 hours...I've done that for years now...and I have a Vulkano Blast for just that reason...anyone have any suggestions ?

The best thing to do is to go to the web sites of the channels you like & see alternate broadcasting options for viewing them.
 
When my mother died last year(I got Sky Angel for her),I cut the cord on Directv & Dish Network to save money. After 2 months of no TV & no over the air antenna,I reordered Sky Angel in the form of Fave TV so I could keep up with the news via Fox News. That helped so much until I was able to get Directv back up. It's sad that they are closing down shop now.
 
I just got off the phone with Sky Angel Support after receiving the same letter. Now I'm wondering what alternatives I might have to access some of the channels I could previously access on Sky Angel, especially the Christian channels such as the NRB Network and Cornerstone, just to name a few. Especially the ability to go back in time and grab programs from the past 48 hours...I've done that for years now...and I have a Vulkano Blast for just that reason...anyone have any suggestions ?

alot of the christian channels are on Roku
 
This actually took a lot longer than I thought it would. I knew their days were numbered, when they left satellite for a much more limited audience via broadband.
 
Roku is really the way to go. I know that Dish and Direct offer a ton of the mainstream religious channels too.
Dish has the following in their basic package:
Gather
Prayer
Church Channel
SBN
INSP
TBN
EWTN
Angel 1
Daystar
KTV
Angel 2
CTN
Impact
3ABN
Enlace
Almavision

Considering that Sky Angel used to only have 16 video channels when it was on Dish, this is not too bad.
 
It was the best deal in town

My wife loved getting the Hallmark Channel, the Hallmark Movie Channel, and Pixl. I loved getting the NFL Network, the Outdoor Channel, NBC Sports Channel, just to name a few and all of this cost less than $40 per month. To get all of those channels on Dish, Dtv, or local cable will cost a lot more.And Pixl is only available on Dish in my area. It was a great deal even if we could only watch it on one tv.
 
I wonder why they had to shut the service down? I figured with an IPTV service they would not need a whole lot of subscribers for it to sustain itself.
 
I don't think it was the religious channels that paid the bills for Sky Angel but rather the FAVETV channels such as Hallmark, PIXL, NFL Network, Outdoor Channel, etc., and many of these channels are not renewing their contracts. I also thought there were some legal issues surrounding the whole IPTV delivery service, but I'm not 100% sure on that. The service was good but not great and it did have its drawbacks, but it gave use what we wanted - family friendly TV. A similar package can be purchased from Dish network, but it does not offer all of the faith channels, and you have to upgrade to an a la cart package to get PIXL and UP. But the NFL Network is not offered unless you upgrade to a more expensive package, and we are not going to do that. Dish has the NFL Network in an a la cart package, but it appears that you need to get America's Top 120 Plus in order to add that package and you would still have to add the $5 Heartland package in order to get UP and PIXL. I wish Dish would create a package that offered the channels that Sky Angel had at a Sky Angel price range of $40 to $50.
 
an update to my previous posted reply....I have recently bought a Roku 2 box to see what it would do. My main concern was to access the NRB Network and hopefully including 'archived' programs. Well, you indeed can access the NRB (and some other channels ) with Roku. However to access archived programs you have to subscribe to 'Premium' content for $5.00/month, which is understandable. I subscribed to access the archives. HOWEVER, unlike on Sky Angel or FAVETV, there is NOT a description of each show listed, but only a time that it was previously broadcast I believe or at least that's what it appears to be. While it is a helpful option I'm not sure how functional it would be for regular access to NRB network programs. I'm still looking at what options there are and have actually contacted the NRB Network, but the person to speak with is not available until 1/6/2014 so I will have to update further hopefully after that date and speaking with that person. Hopefully this helps someone out there and I'm interested in anything others have figured out as alternatives to Sky Angel that can also be recorded on a Monsoon Vulkano box as I currently am doing with FAVETV.
 
I've had the NRB channel on Roku for several months, and I think the premium charge for on-demand programming is pretty new...perhaps they have not refined it enough yet to show program titles. I subscribed, but have not made a firm decision to continue paying for that subscription. I did click on several of the offerings a few days ago and found it to include some good content.

I do pay for the Parables channel, which recently added a lot of great on-demand content. I can also access that on my computer, and they have said that the on-demand offering will be available on iPad soon...right now I can access the live stream on my iPad.

I also pay for the FFE channel, which used to be on Sky Angel, but kept having technical difficulties. It's now a commercial-free channel. It was free until a couple of months ago, but I think it's worth paying for it (think it's $3.99/mo.). There's another southern gospel channel (PEBN) which has both free and premium subscription content...their charge is $2.99/mo. I also subscribe to Gaither.TV, which is great, lots and lots of content...that is less than $5.00/mo. for a yearly subscription. TBN, DayStar, GodTV, TCT, AFA, and CBN have free Roku channels, most w/on-demand content. And, of course, the TBN Roku channel includes the Church Channel, JCTV, and Smile of a Child, all TBN affiliate channels. All in all, I am getting a lot of the Sky Angel content, plus FFE, Parables, and Gaither.TV, and I'm spending about the same amount as I have been paying for one IPTV faith subscription.

Then there is a huge amount of other Christian content, with more coming on weekly. I added a Joyce Meyer channel, North Point (Andy Stanley), Day of Discovery, and Life Today (James Robison). And the Live365, TuneIn, and iHeart radio channels offer a wealth of stations, including most of the ones on Sky Angel. I can watch my church's services on the Vimeo channel, and I can watch Amazon Prime (and non-Prime) movies on Roku (or Netflix, Redbox, etc.)

Can you tell I'm pretty happy with Roku offerings? There's a lot there, and it's so risk-free, inexpensive, and easy to get a Roku, try it out, and then make the decision about keeping it. And it takes only seconds to add or delete a channel. I don't know about recording options, but since there is quite a bit of on-demand programming available on various channels, that helps make up for not having the 48-hour playback or recording.
 
Hi, Bob,

I had FFE free for a time, then one day it had only a "preview" that was a short loop, and it showed the option to upgrade, so I did. So tonight, I added back the free version to see if maybe they had gone back to being free, but it still just had the "preview" and option to upgrade. How long have you had it...maybe there is a "free trial" period. Their website has not been updated in quite some time, nor has their Facebook page, so those sources do not explain anything about the fee.
 
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