Perhaps the most criminally inefficient use of the recording is when one show overlaps another by 5-10 minutes. We play the recording from the start and delete it immediately after it finishes. An extension of this, is the occasional ‘safety’ recordings on Sky - in case something glitches out we can jump back into the recorded version (even if the intention is to watch the live version).

All of these points are avoidable outright on the Vodafone box, by jumping back to an earlier point in the broadcast at any time.

Obviously, if need to extend your viewing radius out by more than 3 days, you can still record – but around 80% of our recording uses are more for catchup than anything else (otherwise known as disk thrashing, et al).
While VOD services fill this gap in a pinch – broadcast still has better visual quality than TVNZ OnDemand or ThreeNow does.

Oh, and there’s no minimum term limit for Sky channels via Vodafone, you’re not stuck with the 12-month contract Sky crams-down-your-gullet offers you as a ‘welcoming gift’.

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Sky wins here. For now.
Satellite has the added benefit of being a fixed bitrate transmission system. It’s not any cheaper to transmit less data, so why not allow the full width of the pipeline to improve picture quality?