Virgin to Sky

[Rugrat]

Ive got the lot with Sky and the broadband is appalling at times despite an almost monthly call that fixes something for about a week vef I re it all slows down again. The tragedy is that I cant get Virgin where I live or Id be off like a shot.

Why not BT? Their infinity product is good and you can get as much or little TV as you want? The pricing is pretty good too.

I think much depends on how far you are from the exchange though ... I don't really think it's possible to say one is better than the other, just depends on how lucky/unlucky you are. I gave up on Sky though with dreadful (intermittent) problems with signal dropping that they continually fobbed me off about and put me through torture doing the same old tests. Had BT for 6 months or so now and not one problem ....... until that is!!!

 

[Drumstick]

I've been looking at TalkTalk recently. I can get the broadband, Eve & Weekend calls, Landline and YouView with all the channels I want (Sky1, MTV, NatGeo etc) and for a very reasonable price. Other options was Sky (looked great but way out of our budget) or BT not all the channels we want. No Virgin in our area yet.

 

[Official Old Man]

I take the full package, all channels plus phone & broadband. Works for me. I have the second box as well for one daughter. Also can watch on 4 devices free of charge so my mobile then other daughters watch on ipads so Sky in 6 places. £105 month.

 

[trueblue]

Reading some of the prices on this thread I find it incredible that people can ever moan about the TV licence fee!

 

[Rugrat]

Reading some of the prices on this thread I find it incredible that people can ever moan about the TV licence fee!

or ST prices

FWIW my whole set up is £11 line rental which includes, unlimited calls evening and weekend, £20 fibre broadband and £7 for TV, includes all the entertainment add ons plus BT Sport .. no multi room (I used those magic eye things more recently anyway) or movies (can get On Demand if feel the need) but not missing it. So £38 in total which is as good as I could find

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I switched from Sky to Virgin partly based on getting fed up of the argument about paying to have Sky boxes fixed. Every time I got them to come out for free but it would take around 10 days. Virgin own the boxes and I've never had to wait more than two days for an engineer. I wouldn't dream of going back to Sky.

 

[Badger]

or ST prices

FWIW my whole set up is £11 line rental which includes, unlimited calls evening and weekend, £20 fibre broadband and £7 for TV, includes all the entertainment add ons plus BT Sport .. no multi room (I used those magic eye things more recently anyway) or movies (can get On Demand if feel the need) but not missing it. So £38 in total which is as good as I could find

I've got pretty much the same set-up, up-front payment for BT line-rental which I think is about £125 then £25ish a month for Infinity and TV. Then I pay £6 a month for Netflix which satisfies my occasional need to watch a film or two.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Reading some of the prices on this thread I find it incredible that people can ever moan about the TV licence fee!

I agree entirely. We have a basis Sky Package but with Sport and HD. HD is excellent, but we usually end up watching the "normal" channels, usually BBC, for which I happily pay the licence fee. Grant Shapps can go boil his head if he wants to mess with the BBC.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I agree entirely. We have a basis Sky Package but with Sport and HD. HD is excellent, but we usually end up watching the "normal" channels, usually BBC, for which I happily pay the licence fee. Grant Shapps can go boil his head if he wants to mess with the BBC.

I agree entirely about the BBC - should be protected. That said the issue I have is that if you want to watch TV and say buy Sky / Virgin but never watch a BBC channel or Channel 4 then why should you have to pay the fee ? I have no idea how to make BBC / Channel 4 a subscription service though without the quality dropping.

EDIT - ignore the C4 bits - I was sure I'd read they got a very small slice of the licence fee but it appears not.

 

[Puppet Master]

I've got pretty much the same set-up, up-front payment for BT line-rental which I think is about £125 then £25ish a month for Infinity and TV. Then I pay £6 a month for Netflix which satisfies my occasional need to watch a film or two.

I can never find ANY films I like on Netflix. There's like, hardly anything. Lovefilm is the way to go.

 

[Albumen]

Those that are saying they will not give money to Murdoch, i take it you don't watch anything on ITV then. I am sure he still owns a stake in them.

The bloke is a bit like Nestle, you just can't avoid his products!

Umm nope. There are 5 channels on my TV - BBC1, BBC2, BBC4, Ch4, Film4

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I can never find ANY films I like on Netflix. There's like, hardly anything. Lovefilm is the way to go.

But the good thing about Netflix is the series - I've just re-watched the first 24, first Prison Break, all of Ultimate Force ( sad I know ) and am currently working my way through all the Spooks.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

As someone who works in the industry, you basically have 3 choices for broadband

(1) BT Copper (provided by BT Openreach). If you are TalkTalk, BT, Sky etc customer (i.e anyone that puts a filter on your phoneline to get broadband) this is the product you will use. If you have a poor service with one service provider, you are more than likely to get a poor service with all as any environmental issue will always go back to openreach to fix regardless of whom you pay your bill to. This is as well as using the same BT exchange to provide service (the distance from the exchange essentially determines the speed of your connection). The only difference is the size of the network in the middle which is utilised at peak times and some service providers will ''squeeze'' users. The other difference is the ease at which you can contact the call centre in case of issues. If you shop around, this is the cheapest product you can get but also the one with the highest fault rates.

(2) Virgin Fibre : Virgin fibre is the old NTL network running underground cable to your home. Generally higher speeds and higher cost than the cheapest copper connections but a much more robust platform (underground cable won’t come down in high winds)

(3) BT Fibre : The BT fibre network is supplied with broadband in mind (originally the copper product was designed for phone use only). BT are currently rolling this out to urban areas. Once again, any fibre product will use the BT network (i.e Sky fibre)

As for the OP, depending on where you live determines whether moving your broadband is a good idea. As a general rule, the more of an urban location you live in, the less the risk. This will give you an idea of what you can get before you move

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker

 

[Bold Seagull]

Have today decided to switch TV, phone and broadband to Sky after about 9 years with Virgin.

I've taken a package which includes the full TV bundle, sports and movies, multi room, sky go, broadband unlimited and talk anytime with 0845 numbers. It's costing £62 pm for the first 6 months which seems a pretty good deal. (Goes up a bit after that but will cancel the sports as will be end of season)

What are other people's experiences with Sky like having switched from Virgin?

Don't forget you'll need a BT landline as well so add that into your costs.

Also Sky Broadband is reliant on your distance from the exchange. There are websites that will let you check the distance. The further away you are the worse you're broadband will be. Again worth checking. One persons experience of Sky BB can be a lot different than someone elses.

 

[brakespear]

Of the very few things which may make me consider Sky (which I wouldn't switch to anyway and no, I don't watch ITV) the broadband is not it. I currently have the TV M+ package with Virgin which is fine for us, Telephone XL and Broadband speed is 60mbit/s, having initially been taken out at 2mbit/s and having free upgrades all the way, all the time being uncapped too. Costs me £42 a month I think.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Don't forget you'll need a BT landline as well so add that into your costs.

Also Sky Broadband is reliant on your distance from the exchange. There are websites that will let you check the distance. The further away you are the worse you're broadband will be. Again worth checking. One persons experience of Sky BB can be a lot different than someone elses.

Why do you need a BT landline if you have a Sky landline in the package ? I don't have one.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Why do you need a BT landline if you have a Sky landline in the package ? I don't have one.

It's really a BT landline but I see where you're coming from. That said you can't remove the landline charges from the Sky package. Virgin you can opt for no phone.

 

[Munkfish]

Make sure you can get sky go plus thrown in as well. Its the best thing about sky for me, basically BBC I player, but allows you to download programs, films, sport onto your ipad and watch it on the go. truely is brilliant if you commute or have kids to take on long journeys, if this doesnt apply to you its still good as a back up.

Also i like the feature that allows you to sink your phone or tablet with the tv and use it as a remote control, I had much fun winding up the mrs pausing and changing the channel while she had it in her hand.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Also i like the feature that allows you to sink your phone or tablet .

Do they still work after "sinking" ?

 

[S'hampton Seagull]

Umm nope. There are 5 channels on my TV - BBC1, BBC2, BBC4, Ch4, Film4

What type of tv have you got that receives Film 4 but not ITV?