So, I'm new to all this extra TV stuff, but out broadband is really slow and really expensive for what it is and I'm thinking of getting a TV & broadband bundle. The options seem to be Virgin or the Evil Empire. Fast internet is the main reason I'm considering this, but an added attraction is pretty obvious - lots of TV with wheels. Cycling, motoGp, WSB, BSB, F1... you get the idea. Nothing with balls tho - no interest in watching grown men run around. No thank you. Virgin have something with two tivo boxes, which would be useful. Other than that, I'm lost in all the options. Can someone give me some advice please! Thanks : )
Hi Jerry , I've got the sky full package from Sky inc HD which comes with 3d,now I've added anytime + which give me 10 times more tv than I really need. And thats the thing do we really need so much, I could easy sit and watch 6-8hrs a day,more if the racings on ,how sad is that.
Purely reliability and customer service side .... go with evil empire. Virgin is quite bad with that helping when things do go tits up. Also they seem to be more restrictive with download limits then sky.
Unless something has changed recently, Sky's broadband is just their version of the same thing you get from BT, TalkTalk, Plusnet etc. which in most cases is a max of about 6Mbps over copper, unless you are fortunate to live in an area with upgraded fibre optic lines. The TV part is all delivered via satellite with various packages on offer. We've got Sky+ which gives you the equivalent of a Tivo box to record programmes onto, and we use TalkTalk for our broadband and telephone. Don't bother with the movies package as it's about £20 per month and very little new stuff worth watching. Just view any must-see movies on a pay per view basis,about £3-4 per film. Sky Sports is another package for about £20 but we don't bother with that either, as all the bike racing is on Eurosport and thats included in the basic price. Virgin is what used to be several different companies all rolled in to one, and delivers all it's content (TV, telephone, broadband) over fibre optic cable. This gives it the ability to offer much higher broadband speeds. However, many people seem to think the TV packages are not as good as Sky's. You have to live in an area which Virgin has cabled up though, and we don't.
Sky are great if you threaten to leave. I get unlimited BB, Sky+ HD and phone line for £26. My Mum who is with Virgin threaten to leave so they send her an entry level HD box but when she got her next bill it showed up on that!!!! She is paying around £40 a month just for TV and a phone it really is biz
Virgin will blow any of the competition away with the broadband. I have their 100meg and they don't traffic manage it at all....at the minute, but I guess they will when everybody gets their current speed doubled from them for free. I have a Tivo box down stairs and they fitted my older HD box upstairs for no extra installation or monthly fee's. Their customer service has also improved, but its still not fantastic....but I was given some tip's by one of their employee's on how to get your call answered without being on hold and by someone in this country. Overall I can't complain.......the movies thing is right....unless you want to watch all the old movies from sky's premium movie channels, then just use the on demand feature....which even has 3D versions for a quid or so more than the 2D versions.
ok so sky is better for problems, but the internet is not great. sky+ is the recording thing - can you get stuff off that to watch somewhere else, or are you stuck with it just on one tv? And Eurosport has everything we want to watch - no poofy ball games. Don't want the in-laws coming to watch golf or cricket, no thank you!
That always happens with any additions I have made, but it has also been deducted from the same bill further down the page.....
That's interesting - one of my major reasons for staying with the slow people is their 'call centre' (two people I think) is in London. Supporting the local economy is important to me. However, I suspect that my boys will appreciate being able to destroy more aliens online.
The internet with Sky isn't bad, its just not mega fast. The only way to get really fast internet is to live in an area with fibre in the ground, either Virgin or BT. You may find that BT, or one of its competitors, offer higher speeds in your area. Tbh, 6mbps is slow by Virgins standards, but still good enough for Skype chat and normal internet use. It only really scores if you do large downloads. I copy stuff off my Sky box to a DVR occasionally, but some stuff like certain movies are copy protected.
The big issue with Virgin and its customer support comes from the fact that it is made up from several disparate companies, each operating its own programme scheduling, billing options, and call centres. Their biggest challenge has been pulling it all together in to one seamless product whilst behind the scenes trying to manage multiple systems.
Virgin throttle bandwidth during peak hours and have crap customer service but I'd rather give them the money than anything to do with Murdoch. Once you're setup how often will you need customer service? If it's a package you want the current Virgin offers are hard to beat. For internet only I love BeInternet, they don't throttle or snoop, I get over 15Mb down, 1.5 up and 8 static IPs. Plus they've volunteered various price cuts over the years.
well, I guess it's time for some proper wheel action. I feel I'm missing out on racing, certainly, so TV and broadband is most likely. I guess I'll have to talk to these unpleasant people tomorrow... Thanks for all your views and experience!
Jerry, as others have said, unless you live in a cabled area your Internet speeds aren't going to be great, it all depends on how far from the exchange you are, the type and state of the cable it's running over and how many others are using your supplier at the same time! I work for Openreach and we get complaints all the time from people about slow speeds and they are using all suppliers including BT
To add my two penneth. I've got a phone / TV / Broad band package with Sky. £69.50 per month gets me unlimited BB which is plenty quick enough for me. All TV except the Movie channels which I never use anyway and unlimited calls. Probably not the most amazing deal and I could shop around and get it a bit cheaper but I'm reasonably happy with that. I suppose if you changed a service provider everytime you saw a new / better deal you'd be changing every day.
They don't traffic manage on 50meg or 100meg, but on the old 20meg they throttled you by 75% for as long as you were in the top 5% of user's on your node. They probably will when they give the free speed upgrades out tho.
they need you money jerry.................they only made 1.2 billion profit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! bastids
