Sky TV vs. Virgin Media - which one is best?

[Aqua 10]

I currently have Talk Talk landline, phone calls and broadband and pay £19.99 per month. Been with them almost 3 years. For TV I currently have a freeview box with hard disc drive which means I can record onto it (bit like Sky+ but with fewer channels).

 

I'm about to move house and the street where I'm going to live has access to Virgin cable. There's also a Sky dish on the house and a sky box, but the box won't read the sky card so I'd need a new box.

 

So, when I move in and need to sort out broadband, phone etc, do I:

 

1. Keep the Freeview box and transfer Talk Talk to that address?

2. Cancel TT and get a Virgin bundle including TV & getting rid of my Freeview box?

3. Cancel TT and get a Sky bundle inc. TV etc, as option 2 - bearing in mind that for this option I'd need a BT landline so would have to factor the cost of that in?

 

WWYD? If anyone has Sky/Virgin packages, would you recommend them? Also would you recommend having Sky+ box or Virgin+ box, rather than a normal one?

 

Trying to decide what to do now, so that I can look into sorting it out before I move and I can have BB, phone etc set up as quickly as poss once I'm in. Any advice appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Aqua x

[archaeobard 11]

We have a Virgin package (no comments please!), but never watch TV so we only have calls and 2Meg internet (pretty basic). That costs us less than £20 a month plus call charges. We are happy with it, but it sounds like you are more TV oriented. I've used both Sky and Virgin in the past, and to be honest if I was to choose the two I would go for Virgin for the very simply reason that it is cable and you TV viewing does not get interrupted by storms, wind, erection of scaffolding, some idiot deciding to knock your dish out of alignment for fun etc, nor do you need to pay £11 (or whatever it is) for a BT landline. I also believe (in my experience anyway) that Virgin is better for customer service and you would be supporting a company that employs Sheffielders through their centre in Attercliffe. You can also get a package to include a mobile phone if you want.

 

When I moved and had Virgin activated for this house, the appointment was made quickly, the engineer arrived on time and was extremely efficient and tidy (what with drilling holes through the wall etc). No complaints from me. I'm sure there are people who can tell horror stories, but that is the same for any company.

[fatherted 10]

To start with, the sky box needs to be paired with the card, so the box is most prob fine, i would after having both virgin and sky, deffo go with sky, Virgin are a nightmare, TV freezes, broadband collapses, phone sky up, tell them u are a new customer and you will get a free sky+ box

[biotechpete 10]

As far as TV only goes I'd go with Sky I think they offer a better package but it undoubtedly costs a lot more. I have Virgin and they offer a lot if you pay for it, but the basic package (size M) delivers little bar access to iPlayer and 4OD. There are fewer channels in the basic TV package than you get on freeview.

 

The BIG bonus of virgin is the cable broadband which now stands at 10Mb connection for the basic bundle package (the lowest you get is now size L) and they are in the process of upgrading my internet from size M (2Mb) to 10Mb for free. What I like is that you can use this connection to download or stream media via the internet to a TV in HD.

 

The phone is relatively good with virgin too. They have a rule where they will only give you the free calls if they are under an hour but my calls are rarely that long.

 

The one thing I would warn about though is the advertised prices. The £24/mth for broadband (L) TV (M) and phone with talk evening and weekends ends up being more like £27-30 when you add on paper billing charges, the odd peak call cost and VAT.

 

Hope that helps.

[sheffield_uk 10]

virgin basic package then get a better box off ebay...cough cough

[geenius77 10]

We had both and can see the merits and pitfalls as discussed above but one thing that Virgin did have over Sky (and this was about 7 months ago so apologies If I am wrong!) was the amount of ondemand stuff they had!

 

Another point is to bear in mind (again this is old knowledge from 7 months ago) is that Sky had more HD channels available.

 

However, due to amount of ondemand programs, I preferred Virgin although now I dont have either as I just watch freeview!!

[mj.scuba 10]

We are in a cable area but I still went for Sky TV, its a far superior product IMO.

[pem123 10]

Virgin's broadband is very good. Better than ADSL IMO

 

As for the TV, Sky has more HD choice, but Virgin has On-demand which Sky doesn't, despite what it's salespeople say (I offered to draw one a network diagram to back my point up)

[pem123 10]

To start with, the sky box needs to be paired with the card, so the box is most prob fine, i would after having both virgin and sky, deffo go with sky, Virgin are a nightmare, TV freezes, broadband collapses, phone sky up, tell them u are a new customer and you will get a free sky+ box

 

The TV freezing is a localised problem, not something inherent. The same could happen with Sky

[pem123 10]

I would go for Virgin for the very simply reason that it is cable and you TV viewing does not get interrupted by storms, wind, erection of scaffolding, some idiot deciding to knock your dish out of alignment for fun etc,

 

A properly fitted dish should only interrupt viewing in the very worst weather.

 

Saying that, the Sky ones are a bit small for the job. They were made like that to overcome dish snobbery. Should really be a smidgen bigger.

 

The scaffolding scenario is a bit unlikely day-to-day. What if the gardener cut through your Virgin cables?

[Reevue 10]

For my personal Opinion, Go with Virgin if your wanting the internet as your Main feature, the TV has a wide selection but isnt as 'User friendly' as Sky is.

[Longy67 23]

Have been with cable, first as yorkshire cable then telewest and now as virgin, since they installed in the hillsborough area about 14 years ago and can say i have never had a single problem with it, or customer services to that. Not on broadband yet, installing that next weds, wahaaayyyy!!!!, so can't personally comment on that. I suppose its up to you to weigh up all the good and bad bits from these posts and choose what you think is best for you.