SKY V Virgin Media

Chirpy Red

I've had Sky TV for over 20 years and apart from the odd problem on the whole it's been fine. It's all a lot better than it was when I got for the England tour of the West Indies 1989/90. There have been some great innovations like SKY+ etc. HD is just a little over rated IMO, but then my TV may not be state of the art.
Anyway, for years Virgin Media have been mailing me it seems every week trying t get me to switch. This week I actually looked a the package. Loads of deals and it would be cheaper than SKy for a year at least. This Tivo thing interests me, it does seem to have the edge on Sky+.
Anyone had both and have strong opinions either way? Or any Virgin customers who do rate the Tivo system et al?

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks.

Jints

Virgin doesn't carry Sky Atlantic which I watch quite a lot of (Game of Thrones, Madmen etc). Otherwise I'd switch to Virgin.

JT

Only thing i would say is that Virgin customer service is pretty shoddy. Never had a problem with Skys

Chirpy Red

Virgin doesn't carry Sky Atlantic which I watch quite a lot of (Game of Thrones, Madmen etc). Otherwise I'd switch to Virgin.

Is that right? Not even for a premium?

cafcfan

I'm not a customer of either but I understand that if you call Sky and tell them you are cancelling because you can't afford their service any more, they offer you a very much better deal. I guess that would be likely to match what you can get from Virgin.

Jints

Virgin doesn't carry Sky Atlantic which I watch quite a lot of (Game of Thrones, Madmen etc). Otherwise I'd switch to Virgin.

Is that right? Not even for a premium?

It is right. They can't agree on pricing apparently.

Macronate

Had the same problem recently but decided to stay with Sky when they offered free HD for a year etc.

When I added the Virgin packages up it was more costly than Sky for what I wanted.

Know nowt about Tivo.

Bedsaddick

Like comparing Man Utd to Macclesfield. Sky is better hands down ( Cost aside)

southamptonaddick

If virgin stopped sending me 10 offers a week, by post, they could probably cut their prices.

kinveachyaddick

Have been with Virgin for the past seven or eight years but moving into a new place this weekend and signed up to Sky for two reasons:
1. Sky Atlantic
2. Sky Go

pricewise, there doesn't seem to be much difference

Solaraddick

Have just switched from Sky to Virgin after 10 years with the former. They are almost as bad as each other. Both offer discounted deals by phone, both back it up with poor accounting and admin. Main benefit with Virgin is free service-calls/free replacement Tivo box instead of needing to pay for insurance on Sky box failure after first year. Some Tivo functions are better than Sky +, some not.

LawrieAbrahams

Virgin is more expensive but a lot better than Sky.

JiMMy 85

Agree withs Beds. Not remotely a contest. Sky is expensive, that's the drawback. TiVo does NOT have the edge on sky plus, regardless of what the Virgin maildrops imply. Sky have some pretty neat techy stuff coming up soon too.

Although... The new on demand service, 'Sky Now' will not require a subscription, and launches in the summer.... starts with Movies, will then have Atlantic and Sky1, and later Sports.

valleyaddick

TiVo box from virgin is far superior to sky hd! Easier to use and is not affected by weather conditions! (mother in law has sky and loses picture everytime there is heavy rain )

sam3110

Virgin looks good and promises much, but most of the channels I actually bother to watch arent readily available on it. I get free sky broadband with the tv as well, and anytime + is a good little bonus to have. The only niggling problem I have is the inability to record more than 2 programs, and even then you have to watch one of them which kind of defeats the point.

bristoladdick

Have got Virgin Media, mostly because of the broadband, which at 60mb and rising is far better. Hasn't got Sky Atlantic but I've got Sky Sports + ESPN + Sky Films - and at a reasonable price compared to the comparable Sky package.

charltonkeston

TiVo box from virgin is far superior to sky hd! Easier to use and is not affected by weather conditions! (mother in law has sky and loses picture everytime there is heavy rain )

Easier to use? I dont hink either of them could be discribed as hard to use.

redlanered

I agree with earlier posts that if you challenge Sky to match whatever Virgin are offering you will get something from Sky.

I don't have TiVo, but been with Virgin for many years & am pretty happy with them. Broadband really good, TV/films on demand generally works quite well (main reason I don't bother with TiVo in fact - the 'catch-up' service meets 90% of our needs).

Customer service is mixed but certainly not too bad. I often turn Sky Sports on & off depending on what's on, and they are pretty efficient at that.

MuttleyCAFC

I think both companies are similar in the way they support their customers. The advantages of Sky are more HD channels, Sky Atlantic, more features. The adantages of Virgin are faster broadband, boxes are rented so no matter how long you have them Virgin will replace/repair. The catch up service is pretty good too.

Whoever you are with, you can get the price down if you haven't done so already. I used a decent sky quote to get a significant price reduction through Virgin and an improved HD Virgin plus box. They put me on what they call a 'loyal customer tariff' despite me not being that loyal in threatening to leave them. Use the market to your benefit - neither company cares too much about it's customers.

DaveStorry

Tivo lets you record 3 and watch another.
Beats Sky + no question and has larger recording memory.
Broadband quicker and larger too.

I can live without sky atlantic, sky sports 1 2 3 4 .... 11? however many they have.
If i want them I'll pay for them, but I find there is life outside sky thankfully.

Never had a problem with Virgin service dept either, first class.

Did i miss not being able to watch Chelsea last night?
Not really, Sky sports news kept me updated, not that i was that fussed anyway.

lordromford

Just switched last week from Sky to Virgin.
Had issues with Virgin customer service in the past which was why I went back to sky, but I decided to switch back because of the internet service. My Sky internet was unbelievably poor - had to call technical help repeatedly and had people looking at it for weeks with no improvement before deciding to give up and switch when my year was up.

As far as I can tell, the only drawbacks are that there's no Sky Atlantic, plus Sky Sports 3, 4 and News aren't available in HD, (but news is just news and who really watches 3 or 4 anyway?)

My broadband now is incomparably faster and their customer service has been fine so far, if somewhat slow to answer with a human voice. The difference in tv is pretty much negligible - (I'm just going to download Game of Thrones.)

MuttleyCAFC

PS, the Virgin indian call centres make any old rubbish up as they go along. I can really tell some stories! I always demand to be put through to a British one now.

Chirpy Red

Not really bothered about Broadband as I'm with BT and have their Infinity thingy with fibre doda. Just the TV package.

dickplumb

I switched from Sky to Virgin Media about 4 years ago and have not regretted it.Much faster broadband and i have all Sky Sports channels plus ESPN.Don't want Sky Atlantic,so not bothered.I had terrible problems with Sky customer services(which is a misnomer).Will not be leaving Virgin Media.I still have a Sky dish on the front of my house despite numerous requests to take it away.

Plaaayer

I find that the Virgin box is so slow. You'll press the button and it seems to take an age to do anything.

Had SKY for years, went over to Virgin and will go back to SKY I think.

Swings and roundabouts really, you'll have people that have had problems with both. I'd seen if SKY will give you a discount if you threaten to leave though.

stonemuse

Had Virgin for some time, having been a previous NTL customer ... very few problems and customer service when something does happen is very good and quick. TiVo box is great for the reasons state by DaveStorry, also very fast and efficient.

Can't compare to Sky as never used their services ... all I can say is that I would not move away from Virgin.

CAFC, We hate Palace

I'm not a customer of either but I understand that if you call Sky and tell them you are cancelling because you can't afford their service any more, they offer you a very much better deal. I guess that would be likely to match what you can get from Virgin.

Yep, i have always argued to pay half price for my SKY TV for the last 2.5 years. I ring up to cancel and if that particular staff member can't offer me half price i say i'll think about it. Then ring back immediately and repeat this process until i find one that can offer it to me.

MrOneLung

Had sky currently got virgin - no weather affected signals.
Missus just phoned up virgin this afternoon and asked about tivo (got V+ at moment) and for extra £5 quid a month getting tivo, broadband upgraded from 10mb to 30mb and they are putting the v+ box into another room.

would like sky atlantic or sky go type of thing but how much would i really use it.

Sonicstud85

Virgin Pros - cheaper, much better broadband, being able to record more things whilst watching another

Sky's pros - interface looks better and is much quicker. better customer service.

pilchard

Slightly unrelated to the topic but Virgin are a strange company imo, I have broadband with them and to be absolutely fair it is great and rarely has any kind of issues and on the whole I am very satisfied with it. But as a company they have done nothing to promote any of their products to me at all as an existing user, they are constantly advertising Tivo and phone services on TV and everywhere else but I have never been offered any package deals or had any speculative calls from them trying to entice me to try other products in their range, pretty much every other company I have been with has.
You may think it should really be up to me to do the leg work in that department and that would not be unreasonable- but when I think about my folks who are with Sky and the amount of special offers and enticements they get it makes me think that Sky put a bit more effort into their existing customer base than Virgin do.

CAFC, We hate Palace

Its probably because each part of the Virgin group is separate and they are poor at cross marketing?

Or you might have ticked a box upon sign up preventing them from doing this