Re: TV price rises
 

Yes I expect nearly everyone who uses a VM forum will be taking that route which means a wait of at least an hour (albeit on a VM phone it won't cost) and in the end most will be offered a deal less than the new pricing and probably as things get desperate, more than they're paying now!

That frankly makes a mockery of a price increase, undermines standard CS reps and makes it more difficult and time consuming for those of us who are leaving.

Re: TV price rises
 

It would be unfair if Carl Waring gets a lower price increase than customers with an identical package even if he does choose to spend so much time extolling the virtues of VM.

It's already been confirmed by BenMcR that all customers, are eligible for the line rental saver of £120 for 12 months unless they already have an extra free talk add-on (or something similar) included. So no special discount was given to him for that.

Re: TV price rises
 

Well so much for him telling me it would be £4.09, just got an email confirming it would be £6.34 per month!! £76.08 per year, that's more than we pay per month!!

Back on the phone me thinks :mad:

Re: TV price rises
 

As per my post, you definitely fit into the following:

"I’ve seen plenty of examples across this site of Virgin Media employees picking up complaints, feedback and queries from Cable Forum members and escalating them with their employer. This has resulted in changes being implemented."

You are very proactive in helping Cable Forum members, and problems they many have. A real credit to yourself, your employer and this site!

Re: TV price rises
 

I got through straight away :)

Nice to see you're not judgemental or prejudiced or anything :p:

The "standard CS Reps" are there for new customers only, really.

---------- Post added at 15:40 ---------- Previous post was at 15:38 ----------

Seriously? :rolleyes:

Re: TV price rises
 

The is no proof required is the as all companies behave in similar ways if you think otherwise then you are wrong just look on the threads talking about other companies or check out their own forums.

Again little point in complaining here as any feedback will basically be ignored otherwise can anyone explain why we still have offshore support, now do not expect to get an answer as the official line is to ignore that kind of question.

Re: TV price rises
 

Just got our letter - increase of £2.84 a month.

Cheers

Grim

Re: TV price rises
 

Mines £2.84 also.

Reading between the lines and doing a comparison with my M phone + 60Mb BB I get ...

Phone +£1.09
30Mb +£1.50
60Mb +£1.75

I also note that new customers are now paying significantly less for the BB services than I am...

For 30Mb my £15.00 against new customer £14.50
For 60Mb my £20.00 against new customer £18.50
For 100Mb my £27.25 against new customer £25.50
(all with phone rental currently at £13.90)

Re: TV price rises
 

Existing customers get discounts so everyone pays the same amount..... I think

Re: TV price rises
 

My package is the same my increase is £5.04, called virgin this morning was told increases are as such:
L-BB (30mb) £1.15 XL-TV £1.50 TIVO (at the moment £3 will increase by £1)
LR £1.09. Don't know where the other 30p comes from

Re: TV price rises
 

My parents had their letter £5.34 increase , they were told over the phone that a pound of the increase was their TIVO fee (they currently pay £3)

Re: TV price rises
 

You must be mistaken, Muppetman, Virgin only charge bundle prices and any increase is on the package as a whole, rather than attributable to any one service. Apparently.

Transparency, that's all I want-then I'll be alright, Jack. Being told one thing whilst other customers are told different I can do without.

Re: TV price rises
 

So Carl Waring's increase was £2.59 but yours is £5.04 for identical packages .....the plot thickens:rolleyes:

Re: TV price rises
 

They were told the following , by a Scottish call centre I believe

XL BB increase of £1.15
XL TV increase of £1.50
TIVO increase from £3.00 to £4.00
Landline increase of £1.09

They weren't sure what the rest was :rolleyes:

Re: TV price rises
 

It is weird. :confused: I have Phone XL though. Yours isn't listed and you didn't mention it.

Re: TV price rises
 

Isn't it , his services mirror my parents the only difference being there increase is nearly double his , they are also on XL and only get 20mb mmmmmmm the plot thickens.

Re: TV price rises
 

Just do what I did and upgrade before you get the price rise and then you are able to negotiate again

Re: TV price rises
 

Or call and see what new deals there are :)

Re: TV price rises
 

Thanks - what I've been waiting for.

Re: TV price rises
 

Just received my increase email - £4.59p a month.

That's on top of £5.25p last April and £3.25p in August for the Sky increase.

Total increase in 10 months is £13.09p !!

I'm on the 'old' VIP50 package (V+HD and VHD) - no Tivo.

Seriously thinking of cancelling as that's a ridiculous increase in less than 12 months.

Re: TV price rises
 

Don't know why I didn't give a bit more info earlier. My increase is £2.84. My services are:
XL TV
1 No. Tivo
1 No. V+
XL Phone
Caller display (but have never paid for it - and had it since telewest days)
Talk 08 £2
And 100Mb internet (though my bill says XXL and the front page of my virginmedia says 100 - which is the one I'm on).

So if the Tivo fee is increasing by £1.00 and line rental by £1.09 where's the other £0.75 coming from :confused:

Cheers

Grim

Re: TV price rises
 

Have you had a look at the VIP Collection as it'll probably be cheaper than you are paying

Re: TV price rises
 

Yes I have, but the installation charge has put me off.

Re: TV price rises
 

You sometimes have to spend money to save money. (Like Line Rental Saver, for example!)

Re: TV price rises
 

True enough, but forking out £50 for installation to save a couple of quid a month seems like false economy to me.

Each to their own I guess.

Re: TV price rises
 

You'll also get 100Mbit broadband, TiVo and Talk Unlimited Extra

Re: TV price rises
 

Got my letter today, a £2.59 increase.

I understand that £1.09 is for the landline rental, but dont know what the other £1.50 consists of.

I read in an earlier post that CS suggested the Tivo fee increased by £1. I have three Tivos, so cant be the case?

Re: TV price rises
 

Phoned them up yesterday afternoon, and it was a long call.
The lady on the phone had just come back from holiday and was not really clued up on the price increases so kept needing to check with colleagues.

Anyway the basics of the call were she managed to break down the £6.34 increase as per our email and it was as follows -


1.09 Phone Line Rental
1.75 60MB BB
1.50 XL TV
1.00 TiVo Box
1.00 TiVo Box
----
6.34

She couldn't work out why the last agent quoted me £4.09 but agreed that I was on a version of Premier Collection but had an additional box. I think the confusion is around the add-ons and then the discounts VM give for loyalty/promotions etc. Plus the fact that some customers are on different pricing for TiVo plus some get a free extra box, some pay for it.

So what we get from VM is -

M Phone
60MB Broadband
XL TV
1 x 1TB TiVo
1 x 500GB TiVo
1 x V+ HD

= £67.90 p/m

The person I spoke to the other day has indeed given us more discount, but obviously something went wrong when he was calculating it out, so it turns out our new bill from now is £62.40 p/m (£5.50 cheaper), though I won't hold my breath on that being right till my next bill is due...

But here is where am confused even more...

The price increase email states an increase of £6.34, though the lady says this is what it would have been as the email was prepared before I called, and that now my increase will be £5.09 p/m according to her.. which doesn't make sense to me.

So in theory, come 1st Feb I should be paying if these agents are correct, £67.49 .. 41p cheaper than what it was :erm:

We shall see ;)

---------- Post added at 06:50 ---------- Previous post was at 06:19 ----------

Just priced our 'bundle' as a new customer and comes in at £63.90 without the extra V+ HD box as only allows you 2 boxes. Even adding £5 for the V+ HD it comes to £68.90 so seems we are only getting £1.00 discount. Unless you have to pay £6.50 for another multiroom additional box?

Re: TV price rises
 

I owe you and VM an apology! I've still not had my letter but I rang up last night and got through immediately to the most helpful person I have ever spoken to since I joined in the old Telewest days!

Have paid the line rental up front, kept the broadband at 60Mg and cancelled the TV.

I then went online and moved the TV to Sky with a 12 months half price offer. The only direct one off cost being a pair of Homeplugs for the second box c £30. I estimate an annual saving over the next 12 months of c £300 depending on what my increase in February would have been. Oh and of course the £25 M&S voucher will do for my Mother in Law's Xmas present!

All in all not a bad evening's work!

Re: TV price rises
 

No problem. My tone was probably a little harsh too :)

I always seem to get the really helpful ones. Perhaps my own attitude helps; I don't know!

If you're happy then I'm happy ;)

Re: TV price rises
 

That is simply ridiculous.

phone up disconnections and explain that situation is not acceptable and see what they say.

Just received the email saying an increase of £5.34 a month.

Re: TV price rises
 

I'm sure they'll be able to help.

My parent's only have Phone + BB but, after I had a chat with retentions on their behalf yesterday, they are now getting more and paying less!!

Re: TV price rises
 

I would be very careful when going for deals with VM at the moment. I fell for a similar trick many years ago with them.

VM offered us a deal to change over from Sky, we took the deal as we felt it was cheaper, how wrong we were. We found that the price with Sky stayed for a year, BUT with VM it went up twice in that time similar with what is happening now, we were given promises that we would get more channels and that the service would get better. we are still waiting.

VM are putting up prices and members are blaming the greed from Sky, How can that be, when VM went in for the deals with Sky, this is a set deal, yet VM have increased there prices three times this year.

Re: TV price rises
 

2 from VM 1 from sky for sky sports Arthur

Re: TV price rises
 

Last year Sky froze the subs for 12 months and then only increased this year by £1.00.

I dont believe VM froze there prices, but then increased three fold.

I feel the main problem with VM, is that to me they cannot justify the increase, whereas Sky can justify any increase.

At the present time Sky have more channels and a better quality of CS and the technology is better than VM.

What can VM justify, we had a promise from them that we would have better HD channels, more HD channels from ITV, this has been proved on this forum has false.

Members are getting frustrated at the lack of more HD channels, the promises from VM at more channels joining the network. So therefore VM cannot justify the increase.

As a consumer, l have to choose what is right at the right price for myself, finances are tight and therefore, you go to the best supplier. The prices and comments l have read on here is quite staggering, considering the prices that l have seen.

Re: TV price rises
 

It may have been around £1 per service however the total increase could be have been up to £5.75 if you count all the changes.


There was never any announcement from Virgin Media about the ITV HD channels.

Re: TV price rises
 

True, but Virgin did state a couple of years back that they had plans to increase their HD portfolio by quite a bit, where are they? Still 'coming soon' no doubt?

Re: TV price rises
 

In the last few years they have increased their HD portfolio by 'quite a bit'.

Re: TV price rises
 

In that case the difference between what I class as 'quite a bit' compared to what Virgin do differ tremendously

Re: TV price rises
 

That is wrong. (We've been here before.)

---------- Post added at 12:04 ---------- Previous post was at 11:58 ----------

I do agree with Ben on that one. That doesn't mean that we don't want more, but given that Sky charge £10.25, just for non premium channel HD content, it's not too surprising that Sky have more than VM.

Re: TV price rises
 

Not sure I'd be interested in most of the extra channels available on Sky

Only every had one problem with CS, every other agent has been very helpful

How can Sky have better technology when their signal can't get through the trees in my front garden and I couldn't get broadband from them at anything over 4Mbs, VM technology isn't affected by trees and how far from the local BT exchange you live

Re: TV price rises
 

My point is, IIRC, Virgin said a couple of years ago that there would be around 50 or so HD channels within the next couple of years and there aren't.

Re: TV price rises
 

Fair point.

Re: TV price rises
 

Okay.

Debatable. Some are okay. Some are not.

Wrong. Tivo is better than anything Sky has. VM's OD is also far superior in terms of delivery if not content

Please cite where this was promised by VM.


Some members.

Can you guarantee that they aren't, ever?

Bye then!

---------- Post added at 12:30 ---------- Previous post was at 12:27 ----------

To be fair to Sky, that does include the HD Movie channels (and sport, probably) as well. That said, that Sky force VM to charge extra for them so why am I trying to "be fair" again? :D

Re: TV price rises
 

YDRC

Re: TV price rises
 

Phew! lol :D

Re: TV price rises
 

That's why I specifically said non Premium channels. If you aren't a subscriber to Sky sports or movies, on VM all the other HD channels are free; on Sky, they will still cost you an extra £10.25 p/m.

---------- Post added at 13:13 ---------- Previous post was at 12:37 ----------

:confused:

Re: TV price rises
 

l see you are well educated in modern lingo these days dear chap.;)

Re: TV price rises
 

My price is going up around £4.80ish! Can't recall the exact figure.

Had a look round at a similar package from Sky and I would end up paying roughly the same but making a saving by getting some cash back from quidco or similar. I'd have to pay for a 2nd recordable box £199!) in order to get catch up on both boxes and I'd be limited to recording two channels, I'd struggle with this as most of my recordings are peak time and even with TiVo I have clashes!

I'll carry on with VM due to the superior catch up and 3 tuners but I do hope they add Sky Sports 3 and 4 in HD sooner rather than later and add some content to their iPad app.

Re: TV price rises
 

More than that, I thought, but the current offering is IMO pretty reasonable - it's certainly not often I can't watch what I want in hd, and perhaps only football on ITV 4 is glaringly missing as far as I'm concerned, and that appears to have been tied up exclusively by Sky so what can you do?

Re: TV price rises
 

I voted with my feet and have just moved to Sky :D

Re: TV price rises
 

Good luck Chris but l shall not be moving despite the price rises as better the devil you know then the devil you don't and my partner is not very keen either.

Re: TV price rises
 

Must admit I'm edging closer for the TV side of things. Haven't had my letter yet so will wait for that and then give retentions the opportunity to make a deal. Two price rises in a year aren't really on. Everyone has to go to the service provider that most closely meets their own personal needs. They have the right to complain if those needs aren't being met and then vote with their feet if those complaints aren't listened to. Being told that the price increases can't be broken down, and then being presented with breakdowns that have been provided to other customers, and then told off on this forum by a Virgin employee because the right to complain and then move is apparently an "I'm alright, Jack" attitude, despite that actually being the customer's right, obviously hasn't massively improved my mood - I've sadly, and very quickly, got to the stage where Virgin are going to have to work hard to keep me.

Re: TV price rises
 

sky wont allow that

Re: TV price rises
 

£5.45 per month (+12%) rise ... :(.

MrB

Re: TV price rises
 

Indeed Dave and l can't see that changing anytime soon.

Re: TV price rises
 

That really depends on how you look at it , comparing purely TV a PVR user wanting the top basics pack would have to pay £31.50 for XL and TIVO compared to £36.75 on Sky for Entertainment plus meaning the difference is £5.25 , if the reports are correct and XL TV rises £1.50 in February 13 the difference will come down to £3.75 until Sky review their prices in September 13.

Re: TV price rises
 

IF someone on this forum can prove me how VM can justify the increase in there prices three times in the SAME year, then l will shut up.

Also if TiVo is so good how can l have so much trouble with the damn thing, it turns channels over without warning and the sound keeps going up and down, and the engineers have said that there is no fault with it. Fob story if you ask me.

Re: TV price rises
 

Cost of stuff goes up. Fact of life.

Because technology isn't perfect.

No it doesn't.

Re: TV price rises
 

1 forced by sky or did you forget that but I do agree should only ever be 1 a year by VM

Re: TV price rises
 

And you can bet your bottom dollar that their prices will go up then and possibly by even more then VM.

Re: TV price rises
 

I can live with an increase once a year , but three is stretching it.

Re: TV price rises
 

Yes its not what we wanted but remember good old Sky imposed one of them on us and you can be rest assured that another one from them is coming later this year.

Re: TV price rises
 

Weirdly I just phoned up to give my 30 days notice to no penalty contract freedom and the lad made no attempt what so ever to keep my custom. Apart from a cursory 'are you ok with not being able to get superfast broadband from Sky' (couldn't seem to comprehend I was already using said superfast broadband whilst I was chatting on the phone, but I let it be), he happily just arranged for my stuff to be collected and called it a day.

I guess they must be getting a fair few of these at the minute?

Re: TV price rises
 

yep Den be September there prices go up again :mad:

Re: TV price rises
 

I do agree. Really, it's pointless saying VM charge X for this and VM charge Y. The only way to really do it is to get the total price for all the servces you want and compare the overall price from both Sky and VM.

In my case, doing the above, Sky would cost me £18 per month more than VM.

---------- Post added at 15:47 ---------- Previous post was at 15:42 ----------

Disconnection fatigue maybe? ;)

Re: TV price rises
 

Phone XL sorry missed that out, but when queried price increase XL phone not mentioned.

Re: TV price rises
 

I rang in Yesterday and moving over to Sky.

Was told a few porkie pies about bits and bobs trying to convince me to stay but I was firm and they allowed my 30 days notice (mid term contract).

Sky Fttc is here soon, are been enable for a while but our cabinet has been troublesome. Sit it out at 16 meg until it comes.

Anythings got to be better than the up and down service i`ve had :mad:

Re: TV price rises
 

Hi Guys,

Just received my price rise letter and mine is going up £2.59 for Essential Collection upgraded to XL TV & XL phone plus Sky Premiums with HD.

The letter says 'from 1st Feb 2013*' and the '*' reads on the back 'if you are on a promotional offer we will honour it'. I am currently on a loyalty discount that supposedly lasts for two years from May 2012 and I therefore just wanted to ask (probably you Ben please) whether I will be getting the price rise or not? The letter makes it a little confusing :confused: by saying my price is rising but then has a little proviso that it may not. I thought I'd ask on here before I ring VM to save confusing me even more talking to the Indian call centre.

Cheers in advance for any assistance :)

Superblade7

Re: TV price rises
 

True, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone from their managment has a glance at this forum from time to time. And when they see that complaints on here are heading towards 100 pages, I would have thought that would give them food for thought.

Talking of thoughts one has just occured to me. We've had marketing guff before from the cable company in the run up to Christmas, ie on the 10th day before Christmas they give out a freebie, then on the 9th day another freebie etc. I wonder if something similar may occur here???

Another thought, with these price rises, I wonder if VM are about to roll out tivo to everyone, regardless of whether customers want it or not. Thus they're pricing tivo into packages automatically as well as (hopefully!) some more HD channels too.

These price rises are large and unless VM has something to show for them, then 100 plus pages of complaints on here will turn into some real cancellations.

Re: TV price rises
 

Possibly. But then don't forget that we as a group probably represent much less than 1% of their subscriber base which, with all due respect to every Forum member on here, ain't really that much :)

Re: TV price rises
 

You wonder with these new price increases are we now finally seeing the results of vm selling there channels off.Now with nothing to barter with vm are left in the hands of channel providers providing channels,Cost`s going up and vm incurring the costs onto us.If this is the case then costs going up to keep channels they currently have then we will certainly have a long wait to see new channels arriving in particular hd which as certainly been the case this year,Its just a thought maybe im wrong but maybe im right

Re: TV price rises
 

My 100/10 soon to be 120/12 connection is going up by £2 in price to £30 p/m. I hope that extra £2 p/m will finally pave way for UK manned call centres :p:

Re: TV price rises
 

This latest price rise prompted me to look at the price of an equivalent sky package. Looks like I'll be staying with Virgin media.

Regards

John

Re: TV price rises
 

yes when I looked at sky web site it would cost me over £80 a month just for tv for what I got now and that's with only 1 recordable box instead of 2 I got now as got to pay £199 for second recordable box no way would I pay that

Re: TV price rises
 

I priced up what was close to my current package, it came to £133.50 a month and a one off payment of £557( which is the real sting in the tail). Thats more storage space with Sky and more channels, but one less recordable tuner and much worse broadband 11-18Mb compared to my 100Mb.

I currently pay £100 and my price will rise to £106 next February. Not worth the switch for me.

Regards

John

Re: TV price rises
 

To be fair, the 90-odd pages on here consists of the 3 price rises (last April, the Sky Sports increase in October, and next years). It's not 100's of pages about 1 increase.

Even more than that, I bet there's no more than 2 dozen posters on the thread. And some of them think that they represent all customers.

Can't be bothered, but I bet that the same people moaning are the same people moaning about last years increase. And if they weren't moaning about this, they'd be moaning about something else. It's quite tedious really.

Re: TV price rises
 

:shocked:

:wtf:

Re: TV price rises
 

But l can still hear your voice down here Carl.;)

Re: TV price rises
 

I've managed to answer my own question by ringing the Indian call centre and speaking to 'Bob' who confirmed that the loyalty discount would remain but I am still subject to the price increase.

This is quite annoying as when I agreed the deal in May 2012, I was considering jumping ship to Sky but the retentions guy told me the price would be guaranteed for two years. Since getting this supposedly guaranteed price, I've had the Sky Sports rise (which they blamed on Sky) and then this new rise in Feb 2013. Whilst I am sure Sky did increase the wholesale price for Sky Sports, if I agree a price with VM that they say is guaranteed for 2 years I expect VM to keep to that but instead I feel I have been deceived and now copped for two price rises.

Like others on here, I have just priced up Sky and I potentially could make a good saving on the channels I require. My current package with VM will rise to £97.74 in Feb. With Sky, I could get a package for £87.75.

I therefore have a dilemma, do I jump to Sky and save £10 a month and gain numerous extra HD channels but only have two tuners and an estimated 10 - 15Mb ADSL broadband? Or do I stick with VM as the services have always been reliable and I would miss TiVo, the third tuner and fibre broadband?

I previously had Sky many years ago before I moved into my current home and always thought their TV service was great. However, when I moved into my current home, it was a VM area and the previous owners had VM so it was an easy choice as the points were already installed.

For those who've recently switched to Sky, is it still a good service and what is their phone / broadband service like?

Cheers

Superblade7

Re: TV price rises
 

With Sky got Sky HD, 2 Sky HD Multirooms, Entertainment +, Movies, Unlimited/Unmanaged Broadband, Phone line Rental all in for £70.39 a month for 12 months.

Good deal I Feel...

No setup fee`s etc, just was straight with em and haggled and got a great deal.

Remember these companies will haggle just be firm :D

Re: TV price rises
 

Do the price rises affect all customers or those on bundles?as we just have 3 tivos broadband and phone is from sky.

Re: TV price rises
 

All customers I beleive.

Am glad I called up to negotiate a better deal, happy enough to stay for another 12 months anyway as Sky can't give me the BB I want (yet!)

Might only save a few pound, but it's better than nought ;)

Re: TV price rises
 

Really depends what you want , my estimate was 6-11 MB and my line is 9mb which for me is more than enough and copes pretty well with On Demand downloads and is totally unlimited. If your line manages 12mb you should see HD On Demand content available in 10-20 seconds. My phone has been problem free so far and the BB connection has been solid also.

Re: TV price rises
 

Maybe a phone call is in order as with the 3 tivos on the full package with the 7.50 hd charge comes to 75.00 a month then the sky broadband and phone 28.00 so all in all 103.00 a month and sky wont match it.Dont want to ditch the sky broadband as its been top notch.

Re: TV price rises
 

That's interesting

it says in the small print link in the email they send you.

Re: TV price rises
 

To be honest MM, if I got a reliable 10Mb connection it should be fine as I mainly just use broadband for general browsing and the occasional download although I do realise Sky On Demand had to download stuff. To be fair though I don't use VM On Demand that often as I generally record loads and just watch it when I can. The only thing I can see as an issue is recording clashes as there are a few times when I use all 3 tuners during the week but I guess I could record alternate showings or use On Demand a little more.

Yeah, it's a bit of a con as they confirmed my £11 loyalty discount would still be valid, just that the base package price would go up!

Re: TV price rises
 

Well i got my letter this morning and my increase for the top tier has gone from £96.50 a month at the start of the yr. with the increases they have put on over that time i am paying £111.53 and now in feb they putting it up another £4.59.I think with me moving in a few weeks and out of my contract i am going to see what the options Sky have to offer me.Oh and i don,t even have a tivo for that.

Re: TV price rises
 

considering the amount of channels i actually watch these days, i will be seriously considering downgrading to the m+ basic tv package or maybe just getting freesat. I would only really miss 1 channel, and when they eventually get round to "doubling" my broadband speed i will most likely downgrade that too as it will still be faster than what i have currently. The amount i pay each month compared to what i actually use just doesn't make sense anymore and i could probably save myself like £20 a month at least.
It would be nice to be able to downgrade online the same as you can upgrade without having to phone India in order to do so, and i also think its about time that someone came up with the idea where you can choose individual channels that you want without having to take a package with loads of channels you will never watch

Re: TV price rises
 

wow lots to catch up on. I haven't been on the forum in about 3 months or so, and just reading back through this thread I've seen mention of a price increase (not received a snail mail or email about this) and something about a line rental saver?

So - two questions, should I have received info about the price increase by post or email already, or are they still coming out; and second I'm on the top tier VIP (or Premier or whatever they're calling these days) am I entitled to the line rental saver. In the telephone section the last post is September and says no, but I found a post in this thread from someone I think is on the same tier as me who did get it

I have tried doing a search but all it does is throw up this thread and another which are almost 100 pages long but not the actual posts.

thanks in advance.

Re: TV price rises
 

I've been doing a bit of research following my previous posts to see whether to stick with VM or switch to Sky and to try to establish where the price differences are. I've found that it effectively boils down to the Sky Premiums.

If you forget the Sky Premiums and just get a bundle of one STB, all TV channels, HD, line rental, anytime calls and broadband (unlimited with Sky / 30Mb with VM) the bundles come in at £66.40 with VM and £63.75 with Sky (£2.65 more with VM). For £66.90 with VM you can also get an extra STB and 60Mb BB by getting the Premiere Collection with XL Phone (VM does seem to have the advantage if you need additional STBs).

So really on the basic packages there is only a couple of quid difference and with VM you get TiVo, ESPN and fibre BB whereas with Sky you get additional HD channels and Atlantic.

However, it is adding the Sky Premiums to the above that makes a big difference to price. If you add Sky Premiums to the Sky bundle, it would cost an additional £29 per month (including all channels in HD as you already pay the HD charge in the bundle above). However, add Sky Premiums to the VM bundle it will set you back a staggering £39.75 (£32.75 + £7 Premium HD fee). So it is in the Sky Premiums that the large price differential comes.

This has helped me to have a good look at the packages available, compare costs / benefits and I have decide that I am gonna stick with VM but probably look to ditch the Sky Premiums after Xmas.

Sorry for the long ramblings but I've posted this in the hope that it may be of assistance to one or two more on here in deciding on what to do in the current climate of static/reducing income and increasing costs for goods/services.

Regards

Superblade7

Re: TV price rises
 

The best way to play it is if you live in a BT Fibre area is to try and get one of those Sky 50% off offers for the year, then its a no brainer.

Re: TV price rises
 

I don't have Sky premium channels, so I did my comparison without those included, and Sky still worked out £18 dearer. My comparison did include fiber BB from Sky, because it you don't include that, it is not a true comparison; ADSL is not in the same league as fibre.

Re: TV price rises
 

Still coming out and yes - unless you have another offer on your phone line already

Re: TV price rises
 

Thanks Ben:). Much appreciated as always :D

Re: TV price rises
 

How long will it be until everyone has been notified of their price increases? I think Virgin started to communicate the new prices to their customers roughly 2 weeks ago. Nobody I know has received confirmation as of yet. Do Virgin update customers on an area to area basis?

Re: TV price rises
 

They will do it by bill cycle to help stagger the customer service impact. I'm sure I read somewhere everyone should be told by the 30th.

Re: TV price rises
 

The last letters should be sent by 17th December (to arrive by the end of December allowing for Christmas postal delays)

Re: TV price rises
 

Have they sent out the Christmas cards yet for all its customers.;)

Re: TV price rises
 

Do we know when the website and the bundle builder will reflect the new pricing?

Those would be useful tools for those concerned with some sort of idea of which services are going up by how much.