Sky Channels
 

As many already know Sky pulled the basic Sky TV channels
Sky 1, Sky News, Sky Sports News

Even though sky are currently suffering loss of revenue from these channels they are still hoping customers will change, and no dought some of you have contemplated this.

There are some important parts you should consider before making this desition.

1) Pay for equipment* (Sometimes on offer)
2) Pay for installation* (Sometimes on offer)
3) As you own the equipment with Sky (Unlike loaning it from Virgin Media) means if it becomes faulty YOU have to pay for the repairs (You get first years cover for free there after you must pay for cover)

Objection...
So?, My neighbour has it and never let him down

Ok so what happends when a storm hits and moves the satalite dish?
All electrical equipment is subjected to fail, is it not?
Viewing cards can become damaged
Children can alter with connections and settings

Do you fancy paying out over £100 for some one to come out and simply move your dish 2" back in place?

So yes Vigin Media or Telewest do charge £75.00 call out but then its a smaller fee to Sky's (for a custom job, if it is a fault its FREE)

Moving on...
4) Sky channels (Sky 1, Sky News and Sky Sports News)

Other than sky 1 you can view all of this online or freeview
Links...

Windows Media Player...
Sky Sports News<link deleted> Occasionaly sound fails
Sky News<link deleted> Occasionally just the Sky News intro loop

Plus sky have annouced they are looking to pull the channels from Freeview
Why is this, at the same time Virgin Refuse to pay there 3 times over costs?

This is because you have more than likely been paying the costs for Sky being able to make Sky News and Sky SPorts news available to freeview customers, WHY SHOULD YOU PAY 3 TIMES MORE SO THAT IT COVERS OTHERS FOR FREE?

Objections...
3p per day, whats that, its nothing I dont mind paying that!
Ok as you all know over the past couple of years the TV package for Starter increase from £3.50 to what it is now.
Yes there has been some channel increases but do you want to pay MORE out specially when the NON Direct debit customers are paying £5.00 now
So what is 3p a day compared to the 1p previous charge a year?

Answer £10.95 and thats only from you, imagine the remainder 150,000 customers
Thats a grand total of £1,642,500 that sky earn
As compared to the normal costs: £4.75 a year per customer
£712,500 (Extra £930,000 they would be achieving a year)

And who is going to pay that £930,000 extra per year, either you as the customer or Virgin which will prevent solving problems with the system quicker, new channels, improving the network and advertising etc etc

So what could sky do with that money, help strenthen their competition.
This is just the Sky Basic channels, not to mention the Sky Movie channels which no dought the same will happen in time to come.

Sky movies channels also have had price increases, Telewest for years have been trying to keep the prices low, however it comes a time where they are forced to raise the prices due to Sky's further demand for more money for them and again when the Disney channels where charged on not on the XL package, yes Sky pulled out at last minute causing caos with parents over the channels as their kids didnt have their fav channels, this again was due to price increase demands from sky.

Objection 2...
Sky have the red button facility though, Virgin Dont on sky channels.

This is because Sky have refused to sell it to any one else to encourage customers to come over to them
However did you know that it costs to use the red button

The Sky boxes dial a premium number (090 number) in order to make the connection, which will then show on your phone bill.
Not handy when you have got kids constantly connecting to a 25ppm - 50ppm number to vote on a show, watch news on demand, watch different angles on football etc etc.

Then you have your normal bills to pay for the service to start off with

So in my eyes, let them have their red button, why should Virgin Customers have to pay for using the red button.

Sky Sports news is now advertised...
Like my girlfriend said, why are they advertising it now, they never did before what makes it so interesting
and again you can watch it online for FREE so why should you have to pay 3 times over for it when others get it for FREE

Click Here to watch<link deleted>

Objection: Its not in my armchair though is it?
Thats not the point, the point it why pay for it specially 3 times the price when its available for free elsewhere, and it is right that Virgin Media should say no as you would be mainly paying for Sky 1 as the rest is available for free. However there is tools you can use to forward the image to your TV or use recording devices to record that special moment.

Objaction: Im missing the ALL NEW SIMPSONS, STAR TREK etc...
Other than Lost and probably Nic/Tuck
these are NOT NEW!, there just repeats but NEW SERIES

In otherwords they have played series 1 until you are sick and tired of seing it and now there going to play Series 2 which orginally came out in 1997
Therefore its a NEW SERIES compared to usual, (Trust me I work in sales, its a wording techinique)

Ok what about Lost and Battlestar galactica etc...
Whats not to say Virgin will invest in purchasing these series for the Virgin Central, obviously it doesnt happen overnight as they need to negotiate a decent price for all customers, specially since it will be ON DEMAND which can affect DVD sales and VHS sales, so the producers wont just jump to the first price offered and neither would Virgin Media as it could cost just as much as having sky in the first place.

"Patience is a virtue"

Ok what about sky travel

Teletext
Online TV such as this on CLICK HERE <link deleted>
HIGHSTREET talk to a real person move away from your TV screen once in a while.

Lets not forget the ITV thing i mean common, sky are defenatly feeling the pressure and are doing everything they can to keep a stanglehold on other providers and who is to blame them if it was your company you would do the same. Except Virgin are now looking to take legal action if nothing is agreed by the 5th April
(See channel 602 on your Virgin TV)
www.virginmedia.com/fairplay

Sky have more HD channels
Only because they own half or a quarter of them, BBC HD is available and On Demand is available though Virgin with the V+ service
If you keep your eye out soon there will be more coming to Virgin, however sky dont have the technology in their boxes the V+ offers
Again "Patience is a virtue", hold on and you will see.

Virgin is just NTL and Telewest, same services just a name change
Yes but again things like this dont happen over night

Training staff must be done first
Advertising
Testing
Costs
Legal agreements (Contracts)
New Equipment with logos etc
Shareholders
Website changes etc etc to bring everything inline

Lets not forget that the merger needed to happen first and the liquidation of NTL and Telewest needs to occure leaving only Virgin Media as the main company

The public rebrand only happened last month whilst internally it had been happening since April/May time last year (2006)

Objection: Its easier to buy Sky, I just pop up my local highstreet.
Been in virgin megastores lately?, there is also Virgin Media on sale

Why have seperate companies
BT, Sky

Virgin = TV, PHONE, INTERNET and MOBILE

not to mention, how many people have seen the adverts on bill boards, the TV and radio for SKY. I bet that is costing them more than just staying at the same price with Virgin.

For those who dont know, Virgin offered Sky for both Sky and Virgin to agree to a IMPARTIAL advise on the new deal, but it was SKY not virgin who REFUSED.

Finally - On demand (Teleport, Virgin Central and 500 archieve PPV, Teleport Replay) not available on sky where as it is with Virgin

There is just a few thinsg to consider for those unsure of changing or staying with Virgin

Edited Section:
Just to advise the chances are over the next coming months the Internet channels Sky News and Sports will probably drop since it costs a hell of a lot of money to cover the bandwidth required for viewers to watch, and Im sure Sky eventually will privatice these channels to subscribers only, but at the moment enjoy whilst they are free

Re: Sky Channels
 

Great post! :clap:

Re: Sky Channels
 

I used to pay £1 per month to have Sky1 from NTL.. and that's over 3p per day....

Re: Sky Channels
 

Superb :tu:

Re: Sky Channels
 

I was originally with NTL and I've always had Sky One included...

Re: Sky Channels
 

Cnat say too much for NTL aspect since I worked for Telewest between Sept 2003 until January 2007.

Im sure NTL customers / Staff can comment further on this

Please make sure your not confusing it with Sky movies
Sky Movies used to be approx £21.00 a month / 12 screens (movies 1-10, Cinema 1 & 2) = £1.75 a month per channel

Re: Sky Channels
 

Taff you petty person 3.33p is what you paid any sane person would have rounded it to the nearest digit :dozey:

What a great post.
I saw an interview on BBc news 24 with Richard Branson. The impression i got is he wont be sitting on his backside letting Sky do what they want.
Certain things Mr murdoch has done have been picked up by the monopolys and mergers commission (ITV) and the office of fair trading (sky channels).
It wouldent supprise me that if like Info says the series that everyone want to watch dont appear on Virgin and sky will have made a big mistake.

I for one will be staying with Virgin its where the future lies

Re: Sky Channels
 

great post

The link for skysports news is BRIL, thanks a lot :)

Mike

Re: Sky Channels
 

great post:tu:

For those looking for online TV channels, look no further. I've been using this site for years <link deleted> . I thought it was a VERY well known site, until I posted it on another forum. Nobody had heard of it, so I will do the same here.
TV from all around the world at the click of a mouse :D I watched the Iraq war live from the press webcams/feeds that were on there. Keep an eye out for the live feeds, as you get to see some amazing stuff LIVE;)

Re: Sky Channels
 

just to add to that post...
<link deleted> which also includes full feature length films

Re: Sky Channels
 

I use 2 which are absolute free to download stand alone software.

<deleted> is good for things like the american tv stations like ABC/ sci fi channel and thanks to a poster who revealed this little GEM. With there blog it sounds like it will go from strength to stength.

Another one is a rare chinese piece called <deleted> tv. Now this will not be everybody's cup of tea as its a mandarin/cantonese mainly focused web tv.

<link deleted>

However I love watching martial arts and even though mostly are chinese there are rare ones which have either english subs or english spoken. Even watched the latest new martial arts epic the banquet from the makers of house of flying daggers. I think this is not even in the uk yet at the cinema.

On ocasions you will see american films transmitted. I watched all diehard films back to back. The feeds are very stable too. To watch a channel for 9 hours without a hitch on 2meg broadband is some doing on web based tv.

I have provided a link for those who would like to try it. The web is in chinese but first blue box will download the latest version.

Re: Sky Channels
 

Confirmed.. it was a few years back (I signed up in Oct 2000). Then the subs was absorbed into the Basic Pack (analogue) after a small price increase.

So if NTL was paying only 1p per user per day, they were making a "large" percentage profit at that time, and since, anyway, and would even make a "small" profit if they had to pay the much bandied-about 3p per day.

Nothing is that simple though....

Re: Sky Channels
 

Wel thought out post, but with Sky sports news on the internet the sounds has been down for about two weeks and sky news is just the news headlines, if you have it on tv you have sound on ssn and can watch sky news 24.

Re: Sky Channels
 

still useful for the saturday vidi printer. I just cannot get on with the beeb rubbish one. Even when using via the red button. The stupid idiots switch it off transmitting just to show what coming up on the beeb before the terrestial links with interactive. Just at the point when its edgy and you wondering if late goals are going in.

Who the hells brainy idea that. One thing Sky is at least when adverts came up they kept the vidiprinter running. Beeb with new viewers from the loss of sky sports news are gonna have to learn fast you don't switch the vidi printer off. Thats not the fact that garth crooks and co still yak even when important goals go in. There is no interuption sorry garth we got to go to X where there just been a development. I hate sky but I got to admit they are lightyears ahead of the beeb with the saturday soccer show.

Re: Sky Channels
 

ah VOD hmm and thats going to be a free service from now on ?

yep i know the red button can cost money but i can stop it dialing out ;)

how ever i cant see that loosing a channel that has a fixed price showing what i like and the kids like and the wife likes can be compared to a channel thats likely to start charging for programs each time we want to watch them

free VOD is great but the main reason i go with any provider is fixed price i don't and many others wont want a unexpected bill at the end of every month

i am in any case spreading my money now some to virgin going to have BB Phone and the free tv for £20 and sky basic plus sky + ( they gave me the box ;) ) for £25 slightly more than i was paying before but with the channels we watch

so now i realy dont care witch one of these companies is throwing thier toys out of the pram ( in my opinion both were ) as who ever shows my programes i can watch