More price rises

[Superblade7]

Originally Posted by Stephen

In a side note. Wow the Q box is fast!

Welcome to Sky Stephen, I got my Q installed yesterday and completely agree. Gone from TiVo to Sky+HD and now Sky Q and a great step up each time.

Back on topic, just got my VM price rise letter so considering cancelling the BB & phone with VM but just wondered if anyone had got any decent deals for BB & phone when cancelling?

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by Superblade7

Welcome to Sky Stephen, I got my Q installed yesterday and completely agree. Gone from TiVo to Sky+HD and now Sky Q and a great step up each time.

Back on topic, just got my VM price rise letter so considering cancelling the BB & phone with VM but just wondered if anyone had got any decent deals for BB & phone when cancelling?

Are you still in the position of not being able to get fibre over a BT line at your address.

[Superblade7]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

Are you still in the position of not being able to get fibre over a BT line at your address.

Yes, that's right muppetman.

On the Openreach checker it's currently showing at the 'Connect' stage and says it should be available within 4 months but it's actually been saying that for a few months now so you'd hope it maybe available shortly.

My VM contract and LRS are up in December so currently thinking I'll just absorb the price rise for a couple of months and then hope that Openreach have finished connecting up the local cabinet by then and then go for BT Infinity or Sky Fibre (whomever has the best offer at the time).

Only thing that concerns me is that we've never had an active BT line in the 10 years we've lived in the house so not sure what the internal wiring is like.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

I thought that your line rental pre-payment meant that you had to stay until March or are VM more flexible now?

I can cancel due to the price increase, but won't receive a refund of the advance line rental.

This was never explained to me at any point, but the legal firm that we use doubt that there is anything that I can do, so if I do leave i'll have to look at other ways to offset the amount lost from VM.

Originally Posted by Stephen

You probably won't miss the speed. I was in 150Mb and last week got sky fibre 38 and its still fast.

VM just sent me a bill for a full month even though my account disconnects next Monday.

Am I best cancelling the DD and paying manually?

In a side note. Wow the Q box is fast!

After the TiVo, it will appear to be fast. Even cheap Freeview/Freesat boxes perform much better!

Sky Q is the speed that devices are supposed to work.

I think that for most people the speed thing is overrated and that, like yourself, lower speeds will suffice.

Originally Posted by Superblade7

Welcome to Sky Stephen, I got my Q installed yesterday and completely agree. Gone from TiVo to Sky+HD and now Sky Q and a great step up each time.

Back on topic, just got my VM price rise letter so considering cancelling the BB & phone with VM but just wondered if anyone had got any decent deals for BB & phone when cancelling?

My research has shown that it's better value to take all services from the same provider.

The problem is that Sky is superior to VM for TV, but many prefer VM for broadband.

As I said to Stephen though, I don't think that the slower broadband speeds will affect the average person.

[john5573]

Well this final price rise has done it for me.
Was paying £128 for x2 TiVo and 1 v+ with all channels unlimited phone and 100mb bb.
Gone to sky with Sky q and 2 additional boxes, all channels including the ever elusive sky Atlantic unlimited phone and 38mb bb for the price of £69 for 12 months.
I can cope with the reduced speed BB, although I will miss BT sports, however even if I add BT sports in HD it will still be cheaper than current virgin package and I will also be saving on my Now TV subscription that I was using for Sky Atlantic.
I've been a loyal virgin customer for years, but no longer willing to pay the increased costs and having x2 Tivos at a premium cost that are getting slower by the day was unfortunately the final straw.
So Farewell

[telegramsam]

Originally Posted by john5573

Well this final price rise has done it for me.
Was paying £128 for x2 TiVo and 1 v+ with all channels unlimited phone and 100mb bb.
Gone to sky with Sky q and 2 additional boxes, all channels including the ever elusive sky Atlantic unlimited phone and 38mb bb for the price of £69 for 12 months.
I can cope with the reduced speed BB, although I will miss BT sports, however even if I add BT sports in HD it will still be cheaper than current virgin package and I will also be saving on my Now TV subscription that I was using for Sky Atlantic.
I've been a loyal virgin customer for years, but no longer willing to pay the increased costs and having x2 Tivos at a premium cost that are getting slower by the day was unfortunately the final straw.
So Farewell

If I could just convince the Mrs I'd switch to back to Sky too!

[john5573]

Originally Posted by telegramsam

If I could just convince the Mrs I'd switch to back to Sky too!

The only thing that has stopped me in the past is the price of x3 boxes, however with sky Q the first extra box is free. I've calculated that in the first 12 months I am going to save £621 after installation and cost of 3rd box.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

I changed over a month ago. And couldn't be happier. My wife spoke with Sky. And we got a deal for 12 months.

We kept VM phone and BB.

When my wife told VM. They didn't try and persuade her to stay with any deal. So if they cannot be bothered, then why should we.

VM cannot keep putting the price up

[Stephen]

off topic posts moved to correct thread.

[bubblegun]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Good for them. Sky offering nuts loss-leading deals, no point cutting their own throat trying to match it.

Questions should really be asked as to how Sky can charge this given the prices they charge other companies for what are presumably very large volume discounted packages. If the regulator had brains they'd be taking a very close look at this, except they don't and won't. They're far too busy harassing BT to force them to sell access to copper to Sky and TalkTalk on the cheap.

A cynical view you could take is that Sky have a customer base so large that it is beyond a "critical mass" that adding customers at any price is essentially "free" money. That's why they do some crazy deals currently. Enough of them stay when the discounts end to make it worthwhile.

The wholesale price for Sports and Movies is less than Sky charge. BT and talktalk choose to sell these with essentially no profit currently however Virgin don't which is why they charge slightly more than Sky to add these to existing packages. All suppliers do deals on their Sports and Movies prices when Sky offer them to their own customers.

Whether that is unfair to existing customers is a different matter and whether the regulator should step in is questionable as the normal price is set out when people sign up.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by bubblegun

A cynical view you could take is that Sky have a customer base so large that it is beyond a "critical mass" that adding customers at any price is essentially "free" money. That's why they do some crazy deals currently. Enough of them stay when the discounts end to make it worthwhile.

I don't think it's a cynical view, it's the reality of Sky's business model. In TV, costs are pretty fixed so that any sales once those fixed costs are covered are pure profit. Hence why Now TV is profitable.
For VM and BT, their fixed costs are its broadband infrastructure. Once these costs are covered, it's pretty much pure profit.
The piggy in the middle is TalkTalk. It pretty much buys in everything be it broadband or content. Hence it has been squeezed and has had to downsize some of its content.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by bubblegun

The wholesale price for Sports and Movies is less than Sky charge. BT and talktalk choose to sell these with essentially no profit currently however Virgin don't which is why they charge slightly more than Sky to add these to existing packages. All suppliers do deals on their Sports and Movies prices when Sky offer them to their own customers.

Whether that is unfair to existing customers is a different matter and whether the regulator should step in is questionable as the normal price is set out when people sign up.

There isn't a regulated wholesale price for Sky Sports anymore for cable or for TalkTalk. BT has a regulated right to Sky Sports 1 and 2.

http://media.ofcom.org.uk/news/2015/wmo-statement/

And I don't believe there has ever been a regulated right to Sky Cinema.

So the main agreements to carry Sky premium channels are commercial ones.

In regards to the price VM customers pay compared with BT and TalkTalk, you're not comparing like for like.

Virgin Media customers get all linear Sky Sports and Sky Cinema channels, and all of them are available in HD.

Neither BT or TalkTalk offer that.

[1andrew1]

Switchers may get some good deals and loyalty doesn't always pay off. But we need to bear in mind, the grass is not always greener and price rises are not exclusive to VM.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/new...contracts.html

[denphone]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

I don't think it's a cynical view, it's the reality of Sky's business model. In TV, costs are pretty fixed so that any sales once those fixed costs are covered are pure profit. Hence why Now TV is profitable.
For VM and BT, their fixed costs are its broadband infrastructure. Once these costs are covered, it's pretty much pure profit.
The piggy in the middle is TalkTalk. It pretty much buys in everything be it broadband or content. Hence it has been squeezed and has had to downsize some of its content.

Also you have to remember Talk Talk have not exactly done themselves any favours with a history of security lapses and amateurish gaffes.

[Kushan]

TalkTalk always trail in the customer service polls as well. Virgin tends to come out near the top, which speaks volumes about how terrible TalkTalk really are.