General Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2013) Vol. 3. - Page 282

Anypermitedroute · 02-08-2013, 15:25

I think the Premier league will step in if this continues to be the case as they would expect as a minimum the option to subscribe as a standalone, hence why Skysports1 & 2 were made available by ofcom at a reasonable price. It isnt the same situation with Sky Atlantic where Sky paid HBO exclsuive rights, that actually benefit HBO in the sense that the only other way of watching HBO was buying their DVDs which they pocketed from the profit thus not requiring a live element like sports rights that require their sponsors to be shown accross as many platforms as possible.

Mr Pharmacist · 02-08-2013, 15:33

Afternoon all. Another newbie/ex watcher here. With regards to the retentions deals mentioned on here, i made 3 calls to them over the last 2 weeks as the tv part of my contract was ending on the 31st July. First time i just got offered a fiver off a month, which i declined and said I'd call back. Second call i got offered the fiver off again, but with the sky sports package offered at half price for 6 months, but the HD cost stayed the same. That was on the 21st July and I accepted that. I thought about it over the weekend and called them again to ask about if there is a cooling off period for renewed contracts. Was told it was 7 working days so said I'd thought about the offer I took and had decided to change my mind. With this he said he had looked at my account and i had an additional code available which gave me an extra tenner off for a year. I think we all know how inconsistent the offers are but I have to say I'm happy with the Sports offer and £15 off a month. That combined with the line rental saver gives me a £20 per month saving. They ain't all bad, though I'd love to have webcam access to their office at the moment..

---------- Post added at 14:33 ---------- Previous post was at 14:27 ----------

My mates given me his BT login to watch the channels online as well. They're actually a better quality stream than i expected. Look much crisper than the Virgin anywhere and Sky go I've used in the past.

mollda · 02-08-2013, 15:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Pharmacist

Afternoon all. Another newbie/ex watcher here. With regards to the retentions deals mentioned on here, i made 3 calls to them over the last 2 weeks as the tv part of my contract was ending on the 31st July. First time i just got offered a fiver off a month, which i declined and said I'd call back. Second call i got offered the fiver off again, but with the sky sports package offered at half price for 6 months, but the HD cost stayed the same. That was on the 21st July and I accepted that. I thought about it over the weekend and called them again to ask about if there is a cooling off period for renewed contracts. Was told it was 7 working days so said I'd thought about the offer I took and had decided to change my mind. With this he said he had looked at my account and i had an additional code available which gave me an extra tenner off for a year. I think we all know how inconsistent the offers are but I have to say I'm happy with the Sports offer and £15 off a month. That combined with the line rental saver gives me a £20 per month saving. They ain't all bad, though I'd love to have webcam access to there office at the moment..

When I phoned retentions this morning, they advised me that we had until 31 August to cancel mid contract due to the loss of the 4 ESPN channels. As earlier post I cancelled which was everything including phone/broadband. Was on VIP

Richc1977 · 02-08-2013, 15:37

Trying to work out what I'd be prepared to pay for BT sports on VM. I've concluded £8 pm.

My budget limit is about £75 pm, which is why I tend to get SS for 2 months in year, for US Open tennis and end of football season.

VM- I've done my sums, my pack on VM was (TV XL, Tivo, BB L and the basic phone) for £60.99 pm. £32.75 extra when I add Sky Sports HD

SKY - If I put initial discounts aside my Sky TV /BT BB Phone solution works out at £69.25 pm with BT Sports included (incl £3 for HD). £27.25 extra for Sky Sports HD. One off £25 charge for a wireless adapter for the V+ box.

Sky/BT Pros - 2TB hard drive, Sky Atlantic HD and all of all SKY Sports in HD and of course BT Sports/ESPN.

VM Pros - Tivo, better on demand and package without sky sports is £8.26 pm cheaper.

It's a compromise either way but Sky/BT currently have the upper hand as the content is key for me and an £8 saving, Tivo is not enough for me to stay.

So I conclude that no saving (i.e. An extra £8pm), BT Sports/ESPN HD and Tivo is just enough for me to stay with VM. (I do really like Tivo)

r40538 · 02-08-2013, 15:40

i went through to retentions and complained about espn and BT sports. My contract finishes next month so said i was wanting to move to sky to get access to BT sports and ESPN.

Was on XL with asian channels 500GB TIVO + V+ box and had removed sky sports/moviesHD at end of the footy season.

Asked what they could to to put it sports and movies back on and would have been £85 + line rental saver.

said it wasn't very compelling compared to sky.

then asked if i upgraded to VIP what could they do.

ends up i get VIP with 1GB TIVO, keep my V+ box, sky sports and movies in HD, asian channels, unlimited phone to land line/mobiles (previously weekend land line calls only) 100MB BB (was 20MB) new superhub2 (have a 9yr old modem just now), and a 12 month contract fo £89 + line rental saver option. so £99 a month for that.

i'm a LFC fan and only 3 games on BT sports in next 3-4 months so will go down the pub to watch. If it comes to virgin the great but overall i'm getting a lot more for my money than before......same package on sky was working out more.

mollda · 02-08-2013, 15:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by r40538

i went through to retentions and complained about espn and BT sports. My contract finishes next month so said i was wanting to move to sky to get access to BT sports and ESPN.

Was on XL with asian channels 500GB TIVO + V+ box and had removed sky sports/moviesHD at end of the footy season.

Asked what they could to to put it sports and movies back on and would have been £85 + line rental saver.

said it wasn't very compelling compared to sky.

then asked if i upgraded to VIP what could they do.

ends up i get VIP with 1GB TIVO, keep my V+ box, sky sports and movies in HD, asian channels, unlimited phone to land line/mobiles (previously weekend land line calls only) 100MB BB (was 20MB) new superhub2 (have a 9yr old modem just now), and a 12 month contract fo £89 + line rental saver option. so £99 a month for that.

i'm a LFC fan and only 3 games on BT sports in next 3-4 months so will go down the pub to watch. If it comes to virgin the great but overall i'm getting a lot more for my money than before......same package on sky was working out more.

For me its was cheaper to move to SKY/BT. I leave Virgin on the 1st September. On VIP (£114 with line rental and without future sky price rises), SKY/BT will cost me £105 (including all the price increases) for similar packages, although I will now get BT Sport and Sky Atlantic HD. Faster BB with Virgin, though BT Infinity speed of 65mb not to bad.

I suppose its different for each customer and the package required

MutleyF · 02-08-2013, 15:59

I'm not so sure, and with all due respects to others reading this ....

If you call customer services with all guns blazing to threaten to cancel, they will more than likely ignore you.

If you remain calm, polite and still get your point across, you may well get a good deal.

Let's be honest, losing customers benefits no-one

Mr Pharmacist · 02-08-2013, 16:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by mollda

When I phoned retentions this morning, they advised me that we had until 31 August to cancel mid contract due to the loss of the 4 ESPN channels. As earlier post I cancelled which was everything including phone/broadband. Was on VIP

We've been looking at all the options and prices of all the providers over the last couple of months, and the only thing that tempted me was a half price full sky package for a year, which my nephew took but kept his virgin phone and downgraded to 30 meg broadband. All together that's costing him around £60 a month. If I'd have took the half price sky offer but with an extra box, which I get for free now, and jumped to BT Infinity it worked out around £80 a month, plus I'd have had to buy the extra box. That didn't seem worth it to me. As much as I love football I'm not able to hog the main tv all the time, so the second box was a necessity for us. Now I'll either watch BT on my laptop via my mate, or connect it to the telly in the bedroom via an HDMI lead. I've covered all options for a very reasonable price and if BT Sports does happen to arrive I'll be even more happy...

mollda · 02-08-2013, 16:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Pharmacist

We've been looking at all the options and prices of all the providers over the last couple of months, and the only thing that tempted me was a half price full sky package for a year, which my nephew took but kept his virgin phone and downgraded to 30 meg broadband. All together that's costing him around £60 a month. If I'd have took the half price sky offer but with an extra box, which I get for free now, and jumped to BT Infinity it worked out around £80 a month, plus I'd have had to buy the extra box. That didn't seem worth it to me. As much as I love football I'm not able to hog the main tv all the time, so the second box was a necessity for us. Now I'll either watch BT on my laptop via my mate, or connect it to the telly in the bedroom via an HDMI lead. I've covered all options for a very reasonable price and if BT Sports does happen to arrive I'll be even more happy...

Fair point

Mr Pharmacist · 02-08-2013, 16:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by MutleyF

I'm not so sure, and with all due respects to others reading this ....

If you call customer services with all guns blazing to threaten to cancel, they will more than likely ignore you.

If you remain calm, polite and still get your point across, you may well get a good deal.

Let's be honest, losing customers benefits no-one

Spot on in my opinion.

djmagnifique · 02-08-2013, 16:20

Don't know if this has been mentioned already but i've just seen an advert for BT internet on Cartoon Network which was advertising BT sport as well and stated that Virgin media customers no longer get ESPN.

iTekweni · 02-08-2013, 16:25

I have not done any sums but reading on here gives me some idea about Sky/.BT vs VM and at the minute Sky are coming out on top due to the loss of ESPN who I watched more than Sky sports, now its gone will wait and see what VM offers as a replacement if nothing is offered and being on the xxl package will either downgrade or move which I am a bit reluctant to do being a customer for almost 14 years but hell a change might do me good

Pster72 · 02-08-2013, 16:26

Could the delay be to do with Liberty Global revealing there earnings for the second quarter of 2013 and then maybe something will happen regarding BT sport with money being available in the third quarter of 2013 to make a deal with BT

mollda · 02-08-2013, 16:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by MutleyF

I'm not so sure, and with all due respects to others reading this ....

If you call customer services with all guns blazing to threaten to cancel, they will more than likely ignore you.

If you remain calm, polite and still get your point across, you may well get a good deal.

Let's be honest, losing customers benefits no-one

This was not my experience today. When I phoned this morning I was calm and explained the situation that I was unhappy that Virgin had not yet obtained BT Sports or Sky Atlantic, and was asking if there was any update on when they may arrive.

They advised no news and could not confirm if/when they would arrive.
Did not offer me anything in terms of a reduction for the loss of the 4 ESPN channels, but did say I could cancel my VIP contract 12 months into a 18 month contract without penalty. I took him up on this offer and moved to SKY/BT for a cheaper deal.

Suppose it depends on who you speak to.

denphone · 02-08-2013, 16:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pster72

Could the delay be to do with Liberty Global revealing there earnings for the second quarter of 2013 and then maybe something will happen regarding BT sport with money being available in the third quarter of 2013 to make a deal with BT

A big company like that despite its leverage should have plenty of money at its disposal no matter what.