Broadband & TV quandary

[vickster]

Looking to reduce my monthly costs a bit if possible and maximise my viewing. Currently I get my TV from Sky (sports, HD, multi room) and my broadband and landline from Virgin (don't use for TV as no HD Sky sports)

I have Sky sports pretty much only for football...but there seems to be less and less with more on BT...so my first thought was to cancel Sky sports and get from BT. I'll definitely cancel sky sports for the summer either way

But...BT want £24 a month for the sports, so it would seem to make sense to ditch Virgin and switch BB and landline to BT and get the sports via Sky for £3

I've not had any services from BT for about 15 years so no idea how infinity compares to Virgin. Been with Virgin for many years but don't feel any loyalty

Does anyone know how the broadband compares to Virgin, I get somewhere around 40meg from Virgin, but I'm only a surfer, no gaming, no downloading, no Netflix etc. I should get at least 35meg from BT according to their website

I can get £110 from Quidco and some MasterCard cash thing from BT

First world problem obviously but if anyone has experience of the different services, advice much appreciated

 

[subaqua]

i will watch this with interest as in a similar position , i have Virgin for everything though as i get BT sport HD for free with the XL package .

cant work out whether to ditch the TV and broadband and go sky and BT for telly and broadband and get the sports stuff as well.

 

[steve50]

You could switch to BT and then purchase one of these instead of paying for sky sports, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-MXQ-Q...033518?hash=item54270728ee:g:oo0AAOSwcBhWYjXn
I have one and once it is configured correctly I can get all the sky channels including sports etc.

 

[Glenn]

Take a look at https://www.plus.net/tv/

 

[vickster]

Ok..I've signed up to BT, with the sports in HD through Sky...about £31 a month for the approx 35 meg BB option and weekend phone calls. Connection fees of around £56. I already have the sports now, but the connection for everything else will be in mid May (as I have to give virgin 30 days notice)

...Plus £110 cash back from Quidco and £100 pre loaded MasterCard from BT! These are the bonus, as everything else will essentially cost about the same as now but I get BT sports (about £95 a month for everything which isn't an issue)

Also I called Sky, half price sports, multi room and HD for 6 months. If I had cancelled the sports, it would have saved me a fiver as other offers wouldn't have been on the table!

I still need to cancel Virgin, their retention team don't work Sundays

All very complex! Thanks for comments

 

[jowwy]

Just remember that sky sports have just won 3 of the 4 premier league football packages for next season.

I have skytv, but i use bt broadband....so bt sport hd is a lot less because of that, but my broadband costs are the same

 

[Andrew_P]

Looking to reduce my monthly costs a bit if possible and maximise my viewing. Currently I get my TV from Sky (sports, HD, multi room) and my broadband and landline from Virgin (don't use for TV as no HD Sky sports)

I have Sky sports pretty much only for football...but there seems to be less and less with more on BT...so my first thought was to cancel Sky sports and get from BT. I'll definitely cancel sky sports for the summer either way

But...BT want £24 a month for the sports, so it would seem to make sense to ditch Virgin and switch BB and landline to BT and get the sports via Sky for £3

I've not had any services from BT for about 15 years so no idea how infinity compares to Virgin. Been with Virgin for many years but don't feel any loyalty

Does anyone know how the broadband compares to Virgin, I get somewhere around 40meg from Virgin, but I'm only a surfer, no gaming, no downloading, no Netflix etc. I should get at least 35meg from BT according to their website

I can get £110 from Quidco and some MasterCard cash thing from BT

First world problem obviously but if anyone has experience of the different services, advice much appreciated

I am being offered 50% off the full package from Virgin TV/Phone/BB/ at the moment, I am not overly keen on the TiVo box but it is tempting. I left Sky for Virgin 2 years ago. Exactly 12 months after I left I was offered 50% off for 12 months for an 18 month contract from Sky so went back. Virgin are offering 50% off for 6 months, I think it is a 12 month contract.

As far as internet goes, I very much doubt you would notice too much difference between 40mb and 5mb with your use if you get a data monitor and check your usage you might even be able to get away with a decent mobile 4g data package and use phone as a router.

 

[vickster]

I'm not interested in Virgin TV as they have no HD sky sports, and I'd lose all my saved stuff on the Sky box

I'm sure I'll get sky sports for the next season (I didn't know about the sky sports PL deal @jowwy)
I think ultimately I'll be paying about the same and have BT sports. I never get the promised BB speeds from Virgin anyhow

There are always deals especially when you threaten to leave . It's weighing up the hassle...and the connection fees. I'll be self employed soon and working from home, so BB and line rental will be partly a business expense

In a years time I can reassess it all! Quidco is definitely worth checking too!

 

[subaqua]

I'm not interested in Virgin TV as they have no HD sky sports, and I'd lose all my saved stuff on the Sky box

I'm sure I'll get sky sports for the next season (I didn't know about the sky sports PL deal @jowwy)
I think ultimately I'll be paying about the same and have BT sports. I never get the promised BB speeds from Virgin anyhow

There are always deals especially when you threaten to leave . It's weighing up the hassle...and the connection fees. I'll be self employed soon and working from home, so BB and line rental will be partly a business expense

In a years time I can reassess it all! Quidco is definitely worth checking too!

they do.its just they cost an extra £7 a month on top of the sports package http://store.virginmedia.com/digital-tv/channels/sky-sports.html

but still looking . i will miss TIVO if i move , but even that's losing its gloss

 

[Andrew_P]

Also is it just me or have they deliberately made Football unwatchable without HD, just a fuzzy mess?

I have been surprised how little I have missed Champions league this year. I think the way forward is pay per view and or season ticket team passes.

I was pretty sure Virgin had HD, do they not offer a reasonable deal to add BT sports as well?

 

[vickster]

I think when I've looked, virgin works out more for what I have over the 12 months, as an existing customer

No Sky Atlantic on Virgin and I do like Blue Bloods!

Also, when I had virgin before, SD picture was atrocious compared to Sky and their channel organisation / numbering was awful

 

[Andrew_P]

I didn't like Virgin and couldn't wait to go back to Sky.

 

[subaqua]

I think when I've looked, virgin works out more for what I have over the 12 months, as an existing customer

No Sky Atlantic on Virgin and I do like Blue Bloods!

Also, when I had virgin before, SD picture was atrocious compared to Sky and their channel organisation / numbering was awful

thats the one i wish was on Virgin.

 

[vickster]

Yep. I just couldn't see any benefit to staying with virgin vs moving to Sky and BT. Virgin rarely seem to have any deals wither. With Sky, I simply said I want to cancel Sky sports and immediately I was offered the deal saving £20 a month, still with Sky Sports

I almost moved my BB to Sky a while back, virgin called and immediately lopped £20 a month off. If I hadn't actually started the Sky process but simply phoned, based on previous experiences, they would have done nothing. I stayed with Virgin, took the discount as it saved me the hassle of waiting in for engineers etc
Virgin are IMO appalling at doing any sort of deal for existing customers

I think I'll lose my phone number, but only my parents and spammers call it. I'll probably have to update a few others like work and doctor, but not hard

 

[fossyant]

We are BT Infinity 2 (76mg) as we can't get virgin. We don't have SKY as we occasionally piggy back off my dads Sky subscription as we have an Xbox. We have Amazon Prime for some TV, but mainly use Kodi and Popcorn time for other stuff.