Virgin Media and SKY suck
Sky switched off the signal to their "Basic channels" today. I am now without Sky One and all the other sky channels, and quite frankly it sucks.
It would seem there is a childish dispute between the two companies, with sky playing the bully.
So this is a message to Sky:
Dear Sky,
I do hope you are happy with what you have done to the customers of Virgin Media... No wait, that isn't right... I hope you rot in hell.
In bullying Virgin Media with your "give us 2x the amount" tactics you have condemned us to watching the crap that is regular television. Wake up to your mistake and provide these services to Virgin Media at a reasonable price before an angry lynch mob comes for you.
Stop being a dick and give us back our TV. Your channels suck 90% of the time as it is, so stop trying to tell us how good those channels are.
A N Other Disgruntled Person.
Now a message to Virgin Media:
Dear Virgin,
Please do not bow down to Sky with their demands. I only hope that you can purchase all of the shows that are of worth, notably most of Sky's world premieres (Lost, Stargate). If you can not get your hands on these shows then pass the saving back onto us. Don't waste any time on telling us that you are going to reduce our prices by £2 per month. This is a token amount to stop me from feeling that I have lost out on something. Any saving above this £2 you can keep to buy the shows Sky have screwed us out of.
A Really Pissed customer.
A combined message to you both:
Please figure this out. Your attitude to this is childish and damaging. You are both finger pointing, and quite frankly no one cares. Sky, tell us how much you want for the channels. We, the public will tell you if it is worth it. Virgin, spend all of that money of screwing over Sky.
P.S Virgin Media: If you deprive me of Stargate I will leave.
Sky Doesn't Suck... But Virgin Media Clearly Does
Ok read your comments on the recent announcement by Virgin Media towards SKY TV's desition to withdraw the basic channels (Sky One, SKy News etc). Well sorry to hear your frustration over the matter but for the matter of 3p a day per customer, virgin media would rather say no to that disregaurding their customers to make money. When most Virgin Media customers pay around £60 a month for there service. Sky is offering it for £26 per month.
And now someone will most likley comment on what sky are actually offering and what you need aswell.
To have sky you must have a BT phone line. Which Sky were paying to be put in for you last month (£130 to BT instead of you paying). So you will need a BT line, and then thats £11 p/m line rental. However, Virgin media charge the same but it is added into their package. Also everything sky gives you, is yours. Where with Virgin Media.. You are renting it from them, You leave Vigin Media, they take your stuff back! where as you cancell with sky you get a service called `FreeSat'. SO basicly FreeView! but with better picture and sound.
SO Virgin Media Customers:
Virgin Would Rather NOT PAY 6pence Per Customer Per Day. They Would Rather FORGET ABOUT YOU. And Make More Money.
Don't Be Fooled by Bransons appearances slandering sky for there malicous act to withdraw the basic channels, Virgin have known for months it was going to happen as they had been at the negotiation table for more than 3 months on tha matter.
Also virgin were not happy sky for not paying what virgin were asking for channels such as Bravo, LivingTV... you know the ones US SKY CUSTOMERS don't watch... even tho sky paid, out TV price not gone up.
With over 8 Million Customers, Sky is clearly the leader in Pay TV for the UK. If Virgin ONLY OFFERED Internet, the world would be a better place!
(virgin under 2 million)
Get a better service for less, Join Sky!
AXMATT
While I do not entirely
While I do not entirely agree with your sentiment, you are entitled to your views, as am I. I am not sure you don't work for sky though ;)
So, lets have a showdown... Sky vs Virgin.
Virgin:
| TV | Broadband | Phone |
| XL package @ £20.50 | 20MB @ £37.99 | FREE |
Total per month: £58.49
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/service.do?id=1
Sky:
| TV | Broadband | Phone |
| top package @ £26* | (up to) 16MB @ £10 | £11 |
Total per month: £46
* computed for the same package as Virgin
http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/products/packages
So it would seem you are correct that Sky is a little cheaper. Considering their broadband locks me in for 18 months, and I can't get more than about 4MB here, I am still on the winning side.
I still don't want to pay Sky more money for a service I barely watch. As I said, justify yourselves.
By the way, Virgin do offer only internet... if you take their phone service. Isn't that the same as every one else? mmm.. yes.
As for your subscriber statistics... that's just fiddling numbers. Sky only have to put a dish up, Virgin have to dig up your road. Some things are harder than others to achieve.
Virgin also give me 500+ hours per week of on demand shows. It knocks the socks off of Sky+
I am in no way defending either service here, but it seems like there is very little between them. I am more than willing to pay the £100 per annum for a broadband service that actually works, and mostly at the advertised speed. That is why I switched in the first place. ADSL is shockingly poor.
Also... your 6p per day argument is a little flawed. If Virgin were to absorb this cost for its users, it would cost them 44million pounds per year. That's your numbers. Last time I looked that was a rather large amount of cashola.
last point... who cares about keeping the box? I mean, really. That is not going to swing me either way.
If the sad state of affairs with ADSL were sorted out, I would consider switching... unfortunately it's not that easy.
As for the arbitration between the two. True enough they could not come to an arrangement. Sky wanted an unrealistic amount of money, and refused to budge. Virgin asked for an independent arbitrator, and Sky said no. Who looks bad here?
In summary: Your £60/m for Virgin vs £20/m for sky is misleading. Like for like there is only £10 in it. £10/m is well worth it just for the extras you conveniently left out.
deprivation of stargate
Yes, I could see the twitches starting last night. X