freeview vs virgin media (telewest)

consnmattsmom

Hi

Not sure if I am posting in correct place but we are trying to cut back and was considering changng from Virgin to Freeview.

It would be helpful to hear experiences with freeview and is there a way we can pay extra and get sky sports channels via freeview?

Thanks

C_Ronaldo

u cant get sports channels on freeview, you might be able to with topup tv, the channels are limited on freeview mind

Viz_2

You will be losing the Sky channels anyway from Virgin as they cannot agree a renewal fee for use of the channels.

consnmattsmom

they say that only sky sports news and sky travel are going and hope to get them back in few weeks

Woby_Tide

Setanta Sports on Freeview will be showing Premiership matches as of next season as a pay channel, Eurosport also used to be available but not sure how that stands with the TopUP TV changes of recent months

hobo28

Depends on your viewing habits but when I was a customer, I hardly ever watched the sky channels. It was basically a glorified channel 5 receiver. Now I use Freeview only. The only problem is when the weather is bad the reception can be dodgy even after i had my aerial upgraded. It would be a good idea to check and/or ask neighbours to see what their reception is like.

That said, the cost of an aerial upgrade would soon be made back in savings from not having to pay a monthly fee

C_Ronaldo

Viz wrote:

You will be losing the Sky channels anyway from Virgin as they cannot agree a renewal fee for use of the channels.

i dont think its definite that the sky channels are going,

across

i have freeview upstairs and the virgin cable downstairs and i have got to say i CAN tell the difference i could not give up the cable downstairs sometimes i go to bed in the middle of watching something and then realise it isnt on freeview upstairs which is frustrating, for me anyway the cable is worth the money and when youre used to it freeview hasnt much to offer but it is alright as an extra in the other rooms, depends what you watch yourself of course,good luck!;)

RadoJo

I am with Virgin (well, was with NTL and apparently now am a Virgin media customer). Just after Christmas we called NTL to say that we wanted to cancel our account, which was for phone, Cable TV package, and Broadband, as we had found a cheaper deal for phone and internet and were going to buy a freeview box. They offered to let us keep just the freeview channels through our cable set top box, as well as all the interactive content 'On Demand' stuff, and cut the rate for our phone and broadband to £12.49 a month.

Now it is entirely incidental that our bills have actually gone up since then due to an error in their system, and that they say they can't pay it into our bank account, but have to keep it in our account with them (will be writing to them about that!).

However, it is still quite a good deal - we get all the 'Pick of the week' programmes from the BBC and channel 4, and they have just made their 'TV Hits' selection free, as well as having pay per view films etc, so I would highly recommend trying this option and having the best of both worlds...!

silverbirch_3

sky one has disappeared from my virgin media today. No point in keeping it if i can't watch 24, rescue me, nip tuck, lost

I've fancied sky + for a while, my brother has it and its far superior to the virgin replay option, i can't even get into that most time, just get the 'please try later' message.

Just need to decide whether to keep my phone and broadband with virgin or go to the hassle of getting a bt line put in and cancel the lot. (just looked and i still have a cable running to the house from the bt pole in the street so may not be a hassle anyway)

Does anyone know what sort of usage 40gb broadband is as thats the sky deal but i'm unlimited at the moment?

smittenkitten

silverbirch wrote:

sky one has disappeared from my virgin media today. No point in keeping it if i can't watch 24, rescue me, nip tuck, lost


?

I aggree thinking of going to freeview.

Does anyone think that Virgin and Sky will resolve?

Sky will lose audience numbers in respect of advertising, they cannot say they reach an audience of Sky and Virgin media viewers if Virgin has just cut this off - so it must effect Sky as well??