February 16, 2012

The April price rises: a new VMHD poll

Two topics have got readers of this blog hot under the collar this year: Sky not making SkySports F1 HD available to Virgin customers (and only making F1 SD available to Sky Sports subscribers on cable) and the forthcoming April price rises.
So top right I'm asking about the price rises as that's attracted the most traffic to hit this site in some time. Please vote and let me know what you think.
(I did think of running a similar poll on the Sky Sports F1 but seeing as the only debate I've seen is whether it's all Sky's fault, or the BBC's, or Virgin Media's, or Bernie Eccleston's, there doesn't seem to be much point as quite simply all F1 fans with Virgin Media TV are unhappy with that deal!)
[Apologies for heading the poll "Pay rises" - it should have been "Price rises" of course.]

19 comments:

James Welsh said...

I put "I'm staying but I'm not happy" and I think this pretty much sums things up very nicely.

VM already IMHO offer an inferior TV service to Sky (Broadband a different matter!) so to have an increase with no improvement in service, or improvements that are "coming soon" in perpetuity is a kick in the teeth.

Sky just seems to offer more and more whilst VM seem to stand still.

Indie said...

I put "I'm staying but I'm not happy" aswell. But the price increases have made me look at my current package and I think I will be downgrading my bundle like reducing TV from XL to L as most of the difference between the two are +1 channels and HD versions of SD channels. I think I can live without these for now. Thus Virgin will lose money from me.

Adrian68 said...

"I'm staying but I'm not happy" sums my position too. It appears as though the not so stealth TV price is helping towards the costs of increasing the BB speeds.

It will be interesting seeing their new Traffic Management tiers with the new BB speeds too

Martin_e93 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nialli said...

Martine93: there's no mention of Virgin Media on the link page you've supplied

Anonymous said...

Keeping my excellent broadband, but returning to Sky for my TV package. At the end of the day its all about personal choice, and although I rate the on-demand service that Virgin has, at the end of the day it has boiled down to HD content for me..

Martin_e93 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
martin waldron said...

Hi

I have seen in my local VM shop that SKY F1 IS available to VM customers as long as you have SKY SPORTS so yes you will get it but no you have to pay for sky sports

Barry said...

Dilbert sums this up pretty well http://dilbert.com/2012-02-19/

Square eyes said...

To all

for the last time from me on the subject of the F1 channel

Starts 9th March
only available to VM customers who subscribe to the sports channels

Sorry Nialli if this seems blunt or abrupt, but I am really fed up with people either not reaading the posts correctly or just seeing what they want to

Unknown said...

I've just dropped my channel package from XL to M. Didn't there used to be an 'S' package to compete with freeview? I asked but India told me that M was the smallest.

I won't notice the difference as I only ever watch BBC HD and BBC Four. My TiVo contract is up in two months, at which point I may jump ship altogether, if the Xbox VOD stuff is good enough by that point.

Nialli said...

I guess the poll response I overlooked was "I'm staying but downgrading my package", as a few have suggested that they're doing that. There's no "small" option any more - I guess no-one likes the idea of buying "small", whether it be TV, Broadband or condoms!
I would downgrade if I couldn't afford what I'm currently paying. From what I've seen so far, the PQ of the alternative streaming services is okay, maybe on a par with SD Freeview, but hardly HD. Saw UK Netflix the other day - poor content selection and not great PQ. If that's supposed to be superior to LoveFilm heaven knows how poor that is. I don't doubt that the streaming services will improve over the next few years to the point where they are a real alternative, but I'm not convinced they are there yet.

Martin_e93 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
James Welsh said...

Having given it more thought, I think Virgin are potentially in real trouble if Sky are going to be leasing Infinity lines from BT.

If they can offer 40mbit FTTC (soon to be 80mbit) on top of a superior TV service probably for less money then only the die-hard anti-Murdochs would stick it out.

Unknown said...

@James Welsh

I disagree. Linear TV is on it's way out. The future is on demand streaming over IP, which is obviously ideal territory for Virgin and BT. Those who don't own their own networks and are forced to parasitise others will be in a much weaker position.

In the US Netflix accounts for 40% of all evening net traffic and is rising rapidly. Here iPlayer is already an essential service for many. The writing is on the wall for linear TV, and if the rumours of a big IPTV push from Apple are true, it could happen sooner than people think.

SneakyB said...

VM simply charge too much for the inferior service they provide as far as TV goes. Less than half the available HD channels and even add the £3 for the TIVO box on XL. Also a(high speed it may be) stuttery at best, broadband service.

Craig said...

Have decided that once Tivo contract is up I will be returning to Sky. Keep BB & Phone with Virgin. Find the tv content lacking with Virgin along with lack of HD channels

uigiflip said...

downgraded from 50 meg vip tivo to xl tv + tivo, m phone and 30 meg broadband

DeadHead said...

I was thinking about moving over to Virgin TV as i've been more than happy with my cable broadband connection.
I'm sticking with SKY though as Virgin will not be showing F1 in HD..that is a massive mistake!
I only watch HD channels and I don't like how they make you have the XL pack to get them all.
They really should have a HD only subscription and my feeling is that Virgin don't seem to place much importance in HD content.