July 17, 2015

Happy with BT Sports Europe HD for an extra £3?

The immediate reaction to the news that VM will increase the price of the XL TV package in September by £3 and will include the new channel BT Sports Europe HD has resulted in a number of complaints to this blog. I can see why: even as a football fan myself, this should have been an option for customers rather than a mandatory increase for all customers on the top end TV package. How do you feel? There's a poll top right to voice your opinion, and feel free to post a Comment on this post, too.

12 comments:

Gary said...

No I'm very unhappy with it, and will probably cancel my contract as a result.

I think it is totally unfair that non-sports fans should have this premium rate football channel forced upon them.

Will this happen every time a new sports channel is launched?

Unknown said...

I'm very glad Virgin are getting BT Europe both in SD and HD because I'm a massive football fan and was worried I couldn't follow the champions league matches, however it really isn't fair on those who aren't bothered about the Channel to get yet another price hike. It should really be a opt in channel and Virgin will loose customers over it. Okay so some people may say that £3 extra a month isn't so bad, but those £3 pounds do add up and that's another £36 extra every 12 months. Not good move from Virgin

Bruce said...

Disgraceful that we're having to pay extra for football that was previously included in our package. This so called competition for sporting rights is not working for viewers.

Space_Cowby said...

If I wanted a sports package I would choose to pay for it, this should not be forced on customers !

Jon said...

Also very angry about this. Adding "chargeable" sport to non-sport packages is an extreme demonstration of how broken the current bundling model used by all Pay TV has become. I'm very tempted to "cord cut" and subscribe to Netflix, Now TV etc. as needed, but bundling is designed to always make that not quite viable. We need another entrant into the "fibre" market to offer a pure broadband offer - no stupid landline costs (now obscene for how much it is used) and no more bundling of 100s of unwatched channels.

Unknown said...

Don't mind, just want to see the end to BBC licence fee!!

Dazz285 said...

Don't watch sport so do see why I have to pay extra for it...

alan said...

i have just spoken to james at virgin media live chat,here is the copy.
James: Hi, welcome to Virgin Media. How can I help?
James: Just type your question below…
You: hi james just heard xl tv going up by £3.00 for football ??
You: in september
James: Thank you for visiting VirginMedia.com today!
James: We will provide our TV XL users BT Europe for this we will increase their monthly cost by £3 a month.
You: but i dont want football or watch it,so i have no choice
You: but to pay this increase
James: No worries, if you are not interested in BT Europe you won't need to pay £3 a month extra.
You: oh ok now that seems fair,thanks for putting that straight
James: Is there anything else I can help you with?
You: no thats it thanks
James: Thank you for visiting us.
You: ok by
James: Bye and take care :)

Nialli said...

I've asked VM to clarify

Unknown said...

Will this price increase give me the option to leave Virgin Media like other enforced price increases? I am moving house within the next 2 months to a none Virgin area, so I would like to use this price increase as my get out clause. I have 5 months left on my Big Kahuna deal....

Unknown said...

I think you can cancel your contract

Nialli said...

I think if you're thinking of cancelling and call the number Virgin are giving you'll get a deal. Virgin need to pay BT Sport for the new channel and have most likely taken into account that some customers will be unhappy and want to "opt out", so they'll have some special deals in reserve for unhappy callers.
It sets a dangerous precedent though - I agree with others here that premium sports channels should be an optional cost, rather than funded by all customers by default. It's a big risk at a time when many are considering the value of the bundled channel offerings from Virgin and Sky.