Sky TV -v- Virgin & Others Do you have a preference ?

I am now back in the market for this and placed a provisional order with Sky just for their TV package entertainment, sports and BT sports for £42 on an 18 Month contract . Is this a good deal or are there better options elsewhere? 
 

was surprised that they only did 18 month contracts though , when did this become the norm.? Had virgin back in 2010 and it was crap on every level. Recommendations please !! Ta 

Thanks guy so its basically alll the grown up channels yeah , film , sports , documentaries, on demand 1000 films ,Dave etc, and BT sport (I think)??

its a £25 discount , only concern is the 18 month contract thing , I guess you can’t have it all.

Well streaming Netflix/amazon is a pretty simple job that most tellies will do anyway - I am talking more about the tv guide/ease of recording/ease of navigating etc.

ebitda -  as a longtime sky customer that negotiates hard every time a deal runs out I would be amazed if you can get all that for £42 a month - but if so, good luck to you, I would snap their hands off

by comparison I pay £80 for sky hd, sky sports, sky on demand, telephone and broadband - no sky cinema and no bt sport.

Is that just TV, without landline and broadband?

Guy, does Sky Q give access to Netflix and Amazon? I know you can get a bundle which includes a Netflix subscription, but if you don't take that can you still use the box to access Netflix on your own subscription (and Amazon, Disney+ when it switches on etc)?

 

 

Kingfaff I don’t know if you can use box to access amazon without subscription - I do no that if you subscribe through sky (as I do) your existing sensceiption direct with sky is automatically cancelled.

dont think you can access amazon prime - but obviously not a big deal as you can get through tv

Guy it’s a promotion it’s £73.00 down to £47 and just for a laugh I asked if that was the best they could do and on checking again they said they could do it for £43.00 if I ordered within 48 hours . 3/4 week install though FFS, there is a communal dish there already !

You can access Netflix via Sky but not Amazon via your existing Netflix subscription

I think Sky Q is great (everyone I know with Virgin complains about it) but you do have to go through a rigmarole of threatening to cancel every year to keep the costs reasonable

 

Sky is good when it works but good luck with the install in London.  Ordered mine back in November and only finally got it installed last month after several appointments were cancelled late on the day of the appointment.  Sky will tell you they don't directly employ the installation engineers in London and can't control them but the engineer will tell you that Sky doesn't give him all the information he needs.  They installed and it and it worked briefly but now the building communal system has a fault so in the month since the installation I've been able to access Sky services for about 20 minutes.

Conversely getting it installed and up and running in the country took one visit from a very helpful lady.

ebit - is the £47 TV only? i.e. no broadband/phone?

Guy/Queenie - cheers. I currently have BT and the telly box is a bit meh - much preferred the interface of my old (pre-Q) Sky box. What I do like about BT is the ability to access all the players through the BT box/remote. My TV is now about 8 years old and doesn't have all the players on them, and the app experience via the TV is a bit clunky (and requires the TV remote, obv).

Other than Netflix, can you get other players (iplayer, Ch 4, ITV, Disney+ when it switched on) through the Q box?

Yes King you can get all the catch up services through Sky Q but through their interface and I've some times found it's easier to use the actual apps as it's easier to search for stuff and find stuff that's on live.

Kingfaff yes you can  but they operate slightly differently - instead of streaming they download, so unless you have very fast broadband can take a bit longer - the upside is that the Sky versions allow you to FF through adverts.

Sails sounds like a nightmare. Last time I had sky installed in 2010, the install took like 5 days and there was no dish there ,I cannot see for the life of me why it takes 3/4 weeks 

What Guy said -I find that you sometimes can't find BBC catch up stuff on Sky on demand and have to go through iplayer 

it's also a bit annoying that you can't get Prime though, I can only get it on my newer kitchen telly as the living room is a bit old and flaky

Sky multi-room is great though 

Sky ordered with an install date two months away ! Threatened to cancel if they couldn’t find a sooner date , low and behold they found a slot in three weeks , cheeky sods

I've finally got it sorted after three months as turned out there was also a problem with the communal system in the building which has now been fixed.

There's something odd with Sky in London and as I've said before they don't directly employ the engineers in London and claim to have no control over them but the engineers claim that they don't get all the information from Sky so have trouble installing stuff.  They're phone helpline is useless as the engineer who came out knew what the problem was within 30 seconds of looking at the message on the screen but multiple in the call centre tried telling me it was something else.

I think Sky offer a good service but there is always something a bit fly by night in dealing with them,  more like bartering with a market trader than a huge corporate.  I quite like that, can see others would not, and they will rip you off if you let them.

they are old skool in negotiations - eg saying they have to go and ask their boss to get a special deal then clearly putting you on mute and chatting to their neighbour about the football for a minute or two before coming back and saying they managed to "beg" their manager to drop a couple of quid from the monthly fee.

If you really want Sky Atlantic get sky. if you aren't fussed about that get Virgin media and add on the extras you want such as sky sports / movies. The boxes are compatible for watching Netflix. You can usually get amazon prime if as an app if you have a decent smart TV.

If you are in london, virgin broadband is way, way better in terms of speed.

that said, their customer service is fooking appalling