Other options to sky/virgin media

Soldato
Joined
5 Nov 2014
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7,462
So, today has been the day that we cancelled our virgin media tv package as we have had it for a year now and every month we are on the phone to them due to the bill being wrong or them taking more money than they should. Finally glad we don’t have to deal with that side of things BUT we still have broadband with them as this cannot be cancelled as I’m working from home all the time.

I was reading through the “images of things I have purchased” in GD and noticed a few people have cancelled their tv packages too in the last few days.

We have a aerial installed for normal access to tv channels and a now tv box in each room with sometimes the entertainment pass or movies pass, this gets cancelled and re added when there is enough stuff to catch up on.

my question is, what does everyone use instead? The other half watched sky witness, TLC and we have 110mb broadband as well to use
 
Caporegime
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1 Dec 2010
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52,090
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Welling, London
So, today has been the day that we cancelled our virgin media tv package as we have had it for a year now and every month we are on the phone to them due to the bill being wrong or them taking more money than they should. Finally glad we don’t have to deal with that side of things BUT we still have broadband with them as this cannot be cancelled as I’m working from home all the time.

I was reading through the “images of things I have purchased” in GD and noticed a few people have cancelled their tv packages too in the last few days.

We have a aerial installed for normal access to tv channels and a now tv box in each room with sometimes the entertainment pass or movies pass, this gets cancelled and re added when there is enough stuff to catch up on.

my question is, what does everyone use instead? The other half watched sky witness, TLC and we have 110mb broadband as well to use
Don’t know about TLC, but witness is included in the now tv entertainment pass
 
Don
Joined
19 May 2012
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Spalding, Lincolnshire
I was reading through the “images of things I have purchased” in GD and noticed a few people have cancelled their tv packages too in the last few days

As per my post in that thread, I've just moved from SkyQ to a combination of Freesat and Youview.

The latest 4K Freesat Recorder allows us to record several things at once from "normal" TV channels.
The Youview box we got via our Internet Provider, and for £5/month gives access to MTV and TLC that the wife wanted.

Besides NowTV that's already been mentioned, https://tvplayer.com/ is another legal option that has access to TLC and a few other premium channels.
 
Joined
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Sunny Stafford
Finally glad we don’t have to deal with that side of things BUT we still have broadband with them as this cannot be cancelled as I’m working from home all the time.

Off-topic, but I would change internet providers. VM have a monopoly on the cable network, and if you remove yourself from that and go onto the telephone network (BT / Plusnet etc), then you can change providers every year to keep the price low. I got fed up of VM increasing the price year on year. Sure a 50p rise was fine, but when it was a £3 rise, I could no longer ignore that, so I sacked them off. I now switch between BT and Plusnet every year and the price stays about the same, plus I get cashback every time I do it.
 
Soldato
OP
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5 Nov 2014
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Off-topic, but I would change internet providers. VM have a monopoly on the cable network, and if you remove yourself from that and go onto the telephone network (BT / Plusnet etc), then you can change providers every year to keep the price low. I got fed up of VM increasing the price year on year. Sure a 50p rise was fine, but when it was a £3 rise, I could no longer ignore that, so I sacked them off. I now switch between BT and Plusnet every year and the price stays about the same, plus I get cashback every time I do it.
I totally agree, I have only stuck with them as I cannot be without an internet connection as I am working from home full time still otherwise that would have gone too.

they don’t care about loyalty either, been with them for over 12 years now and don’t get anything in return but new customers can get the same speed as me For 24.99 a month while I’m paying £42 a month!

what are BT like? I haven’t looked at broadband providers for so long as before I moved out (15 years ago) of my folks home they also had VM (used to be cable Tel back then lol, they are now on sky).
 
Joined
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Sunny Stafford
When I cancelled VM, they gave me a final date in which my cable connection would remain live. Afterwards, I received a partial (pro-rata'd) bill for the partial month that I remained live.

When you sign up to telephone-based internet for the first time, an engineer set up the telephone point to make it live. Make sure that this is before your cable service cuts off. When I did it, there was an overlap of both telephone and cable services for around a week, meaning that I was never without internet access.

After you've gone down the telephone route for the first time, you won't require an engineer's visit again, as the next provider will just send you a modem/router out in the post and you can fit it yourself. If you have an after-market router, then you don't even need to use theirs :)

As for BT / Plusnet - what are they like? I find them both reliable. Occasionally I have to reboot the router, but that applied to VM as well. I very rarely had downtime with VM in the 2010s (was a lot more common in the 2000s), and haven't had any downtime under BT / Plusnet, although it will depend on your area. For customer services, I never had to speak to Plusnet. With BT, I had an issue with a sim card (so was a phone query, not an internet query). The issue was resolved in 1 call, the phone being answered within a minute, during lockdown era too.
 
Soldato
Joined
20 Aug 2008
Posts
6,812
As per my post in that thread, I've just moved from SkyQ to a combination of Freesat and Youview.

The latest 4K Freesat Recorder allows us to record several things at once from "normal" TV channels.
The Youview box we got via our Internet Provider, and for £5/month gives access to MTV and TLC that the wife wanted.

Besides NowTV that's already been mentioned, https://tvplayer.com/ is another legal option that has access to TLC and a few other premium channels.

I'm looking for a Freesat recorder and everything I find is OOS. Any recommendations?
 
Don
Joined
19 May 2012
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17,054
Location
Spalding, Lincolnshire
How are you finding it?
Decent enough but equally it's no SkyQ (the almost £80/month I'll be saving wins out though)

Some thoughts here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/33725747

I'd also add, that SkyQ's "catch up" is a lot better (In that you can download missed shows and watch them whenever) - with Freesat (and indeed Youview/Freeview) you are limited to finding them in the individual catch up apps (iPlayer etc) and then watching them there and then.


@Armageus, |I will take a look at the boxes, I dont have 4K (1080P is the TV) so may get the cheaper models
It doesn't matter if you don't have a 4K TV (indeed the only 4K content is via netflix and maybe iplayer anyway), it will work fine on a 1080P TV.
There are no cheaper recordable options, unless you are able to get hold of one of the older Humax freesat recorders second hand for example.
 
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