Freesat HD vs Virgin Media TV vs SKY TV

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Since I got my new TV (Sony KDLW905A) and it has a Freesat HD receiver built in I thought I might investigate the cheapest/bestest options for decent TV and HD channels.

I currently using VM on cable 100mb service only. Paying £14.25 a month.

I can get the TV M+ package with a Tivo 500gb box for £13 extra (£49.95 inst. fee) a month minimum 12 months. This means I have to have another box under the TV.

I have got a 50% off code from MoneySavingExpert (for this Friday) giving 50% off TV Packages however I have seen on their site that I need to pay for a telephone line on top of the package price and it's extra £5.25 to get anything in HD. Not really worth the hassle

So I was thinking Freesat might be my best option. The last tenants in the flat had SKY and there is a dish on the outside of the flat. Cables run in to the flat but they are cut at the entry point to the internal wall so I cannot feed any more cable in to flat. How much would a engineer roughly cost to get cables fitted and the dish setup correctly? I presume this would be my cheapest option but how good is Freesat?
 
Probably cheaper to buy a freeview aerial than pay an engineer to fix the freesat tbh. They charge a fortune and it's an easy fix, you could probably do it yourself, it's getting the sat in the right position which is the hard part not the cabling.

Most TV subs are crap and completely not worth it unless your into live sports. So if your into live sports get a sub to sky/virgin otherwise just use freeview/freesat.

If you want tv shows and movies netflix is the best option or amazon prime is it called or something like that, it's a low monthly cost and can usually be cancelled at any time.

The sad thing is a lot of these companies have a monopoly over certain shows, so your forced to buy a sub from every company rather than all of them having access to everything.

So your actually better off doing illegal stuff than paying 3-4 different subs which cross over each other multiple times so your paying the extra £10-£15 a month over netflix alone to access a couple of shows.

How are you getting 100MB on it's own for £14.25 a month?
 
I used to have Netflix but cancelled it as just didn't use it enough, even at £5.99 I just found it pointless. Amazon Prime is tempting as I do buy a lot from Amazon over the year too but still can't justify paying it. I have a Now TV box also but don't pay the small subs for that either. Yes, it is very annoying that not 1 system has all the on demand, players etc. as one box unless I bought a Samsung TV, which I didn't haha.

We tend to only watch normal TV channels during the week and then the odd film at the weekends. Sports I wouldn't mind getting but it's usually extra cost on top of a normal sub. The thing I forgot to mention is we don't have an outdoor aerial connection in the flat, there is nothing apart from the dish on the outside so we've been using an indoor aerial for almost a year now. It's horrendous as we live nearby a main road and the buses affect the signal all the time, especially worst in HD now. Hence why I thought using the existing dish and cut cables to finish the job for Freesat.

I had VM in my old flat, when I moved in with the missus to the new flat I asked VM to cancel my old flat service (was 60mb cable). I had left it a few weeks and they had called a couple of times to try to get me to move it to the new flat but they didn't offer me a good deal. A week before I was moving I found an email in my spam from a woman in Retentions, offering me crazy prices to keep me. So I got the 60mb service for £13.75 as it had £13.75 goodwill discount applied, it went up a few months ago so now paying £14.25 and then of course we got the free upgrade to 100mb.
 
Well that's how I see it tbh.

If your into sports then you have to pay the big bucks and get a sky/virgin tv sub.

If your not then your better off with freeview/freesat and another service if you want shows/movies like netflix or amazon prime.

If your unhappy with freeview then get the freesat fixed, but it aint cheap for an engineer he will probably charge you £100 for a job you could do yourself for £10.
 
Been quoted £70 all inc. from a local aerial guy. That's including rewiring of the cut cables from dish to inside, a socket/wallplate installed and cable tidied from entry point to the TV.

I'm bound to make a mess of it if I did it and as it's rented accomodation if I bork it up then I gotta pay to fix it, if aerial man borks it then I can charge him to repair.
 
£70 sounds reasonable to me.

Freesat will give you most of the channels found on Virgin M+ (HD wise anyway).
 
What's the cheapest sky sub you can get? Because a sky engineer will do the same job for free and if it's a 12 month contract on say £15 a month.

You would be better off paying £180 for the year and using sky then going freesat and netflix in 12 months when your min contract is done tbh.

I'm sure EE+ is around £30 a month and you can get 50% off easily (f and f codes, etc), means you get all the tv shows in HD etc and a fancy sky box you can sell on after your sub ends and cashback through quidco and the cables fixed for free, etc.
 
The Original Bundle is £21.50 a month + £25 installation fee. If the MoneySavingExpert code is valid then it'll be 50% off that so £10.75 a month + £25 fee.

I am still unsure if I need a phone line to pay for when using SKY, I can't see it on the webpage but then maybe that's only when you take sky tv and broadband.
 
A phone line isn't required for Sky TV itself. Its probably a bundle deal that comes with Sky Broadband.

If you can get it at £10.75 a month, then its probably worth paying them a bit more for a decent DVR and more channels. Depending on the contract length of course.
 
It's a 12 month minimum contract.

Total cost:

£10.75 x 12 so £129 + £25 = £154 and hopefully there is a £125 reward card too they are showing on the SKY website.

edit: Just read the T's & C's on the £125 reward:- Choice of £125 M&S voucher, £125 Tesco voucher, £125 Prepaid MasterCard® for new customers joining Sky TV. One reward per household. Not available with any other Sky TV offer. Further terms apply. Offer ends 5 June 2014.

Bummer.
 
Yes I would probably go for it. Costs £84 more than Freesat install, but you get a good DVR and more channels. Plus some On-Demand stuff (although your TV probably has most of it anyway).
 
I been trying to reduce the number of boxes under the tele though not increase it. Already has a PC and PS3 under it.

Hmm will have a think as the code is valid from Friday.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
If you want tv shows and movies netflix is the best option or amazon prime is it called or something like that, it's a low monthly cost and can usually be cancelled at any time.
Click to expand...

Eh? Netflix doesn't get many new shows and buying the series that appear on Sky via another service will quickly get expensive. There's a lot more on Sky than just sport.

If you want the latest US dramas etc then realistically, Sky is the best option by far.
 
Hmm Just been on Quidco and wow there's a better deal than just 50% off I think.

6 months half price on The Original Bundle plus a £75 Bill Credit + £90 cashback

6 months @ 10.75 = £64.50
6 months @ 21.50 = £129
£75 off bill credit = £118.50
£90 cashback through Quidco = £28.50

Where's the catch, SKY TV for £28.50 all year. Take my money !!

edited ^^
 
Last edited:
Get over 35 channels with The Original Bundle

Also includes 240 free to air channels

HD as standard with Sky+HD

Enjoy 11 free-to-air HD channels including BBC One HD, ITV HD~ and
Channel 4 HD with a Sky+HD box.
 
Hmm scrap all that just read the terms and conditions on Quidco

Exclusions - Customers living in a block of 4 or more flats and/or if any installation is made by a specialist team and not Sky, cashback will not be awarded.

If your order cannot be processed automatically online and you require the Sky team to contact you or the Sky call centre need to run additional checks via the telephone or re-process your order, you will not be eligible for cashback.

I'd rather not take the risk
 
Virgin cheap TV is arse. I've been a virgin customer since 2006 I'm very happy with them but the service is limited and not better than free view. The full package with all the trimmings is good but expensive but the basic package is worse than free view. If you have a network connected smart TV I'd get HD free view and just virgin internet.
 
Anything will be an improvement over using a super large super smart TV with an indoor aerial that breaks up signal every time a bus goes by. This is my main reason for getting a tv package or freesat so that this does not happen every 5 minutes
 
Liquid_Entity said:
Hmm Just been on Quidco and wow there's a better deal than just 50% off I think.

6 months half price on The Original Bundle plus a £75 Bill Credit + £90 cashback

6 months @ 10.75 = £64.50
6 months @ 21.50 = £129
£75 off bill credit = £118.50
£90 cashback through Quidco = £28.50

Where's the catch, SKY TV for £28.50 all year. Take my money !!

edited ^^
Click to expand...

take the cashback out of the equation

£120 means your cabling is fixed (was going to cost you £70 anyway)

so £50 for sky tv for a year.

after a year cancel and then go with freesat which you were going to have to pay £70 for but no longer have to as sky fixed it for free
 
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