[stuartross5]

I am becoming very miffed at Sky's extortionate prices, and therefore I am looking to change provider. But to who???? I know Sky will reduce their fees by 25% for a year, but the year will soon pass by and it will revert to full price again.

There seems to be a lack of alternatives. Virgin Media are (they claim) not in my area, but there are CATV manholes all over the estate.

On top of the fees paid to Sky, I have BT Broadband therefore I am looking into BT Vision - (BT Talk, Surf and Watch Unlimited), but there seems to be very little information on what the actual costs are. I know what the monthly fees are but what are the additional costs on top of this? Can you get BT Vision Multi room?

I'm sure there will be another thousand questions come from this, but any meaningful information will be gratefully appreciated.

[jake19801957]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuartross5

I am becoming very miffed at Sky's extortionate prices, and therefore I am looking to change provider. But to who???? I know Sky will reduce their fees by 25% for a year, but the year will soon pass by and it will revert to full price again.

There seems to be a lack of alternatives. Virgin Media are (they claim) not in my area, but there are CATV manholes all over the estate.

On top of the fees paid to Sky, I have BT Broadband therefore I am looking into BT Vision - (BT Talk, Surf and Watch Unlimited), but there seems to be very little information on what the actual costs are. I know what the monthly fees are but what are the additional costs on top of this? Can you get BT Vision Multi room?

I'm sure there will be another thousand questions come from this, but any meaningful information will be gratefully appreciated.

oh whats this sky will reduce there feeas by 25% for a year

[stuntmaster]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuartross5

I am becoming very miffed at Sky's extortionate prices, and therefore I am looking to change provider. But to who???? I know Sky will reduce their fees by 25% for a year, but the year will soon pass by and it will revert to full price again.

There seems to be a lack of alternatives. Virgin Media are (they claim) not in my area, but there are CATV manholes all over the estate.

On top of the fees paid to Sky, I have BT Broadband therefore I am looking into BT Vision - (BT Talk, Surf and Watch Unlimited), but there seems to be very little information on what the actual costs are. I know what the monthly fees are but what are the additional costs on top of this? Can you get BT Vision Multi room?

I'm sure there will be another thousand questions come from this, but any meaningful information will be gratefully appreciated.

BT vision isn't multiroom yet.

It does not carry linear channels so no sky sports or anything *live* per sae. its essentially Freeview + On Demand (which is watch anytime).

it's very good i might add.

I bet you are in southampton or an area where Virgin have not upgraded to digital but switched off the aging analogue. hence the manhole covers. My areas same as yours, used to get cable but cant now.

[stuartross5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jake19801957

oh whats this sky will reduce there feeas by 25% for a year

If you contact sky and tell them you want to get rid because you're paying too much, they will offer you a 25% reduction for a year.

[stuartross5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuntmaster

BT vision isn't multiroom yet.

It does not carry linear channels so no sky sports or anything *live* per sae. its essentially Freeview + On Demand (which is watch anytime).

it's very good i might add.

I bet you are in southampton or an area where Virgin have not upgraded to digital but switched off the aging analogue. hence the manhole covers. My areas same as yours, used to get cable but cant now.

OK, Thank you.

What are the charges if any for TV On Demand? Is it included in the subscription or is it Pay per View? This is not intended to be sad but merely trying to make a point - if I wanted to watch yesterday's Coronation Street, would I have to pay to view it? Or last Saturdays Football?

[wwwebber]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuartross5

OK, Thank you.

What are the charges if any for TV On Demand? Is it included in the subscription or is it Pay per View? This is not intended to be sad but merely trying to make a point - if I wanted to watch yesterday's Coronation Street, would I have to pay to view it? Or last Saturdays Football?

TV & TV Replay comes part of any subscription pack you choose and thus yesterdays Coro would be included. If your pack included sport then you can watch Premiership football from the previous weekend that hasnt already been aired live by other broadcasters (Premiership contract conditions). You also get ESPN free as part of any sub.

More info here :-

http://www.btvision.bt.com/viewing-packages/

[frankie_baby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuartross5

OK, Thank you.

What are the charges if any for TV On Demand? Is it included in the subscription or is it Pay per View? This is not intended to be sad but merely trying to make a point - if I wanted to watch yesterday's Coronation Street, would I have to pay to view it? Or last Saturdays Football?

Depending obviously on which packs you pick most on demand stuff is included in your subscription, with obviously the exception of movies

[Pugwash69]

Buy a freesat+ box. One upfront cost but no subscription. You feed the same connections of a Sky+ box into the back and live with the reduced number of free channels.

My girlfriend wanted sky for another room after 3 years of abstinence, so asked for a viewing-card-only installation. After the hard-sell she agreed to take their SkyHD box too for an additional one-off £7 charge!

[wwwebber]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pugwash69

Buy a freesat+ box. One upfront cost but no subscription. You feed the same connections of a Sky+ box into the back and live with the reduced number of free channels.

My girlfriend wanted sky for another room after 3 years of abstinence, so asked for a viewing-card-only installation. After the hard-sell she agreed to take their SkyHD box too for an additional one-off £7 charge!

The OP already has BT Broadband and so getting BTVision would be a logical step to take. Freesat doesnt have any PVR functions unless you pay alot extra for the box. I have a Freesat box and will be using it for HD only during the summer.

[stuartross5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wwwebber

TV & TV Replay comes part of any subscription pack you choose and thus yesterdays Coro would be included. If your pack included sport then you can watch Premiership football from the previous weekend that hasnt already been aired live by other broadcasters (Premiership contract conditions). You also get ESPN free as part of any sub.

More info here :-

http://www.btvision.bt.com/viewing-packages/

Being a sports fanatic, I'm obviously interested in the ESPN bit. ESPN have 46 or so live Premiership games this season, but has anyone heard what they will have next season. I wouldn't want to make the change only to find ESPN lost their bid for live footy. Also, I checked out a link on another post regarding Sky Sports coming a step closer to BT Vision. Sounds encouraging.

[stuartross5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuartross5

Being a sports fanatic, I'm obviously interested in the ESPN bit. ESPN have 46 or so live Premiership games this season, but has anyone heard what they will have next season. I wouldn't want to make the change only to find ESPN lost their bid for live footy. Also, I checked out a link on another post regarding Sky Sports coming a step closer to BT Vision. Sounds encouraging.

If anyone's interested, this makes good reading

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...-channels.html

[MostynDS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuartross5

If anyone's interested, this makes good reading

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...-channels.html

This is great news, in principle. The problem is that SKY have signalled their intention to appeal the decision and then if necessary, take it to the European courts.

I really don't think there's any chance of Sky Sports being available on BTV for at least 3 years, if ever.

On your other point, I believe that ESPN has secured the rights to half of next years FA Cup televised games with ITV being the first-pick partner. Plus home England internationals.

[stuartross5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wwwebber

TV & TV Replay comes part of any subscription pack you choose and thus yesterdays Coro would be included. If your pack included sport then you can watch Premiership football from the previous weekend that hasnt already been aired live by other broadcasters (Premiership contract conditions). You also get ESPN free as part of any sub.

More info here :-

http://www.btvision.bt.com/viewing-packages/

Sorry to be a pain, but being an avid OFAH fan and other old comedies, is G.O.L.D (ex UK Gold) included anywhere in the package?

[MostynDS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuartross5

Sorry to be a pain, but being an avid OFAH fan and other old comedies, is G.O.L.D (ex UK Gold) included anywhere in the package?

No. BTV is not really very strong for British content. Though thas has been a lot of OFAH and Porridge available in the last year, provided by the BBC.

However you can get the best of UK Gold with TopUp TV. I think there is a seperate forum here for this.

[wwwebber]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuartross5

Sorry to be a pain, but being an avid OFAH fan and other old comedies, is G.O.L.D (ex UK Gold) included anywhere in the package?

No problem mate. My box isnt plugged in at the moment as I'm living in a friends loft whilst our house get refurbed !!.

But you can look here to see what content is available :-

http://www.btvision.bt.com/search-a-to-z/

Having quickly looked myself via the search there seems to be lots of OFAH

[alexdn32]

BTV does have BBC Hits Channel and O.F.A.H is included (7 Series of it!!), aswell as Faulty Towers, The Good Life, Red Dwarf, Doctor Who, Porridge etc

You also get the following ON DEMAND Channels

ITV Net Player

4 on Demand

Demand Five

CBS

Warner TV

History

National Geographic

Discovery

TV Box (NBC Universal programmes)

Sony Entertainment TV

Sony Retro TV (T.J. Hooker, Different Strokes, Charlies Angels and Starsky and Hutch from the 70s/80s)

MTV

E!

HBO on Demand

Comedy Central

and other BT derived channels like TX

If you list what programmes you would like to see , I could always check my box for you to help

BT Vision has been well received in this house . Missus uses it all the time , and I am now catching up on "The Mentalist" becuase I missed it on Five.

Also if you are into Music , BT Vision is really great with music from today to past years all on demand without adverts!!

Alex.

[stuartross5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexdn32

BTV does have BBC Hits Channel and O.F.A.H is included (7 Series of it!!), aswell as Faulty Towers, The Good Life, Red Dwarf, Doctor Who, Porridge etc

You also get the following ON DEMAND Channels

ITV Net Player

4 on Demand

Demand Five

CBS

Warner TV

History

National Geographic

Discovery

TV Box (NBC Universal programmes)

Sony Entertainment TV

Sony Retro TV (T.J. Hooker, Different Strokes, Charlies Angels and Starsky and Hutch from the 70s/80s)

MTV

E!

HBO on Demand

Comedy Central

and other BT derived channels like TX

If you list what programmes you would like to see , I could always check my box for you to help

BT Vision has been well received in this house . Missus uses it all the time , and I am now catching up on "The Mentalist" becuase I missed it on Five.

Also if you are into Music , BT Vision is really great with music from today to past years all on demand without adverts!!

Alex.

Thank you, excellent reply.

My Missus is into Vampire Diaries which is on ITV2.

What about HD channels/programmes, and whatever the BT equivalent to Sky+ is?

I have just spotted this statement on the BT Vision site: "Whatever you choose, you can also watch any individual show (except PictureBox) whenever you want from as little as 49p" - This changes things dramatically if it's true. Does this mean if I want to watch an episode of OFAH, I have to pay extra for it?

Apologies if these are stupid questions

Cheers

[spaceman05]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuartross5

Thank you, excellent reply.

My Missus is into Vampire Diaries which is on ITV2.

What about HD channels/programmes, and whatever the BT equivalent to Sky+ is?

I have just spotted this statement on the BT Vision site: "Whatever you choose, you can also watch any individual show (except PictureBox) whenever you want from as little as 49p" - This changes things dramatically if it's true. Does this mean if I want to watch an episode of OFAH, I have to pay extra for it?

Apologies if these are stupid questions

Cheers

if you take no subscription, and go pay as you go, then yes you would pay a fee for each thing you watch, but if you subscribe to one of their packages, then no you would not pay anything over and above your monthly fee, unless for instance you are not subscribed to a sports package, and you wanted to watch a football match, it works like this:-

there are 4 segments picturebox(movies), sport, music, kids

and also 3 packages which are :-

bronze pick any 2 of the 4 above segments for £14.99 a month

silver pick any 3 of the 4 above segments for £17.99 a month

gold pick all 4 of the above segments for £19.99 a month

and if you also subscribe to either bronze, silver or gold you also recieve tv pack and replay pack and for a one of fee off £9.99 espn

so for instance say you subscribed to the bronze package and you picked picturebox and sports, everything in those 2 segments plus tv and replay would be free for you to view, but say you wanted to watch a song video, then you would need to pay whatever fee was next to it, but the good thing is if you subscribe to bronze or silver you can change wha segments you want as part of the deal on a monthly basis, so one month you may fancy picturbox and sports, the next you may want music and kids, you can pick and choose what you want.

a bit long winded but HTH

[tomorrow]

In my area BT vision is not an option - my line speed is 1.5 only (I therefore cannot view Vision)

They are more expensive than sky (who I recently moved to) and now receive a lot more channels and viewing choice, for less money than I was paying to BT

BT are not cheap.

[johnson293]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomorrow

In my area BT vision is not an option - my line speed is 1.5 only (I therefore cannot view Vision)

They are more expensive than sky (who I recently moved to) and now receive a lot more channels and viewing choice, for less money than I was paying to BT

BT are not cheap.

That won't go down well on here....

....runs for cover!

[stuartross5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spaceman05

if you take no subscription, and go pay as you go, then yes you would pay a fee for each thing you watch, but if you subscribe to one of their packages, then no you would not pay anything over and above your monthly fee, unless for instance you are not subscribed to a sports package, and you wanted to watch a football match, it works like this:-

there are 4 segments picturebox(movies), sport, music, kids

and also 3 packages which are :-

bronze pick any 2 of the 4 above segments for £14.99 a month

silver pick any 3 of the 4 above segments for £17.99 a month

gold pick all 4 of the above segments for £19.99 a month

and if you also subscribe to either bronze, silver or gold you also recieve tv pack and replay pack and for a one of fee off £9.99 espn

so for instance say you subscribed to the bronze package and you picked picturebox and sports, everything in those 2 segments plus tv and replay would be free for you to view, but say you wanted to watch a song video, then you would need to pay whatever fee was next to it, but the good thing is if you subscribe to bronze or silver you can change wha segments you want as part of the deal on a monthly basis, so one month you may fancy picturbox and sports, the next you may want music and kids, you can pick and choose what you want.

a bit long winded but HTH

Cheers mate, yes that was very helpful.

So what would the total package cost per month for Broadband, Phone and TV (Gold Pack)? What I pay in combined fees to Sky and BT doen't bear thinking about. Admittedly I have HD,and Multiroom and I am on Option 3 Broadband, but I'm sure I could get the costs down somewhat.

[tomorrow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnson293

That won't go down well on here....

....runs for cover!

Its true though ...

I was with Option 3 BT ....obtained unlimited broadband and phone rental

I am now with Sky - and for £3 less per month get unlimited broadband and phone rental plus a variety pack for Sky and I received a free HD box too ...

BT offered me no incentive to stay after being a customer for 5 years and I even paid my bills in advance ...

[johnson293]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomorrow

Its true though ...

I was with Option 3 BT ....obtained unlimited broadband and phone rental

I am now with Sky - and for £3 less per month get unlimited broadband and phone rental plus a variety pack for Sky and I received a free HD box too ...

BT offered me no incentive to stay after being a customer for 5 years and I even paid my bills in advance ...

I agree with you mate - I also saved money when I left BT phone/BB/Vision to go back to Sky for phone, BB and TV almost 18 months ago now.

I have moved house since then as well, and am now in a cable area, and I looked into that recently - Sky still works out the most cost effective for me, for what I want to watch, and use service wise.

[spaceman05]

cost is all relative, if you are already with bt for broadband and have no inclination to change then vision is a no brainer, for £13 a month i get a lot more use out of my vision box than i have ever got out of my sky hd box, the kids watch the sky, since i have had vision, just over a year now, i can honestly say i have never picked up the sky remote to watch a program for myself, it is all down to a matter of taste, and for me vision suits my needs far better than sky, ok sky may have more channels, but most of it is just the same old rubbish, for the amount of channels there are their is not that much choice, but again that is just my opinion, but i probably do agree it will seem expensive if you are not with bt broadband in the first place

[noise747]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomorrow

Its true though ...

I was with Option 3 BT ....obtained unlimited broadband and phone rental

I am now with Sky - and for £3 less per month get unlimited broadband and phone rental plus a variety pack for Sky and I received a free HD box too ...

I presume then that sky have unbundled your exchange? Is, then I agree with you sky is cheaper and yo may find something to watch on the hundreds of channels between the rubbish and repeats that they put on. Good job the Sky box is a PVR, because you will need it to record stuff that you want to watch.

But you are right BT is expensive, I pay £25 a month for option 3 broadband, then £11 some odd on top of that for my line rental with weekend and evening calls, if I went for BT vision that is a another few quid on top of that.

i don't agree with this no brainer thing, sure if you already got BT broadband, want a bit of extra T.V and don't want Sky then BT vision is a good way of getting it.

Oh yes, i also pay another fiver a month on top for my mobile phone.

Quote:

BT offered me no incentive to stay after being a customer for 5 years and I even paid my bills in advance ...

I am surprised, but then it depends how many ISPs have unbundled your exchange. BT offered a fiver a month off my internet if I sign up for another 12 months on a renewable contract, I turned that down.

I told them I would go to Talk Talk and they still only offered the fiver a month off. so it seems BT can't compete.