Thetownend.com

Anyone got it? I'm considering ditching Sky and having read today that BT Vision will have Sky Sports from August and with it's flexible packages it sounds a good deal.

I'm a bit dubious about IPTV though - particularly picture quality. From what I've read it seems the stuff viewed through the freeview tuner is pretty much standard picture quality, but opinions on the On Demand stuff differ quite a bit.

Can any TEFers out there enlighten me?

Had it before mate. It was ok but nothing special. I've still got the box etc if you want it? Only used for a week or so

If BT could manage to connect me to the right exchange so I could get a half decent linespeed, it might be worth considering. But until then it's not terribly viable for me. As I keep pointing out to them every time the fuckwits send me a "Why don't you switch to BT Vision?" email. Sorry, personal bugbear. It proper annoys me

if it wasn't for sky sports i would have ditched them for freesat ages ago

What exchange are you on? A few of the Swindon exchanges will be getting FTTC by the end of September which should mean 40mb broadband for most homes.

I really can't make my mind up about BT Vision. It's main draw is the on deman facility, but also has freeview too so there should be more channels available once the digital switchover's complete. Depending on their pricing for Sky Sports (which I ideally don't want to lose), it could cost nearly as much as what I'm paying Sky at the moment for an inferior service.

I'm hoping that with the rollout of FTTC it could see the introduction of more HD streaming/VoD content.

I have no cable or freeview in my area, otherwise i would've fucked off Sky a long time ago.

Sambo, i'm still on 2mb broadband, when do i get 40mb at the Blunsdon exchange please mate? I knows yous knows this shit. ;)

I'd like to get rid of Virgin for Freesat, Freeview, BT Vision, or whatever.
I don't give a shit about Sky Sports or Movies, the only channels I tend to watch are Sky One, FX and UKTV food, but i don't think I can get these without Sky or Virgin, unless one of you technodudes knows anything different?

Sam does know!

http://www.samknows.com/old/broadband/exchange.php?ecode=SSBBN

Late summer (September) 2010.

Freesat will use the existing dish.

Usually Samknows is a good site, but I'm on that exchange and O2 said it was unavailable in my area...

Sweet, cheers Sam. (I didn't think to check that your site!)


Oh cool. I might have to look into that then. I like Living, Bravo, Five US and all that other garbage, so if it gets that Sky can fuck right off. :)

http://www.freesat.co.uk/index.php?page=whatson.Main

And you can just cancel SKy and use your existing sky box/card for FTA and FTV channels. Unless you want to record stuff.

Rumour is Sky Sports is coming to Freeview arriba

http://www.techradar.com/news/television/sky-sports-on-freeview-gets-go-ahead-697482

My mate had BT Vision on a "trial" for 3 months - to be honest compared to Sky or Virgin it was pretty shit....

Content was rubbish.....

I have Sky but would love to change for Virgin - their on demand stuff is 1000 times better than sky - but I have no cable in my road :(

interesting.i will eagerly await developments.
can't see sky liking that much, as people will leave in their droves

Hopefully BT vision will have pay-as-you-view options for Sky Sports like they did with Setanta. I'd rather pay a couple of quid for a particular match that I'm interested in than £18 a month for a lot of shit I don't want to watch.


That's the crux for me really. I like having access to Sky Sports and the HD content, but I begrudge paying > £50 a month for it.

That's always been my attitude as well. I like watching Premiership games, but fuck am i paying them more than double what i currently pay to watch the odd game here and there. Especially after the World Cup debacle

how about being in my shoes.

Can't do without SS or HD but then my broadband with sky is only 1.5mbps so have got virgin 50mb installed so i pay £46 to virgin (broadband + phone) and £49 to sky (for HD & Multiroom for kids)

if Virgin did HD sports i'd have the whole lot or if Sky could guarentee a quality broadband i'd switch back but neither do so me wanting it all is stuck with paying stupid prices for it

oh well

Virgin have signed a deal with Sky for HD sports (definitely 1 and 2, not sure about 3 and 4), should be available prior to the start of the new football season. Good chance it won't cost any extra either for those on TV XL.

looks like we might be shifting to Virgin then soon. Excellent news

Sky are working on thier on demand, though obvously it'll be a darn sight slower than virgin (until they do a FTTC offering). However...you'll need a Sky HD box (as that has the ethernet port) and also Sky broadband (yes initially they really are tying it to their own ISP. Fools). NOt sure when its due to launch, I think "later this year". But this is Sky we are talking about.

Also there are changes to Sky's HD package afoot. Presently you get all the HD channels (excluding the premium Sports/Movies HD for which you need the equivelant SD packs) for £10 p/m regardless of which SD mixes you buy. However from October (I think) the HD pack will mirrror your SD subs.

So on the face of it it looks like Sky are going to charge a significant number of people £10 for FEWER channels...However the wild speculation is that Sky will perhaps drop the HD sub, or at least drop it for top tier World subscriber. This is not fact, not even hinted at by Sky themselves, but nobody can quite beleive that Sky would weaken their HD position in relation to Virgin with Sky's September price rises and the Governments January VAT increases coming.

I checked Virgin, it looks from their website like they didn't cable our "private" spur road when they did the rest of the street. However there is a mysterious coax cable coming out the ground and along the side of the house that isn't connected. And it isn't telephone so maybe.....

Batch, I know you're all clued up on this shizzle - if I cancel my Sky HD, will I still be able to receive and watch the FTA HD channels such as BBC HD, ITV HD and C4 HD if I've got a viewing card?

Do you mean the entire Sky package, or just the HD bit?

If the latter, then definitely - because I get themn without a HD sub (BBC, ITV, C4).

If you mean cancel all then yes the FTV/FTA HD channels should be available (FTA will definitely be). Worse case you'll need a new viewing card next time sky change them - http://www.sky.com/shop/freesat/home/faq/#3 (£25 is current rate). i have a 'spare' viewing card at home I can try this just to make 100% sure.

The 'issue' will come for some channels that may launch like E4 HD. You'd expect it to be free on Sky given the same is free on freeview. But that isn't always the case as it may be part of a Sky 'mix'.

It's worth chasing Virgin if they have cable near to your house. They can send someone out to see what work would be involved and if it's worth the cost, if it is they'll do it and you'll have cable. But it can take time and effort as they can be difficult - I read about one person who was continually told they couldn't get cable despite Virgin having one of their distribution boxes outside his house supplying his neighbours. If it really is that close, persevere and you'll get it eventually.

As part of the recent deal, Virgin customers will be getting the Sky red button and on demand services as well. No dates or prices for any of it yet and it is pending Sky getting regulator approval for buying all the Virgin TV channels.

how much is virgin hd tv with sky sports added?

For a phone line (free weekend calls), 10mb broadband (and it is 10mb, not up to) and all the TV channels (including ESPN, on demand, all the HD channels they've got, but no Sky premium / porn channels) and Sky Sports it costs me about £60 a month.

that's more or less what i'm paying talk talk and sky combined, with no hd content.
think i'm under contract with talk talk though,so can't ditch them without penalty.

There's been some changes to early termination charges recently for phone lines and broadband, enforced on the providers by Ofcom, so it might not cost as much as you think....

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/help/further-help/is-there-a-charge-for-terminating-my-contract-early.html

Though I reckon it's worth waiting to see what the new prices are once Virgin are offering the Sky premium channels in HD, good chance Sky will change their pricing as well.

I did this because I knew my neighbours across the street had cable, but our house doesn't. Similar to Batch, our house is on a 'private' bit of the road. Virgin sent an engineer out in the end to see if it could be done, but because there was no existing pipework linking the houses on each side of the road they had nowhere to run the cable and wouldn't do it.


Yep, would've thought Sky will have to bring their premium package prices down to be competitive with Virgin etc. Whether they'll do it for existing customers is a different matter though.

Hmm... dillemma...

I was all set to cancel my Sky subs and Virgin BB and move everything to BT for a saving of £40 a month, but now Sky have thrown a spanner in the works and offered a package that is £30 a month less (than my current deal), Sky Sports FREE for 12 months if we stay with them, but we'd have to move our phone line to them and take their BB too.

sounds a good deal sam.

how far are you to the exchange for their broadband? Can you get decent speeds?

I'm quite close to the exchange, so on standard ADSL+ I can get around 6.5mb.

My current BB is on LLU though, so they can offer faster speeds than ADSL+ and I currently get around 12mb.

A couple of things are swaying me away from Sky; I don't really want to move my phone line to them because it restricts me if I want to change my phone and/or BB in the future and also If I go with BT they will let me upgrade to their 40mb BB for a one off installation charge when it's available.

it all depends on what you want to pay then.
The Mrs was moaning last night we pay loads on TV (which we do) but i pay the extra for my 50mb braodband and HD.

My mrs was moaning about me spending 70 quid a month on tv saying it is a waste of money.

Doesnt stop her watching all her shitty stuff mind. Might cancel UK living and all that crap to see the reaction

 :smugfu: Murdoch! Sky and Virgin ditched.

Just bagged broadband, phone line with evening & weekend calls, BT vision & Sky Sports 1 for a grand sum of £50 a month.

A saving of over £30 a month from what I'm currently paying to receive those services separately.

Nice saving!

I'm thinking of ditching Sky Sports given how little I watch it now. They (Sky) are bumping the price up by £3 p/m, plus there is the VAT increase in January. I'm sure I don't get my moneys worth!

£6.99 for either SS1 or SS2 on BT Vision. Free ESPN thrown in too.

Nice. Not sure I can stand to lose Sky+ though, does BT vision have anything like that?

I'll be interested to hear you thoughts when it is all up and running.

Yep, full EPG and twin-tuner with 160GB HDD.

The girl on the phone said it was 'HD ready' too. Whether that means it's got a DVB-T2 tuner I don't know.

virgin for me everytime, the best broadband around, virgin plus HD box sky sports 1,2 & 3, free espn, all movie channels, 2 additional boxes in my kids bedrooms, free calls 24/7 £85.00 a month, mr branson i think i love you : :D

Interesting.

I'll do my normal procrastination for a few months and see where the land lies then.

Not the same but I've had a cheapo freeview recorder for a few years and it works well.

Sky putting their prices up.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10472058.stm

with sky putting up their prices does it break their terms and conditions like a mobile phone company?
i.e. cancel your subscription early?

Nope, as long as they give you written notice they can do it.

But I do beleive there is protection against price rises within the first N months of a contract begining.

I can't believe how much some of you spend on tv!

anyone who is with sky and doesn't want to leave but wants to save money.ring em and say you want to cancel.you will get money off for 6 months(well that's what i got)

I was thinking that. It's quite shocking. I reluctantly spend £17 or whatever it is for the sky entertainment and documentaries packages. That's too much for my liking, but then i'm not really a tv lover.

not necesarily, my mate tried that and they basically said "see you later then" and closed the account

To be fair he was 4 months behind on his payments.

having a bit of sense and wording the conversation how you want it to go helps.i said i was struggling with the payments blaa blaa blaa,dont really want to leave etc,etc, and they offered me a reduced price.
every other bugger i know who has done the same got a discount.

It appears that Sky Sports will not be on my transmitter (Mendip) until Autumn 2011. What a bummer.

Anyone know what freeview reception is like in West Swindon from the Oxford transmitter? I know if I move my aerial to point towards Oxford I'll get Sky Sports, but have heard that reception on the West side of Swindon is pretty dodgy.