SD : TV price rises

Originally Posted by paultrademark

Thats what ours was

I have not got the letter through yet but i take TVXL and BBL so i am expecting a rise in that region myself.

[Chad]

I'm considering some drastic changes to my package, when eligible, which will save a substantial amount of money each month.

I'm going from 50mb broadband down to 10mb, which is set to be upped to 30mb in my area in May. I'm getting rid of the home phone land-line completely and getting one of Virgins pay monthly mobile deals for £10.99 each month. Me and wife will then both have Virgin mobiles and can call each other for free. I'm going to get rid of SKY Sports / Movies HD too. In total I'll be saving about £35.00 per month, mainly from not using a Virgin land-line, without any real significant changes to my services. I'll still have broadband at a great speed, still have SKY Sports and SKY Movies and will still have access to a phone.

I currently pay Virgin about £135.00 each month for my TV, Broadband and Telephone. There comes a point when you've got to give yourself a slap and question why your spending £166.80 phone line rental a year, when you hardly use the phone, or £84.00 HD charge per year when you maybe only watch 1 or 2 hours of premium SKY HD programming in the day. Also I have no idea why I have 50mb broadband. I don't really download anything and it's only me and the wife who use it. In fact I might drop the extra box in the bedroom too as most nights, if we do watch anything, it's either Family Guy on BBC3 or some reality show like TOWIE etc....

It's not that I have a gripe about rising prices, it just made me look at what I'm paying for more closely. VIP50 is a great package, but I only really use about 70% of what's actually in my package.

[New to cable]

Originally Posted by denphone

Well we will get that price increase announced later in the year and l expect a £2 price rise there as well knowing Sky.

Knowing Sky? Well knowing Sky who knows what will happen, Last year they reduced my HD multiroom fee from £10.25 to £0.00, also they haven't had a price increase since 2010.

They also gave us Sky Atlantic free- If they do give a £1/£2 price increase I won't be complaining- I will see it as going towards the F1-HD channel so definitely worth it to me.

But Virginmedia customer with a bundle still get a pretty good deal to be fair.

[James79]

As my increase was stated as £4.50, I would guess that TV XL is increasing by £2 (as already stated on here) and BB XXL (50MB) will be increasing by £2.50, unless of course there is an increase in regard to additional STBs!!

[denphone]

Originally Posted by James79

As my increase was stated as £4.50, I would guess that TV XL is increasing by £2 (as already stated on here) and BB XXL (50MB) will be increasing by £2.50, unless of course there is an increase in regard to additional STBs!!

Lets hope there is not a additional increase to extra STB's as if there is then one might have to go for many people.

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by denphone

Lets hope there is not a additional increase to extra STB's as if there is then one might have to go for many people.

I've not heard of any increases on them Den.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic

I've not heard of any increases on them Den.

Thanks DF.

[jb66]

I think the TiVo fee is redicioulous! TiVo is better than v+ but not £5 a month better

[denphone]

Originally Posted by jb66

I think the TiVo fee is redicioulous! TiVo is better than v+ but not £5 a month better

Yes in my mind the £5 fee for new Tivo subscribers is unwise and unjustified to say the least.

Originally Posted by Chad

I'm considering some drastic changes to my package, when eligible, which will save a substantial amount of money each month.

I'm going from 50mb broadband down to 10mb, which is set to be upped to 30mb in my area in May. I'm getting rid of the home phone land-line completely and getting one of Virgins pay monthly mobile deals for £10.99 each month. Me and wife will then both have Virgin mobiles and can call each other for free. I'm going to get rid of SKY Sports / Movies HD too. In total I'll be saving about £35.00 per month, mainly from not using a Virgin land-line, without any real significant changes to my services. I'll still have broadband at a great speed, still have SKY Sports and SKY Movies and will still have access to a phone.

I currently pay Virgin about £135.00 each month for my TV, Broadband and Telephone. There comes a point when you've got to give yourself a slap and question why your spending £166.80 phone line rental a year, when you hardly use the phone, or £84.00 HD charge per year when you maybe only watch 1 or 2 hours of premium SKY HD programming in the day. Also I have no idea why I have 50mb broadband. I don't really download anything and it's only me and the wife who use it. In fact I might drop the extra box in the bedroom too as most nights, if we do watch anything, it's either Family Guy on BBC3 or some reality show like TOWIE etc....

It's not that I have a gripe about rising prices, it just made me look at what I'm paying for more closely. VIP50 is a great package, but I only really use about 70% of what's actually in my package.

Shocking you watch TOWIE,

But i do agree with you though the way you worked it out you can save a substantial amount each month,to be honest the only reason i keep my home phone is because on my package the big discount taking the phone line makes it worthwhile to take the basic phone line package.

[muppetman11]

VIRGIN Media is expected to reveal that its customer base stabilised towards the end of last year, confirming that the big players in the highly-competitive television, broadband and telephone market are entrenching their positions.

The company, which will reveal its fourth-quarter and full-year results on Wednesday, is expected to have added few new users to its cable TV network, but should make up for that by selling more products to existing customers.

Rival BSkyB reported a similar trend last week, saying that hard-pressed customers were keen to take advantage of the value offered by all-inclusive packages for TV, internet and telephony. It also announced new services, including a “superfast” broadband offering that takes it into competition with one of Virgin’s best-selling lines.

Peel Hunt analyst Patrick Yau said Sky’s offering is “priced keenly” and could put further pressure on Virgin costs. Carriage fees on new channels announced last week will also add to Virgin’s wholesale costs for carrying Sky content.

He added: “One area the company has only recently been pushing is its business product, as it is using its fibre network during the day to provide service to the business segment of the market.”

Yau expects Virgin to announce revenues of just under £4 billion for 2011, a slight rise on the year before. He said operating cash flow is the company’s key metric, which he forecasts at £1.56bn, up from £1.51bn a year ago.

http://www.scotsman.com/business/int...ival_1_2097376

[Simon G]

They are probably raising the Tivo price to £5 for new customers/boxes to be able to offer the boxes for free installation and activation without annoying people who paid these fees previously.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

http://www.scotsman.com/business/int...ival_1_2097376

It will be interesting to hear what is said when they reveal their quarter figures on wednesday and what their plans are for the rest of the year as l am sure they will have several things up their sleeves to appease some disgruntled customers who are unhappy with the recently announced planned prices rises which will come into force on the 1st of April.

[Chad]

SKY and BT Vision keep on adding new TV customers yet Virgin, with their TiVo box, just seem to have plateaued. It would appear TV customers are looking for the widest selection of content or really good value when choosing their TV provider at the moment.

Looks like Virgin need to up their game as their TV uptake has been stagnant for almost 12 months now. With YouView launching in the next few months with their own free 7 catch-up service for terrestrial TV, apps for the likes of Lovefilm and TV on demand content the market is only going to get tougher. By all intents and purposes, YouViews box will be able to do about 80% of what TiVo does without any monthly fee.

Virgin need to deliver all missing non-SKY HD channels, more linear channels and more exclusive on demand content if they want to continue their growth in 2012 - 2013.

[Helix]

Originally Posted by denphone

It will be interesting to hear what is said when they reveal their quarter figures on wednesday and what their plans are for the rest of the year as l am sure they will have several things up their sleeves to appease some disgruntled customers who are unhappy with the recently announced planned prices rises which will come into force on the 1st of April.

Anything they do announce will be 'coming soon' and will come months after the price increases. Is always the way with Virgin Media.