There has long been rivalry between Sky and Virgin Media with each looking to position themselves as the UK’s cheapest TV, broadband and phone provider. This rivalry is sure to hot up further now that Sky has launched a press campaign declaring victory in the price wars and claiming that you can save £169 a year with Sky compared to Virgin Media. To arrive at this figure Sky compared one of its top TV, broadband and calls packages against an equivalent package from Virgin.
We’ve taken a good look at the two bundles featured in the Sky.com/compare campaign, and broken down exactly what each includes in terms of TV, broadband and phone services, and how the costs actually stack up against each other, including line rental.
Sky+ TV, Broadband Unlimited & Talk Freetime
The package that Sky put forward into this comparison features satellite TV, broadband and inclusive phone calls and costs £32.50 plus line rental at £12.25 a month. The individual services within the bundle break down like this:
Sky TV with Entertainment Extra – This package includes access to both the Sky Entertainment and Entertainment Extra Packs. These packs include all of Sky’s channels except for the premium offerings such as Sky Sports and Sky Movies. This Sky TV package doesn’t include any HD channels, but it does include the very popular and exclusive Sky Atlantic and Sky Sports News.
Sky+ box - This package includes a standard Sky+ HD-ready box although as noted above there are no HD channels included in this deal. This Sky+ box has roughly 250GB of recordable space on its internal drive and it is capable of recording up to two channels at a time.
Sky Broadband Unlimited – Most Sky bundles come with the basic Sky Broadband Everyday Lite package but for this comparison Sky has added the Sky Broadband Unlimited package. This broadband service has a top download speed of 20Mb and it comes with a truly unlimited monthly download allowance, which is not restricted by a fair usage policy or traffic management activities. Subscribers to Sky broadband get a free wireless router worth £50 as standard.
Sky Talk Freetime – This inclusive calls package that lets you make unlimited landline calls of 60 minutes or less from 7pm – 7am Monday to Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday. Only numbers beginning with 01, 02, 03 or 0870 are included in the Sky Talk Freetime package.
This Sky TV, broadband and calls bundle costs £32.50 a month plus Sky line rental at £12.25 a month, making the full annual cost £537. Contract length is 12 months.
Virgin Media TV XL, TiVo, broadband L & Phone M
The Virgin Media bundle that Sky chose to compare against its own costs £45 plus Virgin Media line rental at £13.90 a month. The services within the bundle are:
Virgin Media TV XL –Virgin Media’s top TV package features 175+ channels including many of Sky’s most popular channels including Sky1, FX and Comedy Central, plus 23 HD channels.
Virgin Media 500GB TiVo – Included in this package is the incredibly popular Virgin Media TiVo. This model has a 500GB internal hard drive, which can store about twice as much as the Sky+ box. The Virgin Media TiVo can record up to three channels at a time, which also puts it ahead of Sky+.
Virgin Media Broadband Size L – Broadband L is Virgin Media’s basic fibre optic broadband package with a top download speed of 10Mb. As with Sky’s package this too is billed as an unlimited broadband deal, although Virgin Media openly uses both a fair usage policy and traffic management to restrict usage, but only for the 5% or so of its heaviest users. A standard wireless router is included with this package.
Virgin Media Phone L – Also known as Virgin Media Talk Evenings & Weekends this package lets you make unlimited calls to numbers beginning with 01, 02, 03, 0800 and 0870 plus Virgin mobiles from 6pm - 6am Monday to Friday and all weekend.
This Virgin Media TV, broadband and calls package costs £45 a month plus line rental at £13.90 a month, making a total annual price of £706.80. Contract length is 18 months.
Sky.com/compare vs Virgin Media – The results
As Sky stated in their own Sky.com/compare study the Sky+ TV, Broadband Unlimited & Talk Freetime is indeed cheaper than Virgin Media TV XL, TiVo, broadband L & Phone M to the tune of £169.80. But it’s worth noting that this is not an exact like-for-like comparison as there are clear differences between the offerings from the two providers. There are also often special offers and discounts offered by both Sky and Virgin Media that can affect the overall value of these deals at any given time.
And there are, of course, many other bundles available from both Sky and Virgin Media that may well be more in line with what you’re actually looking for. Because we’re impartial, and to help you select the right deal, we’ve added some of these other packages above. This way you can make up your own mind and choose the package which is right for you, no matter how either of the providers may try to influence your decision.
