Virgin tv alternative

[epwc]

My in laws have virgin tv which is incredibly expensive, the passing of my father in law means mother in law now has much less disposable income (he was on a final salary pension)

Reason for virgin was that terrestrial reception is crap in her location.

She watches murder mystery stuff and MASH mostly plus crap films; Colombo, miss marples etc.

I guess freesat plus fibre broadband would be workable, there’s also something new called Freely and itv X

Anyone got experience of any of the above?

[fishfoodie]

My in laws have virgin tv which is incredibly expensive, the passing of my father in law means mother in law now has much less disposable income (he was on a final salary pension)

Reason for virgin was that terrestrial reception is crap in her location.

She watches murder mystery stuff and MASH mostly plus crap films; Colombo, miss marples etc.

I guess freesat plus fibre broadband would be workable, there’s also something new called Freely and itv X

Anyone got experience of any of the above?

That all sounds like the perfect customer for FreeSat !

If you aren't lucky & the TV has a Sat receiver, you can pick them up for buttons.

[Tichtheid]

It may not be something your MiL feel like doing right now but she could get someone to talk to virgin on her behalf.

I’ve always been able to negotiate hard with Virgn Media, to the point where I cancel the contract. They always ring you back a few days after and offer you a better price.

[Slick]

It may not be something your MiL feel like doing right now but she could get someone to talk to virgin on her behalf.

I’ve always been able to negotiate hard with Virgn Media, to the point where I cancel the contract. They always ring you back a few days after and offer you a better price.

Yup, I’ve been doing that for a few years now with Virgin, they always end up offering a decent price

[Margin__Walker]

100% option 1 is threatening to leave. I've never not got some kind of better offer doing that with Sky or BT in the past.

But ultimately that's more for familiarity that she may have with Virgin.

I'd check whether the kind of stuff she's looking to watch is all on Freeview anyway tucked away somewhere on the likes of ITV3.

[epwc]

It may not be something your MiL feel like doing right now but she could get someone to talk to virgin on her behalf.

I’ve always been able to negotiate hard with Virgn Media, to the point where I cancel the contract. They always ring you back a few days after and offer you a better price.

Yeah, my wife did that last time. But mother in law is always in, and when the nice person from Virgin rings up and says "Did you know that for £5 a month you could add x?" she soon gets back to where she started, at £100 monthly right now

[Margin__Walker]

Personally I'd have your wife complain on her behalf, specifically with respect to your MiL's vulnerability in this instance.

Not sure how the likes of Virgin are regulated but it's the kind of thing that's taken pretty seriously in my industry.

It's predatory. No one should be paying £100 pcm to watch golden oldies.

[Oxbow]

Jeez that's expensive. I reckon for what she watches she could find most of that on Freesat. That's all I've got these days and there are loads of obscure channels that I never even look at.

[epwc]

Personally I'd have your wife complain on her behalf, specifically with respect to your MiL's vulnerability in this instance.

Not sure how the likes of Virgin are regulated but it's the kind of thing that's taken pretty seriously in my industry.

It's predatory. No one should be paying £100 pcm to watch golden oldies.

Wife needs a rest, she spent 18 months getting her sister through myeloma treatment and rehab and then almost 6 months caring for her dad. I'll go through Freesat schedules to see that Miss Marples and MASH are on there somewhere.

But yeah, absolute piss take by Virgin.

[inactionman]

Although I had no problems with the actual service offered by Virgin, their business practices and customer service were shocking. I shouldn't have to chase, or threaten to take my toys and leave, to not be ripped off.

We moved to BT which is a load cheaper for substantially the same service, and with BT/TNT Sports included (I gather virgin will be losing this). The broadband i supposed to be a lot slower but I've not seen any real performance impacts.

That's probably still overkill for what your mum-I-L needs, unless she needs quick broadband and phone as a package. She would perhaps be best on a cheap broadband deal and freesat.

[petej]

Most modern TVs have Freesat built in. If you have a sky dish already just switch out the wideband lnb for a normal one and keep the same alignment when doing so and it should work (did for me).

[Lobby]

My in laws have virgin tv which is incredibly expensive, the passing of my father in law means mother in law now has much less disposable income (he was on a final salary pension)

Reason for virgin was that terrestrial reception is crap in her location.

She watches murder mystery stuff and MASH mostly plus crap films; Colombo, miss marples etc.

I guess freesat plus fibre broadband would be workable, there’s also something new called Freely and itv X

Anyone got experience of any of the above?

Freely is basically the Freesat and Freeview channels, but delivered over the internet rather than through the aerial or from a Satellite. She'll need a boadband connection to use Freely.

[epwc]

That'd be easier, but looks like you need a Freely enabled TV. It'd work if it was a set top box

[Paddington Bear]

It may not be something your MiL feel like doing right now but she could get someone to talk to virgin on her behalf.

I’ve always been able to negotiate hard with Virgn Media, to the point where I cancel the contract. They always ring you back a few days after and offer you a better price.

Yup, I’ve been doing that for a few years now with Virgin, they always end up offering a decent price

Likewise, which is incidentally something I need to do before the new season starts

[petej]

Although I had no problems with the actual service offered by Virgin, their business practices and customer service were shocking. I shouldn't have to chase, or threaten to take my toys and leave, to not be ripped off.

We moved to BT which is a load cheaper for substantially the same service, and with BT/TNT Sports included (I gather virgin will be losing this). The broadband i supposed to be a lot slower but I've not seen any real performance impacts.

That's probably still overkill for what your mum-I-L needs, unless she needs quick broadband and phone as a package. She would perhaps be best on a cheap broadband deal and freesat.

BT still relies on antenna for standard channels.

[inactionman]

Although I had no problems with the actual service offered by Virgin, their business practices and customer service were shocking. I shouldn't have to chase, or threaten to take my toys and leave, to not be ripped off.

We moved to BT which is a load cheaper for substantially the same service, and with BT/TNT Sports included (I gather virgin will be losing this). The broadband i supposed to be a lot slower but I've not seen any real performance impacts.

That's probably still overkill for what your mum-I-L needs, unless she needs quick broadband and phone as a package. She would perhaps be best on a cheap broadband deal and freesat.

BT still relies on antenna for standard channels.

I'm not sure ours is plugged to an antenna.

[Tichtheid]

That'd be easier, but looks like you need a Freely enabled TV. It'd work if it was a set top box

From what I can see of freely I think you can get pretty much the same thing with a Roku stick, or Chromecast or Firestick. It's a little bit of a faff to change channels because you have to go to the Home Screen, but it beats buying a new tv.

[Tichtheid]

Although I had no problems with the actual service offered by Virgin, their business practices and customer service were shocking. I shouldn't have to chase, or threaten to take my toys and leave, to not be ripped off.

We moved to BT which is a load cheaper for substantially the same service, and with BT/TNT Sports included (I gather virgin will be losing this). The broadband i supposed to be a lot slower but I've not seen any real performance impacts.

That's probably still overkill for what your mum-I-L needs, unless she needs quick broadband and phone as a package. She would perhaps be best on a cheap broadband deal and freesat.

Yeah I have TNT sports bundled with my tv at the moment (plus Premier for the URC), but I heard that Virgin are losing it and I can't see it offered on their site now.

That's an interesting point about the broadband speed as I stated with Virgin for years due to their claimed higher speeds.

[petej]

Although I had no problems with the actual service offered by Virgin, their business practices and customer service were shocking. I shouldn't have to chase, or threaten to take my toys and leave, to not be ripped off.

We moved to BT which is a load cheaper for substantially the same service, and with BT/TNT Sports included (I gather virgin will be losing this). The broadband i supposed to be a lot slower but I've not seen any real performance impacts.

That's probably still overkill for what your mum-I-L needs, unless she needs quick broadband and phone as a package. She would perhaps be best on a cheap broadband deal and freesat.

BT still relies on antenna for standard channels.

I'm not sure ours is plugged to an antenna.

Maybe the newer boxes get it all over the internet instead of just certain channels. I have crap antenna reception hence setting up the Freesat directly into the TV.

[epwc]

I'll check out BT TV

[inactionman]

BT still relies on antenna for standard channels.

I'm not sure ours is plugged to an antenna.

Maybe the newer boxes get it all over the internet instead of just certain channels. I have crap antenna reception hence setting up the Freesat directly into the TV.

I think there's a number of ways to get the TV via Bt (now branded EE), we get it via the TV Mini box which connects via the internet.

I think the TV Box Pro allows switching between internet and aerial, in cases where broadband bandwidth is too low. Ours doesn't have that option but we've not hit any bandwidth problems.

[epwc]

There's fibre where she lives so bandwidth won't be a problem. She lives in a bungalow in a low lying area that's in a shadow for digital terrestrial so she can't get decent reception.

[Biffer]

I got rid of my broadband, cable TV and land line last year. Got a 5G hub and do everything through that. Cheaper, easier to change and don't have phone calls every year going your deal has changed and you're now getting charged double, you'll need to threaten to leave us before we offer you a deal.