Ditching Virgin TV and Tivo – what to do next?

Having just had another email from Virgin media announcing another price increase I’ve decided that enough’s enough and I’m going to sack off their tv package. I’m hoping I can keep their broadband but may have to look into alternatives for that but the main thing I’m not sure on is TV stuff.

What’s the best option for getting a decent selection of channels and recording capability? Is it freeview HD and a PVR or is there a better option? I’m a bit out of touch with the developments in stuff like this.

The main channels that seem to be a stumbling block are the Discovery ones. Eurosport I can get by subscribing to their player and most other stuff seems to be covered on freeview. Any ideas on how I could Discovery?

Cheers for any help

Give the TalkTalk TV box a wide birth. Slowest crappiest but of tosh i’ve ever had the misfortune to use.

check your actual freeview coverage first – you may well not be getting all the channels they advertise.

bt is ok – a fiver a month for the youview box and after that you can cancel the tv bit and keep the box. Despite what they tell you it carries on working apart from the on demand films, but if you’ve got a smart TV just install blinkbox or something like that – the selection is the same and you can set the box to record programmes from an iphone / android app.

We ditched Virgin about 2 years ago and haven’t missed it – especially the price – we’re paying about £25 a month less now.

I’m thinking of doing something similar because quite frankly, I think they’re taking the mick now but their broadband seems to be the bit that’s really expensive. I’m tempted to sack off the whole lot and get cheap broadband from somewhere else.

I have Youview with BT Infinity, you can get Discovery and Eurosport as multicast channels, in HD too. Along with free BT Sport and Netflix app. You can buy or own films now too.

breathe relief that you have claimed your life back from the box of evil ?

i do sometimes count my blessings at having council TV and consequently 90% of the time there is nothing on worth watching so i go do something productive.

After years of complaining about TiVo, I’ve decided that Virgin aren’t all that bad.

My latest call to them has resulted in my paying £50pcm for XL TiVo, 150 mb BB & Evening & Weekend landline calls.

did you have to threaten to leave and be passed to the retention team to get that deal? I tried to ditch them last year, but looking at Sky as an alternative wasn’t much differernt

Nope, I just dialed 150 from the landline and asked what their best deal was currently. They ran through a few options, all of which would have saved me money. It turned out that by ‘upgrading’ to the 150mb broadband, my overall package would be cheaper than sticking with the previous 30mb!

Just went down to a minimal service from them as no other broadband compares in our area. Basic TV, BB for about £15/month. I don’t miss the XL package at all and haven’t even noticed the (apparently) slower BB.
I had to fight for it though, and was prepared to cancel. I did similar the year before and got free TiVo box out of them. We cancelled our phone line ages ago, and haven’t paid any line rental since. Bonus!

Not really thought about calling them and seeing what they could do. Will probably give that a go first and see from there.

Showbox and Chromecast! 🙂

Not really thought about calling them and seeing what they could do. Will probably give that a go first and see from there.

A word of advice from someone who has trodden this path a few times;
Phone up and tell them you want to cancel. They will take you all the way through the process just to make sure you’re serious. Tell them that their pricing is too high. At the end the monkey will put you through to one of the organ grinders (right at the last moment). They’ll argue the toss and persuade you to stay. Start giving in a bit. Then rinse them.
Find out what their best new customers only deal is, then ask for a bit more. Find out what Sky and BTs best current deal is and mention it.

If you politely enquire what their best deal is; you won’t get it.

Like dealing with mobile phone contracts then. Ok, cheers. Will do

I got my price increase letter yesterday so rang to moan, they fiddled a bit with deal, took off the 2nd TV box I don’t really need, and took about £15/month off my monthly cost. I mostly cared about keeping the broadband, as it is good, and also do like Tivo and Eurostar for the cycling.

I’m with VM. I got the same email this morning. They always seem to have these price increases at the same time they upgrade my broadband ‘for free’.

I went down to the freeview only package (M, I think) a few months back.

When ever I’ve looked in to ditching the TV / Phone package and keeping the broadband, you never seem to save more than a couple of quid a month, because of the way the package prices are set up so I never really thought it was worth it.

Still better than the sky packages imho.

We ditched the tv and phone and kept the broadband.

Use freesat for tv and mobiles for phones.

How much for just BB? What speed?

We’re still on old school 20mb, which is generally very stable.

25 quid a month, rolling month by month. Bit expensive but the bt line alternatives for us all max out about 2mbit on estimated speed…

Whats wrong with just Freeview and riding your bike more? Don’t understand?

I gave them a call last night and managed to reduce mine from £74 per month to £56 but gained 152mb broadband (was 30mb) and free 2nd box along with Sky movies and sports until March 2015.