Sky or Virgin Media: which is better?

Having been with both I can honestly put it down to whether sport or broadband is more important to you. If it's sport, then Sky wins hands down, their system is far superior.

However I am a sports fan but also value good quality broadband with good online support. In my area, Sky's broadband is archaic (by comparison) and Virgin's antivirus and online support is very good. Download speeds are consistent and efficient for example.

So I stick with Virgin despite the gremlins in the box that sometimes switches itself off and is sooo slow. You pay your money and take your choice, if you want a computer just for basic stuff then go to Sky. Otherwise it's Virgin for me.

I'm just about to move from Virgin to Sky. My only reason is Sky Go which will allow me to watch LFC when I'm on my travels. Just a pity Virgin don't offer something similar.

I'm getting Virgin Media TV XL, Broadband L, Phone M with free installation, Tivo box and multi-room box for £41 per month. Called Sky and for them to match the deal was £25 a month more as there is a HD charge of £10.25 and multi-room of £10.25. (Besides, Tivo can record 3 channels at the same time). Although Sky have more channels than Virgin, Virgin have all the channels we watch as a family.

Not all customers can get Sky Unlimited - they have to have Sky Connect which at times is slow - evening speeds can reach the dizzy heights of less than 1Mb - and is theoretically capped at 40GB a month. Sky will not give any indication of when they will migrate my exchange and we are in a large metropolitan area!

Had Virgin previously and although traffic managed in the evening it was never so slow as Sky Connect. Can't wait for the 12 month contract to end so I can move.

I've been with Sky for 10 years for TV and love it.

However, I'm thinking of changing to Virgin simply for their internet as we're with Orange which has appalling speeds. Totally agree with the offshore call center comments for Virgin, they seem to answer questions with completely irrelevant scripted responses.

Is it worth changing everything to Virgin to have quicker internet and save a tenner but lose my Sky telly, movies and customer service?

I had been with Sky for 5 years and never had any problems until my router went down. After 7 weeks of the same old runaround from people all trying to tell me the problem was BT or the cables in my house I finally convinced Sky it was a router problem. Sky then charged me for a replacement router. I moved to Virgin now have 20 meg speed, all the TV I need and free anytime phone calls.

As of yet I have had no problems and am very pleased with Virgin. Sky lost a customer due to the lack of broadband customer service not because of their TV service, which is far superior to anything else currently on the market.

I have been a customer of both and can honestly say I prefer Virgin (although I haven't experienced the Sky's new box or Anytime+ TV...) I have just ordered two 500mb Tivo boxes and moving the V+ to childs room - 10mb broadband and talk unlimited all for £72 which is a good deal but then Sky offered me a similar deal - a 1tb box, Sky+ HD box & a standard box, 20mb broadband and unlimited phone for £66! Now I'm totally confused as they were telling me the Tivo boxes are all going wrong - I don't know which way to go!

I subscribed to Sky for years and then moved to a cabled area so picked up with Virgin.

Both companies are brilliant when you sign up and from then on it's purely a matter of your own experiences and frustration levels!

With two companies in the market they can, and do, behave with more arrogance and indifference than banks. Like the banks they know they have a service we all "need" and with only two companies they know there's nowhere else to go!

If you're with Sky and have been with them for 12 months, it is quite possible they will offer you a sizeable discount to stay with them. We got a 25% discount and a friend of ours got half price for the next 12 months, and on a month to month contract so if still not happy, you can just cancel and go elsewhere. Seems Sky are big on rewarding loyal customers.

We have had no problems with Sky, other than extreme weather we lose a lot of channels, broadband is the best we have ever had at a good speed for what we use it for, and have found that the customer service has been the best out of all off our previous, BT-talktalk among others. From the sound of it Virgin do not rate too good on this. Not tempting enough yet Virgin...

I am a Virgin Broadband user but we are 'beyond cable' so I get connection through my BT line - connection has been painfully slow lately so have been looking at deals/options and found this site really informative.

I have experienced both services and although Sky TV is a far better package its just too expensive! After years of trying the different providers (often tied in for 1 or 2 years) I decided to try an internet based satellite tv provider, which was perfect for me.

Sky, Virgin and Plusnet all have atrocious customer service and in my experience will deliberately throttle your broadband speed and even begin to drop your connection once they cotton on that you're a persistent heavy user. Appalling practice by these ISP's and I suspect others too. OFCOM should really regulate this but I suspect it never will.

Virgin was working okay for us until a few weeks ago. Now it continuously disconnects despite excellent signals and no apparent modem issues and it often stays off for an inordinate amount of time. We're getting a technician to come in just to rule out the possibility of modem damage but they might charge us for it even if it's not our fault. Virgin's service, which was once okay, is now really starting to annoy us. Is Sky any better when it comes to internet connectivity (factoring in more than just speed)?

I am currently a Sky customer, but I am considering moving my broadband and phone to Virgin. However, the Sky HD box has a phone connection which it seems to deem important. Will this cause a problem if my phone connection is with Virgin?

Also, one of the advantages I assumed that I would get with Virgin is that I could save the £11 per month BT line rental. In your comparison you retained it so that the comparison was "like for like". That would indicate there is a benefit in keeping it. Is there? If so, what is it.

If the service is that bad Janni, and they messed up the billing too, then file a complaint with trading standards. They'll jump quicker than a frog dropped into hot water to get you sorted.

I am having big problems with Virgin Media! I can't wait for my contract to end, I never get the speed I paid for, customer service is rubbish! They actually lied to me about my package (hidden charges) and I found out after the money was taken out of my account.

I have 10 more months to go and I am already sick and tired of them, first 2 months they'll give you good services and then its a nightmare! Does anyone know how to get rid of it? I don't want to spend a single day more with Virgin Media but at the same time I would not want to spoil my credit history!

I've always been with Sky growing up (apart from a short stint with cable and wireless before they went bust). I've tried things like BT vision etc when I moved into a block of flats that couldn't get a dish on top but I'm always disappointed.

Now I don't want or need a phone line, I use mobile broadband at the moment (but I am considering getting broadband because I'm sure it's much cheaper) and I want Sky. Is there anyway at all to get Sky without having to get a landline and pay for installation of a service I will never use in my entire lifetime? Thanks.

I've had mates give up on Sky and just go Freeview because the customer service was beyond abominable.

They'd previously had Virgin Media, as we do, but had moved to an un-cabled new-build. At the time, they didn't much enjoy the scripted repetition of the Virgin Media oversees-based customer service, but at least someone answered the calls and eventually exchange problems would be sorted.

With Sky, they felt they'd bought a pig in a poke and had been abandoned and left to get on with it, so they'd rather spend next to nothing on a cheap phone line and broadband and Freeview and just buy/rent DVDs and box sets and save in the region of £20/£30 a month. They don't have the same choice, but they don't have the hassle either.

We use Virgin Media still and I get narked when the exchange goes down (I live in a block, so it's obvious it's the exchange when we're all down) and the scripted 'helpers' on the other end drag you through the same old, 'Unplug the modem' script when really, they should just get on the blower to the East End exchange and let them know there's a problem, but I've found that by getting on Twitter (on my iphone when the lines are down) and tweeting @virginmedia you get a far better service as these guys speak English, they apologise for the inconvenience to you and they are active in trying to sort things out - a better class of customer service and that's why I'm staying with Virgin Media. I'm also now very reluctant to part with dosh to fund the Murdoch Empire.

Well for us it's turned out to be Virgin. We don't live in the back of beyond and our telephone exchange is only 4 km from us but Sky couldn't give us faster than 1.4 meg!! Now have 50meg Virgin broadband TiVo XL pack espn for free, hd for the 1 off payment and economy talk anytime, all for £65 a month. Interestingly the TiVo has its own dedicated 10 meg broadband so as not to use any of the 50 meg.

Okay, you want to know my experiences. Yes, sky is truly unlimited and when it works fantastic, but when it's down good luck getting through to decent customer service, shockingly bad for a big company.

Virgin seem to have the better anytime TV package as they have TiVo, iPlayer, 4od all that on your box whereas for Sky we had to pay an extra £65 for the anytime+ box.

So if you're thinking of Sky, think again if you want decent customer service.

I have some comments not really referenced here. Sky or Virgin? Well with Sky you actually own the box (12 month warranty then unless you insure - your problem!) plus if you decide to leave you're stuck with a box that is no use to you. With Virgin, you are renting the box. If it breaks, no matter how old, they will replace it. I'm currently with Virgin and happy enough to stay for now. Got a good deal on a sizeable package. Yes, the TV and wireless boxes have been known to freeze and need a reboot but other than that not bad. What is really annoying is the + recording. Our box keeps cutting off the end of programmes. We have it set for the max over run but still no good. Then again the Sky box used to do the same. Anyone on here had the problem and got it fixed?

I use Sky for my TV and Virgin for my Broadband. I have found that Virgin gives a damn near 20Mbps which is what I pay for. Now with this TiVo system coming online now and 50Mbps with the XXL package I might move for TV too.

I am trying to get a TV only package and decided to compare Sky against Virgin. I got on the Sky website first and chose to speak to the online help. They were very helpful in helping me sort out a package and also it was easy to find the extra free to air channels listed on the website.

Virgin's website was entirely different. I was able to establish I could get a TV only package but nowhere could I find a list of any additional free channels provided. And a call to their call centre resulted in being told the 65 channels listed on the site were the ONLY channels that you get. No mention of the radio channels etc.

So well done SKY you get my money.

"The only other broadband package in the UK to offer truly unlimited downloads is, funnily enough, Virgin Media's size XXL 50Mbps broadband."

Wrong, wrong wrong.
BE Broadband offers a true unlimited service and a much, much better customer service to in my experience.

With Sky packages you have to pay line rental on top, don't you?