Sky or UPC

phoenix833

My family have been sky subscribers since 2002 and still have the original standard box given to us by sky. Considering the sky is reported to be goin up to €76 a month (we have the full package) I was wondering does anybody recommend switching to UPC to get better value for your euro?

We dont need Broadband or a landline because we get BB for free and the phone is almost redundant at this stage due to mobiles.

Do you think if I rang sky and threatened to cancel our subscription would I get a better deal? Sky + box maybe or multi room. I just dont like paying for 600 channels i will never watch.

Iv heard UPC have good offers on multiroom. I wouldnt mind paying the same as I am with sky at the minute if I was going to get it in extra rooms.
Any advice is appreciated.

Ranicand

phoenix833 wrote: »

My family have been sky subscribers since 2002 and still have the original standard box given to us by sky. Considering the sky is reported to be goin up to €76 a month (we have the full package) I was wondering does anybody recommend switching to UPC to get better value for your euro?

We dont need Broadband or a landline because we get BB for free and the phone is almost redundant at this stage due to mobiles.

Do you think if I rang sky and threatened to cancel our subscription would I get a better deal? Sky + box maybe or multi room. I just dont like paying for 600 channels i will never watch.

Iv heard UPC have good offers on multiroom. I wouldnt mind paying the same as I am with sky at the minute if I was going to get it in extra rooms.
Any advice is appreciated.

Here are the channels.




Plus Sky Movies Sky Sports and the other premium stuff can be added also.

Ok lets deal with the Pros Cons and the myths.

Myths Sky has better picture quality
Truth UPC over the last year or more have increased the bit rates and they are about the same as Sky in fact some channels look better like RTE.
Another thing the standard of the picture depends a lot on the box your using the HD box from UPC puts out a very nice picture even on SD channels.
Myths Sky treat their subscribes better.:rolleyes:

Cons Less channels here is the UPC online TV guide http://tv-guide.upc.ie/TV/
Cons the UPC guide is a bit slower.
Cons to record two Channels the box must be in standby.
Cons less HD channels.


Pros UTV all the extra ITV and BBC channels in the guide.
Pros Guide in layed out better with RTE BBC UTV etc and the beginning.
Pros mulitroom is 5 Euro per month not 15.
Pros call out are free not 100 plus.
Faulty equipment is replaced for free.
Pros you could have 3 extra rooms for the price of one with Sky.

Ranicand

phoenix833 wrote: »

My family have been sky subscribers since 2002 and still have the original standard box given to us by sky. Considering the sky is reported to be goin up to €76 a month (we have the full package) I was wondering does anybody recommend switching to UPC to get better value for your euro?


Iv heard UPC have good offers on multiroom. I wouldnt mind paying the same as I am with sky at the minute if I was going to get it in extra rooms.
Any advice is appreciated.

Television

Digital Max
€33.75


Sky Sports and Movies pack
€40.00

Multiroom Viewing
€5.00


Total monthly cost:€78.75
One-off cost: €0.00


You can build your own packs here .
http://www.upc.ie/deals/made_to_measure/

Cantona's Collars

UPC prices increasing also in september.The problem with getting multiroom from Sky is that they insist on having a landline connected to the extra boxes,not much good if you haven't got one.Not all UPC services are available in certain parts of the country so check that out also before committing to a contract.
Sky may offer you some kind of deal regarding your package-no harm asking them.

Ranicand

zerks wrote: »

UPC prices increasing also in september.Not all UPC services are available in certain parts of the country so check that out also before committing to a contract.

Yes two good points I think Sky Sports is going up 3 Euro per month regardless of weather your on Sky or UPC.

As regards the other point you can check here what you can get at your address.

http://www.upc.ie/map/?CMP=banner

jpl888

In my experience the UPC experience isn't great.

Firstly the boxes they give out are slow and crash.

Secondly the 2 other people I know who use it have picture issues and signal coming in and out.

I had it for a short while at the beginning of 2009 and my experience was the same. I had an engineer out who checked the box, antenna and cabling and said it was all perfect "the problem was at the "head" end", which I'm assuming means the transmitter.

The 2 people are in Waterford using cable and I had MMDS in south Kilkenny but the experience is pretty much the same.

In respect of Sky as long as you leave the box in standby overnight no moisture will get into the transponder on the dish and you should rarely have any issues. I have had a HD box since Jan 2009 and I can't remember the last time there was picture/sound break-up or interruption.

Maybe experiences are different in other areas of the country.

Hope this helps.

Ranicand

jpl888 wrote: »

In my experience the UPC experience isn't great.

Firstly the boxes they give out are slow and crash.

Secondly the 2 other people I know who use it have picture issues and signal coming in and out.

I had it for a short while at the beginning of 2009 and my experience was the same. I had an engineer out who checked the box, antenna and cabling and said it was all perfect "the problem was at the "head" end", which I'm assuming means the transmitter.

The 2 people are in Waterford using cable and I had MMDS in south Kilkenny but the experience is pretty much the same.

In respect of Sky as long as you leave the box in standby overnight no moisture will get into the transponder on the dish and you should rarely have any issues. I have had a HD box since Jan 2009 and I can't remember the last time there was picture/sound break-up or interruption.

Maybe experiences are different in other areas of the country.

Hope this helps.

I am on an upgraded part of the network MMDS and old parts of the network are not going to be up to much.

I would tell anybody thinking of UPC to check weather they can get Home Phone from UPC or not at their address.

The upgraded parts of the Network have phone the other parts don't.

phoenix833

zerks wrote: »

UPC prices increasing also in september.The problem with getting multiroom from Sky is that they insist on having a landline connected to the extra boxes,not much good if you haven't got one.Not all UPC services are available in certain parts of the country so check that out also before committing to a contract.
Sky may offer you some kind of deal regarding your package-no harm asking them.

I had a check and all the services are available to my where i live, even though i dont need the broadband or phoneline. I'll prob give sky a ring anyway and see what they can offer me. After all if they can give sky+ and sky+HD boxes to new customers surely loyal ones deserve the same?

Ranicand wrote: »

Yes two good points I think Sky Sports is going up 3 Euro per month regardless of weather your on Sky or UPC.

As regards the other point you can check here what you can get at your address.

http://www.upc.ie/map/?CMP=banner

Ah i didnt know it was sky sports putting in the €3 charge. Probably should look into these things a little more.

phoenix833

Just an update on this in case anybody was interested:rolleyes:

Phoned sky and they offered either a free sky+HD box or 50% off my bill for the next 6 months.

Rang UPC and their deal didnt seem to be that much better in fairness so i rang back sky to tell them which "free" upgrade i wanted.

I was talking to a different fella in the cancellations department and he gave me the 50% discount and the sky+HD box for free!:D Sweet!

So anybody in the same position I was in i'd advise you to ring sky and say you're going to cancel unless you get something for free.

Kristopherus

To avail of Sky's HD channels you'll have to fork out €15 per month. Only HD channels outside of Sky's are BBC & ITV.

kbell

And luxe tv...

run_Forrest_run

folks, maybe I'm going blind but I can't find a contact number for Sky Ireland customers to contact, I want to cancel my Sky subscription..they don't like being contacted eh:rolleyes:

...oh wait, I finally got through the maze of pages to get a number...no worries.

Ludo

0818719819

Or just walk across the road from the office here and knock on the door of the call centre in person.

phoenix833

Kristopherus wrote: »

To avail of Sky's HD channels you'll have to fork out €15 per month. Only HD channels outside of Sky's are BBC & ITV.

Yeah sorry forgot to mention that. I was goin to get that too with the 50%/ discount but i thought whats the point for a just the movies and sports channels.

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

folks, maybe I'm going blind but I can't find a contact number for Sky Ireland customers to contact, I want to cancel my Sky subscription..they don't like being contacted eh:rolleyes:

...oh wait, I finally got through the maze of pages to get a number...no worries.

Were you actually going to cancel your subscription or see what you can squeeze out of em for free?

Ludo

Kristopherus wrote: »

To avail of Sky's HD channels you'll have to fork out €15 per month. Only HD channels outside of Sky's are BBC & ITV.

Lots of documentary channels in HD also which are very good...if you are into that kind of thing.