Irish Sky customers pay up to 20% more than UK

The Cush

Now that the politicians are back from their holidays, one in particular has been busy posting press releases on his website - Leo Varadkar the relatively new Fine Gael Communications Spokesman.

His latest is on the premium paid by Irish domestic subscribers to Sky. (There is a similar discussion going on over in another thread on Sky in commercial premises)

Irish Sky customers pay up to 20% more than UK
September 20th, 2010

A price survey carried out by Fine Gael shows that customers in Ireland are paying more for Sky television than customers in the United Kingdom. Sky is the largest provider of multi-channel television in Ireland with more customers than UPC and other providers. Fine Gael Communications Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD has contacted British Sky Broadcasting for an explanation and is awaiting a reply. He also intends to make a complaint to the National Consumer Agency on the matter.

“Irish customers are paying up to 20% more than customers in the United Kingdom and are getting an inferior service.

“The cost of Sky’s Basic package is £19 (€22.80) in the United Kingdom against €23 in Ireland. However, the Sky basic package in the United Kingdom also includes 20Mb broadband and free evening and weekend calls. Irish consumers just get the TV channels.
“The cost of Sky’s Basic package with Sky Sports is £40 (€48) in the United Kingdom against €57 in Ireland. That means Irish customers pay 19% more. Again, British customers also get broadband and phone as part of their basic package.

“The cost of Sky’s Basic package with Sky Movies is £36 (€43.23) in the United Kingdom against €51 in Ireland which is 18% higher.

“The Basic Sky High Definition (HD) package is 9.1% more expensive in Ireland and the Sky HD Basic + sports and Sky HD Basic + movies are 20% and 19.4% more expensive respectively.

“In the United Kingdom there is no fee for customers who move to HD, but Irish customers have to pay €30 for the pleasure

“It is clear that Sky is imposing a ‘paddy premium’ on its Irish customers in the same way that supermarkets like Tesco did in the past. We should end this rip-off and give hard pressed Irish customers are break from these high charges. In the United Kingdom, Sky’s competitors Virgin TV and BT Vision are able to undercut Sky and offer Sky Sports and SKY Movies more cheaply than Sky itself. This is because the wholesale prices are regulated by OfCom. There is no regulation in Ireland. Also, there is more competition in the United Kingdom. In Ireland, Sky’s only real competitor is UPC which only serves cities and large towns.

“If Communications Minister Éamon Ryan had not made a total mess of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), Sky would be facing competition across Ireland from 2012. But this will not now happen due to failure of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) and RTE to secure a commercial partner to provide Pay TV alongside RTE’s new digital service.

“No doubt Éamon Ryan will try to claim that multi-channel television in Ireland is cheaper than the United Kingdom when you adjust for ‘purchasing power parity’ in line with his laughable contention that electricity prices in Ireland are below the European average. This is fantasy and nonsense.

“I am calling on him to end the rip-off and protect Irish consumers by amending the Broadcasting Act to give the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) the power to regulate the multi-channel television market until it is truly competitive and give it the necessary power to force an agreement between RTENL and a commercial partner so that everyone can enjoy the full benefits of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT).”

Note:

Purchasing Power Parity is an economic concept according to which prices are adjusted to reflect income disparities between countries. As Ireland has higher incomes than other countries, Éamon Ryan argues that this means that prices are effectively lower even though they are not in real terms.

SKY is the largest single provider of television in Ireland, followed by UPC (formerly NTL/Chorus). RTE NL provides television to about 25% of the population who do not have cable or a satellite dish and still receive their television by aerial. With the exception of a small number of MMDS companies, SKY has an effective monopoly on multi-channel pay TV outside of the major town and cities. Competition was expected with the advent of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) which should have enabled DTT customers all over the country to pay for BBC, Sky and other channels without having to get a dish or cable. This will not now happen and future DTT customers will only be able to get free-to-air Irish channels like RTE, TV3, TG4 and Euronews

http://www.leovaradkar.ie/?p=1130#more-1130

The Clare Herald is the only media that has picked up on it that I can see (maybe The Sun or News of the World will carry it :rolleyes:)

Sky TV Branded A ‘Rip-Off’
Monday, 20 September 2010 08:06 Written by Noel Cotter

Sky TV customers are paying up to 20% more than customers in the United Kingdom and are getting an inferior service, according to Fine Gael.

A study by the party has found that Sky, which is the largest provider of multi-channel television in Ireland, the lack of competition and regulation in Ireland had led to the chigh charges.

The cost of Sky’s Basic package is £19 (€22.80) in the United Kingdom against €23 in Ireland. However, the Sky basic package in the United Kingdom also includes 20Mb broadband and free evening and weekend calls. Irish consumers just receive the TV channels. In the United Kingdom there is no fee for customers who move to HD, but Irish customers have to pay €30 for the pleasure

Fine Gael Communications Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD says he has contacted British Sky Broadcasting for an explanation and is awaiting a reply. He says he also intends to make a complaint to the National Consumer Agency on the matter.

“Sky is imposing a ‘paddy premium’ on its Irish customers in the same way that supermarkets like Tesco did in the past. It is clear that Sky We should end this rip-off and give hard pressed Irish customers are break from these high charges. In the United Kingdom, Sky’s competitors Virgin TV and BT Vision are able to undercut Sky and offer Sky Sports and SKY Movies more cheaply than Sky itself. This is because the wholesale prices are regulated by OfCom”, he explained.

“If Communications Minister Éamon Ryan had not made a total mess of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), Sky would be facing competition across Ireland from 2012. But this will not now happen due to failure of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) and RTE to secure a commercial partner to provide Pay TV alongside RTE’s new digital service.

“No doubt Éamon Ryan will try to claim that multi-channel television in Ireland is cheaper than the United Kingdom when you adjust for ‘purchasing power parity’ in line with his laughable contention that electricity prices in Ireland are below the European average. This is fantasy and nonsense.

“I am calling on him to end the rip-off and protect Irish consumers by amending the Broadcasting Act to give the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) the power to regulate the multi-channel television market until it is truly competitive and give it the necessary power to force an agreement between RTENL and a commercial partner so that everyone can enjoy the full benefits of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT)”, Deputy Varadkar concluded.

Kristopherus

Not to mention the Rip-off prices they charge for the likes of Box Office . The boxing on Sat night was £14.95 in UK vs €21.95 in Ireland. Thieving b**tards:cool::mad::eek:

Cantona's Collars

It's about time somebody stood up and publically declared this fact.In the UK people complain about the price of Sky-would like to see them pay Irish prices.Maybe we should insist on Sky providing UK packages to us at UK prices.For whats on the Irish channels I could live without them on Sky-an Mpeg4 box would sort that.
I gave up on Pay Per View events on Sky long ago-get them free online.I like having Sky in my house but not the price,even their claims of VAT rates here are bogus and the exchange rate claims are the same guff-the truth is we pay more for less.How much revenue would be raised if Sky actually paid tax in this country?

greendom

Competition is the only thing that will bring prices down. In the UK Sky are fighting tooth and nail with Virgin and BT. I don't think they are too concerned about UPC, but hopefully that will change.

watty

Regulation or Boycott is the only way to bring down prices.

The Monopoly is too much entrenched for Competition. Also there is a risk of Virgin/UPC being a Duopoly with Sky as they are more concerned now with selling Broadband. The Sport is the premium content driving PayTV. FTA satellite channels + Irish TV is over 85% of viewing, Sky1 is less than 2% (the most popular Pay Channel). ALL Sky Sports channels together are only 2% of viewing. Obviously an important 2% for the Sports fans.

If Sky Sports was boycotted it would bring Sport to FTA channels.
A regulator can force Sky to sell channels A la Carte rather than in Mixes with Sport as a premium add on.
A Regulator can force Sky to sell a Sports Mix on its own at same price as anyother mix.

Competition isn't going to happen.

Cantona's Collars

The full package in UK is £51 that converts to 61.34 at today's exchange rate-a bit of a difference from the 76 euro we get charged.Competition and regulation are what's needed but can't see that happening anytime soon.

Tarabuses

What surprised me most about the report of Leo's comments, in the Indo, was that the reporter didn't seem to be aware of the rip off prices.