Virgin Media Virgin Media Community

padcontrol · ‎08-05-2024

Just seen the announcement of Sky Sports+.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/32461/13131189/sky-sports-launches-in-august-to-give-more-ch...

Doesn't seem to mention Virgin Media anywhere. Curious if there's going to be an update regarding this for us customers paying for Sky Sports on Virgin.

countyexile · ‎14-08-2024

Cedd - thanks for your reply and I appreciate your comments on your experience of the 360 box so far.

I note what you say about loss of recordings and I realise this is not going to change but it still does remain a major frustration / annoyance for me. I had this forlorn hope that recordings would be like they were in the old days - there to keep and view whenever I wanted to - and not liable to disappear en bloc whenever there was a software upgrade, channel change etc. Having to binge watch everything recorded before losing them whenever VM arbitrarily decides to make changes is far from ideal, to put it mildly!

I support a League 2 EFL football team and have been fortunate to see them play some big cup and Promotion play-off matches in recent seasons. Sadly the recordings of those matches have gradually disappeared (and will lose the rest of them if I "upgrade" to a 360 box) and many of them are not available to watch on catch-up, youtube etc. The crazy thing is I have match recordings (from the tv) on dvd for matches played in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s which I can keep long term but that is no longer possible for more recent games. That is progress?? As long as recordings are for personal viewing only I fail to see why recordings can't be taken from programmes I have subscribed to and paid to watch! Like I said earlier I know this won't change but that still doesn't make it any easier to accept.

I had a first experience of Sky Sports + (live stream) for a match last night and it was pretty much as newappollo intimated in a previous post. No stream available on tv without upgrading to 360. Unable to access the live stream on my Windows PC or laptop. I could, however, view on my android devices using the sky sports app via my VM login.

Regarding upgrading from V6 to 360 on reading through various threads here and elsewhere what does come across is that it is difficult to get definitive answers from VM with a different answer to the same question depending on who you speak to. Questions I have seen different answers to include:-

1) I have 2 V6 boxes and if I understand it correctly on "upgrading" to 360 one will become the main box and the other a mini box and that mini boxes do not have separate storage capacity. Does this mean on conversion my current 2TB storage (1TB on each box) will be cut in half?

2) The email I received referred to it as a free upgrade but on the VM website the 360 information refers to one box being free but any additional mini boxes would be charged for. I currently have 2 V6 boxes as part of my contracted package. So on upgrade would I be facing new charges for the 2nd box?

3) I have also seen comments that this free upgrade would constitute a new contract, meaning I would be tied in to a further 18 months contract from the date of the "upgrade". Is that correct? Furthermore if it is classed as a new contract will that give VM the opportunity to slip in additional charges, make other changes to package, remove channels (I am aware that some customers have already had TNT Sports arbitrarily removed mid-term despite it being part of the contracted package)?

4) One of the advertised new features of 360 is Startover where you can watch a programme from the beginning if you switch on after it has already started. Does this apply to all channels and programmes or just a select few?

Sorry to have rambled on at length but before clicking on the "free upgrade" button to be able to access Sky Sports + streams I need to know what I would actually be signing up for and there is precious little information about terms and conditions in the invite email and contradictory responses from VM when others have posed some of the questions.

BlueLou · ‎14-08-2024

@countyexile wrote:

1) I have 2 V6 boxes and if I understand it correctly on "upgrading" to 360 one will become the main box and the other a mini box and that mini boxes do not have separate storage capacity. Does this mean on conversion my current 2TB storage (1TB on each box) will be cut in half?

2) The email I received referred to it as a free upgrade but on the VM website the 360 information refers to one box being free but any additional mini boxes would be charged for. I currently have 2 V6 boxes as part of my contracted package. So on upgrade would I be facing new charges for the 2nd box?

3) I have also seen comments that this free upgrade would constitute a new contract, meaning I would be tied in to a further 18 months contract from the date of the "upgrade". Is that correct? Furthermore if it is classed as a new contract will that give VM the opportunity to slip in additional charges, make other changes to package, remove channels (I am aware that some customers have already had TNT Sports arbitrarily removed mid-term despite it being part of the contracted package)?

4) One of the advertised new features of 360 is Startover where you can watch a programme from the beginning if you switch on after it has already started. Does this apply to all channels and programmes or just a select few?

1) If you have two V6 boxes they will both be upgraded to Virgin TV 360 and retain their storage. 2TB for you.

2) The information youu are referring to is related to new customers taking multiple boxes, not existing customers upgrading to 360. You will pay the same as you do now.

3) No new contract or repackage required, just migrate via the method detailed in the email, dont call in to request one as thats where sometimes this confusion can arise if customers end up speaking to retentions whose job it is to retain customers via new deals and recontracting.

4) Startover is a great feature. It's not available on every single channel but nearly all of them via the Virgin TV capability and those offered by the catch up apps from BBC, ITV, etc. In the TV guide if the startover icon is visible you can watch from the start, if it's visible but greyed out its in one of the apps but not yet available (they can take a bit longer to add shows to their apps). Of course it's not all programmes on all channels but the icon helps you to see what is and isnt available.

countyexile · ‎14-08-2024

Thanks for the clarification.