The BIG showdown
As Black Friday nears, so the TV behemoths are trying extra hard to get you on board. Here’s what’s on offer
Brrrrrr! Winter is upon us, Christmas is coming and Black Friday is looming on November 29… It’s time to review your latest viewing options before curling up in front of the telly and fire for the next few months. Virgin and Sky are the Big Two that many people consider and both have jumped on the Black Friday bandwagon with special deals (so far).
I also happen to have both platforms up and running at home at the moment due to an overlap in service due to a technical issue.
So let’s see how these two TV behemoths measure up against each other:
BLACK FRIDAY OFFERS
Sky is offering a free 32-inch LG TV – worth around €250 – with TV packages as a Black Friday offer.
But a 32-inch TV doesn’t seem to be the latest model ready for the roll-out of Ultra HD TV next year, or Sky would say so.
You might be better off going for Sky’s more upmarket Black Friday offer – a 43-inch ultra HD 4k HDR with surround sound.
You have to fork out €143 for this telly, but it’s worth from around €370.
Virgin’s Black Friday deal is a €99 Google Home device (you know, the one you can order to do stuff like turning on music).
(Both Virgin and Sky’s Black Friday deals have just come onstream.) WINNER: SKY
PRICE
As Sky announced their Black Friday offer, they slyly upped the price of their ‘triple play’ TV/ broadband/phone package by €6 a month. That’s €72 extra in a year. Virgin takes over as the cheaper of the two for triple play – only by the narrowest of margins – €1 a month . WINNER: VIRGIN
BROADBAND SPEED
No contest here. Virgin’s maximum speed is two-and-a-half or five times faster than Sky’s depending on whether you go for the cheapest or premium package. It really does work. You can measure your broadband speed through Switcher.ie. My Virgin speed actually did come through at the maximum 250mbs near the modem . WINNER: VIRGIN
TV PLATFORM
Virgin’s platform has been spruced up and looks funkier than Sky’s. But, maybe because of the new-fangled elements, it seems to be a bit slower to load. Sky seems easier to navigate to me but maybe that’s because I am more used to Sky. WINNER: SKY
TV CONTENT
Sky’s cheapest deal offers 90 channels; Virgin’s has 66. But many of those extra channels are rubbish. And Virgin’s deal includes Eir Sport, which has good rugby coverage, recently including the World Cup.
Sky Atlantic has come up with great content in the past:
Game of Thrones and Chernobyl were unmissable. I haven’t seen Catherine The Great yet but Britannia – the Romans-vBritons epic currently advertised – is no Game of Thrones and other offerings seem less than compelling.
Virgin also has access to TV game-changer Netflix as part of its normal TV package.
The reason RTÉ is in trouble is because we no longer want old-style TV broadcasting
where you watch whatever happens to be on at the time you turn on the telly.
That’s a bit like going into a shop that only sells one product at any given time.
We want to be able to buy a vast range of products available whenever we want. For that reason, for me, Netflix wins out over Sky Atlantic. WINNER: VIRGIN
PHONE
Sky’s €65-a-month triple-play deal is typical of such add-on deals in that you only get free off-peak calls to Irish landlines.
However, Virgin’s World Talk offer breaks the mould. It has free unlimited calls to landlines and mobiles. Plus 400 minutes to international landlines in 22 countries. WINNER: VIRGIN
VERDICT
On the basis of simple scoring Virgin wins 4-2. However, two of those scores were mighty close. Which you choose depends on what is more important to you. And if you want an Ultra-HD 43-inch telly for just €149, that offer alone might swing the balance in Sky’s favour.