More about the bundles
Virgin Media's new free cable TV service - well, free to those who sign up for a cable phone - is a good sign even though we'd point out that a one-off purchase of a sub-£30 Freeview receiver delivers more TV channels.
The initial head-count for this Virgin TV M free cable TV service is said to total 39 channels - 10 fewer channels than Freeview offers. Check out the list.
Like Freeview, Virgin Media has radio channels, too. Though not yet listed, these are described as "the best local and national DAB Digital Radio stations".
The top bods at the high-table said that the TV list would include two channels not available on Freeview - Sky One and the popular UK TV Gold.
But we're not sure when (or whether) that promise will turn out to be true. On returning to the office after the event, we realised that only one of the two - Sky One - is shown in the main Virgin TV M list.
We spoke to some of the company's PR people and, after checking this as far up the feeding chain as possible, they told us that UK TV Gold would not be provided with the free TV service - but that they'd be double-checking and letting us know for certain today.
Quite possibly, the mentioning of UK Gold was a simple error. Alternatively, we like to think it might have been a Freudian slip - accidentally making public early something that the company planned to shout about loudly a little further down the line [please see Update towards the bottom of this page].
The free TV-with-phone service does involve a one-off £25 fee for installing the TV receiver (reduced to £15 if you book online) but there's no other cost apart from the £11monthly phone-line rental paid to Virgin Media.
Existing cable-phone customers, though, shouldn't expect to be getting free cable TV in the very near future - even if they sign up today. We went to book an installation yesterday in an ntl area and were quoted March 7 as the earliest date.
Virgin
Media cable-bundle deals (click for larger view)
The base phone service provides 01 and 02 UK landline calls at 3p per minute during week days and evenings (plus a 6p connection cost each time) and free at weekends. Free calls become chargeable if they've run for an hour, so you need to ring off after 59 minutes and call back again.
One massive problem that the company has, irrespective of what it calls itself, is that - stating the bleeding obvious - unlike Sky, Talk Talk and all the rest, its services use cable.
Why that's such a big a problem is that, unlike ordinary phone lines, cable doesn't come close to reaching every home in the UK.
Virgin Media says that its "high-speed" cable network reaches 12.5 million homes - mostly in cities. But of those, just four to five million are connected.
Clearly, that leaves the company with massive potential for growing the number of cable-connected homes but with so many households not having cable nearby, the total number of customers that Virgin Media can attract is limited - undermining the cost-effectiveness (and good sense) of nation-wide advertising.
Yet Virgin Media claims that it will turn this situation right around by the end of the year - promising by then to offer services to 97 per cent of UK households!
This, though, isn't the starting gun for a massive amount of road-digging and pavement-mashing - something that would cost many billions of pounds.
And nor is it a sign that Virgin Media has developed some amazing low-cost, non-invasive way of laying cables.
Instead, it's a fine example of smart, lateral thinking and a welcome willingness to face up to reality.
The company will be boosting its potential coverage on the hurry up by offering telephone-based services to people who have no nearby cable - with Virgin Media buying in lines on the wholesale market.
Yes, this giant cable company will be piggy-backing on the BT network just as most competing broadband and landline phone suppliers do already!
Doubtless competitors will use this as a stick to beat the company but, to us, it's a very sensible move.
Right now, there seems no intention for Virgin Media to install its own kit into BT exchanges - not a cheap or speedy thing to do, anyway - so it will just have to put up with the lower margins of running a bought-in service.
That solution, though, gives two further problems. First, any phone-based Virgin Media TV service will inevitably be slower and less comprehensive than its cable-based alternative.
Worse, phone-line-based customers will need to pay monthly line rental to BT, not just spend out for their chosen Virgin Media services, whether landline phone, broadband or TV - or any combination.
And that additional £11 paid each month to BT removes a significant competitive edge - and room for pricing flexibility - that Virgin Media enjoys with services on its own cable network.
Even so, Virgin's introductory prices for broadband-based services look pretty good and, in some instances, actually seem more attractive than the cable alternative!
The one that particularly caught our eye was a bundle of phone and broadband costing £19.99 per month. This, we feel, the company has set artificially low to try to offset the BT line-rental element - heck, it doesn't even appear to have any better-value equivalent on the cable side.
This bundle gets you unlimited 24/7 calls to UK 01/02 numbers (ring back after 59 minutes to stay free) plus an an uncapped 8Mb broadband service (as usual, though, fair-usage rules apply).
This costs just £2 per month more than Virgin's phoneline-based broadband-only offering and, like that, includes a modem and has no set-up fee.
The £11 per month to BT for line rental is a fly in the ointment but it's still clear that Virgin is trying hard to offer attractive bundles even here, most likely in the hope that it will be able to keep new customers on board even if price increases later become necessary.
Seemingly, though, that may not turn out to be possible. Virgin Media is guaranteeing all its prices for the duration of contracts - so folk who switch to the company to make a saving won't find themselves lumbered with price increases at a time when they're unable to switch again to avoid them.
The base deal involves a 12-month contract but unlike many competitors, you can take the account with you if you move - it's not home-specific. However - and we don't think this is unreasonable - the contract would start over again for 12 months when you move.
Switching to the company's phone-based service needs you to get a Mac code from your existing broadband provider but even that's not necessary when switching to cable.
There, Virgin Media controls things top to bottom and no one else needs provide anything - though you'd have to remember to cancel your existing services.
A visit to the Virgin Media's new web site shows, to our mind, that there's been a genuine attempt to make easily understandable the packages and pricing - and the optional extras.
Unfortunately, the site doesn't seem to cater well for existing users of the company's phone services who are looking to upgrade.
We couldn't, for instance, find on the site a place where they could request the additional free TV service - saving themselves a tenner compared with making this request over the phone.
What we'd like to see the company do is take a leaf out of Dell's book and make it possible to easily and thoroughly customise the bundle of services, the way that Dell customers can take base systems and remove or modify unwanted items and add upgrades and extras.
That really would revolutionise the world of consumer communications, especially if Virgin Media could do a better job than Dell of keeping prices reasonable.
We're not that hopeful, though, given how much Virgin Media seems intent on charging for its premium services - resulting in wallet-sapping £85 and £125 monthly pay outs for its top two bundles.
And both new and existing customers will find that the site needs work in some surprising areas, with FAQ pages being conspicuously absent.
We were surprised and a little shocked at our inability to discover on the site what type of modem (USB or combined modem router) is supplied free with the phone-based service or the features of the hardware you get if choosing the optional £40 wireless kit - only revealed, we suspect, if you are prepared to sign up beforehand.
So, the Virigin Media offerings are a whole lot more understandable than the packages that were previously being sold by ntl:Telewest - though far from perfect - and do allow you to readily include mobile, too.
But are the new packages and pricing clear enough and compelling enough - even when combined with all the promises that the Virgin brand holds out - to make you want to switch? Tell us in the HEXUS.community.
Update - February 12, 2007, 21:30
We received final confirmation this afternoon that that UK TV Gold will not be free on Virgin Media's free TV services, though Sky One will. Virgin Media also pointed out that Sky One is available on all packages, whereas UKTV Gold is only available on the Large and Extra Large packages.
We received final confirmation this afternoon that that UK TV Gold will not be free on Virgin Media's free TV services, though Sky One will. Virgin Media also pointed out that Sky One is available on all packages, whereas UKTV Gold is only available on the Large and Extra Large packages.
HEXUS.links
HEXUS.community :: discussion thread about this articleHEXUS.lifestyle.headlines :: ntl:Telewest becoming Virgin Media but is there real change?
HEXUS.lifestyle.headlines :: NTL promising first UK quad-play (TV, broadband, landline & mobile) service
HEXUS.hardlines :: NTL to take over Virgin Mobile
HEXUS.lifestyle.headlines :: Sky offers 'free' broadband to 'all' its TV subscribers
HEXUS.lifestyle.headlines :: Carphone Warehouse reveals details of 'free' broadband - it's war!
HEXUS.lifestyle.headlines :: BT readies download-to-own and video-on-demand services
External.links
Virgin Media - home pageVirgin Media - all cable-based bundles
Virgin Media - introductory prices for broadband-based services
Virgin Media - Virgin TV M list
Virgin Media - Virgin TV XL list
Virgin Mobile UK - home page
