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IF YOU READ reports today about rising TV service charges at UPC and Sky, you might be worried about how it’s going to impact on your bank balance.
A number of UPC customers have been sent letters informing them of increases of up to 14 per cent, introducing a hike of €4 in its basic entry value package. The company told TheJournal.ie that increases would average around 4.5 per cent, depending on the service.
It said it was introducing this “necessary increase” because of rising costs in overall programming and operating costs.
Sky has also confirmed that the majority of its customers will see a €1, or 3.7 per cent price increase from next month.
We asked the National Consumer Agency (NCA) what people should do if they are worried about rising bills and they said the best way to save money may be to switch TV service providers. Research published last year found that 52 per cent of those who switched saved money with average savings of €23.91 a month or €286.92 a year.
Making the switch
“If consumers have been affected by recent price increases they should check and see if they can get a better deal either from their existing provider by considering bundling services or from another provider if they can switch,” the agency recommended. “By doing some research consumers can see if they are getting the best deal for them. If consumers are in a fixed term contract, they will need to review this before considering switching.”
If you’re thinking about switching, here are some tips on how to get the best deal:
Whatever service provider always check:
The Consumers Association of Ireland (CAI) has also advised people to consider free TV services in the market.
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When I was young we had just 6 channels, I miss those days. The amount of crap on TV nowadays is unbelievable. Who watches this $hit?
You forgot to mention how far you had to walk in the snow to change the channel.
And how many neighbours used to watch your TV from the garden…….
smart tv is the way to go.you will pay more upfront for the new tv, but will only have internet bill..Cancel sky and use the free to air channels left on the sky box..problem solved :)
I hate these articles – all they do is highlight the shortcuts the smart people use to watch free TV resulting in banning or blocking the good loopholes
57 channels and nothing on – http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7ne62_57-channels-nothin-on-bruce-springs_music
Just don’t get Sky or UPC then and watch your simpler times channels. Simples
evision 10 euro a month. Ps you can get out of any contract when there is a price increase!!
Not if it’s in your t&c’s about a possible increase. Which I’m sure most companies plan ahead for
Reg 14 – EU coms regs applies to all communication companies, you have 30 days to move without penalty on 31st day post notice your back into contract
Here’s a tip: don’t ring complaining Joe Duffy shhhtyle, just ring and tell them you want to cancel and switch provider – “Cancel” is the golden word in this game, I worked at that crack long enough to know. So ring UPC or Sky tonight and tell them you are not accepting the price increase and they will offer to transfer you to the cancellations team or offer you a callback if it’s too late in the evening… (Canx’s teams generally work till 6 or 7) which is basically a person waiting to offer you a number of specific sweeteners to keep your custom, nothing major just enough to cover the increase you complained about –
Make sure you have your facts and figures right before ringing though.., that used to annoy me!
Simple as that folks
I phoned up doing that, the offered me the same channels for €7.5 per month less indefinitely. Just have to ignore those half price movie offers as it would be had to cry poor mouth and asking for the movie package too!
Yep, have been on the full HD Sky Package with Sports & Movies with 2 extra multi room boxes for €80 for the past 8 months as they offered a deal when I called to cancel, still a big outlay but as we don’t get out much anymore and with 2 small kids it’s well worth it
There’s no recession when ya can afford to fork out 80 a month on tv!
As I said we don’t get out much anymore so less than €3 a day is value for money
€80 for TV. Are u off your rocker? We got Netflix in for €7 a month. I know they are putting it up to €8 for new customers but it’s still great value. I’ve just figured out how to view the US Netflix too. More than enough tv, movies and kids tv on that for us. I’ll use saorview or evision for €10 a month to record, rewind etc. Sky can take a jump with their sneaky annual €1 increases.
I augment with a freesat dvr box (uses the same sat and connections as sky) with no subscription and free hd.
I use netflix for €6.99 / month and lastly I use my apple to hire new movies.
Left sky and saved myself a fortune over the year.
Meant to say Apple TV.
Not that I was using a piece of fruit to watch the odd film.
(That would be a bit mad!!!)
Netflix all the way…more money in your pocket!
Well done I did the same and they rang back 3 times, in the last call they offered me a 75%, YES 75% reduction had been paying over €70 a month, I said no thanks, I had got 2 Combi boxes Cost €279 (which is 4 months SKY subscription) and I can watch all the sport on the net, Happy days.
We’re dropping UPS and getting a free-to-air satellite. Give us everything we need and one less monthly bill.
*UPC (obviously)
Ya DHL giving some great discounts alright………
I couldn’t resist!!!!
Filmon.tv is totally free, with hundreds of english speaking channels from all over the World , including all UK. Non Sky ones
TVCatchup also without the adds and name blasted on top. Just use a UK VPN :)
I got billfree tv in to do my free to air about 6 months ago here in dublin and it’s brilliant! Strongly recommend them to anyone
And the government still try to justify the T.V. licence regardless of the fact that providers are continuously raising their prices. Plus what is actually on T.V. that is worth watching? RTE were shouting from the rooftops at how good Amber was going to be and in the end it was dreadful. Love/Hate was decent but certainly not worth the price either.
Renewed mine yesterday and it sickened me. I never watch TV never mind the tripe on RTE. I don’t even listen to RTE radio.
Streaming, Internet.. The can go to f… With their broadcasting tax.
Cancelled my Sky subscription last month and the called me back 2 days later offering me ANY package for 80% off for 9 months AND no contract so I can cancel any time so now I have movies, sports, HD, 3D and every other channel going for €27/month! The key phrase is cancel people, theres loads of options out there and they’d rather see you stay at a reduced rate than go with a competitor!
Company called Tv trade sell a freesat combi box for 100 euro delivered. If you have an existing satellite dish from sky you own it. You connect the combi box to the existing satellite feed in your sitting room, you then need a UHF aerial to get saorview channels, this aerial can be in the attic. This also connects to the combi box. Now you have Irish channels and BBC, itv, channel 4 , film 4 and lots of other stuff, for free forever. You only need one remote. If you connect a small hard drive you can pause and record Tv.
That sounds good John!
Go to free view get all bbc/ itv channels and ch4 more 4 e4 film 4 pick tv challenge tv and more on top of this no monthly bills can’t understand why people pay money every month for the crap they provide unless your a big sports fan and love sky sports then cancel your subscription and go free view I done this about 3 years ago best thing I ever did most the channels you pay them for are actually free
If Sky stopped paying crazy for Premiership football they could reduce there prices by half !
Funny how when SKY lost the rights to half the Premiership matches to BT Sport that their price didn’t change.
Rang Upc told them I was cancelling. Net affect they offered me 2 months free movies and sports and better broadband speeds.
You will be charged 12 eur to cancel them.
Stephen good work on the sports and movies but the Broadband speeds is an absolute load of nonsense as it makes no difference!! Tell them you’ll take something else instead… If you push them far enough they’ll give it to you!!
The faster broadband is free anyway from march 1st. Mine goes up 7 euro but because I have “myupc” account, I get discount
Dreambox or equivalent box anyone? Donedeal full of them! Average €75/year for full Sly package
Second the dream box. Clever idea.
I can see an increase in satellite dishes for FTA.
In the email we got from UPC they said we could cancel our contract without incurring charges because of the price increase so happy days, over to eFibre for €14 less a month and no connection charge. For 6 months anyway, then €1 more a month after that, still worth it. UPC stopped sending us a notification for our bill and we ended up getting a bank charge, rang them to find out what the story was and they said it was “standard procedure.” Said I’d remember that at the end of the contract, now I don’t even have to wait till the end
I’d love to be able to switch, or at least explore switching but I live in an estate that forbids satellite dishes due to the management company contract!
Has anyone any experience of ignoring/challenging this?
Hugely frustrating that I can’t even exercise a basic right of deciding who I want to buy my TV from because of this.
First world problem I know! ;)
We are same in our complex, only allowed UPC so don’t have a choice of supplier
Surely u knew the rules and conditions before buying.
Was supposed to be reviewed after 2 yrs and still no change. Some neighbours don’t want to see the dish on house.
Stick up a satellite dish and if the management co tell you to take it down then write them a letter informing that there is an European Court of Human Rights ruling that states satellite dishes are a human right for receiving religious tv services. It happened in Sweden when a landlord removed the satellite of two immigrants, they lost in the Swedish high courts and went all the way to the ECHR and won.
EU law trumps Irish law so all you need to do is to tell your management company that you use the satellite to receive religious services and if they want to get you to take it down then they should take you to the European Court of Human Rights. That’s a battle any management company will run a mile from.
Enjoy your God TV !
“Satellite TV a Human Right”
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Society/article695968.ece
You go through the trouble of finding a way to save a few bob and then the government comes along with a new tax to take all the money you’re saving.
Great little country
Great little country and it’s even going to be greater when the water meters come!
Now if we could only get rid of the state broadcaster poll tax.
It’s not a poll tax. You only have to pay it if you have a TV.
Haven’t had a TV since the digital switchover, don’t miss the shite in the slightest.
Have Billfree tv and haven’t had to pay a bill for the last 3 years….no brainer…
I have billfree tv it’s brilliant no bills coming in the door I’m saving so much a month happy days !
Can you record on the sky plus box when you cancel. That is the only thing that is stopping me from cancelling. Any ideas anyone?
You definitely can’t record on sky+ when it’s cancelled and fairly sure u can’t view existing recordings, don’t quote me on that last bit tho. That’s the reason I didn’t go with sky in the first place years ago when sky+ first came out. You had to pay €199 for the box and if you didn’t have the sports and movies, you had to pay €5/month extra just to get the box to record!
You can buy other sattelite boxes that can record I think power city and did sell them or euro sales in dublin industrial estate near glasnevin cemetery you would get a sattelite dish there as well reasonable prices but there for free view
Yes – I have a couple of old Sky+ boxes which continue to work fine as basic free-to-air receivers and they happily record from the free-to-air satellite channels with no problem.
UPC a few years ago were losing a lot due to piracy
This has finished so their reveue has already increased
Ps3 with a decent WiFi connection, get to watch what I want when I want and even all the live sports I can, As long as it stays this good I have no need for sky
Jail broken ps3?
Dont subscribe to any pay tv channels -easy. Actually I do have one an online eurosport subscription 40 ish year to watch cycling thats it . Dont need the rest.
Got a HD set from Aldi in 2012 for under €60, loads of free to air channels. It was sold as a caravan/camping piece of kit, came in a handy case and can be bolted to a rail for those who are not allowed to fix a dish to a wall, must be due in again soon on their specials rotation. Lidl had something similar but it was not HD but keep an eye on their promotions. At the end of the day you have to be a sports fanatic to pay for sky and similar.
PS when I was a kid only one on our road had a telly and the Mammy of the house allowed our football mad teacher to watch a Manchester United game one afternoon which meant a half day for us :-)
Freesat is the job. You can pick up a Ferguson Ariva 150 for about €80. You get tons of channels, all the BBC, UTV, C4 etc. It has youtube etc built in, you can play from a Hard Drive or memory stick AND you can remote control it with Android/Iphone.
I would happily give up sky and use netflicks and use filmontv.com but since we can only get ( on a good day) 1.5mbs, we have to stick with sky. Will be ringing them tomorrow and see what they offer.
Ya want to save money on sports channels, get rid of it from ur sky package (€42) and download it to you ipad for (€6) both prices are per month. You can buy apple TV for €100 if you really want to watch it on you TV. Thats a total of €100..
How do you get it for the ipad??forgive my technical ignorance!!!
You cannot watch the Sky Sports App on Apple TV! Sky won’t let it!
This is very true, Sky Go also blocks Apple TV and the hdmi adapter for the iPad
have Ariel and dish on the roof for saorview and freesat have about 30 decent channels and costs nowt
We saw Sky had a better deal than our monthly UPC fee, so we rang them and they gave us a very substantial reduction. Result! And we have stonkingly fast broadband.
Found out recently that upc have charged me on average 61 euro a month for the past 13 months and heres the kicker,it was supposed to be only 34 euro.Am I the only one (dont think so) called BILLFREE TV and they installed FTA combi box for 269 euro..now no more TV bill..do the maths Happy days
Ogochukwu saving tips lol
http://www.wiziwig.tv/index.php?part=sports
Sports , go to flash and the HD Stream lol …it’s a good one lol
lol
What’s the loling about?
Get rid of them and buy a freeview combi box if you cant install it yourself there are plenty of people who do! I”ve saved myself the charges of a tv package there are plenty of alternatives out there just stop giving them money!!
€80 for sky tv is a scandal.. 20% of the time is adverts and then %60 of the remainder is repeats. which leaves, not alot.
I use freesat. have been for years. its hard to beat cost = zero per month..
there no recession for people who can fork out that
Do you have to be with sky or UPC to get broadband? Is there a way around this…would be grateful to get some feedback on this.
Eircom WiMAX there are others just can’t remember
Why do my comments keep being deleted on this article?
Pro tip: If your household finances are so fragile that a €1 per month increase in your Sky subscription makes a difference, you have no business creating children, or having Sky, until your situation improves.
Netflix 7 quid a month, RTE player free, 4OD free etc……
All I will say is xbmc.
Sky upc can go f them selves.
Rang them, threatened to cancel Upc service, got 3 months free
Really? Wow this is helpful, not. Don’t you all those things before you are signing up?
Terror
Muse!
Alternatively, get rid of your TV altogether.
In the contract for our apartment we are tied into only IPC. They have a ban on all satellite dishes etc so UPC have a monopoly on the place. Load of balls!!!
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