BSKYB and Virgin Media take battle onto football pitch

Two weeks to go before the start of the football season, Sky and Virgin Media have locked horns – again.

The latest ‘spat’ comes amidst a changing TV landscape with over 20 different TV packages for football fans to watch the beautiful game. Independent price comparison and switching service, uSwitch.com, cuts through the confusion and highlights the best ways for fans to ‘mix and match’ to get the games they want.

This week Sky launches aggressive multi-million pound advertising campaign to promote top flight football matches

For the first time ever, live football Premiership rights are split, presenting fans with more viewing options that ever before

Prices to view full complement of games vary by 29% between providers with savings of £120 a year to be made

August 11th not only heralds the dawn of a new football season but a new broadcasting one, following the EU’s decision to abolish Sky’s exclusive rights to the football Premier League after a run of 13 years. Pay-TV sports broadcaster Setanta won the fierce bidding war and is now the official broadcaster of 46 of the Barclays Premier League matches, with Sky continuing to air the remaining 92. As a result, for the first time ever, fans are having to turn to more than one broadcaster to watch all the games.

Never one to stay out of the fray, Virgin Media announced last week that it had secured a deal with Setanta Sports to give subscribers of its XL TV package access to the six Setanta Sports channels – including the 46 live Premiership games – for free. Additionally, while its cable viewers are no longer able to enjoy the delights of Sky’s basic channels such as including Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Three, Sky News and Sky Sports News, they will still be able to sign up to SkySports channels. In fact, while Sky customers are paying a minimum of £43.99 a month to access the full complement of live Premiership games, Virgin Media customers will be able to watch them for £34 a month – a saving of £120 a year.

Meanwhile, BT Vision customers will be given access to Setanta Sports for an additional monthly fee of £9.99 a month, and football fans living in Tiscali-networked areas, including London and Stevenage, can sign up to the full suite of Sky Sports channels for an additional £26.50 a month. They can pay an additional £9.99 on top of this to Setanta, to ensure that they see all the games.

However, in an attempt to protect its reign on the sporting kingdom, Sky has this week launched a multi-million campaign to convince fans that signing up to its own TV deals remains the only ‘real’ route to go down. The campaign focuses heavily on the advantages of taking Sky over Virgin Media in a major push to outmanoeuvre its arch-rival.

Steve Weller, Head of Communication Services at uSwitch.com comments: “This year competition for football rights has been like no other and with such a range of options available, finding the right TV package is no mean feat.

“Those who like the idea of dipping in and out of the action but are not hung up on being able to view every single game may be satisfied with just subscribing to Setanta via BT Vision. Alternatively, they could sign up the Virgin Media TV XL package and get it for free. Setanta broadcasts a great array of sporting highlights in addition to the 46 live Premiership games, including 25 of the 40 televised fixtures from the English FA Cup.

“However, it’s inevitable that die-hard fans wanting access to the full array of live Premiership games this season will need to take a ‘combination’ TV package that features both SkySports and Setanta channels. With Tiscali still only having limited availability, once again the real choice is between Sky and Virgin Media. This is not a game of two halves – it’s a feud between two foes.”

Weller continues: “Aside from the football, Sky has an excellent selection of TV programming, with even the basic ‘2 mix’ deal enabling customers to watch channels that Virgin Media customers can no longer get, such as Sky 1 and Sky News. Additionally with Sky+ now available without a monthly subscription you can save your favourite games to watch over and over. However, when it comes down to cost, Virgin Media wins hands down with deals starting at just £34 a month for SkySports and Setanta. Live access to the Premiership is just a click or a phone call away.”