SKY TV Irish Vs UK prices

Bosshogg

Right I know the trolls will hop in straight away and point out that you can't compare .ie like with .uk like but this case is different.

Go to sky.co.uk and select all the channels/packages. Get the HD add-on too but no installation/labour. It comes to about €75 euro when converted from Sterling.
Now go to SkyIreland.ie (or whatever it is) and get the exact same package and it will cost you €100. That's 33% more!

So I called the sales number and guess what?.. I was connected to a UK call center in Manchester I think where I got to speak to Donegal Dave. I asked him why does it cost so much more. Dave spluttered out some mumbojumbo about extra costs and eh eh eh eh the VAT is higher in the Republic and stuff like that.

So it's the same satellite in space broadcasting all over Europe. There's no staff in the republic. No buildings, rents or rates (on a large scale to speak of). They even have the ads filtered for Ireland to make extra profits there. Are the extra costs of €25 euro per month to cover what? the price of the stamp to send out the little smart card?

Xterminator

i think most retailers charge as much as they can, for any given product.

Now i dont doubt sky incur costs for operating in ireland. Their irish tailored website, the epg, a lo-call irish number spring to mind. Perhaps they do pay vat on irish subscriptions here?

Then they have to consider the exchange rate between euro's and sterling varies, and they probably fell the need to build a buffer in, so they dont find themselves selling at below cost if sterling takes a hit.

and in the uk there is more competition, with freeview, and virgin offerings. Here NTL have been dragging their heels upgrading the fibre to the point where they can offer triple play packages. So theres no competition outside of certain urban areas to sky, creating a market place where sky doesnt have to push the envelope in prices.

i guess the most we can say is, its entirely predictable that sky can and do get away with what is a noticeable price difference.

rubadub

Bosshogg wrote: »

There's no staff in the republic

Surely they have installers and service engineers. Where I work we sell a lot to the UK and have no fixed service staff there -therefore we have to employ third party engineers, this costs and absolute FORTUNE and they are nowhere near the standard or care of our own staff. e.g. They will not really bother to investigate what is wrong, just toss it out and replace things -this is often the case with such contractors, to make most profit FOR THEM it is often cheaper to take the easy route -which is usually most expensive for us.

And of course they will price in line with UPC. UPC's prices are higher than similar companies in the UK since they have far more users "per metre cable", so even though there is no cable for SAT, they still price in line with a similar service in a the area.

waffleman

meh I wouldnt pay for Sky anyway - overpriced rubbish.

There are many ways to get all the live sports you want for free online**

however if you really would like to have the option of paying in sterling just order the package to a relation / friends house in northern ireland. As soon as its installed lift the box and dish and take it with you. you will always pay in sterling.

Installation is not the only thing they take the mickey on here. you want to watch the horse racing channel for a day? £1 sterling in UK. 2 euro here. It's a joke really - they can't justify it.


**allegedly

rameire

all of Irish sky customers pay the vat rate of the Uk.
we are not charged the irish vat rate for the service they provide.
i think its because they arent actually registered in ireland as a company

ejmaztec

rameire wrote: »

all of Irish sky customers pay the vat rate of the Uk.
we are not charged the irish vat rate for the service they provide.
i think its because they arent actually registered in ireland as a company

Any EU business that supplies goods or services to other EU countries, has to charge the other country's vat rate when they exceed a certain income limit on supplies to the other country. The limit varies one one EU country to the next. I can't remember what the relevant figure is for here but don't believe that it's more than €70K. I'm certain that Sky does a hell of a lot more turnover than that in Ireland, so they must be charging Irish vat.

None of the businesses have to register in Ireland to fall into this category.



Oh, and by the way, Sky are robbers.:(

rameire

i can guarantee you they do not charge irish vat rates on their services.
i had a query on this before as they were putting their charges up on the 1st of jan 2010. and the reason why this happened is because the vat rate in the uk was going back up from 15% to 17.5%.

rameire

found the previous thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055607820

eth0_

AFAIK Sky don't have their own engineers in Ireland; it's all subcontracted to local satellite system installers. And you know how our Irish tradespeople like to rip businesses off wherever possible. Sky are just passing on these charges, I imagine.

ejmaztec

rameire wrote: »

i can guarantee you they do not charge irish vat rates on their services.
i had a query on this before as they were putting their charges up on the 1st of jan 2010. and the reason why this happened is because the vat rate in the uk was going back up from 15% to 17.5%.

If that's the case it proves that they don't provide a "service":pac:. Perhaps their broadcasting a signal doesn't count.

Danno

What about the 13.5% VAT for service...???

Bosshogg

Danno wrote: »

What about the 13.5% VAT for service...???

What about it?

tipperaryboy

Sky must be making a fortune out of its customers..why do they charge so much when they have such a large numbers of subscribers in ireland i think every 2 out of three households have their service.
They should spend less time attracting new customers with free boxes or half price subscription etc instead reduce prices for existing customers.

15 and month for HD on top of normal subscription very greedy

anneboleyn

Having recently returned to Ireland from living in UK, I can tell you that almost all retailers/service providers charge about 33% more in Ireland than their brand counterparts in the UK , citing VAT , higher minimum wage costs, more expesnive infrastructure etc.. I happen to know that Sky do have some staff in Ireland, because when I changed my UK account to an Irish one, I was transferred to someone in Ireland to make it happen.. But I think the key thing is the subcontracting, service I've had from the contracters here isn't a patch on the service I had from SKY installers in the UK and they've all tried to get me to pay extra for things, they're the rip off merchants I'd say !

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

TonyD79

Well the cot of living has to be taken into account and wages. People are starting on salaries of €20 k compared to £14k etc. I read somewhere that Virgin and BT want to offer the Sky package plus Sky sports 1 for much less than what Sky itself charge viewers in the UK.

flutered

eth0_ wrote: »

AFAIK Sky don't have their own engineers in Ireland; it's all subcontracted to local satellite system installers. And you know how our Irish tradespeople like to rip businesses off wherever possible. Sky are just passing on these charges, I imagine.

it seems that sky offers a take it or leave it contract to installers over here

WHU

I just rung sky, told them I was thinking of cancelling my sky, told them I hadn't worked in ages and was looking at cutting back on spending. The main reason I was thinking of getting rid of sky was because of our prices v UK prices. I said I was paying €18 a month more than UK equivalent. She said there is nothing thay could do but could I hold on for a few moments,
she came back and said they'd cut my sky cost to half for 6 months.
If more people threatened to cancel due to the price difference, maybe they'd have to do something about the price difference eventually.

the groutch

one of the few sports I'd watch on sky is the us golf, and that's now got a legit stream on the pga tour's own website, I do have an account with sky, but only for the regular channels, no way I'm paying €34pm extra for sports or €28pm extra for movies

maringo

I'm with Sky and dont have UTV - they were supposed to sort it out - still waiting:mad:

rameire

maringo wrote: »

I'm with Sky and dont have UTV - they were supposed to sort it out - still waiting:mad:

you have to go to the other channels in the sky guide and add your extra channels there.

davo10

don't forget that sky has to use eircom lines for thier HD and multiroom boxes, I would think that this is more expensive than lines in UK. Also they run Irish ads on Sky Ireland and the revenue from this would be far less than in UK because much smaller consumer audience.

parsi

Doesn't the customer pay for the phone lines ?

indiewindy

Sky customer service staff are based in Cork, no excuse though for charging us so much extra, even adding an extra package is €2 here and £1 in the U.K

ch750536

Bosshogg wrote: »

Right I know the trolls will hop in straight away and point out that you can't compare .ie like with .uk like but this case is different.

Go to sky.co.uk and select all the channels/packages. Get the HD add-on too but no installation/labour. It comes to about €75 euro when converted from Sterling.
Now go to SkyIreland.ie (or whatever it is) and get the exact same package and it will cost you €100. That's 33% more!

So I called the sales number and guess what?.. I was connected to a UK call center in Manchester I think where I got to speak to Donegal Dave. I asked him why does it cost so much more. Dave spluttered out some mumbojumbo about extra costs and eh eh eh eh the VAT is higher in the Republic and stuff like that.

So it's the same satellite in space broadcasting all over Europe. There's no staff in the republic. No buildings, rents or rates (on a large scale to speak of). They even have the ads filtered for Ireland to make extra profits there. Are the extra costs of €25 euro per month to cover what? the price of the stamp to send out the little smart card?

So you voted with your feet and told them to forget it and went with freesat right?

ch750536

anneboleyn wrote: »

Having recently returned to Ireland from living in UK, I can tell you that almost all retailers/service providers charge about 33% more in Ireland than their brand counterparts in the UK , citing VAT , higher minimum wage costs, more expesnive infrastructure etc.. I happen to know that Sky do have some staff in Ireland, because when I changed my UK account to an Irish one, I was transferred to someone in Ireland to make it happen.. But I think the key thing is the subcontracting, service I've had from the contracters here isn't a patch on the service I had from SKY installers in the UK and they've all tried to get me to pay extra for things, they're the rip off merchants I'd say !

So you voted with your feet and told them to forget it and went with freesat right?

maringo

Got Sky a couple of months ago - anyone else had a problem - no ITV or UTV channels available. I rang them but nothing has happened - still no ITV. Or is that normal?

rameire

its normal, google add channels to sky.

91011

The basic package seems to be about the same, so unless you want add ons the cost in Ireland is €23 / month and the cost in UK is £19 / month.


As for ITV2/3/4 & UTV & bbc3/4 + cbbc

1. Press the Services button on your remote control.
2. Press the 4 button twice.
3. Fill in the settings below and follow the on-screen instructions:-

The UTV/ITV channels are as follows:-
10758 V 22 5/6
10832 H 22 5/6
10891 H 22 5/6
10906 V 22 5/6
The BBC channels are as follows:-
10733 H 22 5/6
10803 H 22 5/6
10847 V 22 5/6

maringo

Thanks 9011 will try those settings

maringo

Thanks for your very explicit instructions - they worked a treat