If you are looking for the cheapest TV, Broadband and Home Phone package there are usually special offers or discounts available from both Sky and Virgin Media.
How do Sky and Virgin Media Broadband and TV bundles compare on price – and what do you get for your money?
These two companies are the biggest digital TV subscription providers in Ireland. We have compared Sky with Virgin Media and picked their best deals available.
At the same time, we also checked Vodafone’s TV/Broadband and Phone bundle as an alternative.
Virgin Media provide their TV, broadband and phone services via their own cable network. It is currently only available in Dublin, Cork City, Galway City, Limerick City and many areas of County Dublin. (You can check if Virgin is available where you live here )
Sky provide their TV via satellite dishes and their broadband and phone via the national telephone network. Although Sky Fibre is not available in all areas of the country – it should be available in most places where Virgin Media is available.
We did a comparison of the deals on offer in September 2022 from Sky Ireland and Virgin Media Ireland. We only looked at packages with unlimited broadband, inclusive anytime phone calls and TV with the lowest number of channels.
Cheapest TV and Broadband Bundles
Virgin Media
We found a package on Virgin Media – the “500Mb Broadband + Bigger TV” . It comes with
- Average broadband speed of 490Mb,
- Unlimited data
- Free calls to Irish landlines and mobiles 24 hours a day
- 103 TV channels
The price is €104 per month with the first 12 months at €60 a month. Total cost in the first year: €720 including set up fees..
More Details On the Virgin Offer via Switcher.ie
Sky Ireland Bundle
We found a “Q Lite” bundle
It comes with unlimited data and free calls to landlines all day as well as 36 Free to Air TV channels. The total cost of this in year one would be €578 (€44 a month for 12 months then €65 per month plus set up fee .
See more Bundles and offers on the Sky Ireland Offers Page
What are the differences between the Virgin Media and Sky bundles?
Broadband : Sky Vs Virgin Media
Sky Ireland uses phone lines for broadband, just like Eir and Vodafone.
Virgin use their own cable network.
Virgin have faster speeds, an average of 254Mps compared to a maximum of 100Mb with Sky.
TV: Sky Vs Virgin Media
The difference in TV channels at Sky Vs Virgin Media is significant. (36 on Sky vs 103 on Virgin). Some of these could be +1 channels or HD versions. If there are specific channels you are interested in – you will need to check the provider’s details. The Sky channels are just the Free to View channels.
See below for details about adding ITV channels on Sky Ireland.
Phone: Sky Vs Virgin Media
Both bundles include anytime calls to Irish landlines.
Virgin gives you free anytime calls to Irish landlines and mobiles plus 400 minutes per month of calls to landlines in 22 countries and USA mobiles.
With Sky you also get unlimited free anytime calls to landlines in the UK, USA and 18 other countries – which could come in very handy if you have friends or relatives overseas. More details on Sky Ireland here
These prices were correct in September 2022
You should also check out our Comparison of Broadband and Phone bundles where there are also some good offers.
Tip – Adding ITV channels to Sky in Ireland:
Press the Services button, then:
with ‘Options’ highlighted press 6, and with ‘Add Channels highlighted
press select and add the channels with the details below:
Frequency: Polarity: Symbol Rate: FEC:
UTV 10.906 V 22 5/6
ITV1 10.758 V 22.0 5/6
ITV2 10.758 V 22.0 5/6
ITV3 10.906 V 22.0 5/6
ITV4 10.758 V 22.0 5/6