Virgin Media upgrades Bigger Bundle + Sports to HD

The Bigger Bundle + Sports package now includes the Sky Sports in HD for the first time, while previously customers had to pay more.

Keeping the monthly price the same, at £65 per month, Virgin Media say the plan is now £534 cheaper over the length of the contract than an equivalent deal with Sky Q.

Customers also get TNT Sports in HD and Ultra HD, M250 broadband, over 195 TV channels, and the TV 360 box.

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Sky Sports in HD

With the 2023/2024 Premier League due to start from mid-August, Virgin Media are updating their Bigger Bundle + Sports deal to include Sky Sports in full 1080p HD for the first time.

Previously, the Bigger Bundle + Sports only included Sky Sports in standard definition, and anyone who wanted to watch in HD had to pay to upgrade, or move to the Ultimate Volt bundle, which made Virgin Media an expensive option for sports in full HD.

The new Bigger Bundle + Sports HD costs the same £65 per month as it did before, and customers get the following included:

• M250 broadband
• Home phone line with free calls to UK landlines at the weekend
• Over 195 TV channels
• TV 360 box
• Sky Sports in HD
• TNT Sports in HD and TNT Sport Ultimate in Ultra HD
• Eurosports 1 & 2 in HD

Virgin Media say this makes the deal £534 cheaper over the length of the 18-month contract in comparison to an equivalent deal with Sky Q.

New customers can sign up here and get setup for free, which is usually charged at £35.

Virgin vs Sky

The competition between Virgin Media and Sky seems to be heating up as of late, with Virgin Media recently adding Paramount+ and Pluto TV to their services, while Sky has leapfrogged Virgin Media's market-leading whole home WiFi guarantee, by launching a 25Mbps guarantee also using Plume WiFi Pods.

While Virgin Media are generally the cheaper choice in comparison to Sky, including for premium TV packs, there are instances where Sky are starting to price more competitively to their rival.

Sky Ultrafast Plus broadband offering average download speeds at peak times of 500Mbps, is currently priced at just £35 per month for 18 months, while Virgin Media's M500 plan costs £38.50 per month and doesn't include a phone line.

Sky are also moving customers towards their new streaming services, Sky Stream and Sky Glass, with TV plans now costing less on these platforms in comparison to Sky Q.

For example, Sky Entertainment + Netflix with Sky Sports in HD and the TNT Sports pack costs £6 less a month with Sky Stream compared to Sky Q. However, when you also look at deals including broadband, Sky Stream with Sky Ultrafast Broadband is £10 cheaper per month than with Sky Q.

	Package	TV	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
	Bigger bundle + Sports	195	264Mb average	£65	Free	18 months
	Offer: No setup fee (was £35) (Ends 30/08/2023)
	Sky Entertainment + Netflix + Sky Sports + BT Sport + Ultrafast Broadband	162	145Mb average	£90	Free	18 months
	Offer: Save £3/mth on Sky Stream and £8/mth on Sky Sports and BT Sports + Reduced price broadband + Free setup (Ends 27/07/2023)

Either way however, the upgraded Virgin Media Bigger Bundle + Sports HD is still noticeably cheaper than Sky, costing £25 per month less than the cheapest equivalent package we could find. However, bear in mind, Sky's plans do come with Netflix, which is worth £6.99 per month, making the comparable difference closer to £18 per month, or £324.18 over the contract.

Read more on the differences between Virgin and Sky.

TNT Sports

The Virgin Media Bigger Bundle + Sports HD also includes the newly rebranded BT Sport pack, now the TNT Sports pack.

The TNT Sports pack includes the same channels and Premier League matches as BT Sport, as well as other sporting events including the Champions League and Premiership Rugby.

Virgin Media customers who take the Bigger Bundle and up get TNT Sports included as standard in HD, as well as the TNT Sports Ultimate channel in Ultra HD, which customers of Sky and BT usually have to pay more for.

The Bigger Bundle + Sports also includes the Discovery-owned Eurosports 1 and 2 in HD as well.

For now, Virgin Media are also cheaper than Sky for TNT Sports, but as the channel pack has changed ownership to Warner Bros. Discovery from BT Group, time will tell if the channel line-up reduces in price with Sky, who give their customers free access to Discovery+ basic.