With the news that the good people at Sky Sports are all set to introduce price hikes for Irish customers as it attempts to recoup the almost €2bn it agreed to shell out for Premiership games, JOE.ie decided to check out the various sport-heavy TV packages to see which offers the best value.
By Robert Carry
Sky Packages
Sky groups their channels into various entertainment packs – Variety, Children’s, Knowledge, Style & Culture, Music and News & Events plus the two Sky Premium Packs – the Sports Pack and Movies Pack. You are obliged to choose at least one entertainment pack before then deciding if you want to add one or both of the Premium Packs. So, a Sky TV package is made up of the following – whatever channel packs you pick, the Bonus Pack which includes all the terrestrial channels, plus your Sky box.
The most basic package – a single entertainment pack without movies or sports, will set you back €22 at present. If you want to take the full six entertainment packs plus the movies and sky sports, you’re staring down the barrel of a €73 bill every month.
The most basic Sky package to include the Sky Sports channels is a single entertainment pack plus sports which works out at €54 per month. For that you get the terrestrial channels, the entertainment pack you chose plus Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, 4 and Sky Sports News. Throw in the movies and this goes up to €63.
According to reports in the Irish Independent, Sky is planning on introducing price rises for Irish customers of up to 8 per cent. For more information on Sky’s current pricing, head on over here.
UPC Value+ HD Pack
This is UPC’s most basic HD package. It gets you 93 channels including BBC HD, Setanta Ireland and Sky Sports News. It comes in at a pretty reasonable €25.75. If you fancy it, you can include Sky Sports in the package, although that means a hike in price of €30.00. Setanta Premium meanwhile, will cost you an extra €15.
UPC Select Extra +Pack
If you fancy a bit of UPC action but haven’t got a HD TV then this might be the pack for you. You get 133 channels with the likes of Discovery Travel & Living, National Geographic, the History Channel and the sports offerings aren’t too shabby either. You’re talking British Eurosport, Eurosport 2, Sky Sports News, At the Races and Setanta Ireland. You also get the option of throwing in the various Sky Sports, Sky Movies and Setanta Sports packs for the normal additional prices. The basic UPC Select Extra +Pack will set you back €32.
UPC Select Extra HD Pack
This 133-channel deal gives you everything you get with the Value+ HD Pack along with a raft of other channels. For sport fans, this means British Eurosport, Eurosport 2, Sky’s At the Races, ESPN America, Extreme, Eurosport HD and ESPN HD. Again, you can include Sky Sports in the package, although that means a hike in price of €30. Setanta Premium will cost you an extra €15.
UPC Family Sports HD Pack
This 168 channel behemoth of a package is the UPC version of a Burger King double whopper meal with large fries, strawberry milkshake and an ice cream Sunday. You get a range of HD offerings including ESPN HD, BBC HD, Setanta Ireland, Sky Sports, the various Eurosport stations among a ton of others.
It also boasts all the top premium stations bar Setanta Premium which as you might have gathered at this point will run you an extra €15. The addition of Sky Movies will run to an extra €10. The standard UPC Family Sports HD Pack will set you back €68.75.
For more info on UPC’s packages, click here.
Freesat
Surprisingly, there is an option which comes with a €0 per month fee – and it doesn’t involve buying a dodgy box in the pub from a mate who thinks he’s Del Trotter.
Freesat systems scan the skies for the region’s free-to-air stations and beam them directly into your sitting room. They can hook you up with a satellite or alternatively, if you’ve already got one in place, they send you out a box with up to 200 stations tuned in and ready to go.
Some of the stations are a bit ropey, NTA International from the Nigerian Television Authority being one, but you can also get a hold of the likes of BBC HD, Al Jazeera, a range of ITV channels plus *ahem* Essex Girls TV.
If you have got a satellite in place, you can order yourself a Ferguson 1000 which will come with 4,000-channel memory space, a quick search function, an electronic Program Guide, parental control (so you parents can’t accidentally find themselves looking at Essex Girls when they come to visit) and Teletext with 800-page buffer.  So how much does that cost? €64.99 for the box and no bills ever. Ever, ever.
For more information on Freesat click here.
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