Customers looking to take one of Virgin Media UK’s (VMO2) top broadband, pay TV, phone and or O2 SIM bundles – specifically ‘Mega Volt‘ and their ‘Biggest Combo‘ – should note that the ISP has quietly downgraded the Netflix plan they include in these packages with a much cheaper option.
Several of ISPreview’s readers (credits to Brad and Luke) have recently pointed out that the aforementioned bundles previously included Netflix’s Standard plan, which normally costs £10.99 a month when taken directly from the streaming provider. But the provider has now quietly downgraded the Netflix plan they include to adopt ‘Standard with Ads‘, which normally costs £4.99 when taken directly, albeit forcing users to view adverts.
The change is similar to EE and Sky’s (Sky Broadband) recent decision to swap their bundles with Netflix ‘Basics’ plan for the same ‘Standard with Ads’ (here), although in that case the adjustment made more sense because ‘Basics’ had already been retired by the streaming provider in favour of the ads tier and the pricing difference was much smaller. By comparison, Virgin Media can’t use the same excuse.
The change wouldn’t be so bad if the price of the packages had been decreased by a similar amount to reflect the cheaper plan, but so far as we can tell they’re still being promoted at roughly the same price as before (e.g. Mega Volt still starts at £84.99 per month on an 18-month term).
A spokesperson for Virgin Media told ISPreview:
“These changes were introduced on 14 October, bringing us in line with competitors. It will apply to new customers only, with existing Biggest Combo and Mega Volt customers continuing to have access to Netflix Standard.
We always look to give our customers the best value possible, and the inclusion of Netflix Standard with Ads for new customers means we can continue to offer our customers a competitive package that includes all of the entertainment they enjoy. Customers have the option to upgrade to Netflix Standard or Netflix Premium should they wish to.”
Existing customers with the same bundles will naturally continue to receive the regular ‘Standard’ plan, although there may come a time when they want to re-contract and find that this means having to downgrade the Netflix plan at the same time to ‘Standard with Ads’.