The picture on your television is delivered in to very different ways from these two companies, Sky is delivered via a dish and Virginmedia via underground cables, both are as good as each other until you get bad weather, Sky can be affected by by the good old British wind and rain at times, but to be honest a picture failure is very unusual. Take a look at the graph below and decide which is the best option for your property. Virgin is available in the majority of areas in the UK but it is worth doing a postcode check via the main Virginmedia.com website before you look into the different options too far, click the virgin offer bar below to find out more. If you’re interested in HD TV but unsure which television would suit your needs, why not browse a huge selection of sets at our TV Review website.

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TV Pack Details	The basic package with Sky really does give you access to hundreds of great channels, if you're a telly addict this is a deal for you. Buy online and get a £50 M&S gift card for new HD customers or a £25 gift card for basc Sky+ customers.	Virgin comes with less channels than Sky but TV on demand is free of charge and if you buy online you'll get 6 months half price plus a £50 credit.
Number of Standard Channels Available	The standard Sky TV pack comes with over 240 channels with more being added all the time.	The standard Virgin Media TV pack comes with 65 as standard.
Number of HD Channels Available	Over 50	31 and currently expanding
Upgrades Available	Movies £16 for over 850 films each month. £1 for each of six genre based entertainment packs.	Get the L pack with 100 channels for an extra £5.50 or the XL package gives you access to 160 channels for £11.50, both discounted prices shown are available for 6 first months only.
Sports Upgrade Prices	£20.25 for Over 100 sports channels and an extra £10.25 on top for HD viewers.	Sky Sports is available on all packages and are prices between £14.50 and £28.00
TV on Demand	No	Yes
Box Price	Standard - Free HD - Free	Standard - Free HD - £49
Our Verdict	Sky really does rule the roost when it comes to digital TV, there's so many more channels available in both standard and HD.	Virgin are still a few paces behind Sky in the TV sector, the prices are around about the same but you get that little extra with the competition.