Digital TV Guides

Bundling your digital TV

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

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Everyone in the UK must have a digital TV connection by 2001, so it may be worth bundling your TV, broadband and phone services to save money on your monthly bills. (Updated 16/11/09)

Virgin TV + Phone + Broadband Over 100 channels Up to 10Mb broadband Only £23.50 a month

Sky TV + Freetime + Broadband 1 Sky TV pack + Sky+HD box Base broadband + Talk Freetime From just £18.00 a month

The massive growth in the broadband and digital TV market, along with decreasing home phone costs has led to many companies offering “bundles,” allowing customers to save money by taking all their home telecommunications services from the same provider.

What digital TV bundles are available?

Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com) offers the ultimate in bundling with what they call a “quadplay” of services. You can combine not just its digital TV service, broadband and home phone, but also a mobile broadband subscription. You can also get a discounted deal on your mobile contract if you’re a Virgin Mobile customer. In fact, you can no longer get their digital TV as a stand-alone product - it has to be bundled with either a cable home phone line or Virgin Media’s fibre optic broadband.

Sky's (www.sky.com) See Speak Surf bundle gives you Sky digital TV, broadband and home phone, although their digital TV service is still available on its own. Tiscali TV also offers a “tripleplay” bundle.

While BT (www.bt.com) does offer all of these services - home phone, BT Total Broadband and BT Vision - they don’t come as a money-saving bundle.

Advantages of bundling digital TV

• Cost - Bundling is the cheapest way to get the services that you want, all on one easy bill.
• Freebies - Bundles have become so competitive that you can now get “free” add-ons too. These offer you extra services, at no extra cost to what you’re already paying - like Virgin Media's “free” digital TV which offers a set-top box and digital channels for the cost of your monthly home phone.
• Bills - The fact that you only have to pay one company for all your home entertainment services is also appealing.

Disadvantages of bundling digital TV

• Quality - Because the major attraction is the price, many people opt for the “free” or cheap packages, only to find that they really do get what they pay for, i.e. not a lot. If you want high-quality broadband and cheap calls, you might want to consider getting your services from separate suppliers or going for one of the more expensive packages.
• Offers - Make sure that you’re not tempted into paying extra for a service that you don’t want, need or won’t use.

How much does bundling digital TV cost?

• Sky - Sky’s See Speak Surf bundle costs from £17.50 a month. You get one of six digital TV “packs” as well as up to 2Mbps broadband and home phone. But you’ll have to pay £11 extra a month for your line rental.
• Virgin Media - Virgin Media offers less channels, up to 10Mb broadband and home phone, for £19.50 a moth, plus £11 a month line rental.
• Tiscali - Tiscali is currently offering a basic digital TV, up to 8Mbps broadband and home phone for £19.99 a month. There's no extra line rental cost. The major drawback in this offer is the fact that at the moment it is only available in a very limited area. But as Tiscali rolls out its digital TV and unbundles more exchanges this will become a very competitive offer.
• BT - Because BT’s services have to be bought separately, they aren’t really a bundle, so you won’t save money by taking all of them together. BT Total Broadband Option 1, BT Vision with the Bronze value deal, and BT home phone will set you back £17.18 for the first three months and £40.17 thereafter. This doesn’t include line rental, which is £11.25 a month.

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