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Bundling your Digital TV
By 2012 everyone in the UK must have a digital TV connection. If they haven’t made the switch to digital by the time their area switches over, they will lose the old analogue signal and won’t be able to keep up with their favourite programmes.
The switchover starts in 2008, to see when your area will be switching over click here.
The massive growth in the broadband and digital TV market, along with ever-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 bundles are available?
Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com) offers the ultimate in bundling, offering what they call a “quadplay” of services where you can combine not just their digital TV service, broadband and home phone, but also your Virgin Mobile contract. In fact, you can no longer get their digital TV as a stand-alone product - it has to be bundled with either their home phone or their broadband.
If you want to go with Sky (www.Sky.com) you can get three services from their See Speak Surf bundle - digital TV, broadband and home phone, although their digital TV service is still available on its own. Tiscali TV also offers this “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.
Why should I bundle?
Bundling is the cheapest way to get the services that you want, all on one easy bill. 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.
The ease afforded with bundling is also tempting - you have only one company to pay for all your home entertainment services.
Are there drawbacks to bundling?
Quality is one of the bigger issues with bundling. Since the major attraction is the price, many people opt for the “free” or ludicrously cheap packages, only to find that they really do get what they pay for. However, if good digital TV is your main concern then you shouldn’t worry too much, but if you also want high-quality broadband and cheap calls you might want to consider getting your services from separate suppliers or going for one of the higher-end packages available.
Also, make sure that you’re not tempted into paying that little bit extra for a service that you don’t really want and won’t really use. While this might only be around £3 a month, this all adds up and quite simply, is a waste if you don’t use it.
How much does it cost?
Sky’s See Speak Surf bundle costs £26 per month - for which price you get six digital TV “mixes” as well as up to 8Mb broadband and a home phone. But you’ll have to pay £11 a month on top to BT for your line rental, bringing total the cost up to £37 a month.
Virgin Media’s similar 3 for £30 bundle offers less channels, up to 2Mb broadband and a home phone, though there’s no extra line rental to pay and you might get a better broadband connection (unless you’re lucky enough to live next to the BT exchange).
Tiscali’s offering costs £19.99 a month for basic digital TV, up to 8Mb broadband and a home phone and you don’t have to pay line rental on top either. 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 (formerly HomeChoice) and unbundles more exchanges this will become a very competitive offer.
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. An Option 2 phone line, with Option 1 broadband and BT Vision will set you back £32.44 a month (including line rental) or £46.44 a month if you take the three BT Vision packages with your TV service.
