Digital TV Guides

Digital triple-play bundles

By Anthony Hill - anthony.hill@consumerchoices.co.uk

Updated: Thursday 8 December, 2011

Choosing to bundle all three of your telecommunication services - your TV, phone and broadband - with one supplier could help save you money on your monthly bills, as well as getting you a better package.

You may have thought that your satellite TV and cable TV providers could only offer you digital television subscriptions. However, these days you not only have the choice of BT Vision, Sky, TalkTalk TV and Virgin Media, you can also take your home phone and broadband from them too.

These companies offer money-saving bundles that allow you to pay for your digital TV, home phone and broadband in one easy monthly bill.

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Digital TV providers

The four big digital TV providers are:

• BT Vision (www.btvision.bt.com)
• Sky (www.sky.com)
• TalkTalk TV
• Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com)

TV, broadband and phone packages

Company	Package Name	Channels	Broadband	Home Phone
	Sky Entertainment TV + HD + Sky Broadband Unlimited + Talk Freetime	Get channels like Sky 1, Sky Living, Sky Atlantic and more
	TV Essential + More Broadband and Calls	70 Freeview channels
	TV: L + Broadband: 30Mb + Phone: M	100 channels including Virgin 1, Sky1, Comedy Central, Bravo and many more

Each of these providers uses a different format for delivering your digital TV; Sky uses satellite TV and you have to have a dish installed on an outside wall of your property. TalkTalk TV and BT deliver digital TV via your broadband connection - this is known as internet TV or IPTV. And Virgin Media delivers cable TV via its cable network, so its only available in certain areas.

Use our digital TV bundles comparison service to find the cheapest provider in your area.

What to consider when bundling

When signing up for a bundle, you need to think about a few different things, like the way you’ll be using your home phone, how much you’ll be downloading each month, and what kind of TV you’ll want to watch.

These things will determine both the package you should go for, and the amount of money you’ll be spending. Below is a breakdown of what to consider, depending on what is most important to your household:

If digital TV is important…

If you want the best quality digital TV service, with the most channels, then Sky may be the option for you. Its triple-play Broadband Everyday Lite with Sky TV package gives you access to all six of its entertainment “viewing packs” - the Variety, Music, News & Events, Style & Culture, Kids’ and Knowledge packs - as well as more than 220 free-to-view channels, with up to 20Mb broadband and free evening and weekend calls.

Virgin Media’s Size L TV package, which customers get as part of the £26 a month triple bundle, offers over 100 channels, although around 50 of these are Freeview channels that Size M customers get for free when taking a Virgin Media phone line. Virgin’s TV services are also available without a Virgin phone line, but are considerably more expensive if you don’t take a bundled deal.

BT Vision is essentially a free service, which offers BT Total Broadband customers digital TV access via their broadband connection. As a basic service, this allows access to free-to-air channels available in Freeview areas, but customers can watch pay-per-view programming, with prices starting from 50p a show. Customers also have the option of adding subscriptions on a month-by-month basis.

If you rely heavily on your broadband connection at home or do a lot of downloading, then you need to make sure that the broadband you get with your bundle can handle your online activities.

If you live in an area that can receive Virgin Media’s 50Mb or 100Mb broadband, this is a good option if you want a bundled package with fast speeds. Sky also offers broadband and TV bundles with broadband speeds of up to 20Mb.

If you know that you spend a lot of time chatting to friends and family, then you need to compare actual call charges rather than package costs, otherwise you could end up paying more than the amount you’ve saved by bundling.

BT’s line rental is the most expensive of the TV bundle providers, at £14.60 a month - this includes free weekend calls. As a comparison, Sky offers line rental for £12.25 a month with unlimited evening and weekend calls.

Choosing a digital TV bundle

When choosing your bundle, make sure you seriously consider the way you’ll use your services. Don’t pay extra for something that you’re unlikely to use; think about the amount of downloading you do and the kind of phone calls that you’ll be making. And take line rental into account when working out costs.

Once you’ve decided which provider you want to sign-up with, use our price comparison calculator to see if they’re available in your area. Once you sign-up, an engineer will visit your home to install your new equipment and set-up any wireless connections or hardware.