TV News

From new developments in technology to special offers and voucher codes - keep up to date with the world of digital TV here.

New Virgin Media Credits Deal – Up to £60

Posted on May 3, 2012 by digital-tv-advice

There’s a new Virgin Media deal today giving you a credit on your bill – in other words money off – when you take any new product, solus, dual or triple bundle including the Collections. The credits are £20 on a solus product – that is if you take just one of the services – £40 for a dual bundle and £60 for any triple bundle including the new Collections.

6 Months Half Price Too

Virgin Broadband, Phone and TV

If you order before June 30th the Virgin Media Collections are yours for 6 months half price too, and the credit deal is stackable with that – in other words you get 6 months half price plus £60 credit when you take one (remember the credit deal ends 24th May). Add this to the free install deal on any bundle including broadband and phone and you can make a big saving – here’s how it works out on the Premiere Collection with 175 channels, 60Mb broadband and Talk Weekends;

  • Credit on your bill (offer expires 24th May) – £60
  • 6 months half price (offer ends 30th June) – save £135
  • Free installation on any bundle that includes broadband and phone – save £49.95
  • Total saving £244.95

    • The Virgin Media Collections were launched recently and represent the most popular TV, broadband and phone triple packages on Virgin. Accompanied by a TV campaign featuring former Dr Who David Tennant, the collections are

    • The Essential Collection – broadband up to 30Mb average speed, TV with 75 channels through a 500GB TiVo box and Talk Weekends
    • The Premiere Collection mentioned above – broadband up to 60Mb average speed, TV with 175 channels through a 500GB TiVo box plus a V HD box for your second room and Talk Weekends
    • The VIP Collection – everything Virgin has to offer, with broadband up to 100Mb average speed, TV with 175 channels plus Sky Sports and Sky Movies through a 1TB TiVo box with V HD box and Talk Anytime

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Half-Price-Tastic on Sky and This Week’s Football

Posted on April 20, 2012 by digital-tv-advice

Sky TV

What a week for Sky Digital offers, first we had the 6 months half price on TV and now there’s a brand new deal on Broadband and Talk Unlimited which is only available through Sky partners like us – 12 months half price for new customers taking Broadband Unlimited and Talk Unlimited. Let’s look at how these two offers stack up if you take a triple bundle (although the new offer on Unlimited is available with or without TV).

Sky Triple Bundle Deal

If you were to take the ‘starter’ triple bundle from Sky it would consist of;

Sky Broadband Unlimited

This would normally cost £20 a month plus £12.25 line rental but if you order before April 26th the TV is half price for 6 months making the bundle only £10 a month for 6 months (the broadband and phone are included in the TV price).

If you wanted to add Broadband Unlimited and Talk Unlimited this would normally cost an extra £7.50 a month for the broadband and £5 a month for the anytime calls – total £12.50 – but under the new offer if you order before 28th June they are both half price, £6.25 a month, for a whole year.

So this is what you would pay for a Sky bundle with TV, Broadband Unlimited and Talk Unlimited;

  • >> £16.25 a month for the first 6 months
  • >> £26.25 a month for the next 6 months
  • >> £32.50 a month from month 13
  • >> Line rental of £12.25 to be added each month
  • >> Total saving in one year £135

To get this exclusive deal click the button below…

More info >>

This Week’s Football

There’s an awful lot of big footie going on this week which could make it a good time to upgrade to SkyHD – here are the main fixtures as shown on Sky;

  • >> Saturday 21st April – Arsenal v Chelsea and Real Madrid v Barcelona
  • >> Sunday 22nd April – Manchester United v Everton & Wolves v Manchester City
  • >> Tuesday 24th April – Barcelona v Chelsea UCL Semi-Final 2nd leg
  • >> Sunday 29th April – Chelsea v QPR and Spurs v Blackburn
  • >> Monday 30th April – Manchester City v Man United

You can find out more about upgrading as a Sky customer here, or visit the Sky site direct here.

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Latest Digital TV Deals

Posted on April 14, 2012 by digital-tv-advice

If you’re looking to take out a new TV, broadband and phone package and haven’t yet decided who to go with then check out the latest deals on offer from Sky Digital, Virgin Media and BT – they all have special offers on at the moment and here is a round-up of what you can get.

Sky Offers

What’s the deal?

Free £25 M & S Voucher – Sky generally have a Marks and Spencer voucher free with their TV packages and while this has been up to £100 recently it is, at the time of writing, £25.

When does it expire?

Unknown – there is almost always a Marks and Spencer voucher on offer from Sky.

6 Months Half Price TV – This is a new departure for Sky Digital, they have decided to offer the basic TV element of their packages, the Entertainment Pack, with 6 months half price – £10 a month instead of £20. This means the Sky+ Starter bundle consisting of Sky TV with Broadband Everyday Lite and Talk with evening and weekend calls is now £10 a month for the first 6 months. If you’re looking for a package with extras like HD or Sky Sports the same £10 discount applies to the Entertainment Pack, so for the Sky+HD Starter (normally £20 plus £10.25 for the HD Pack) you’ll pay just £20.25 for the first 6 months. All of the Sky packages are subject to £12.25 a month line rental.

When does it expire?

Offer ends April 26th 2012.

£50 Credit for Sky Store when you join Sky TV online and take Broadband Unlimited. Sky Store is the new on-demand movie service accessed from your Sky+ Box – the £50 credit is given as £4.25 a month over a year.

When does it expire?

Offer ends April 26th 2012.

Virgin Media Offers

What’s the deal?

6 Months Half Price – Virgin Media have 3 new triple bundles called ‘Collections’ and are offering 6 months half price on all of them. They are the Essential Collection, the Premiere Collection and the VIP Collection and monthly prices with the discount start at £12.50.

The Essential Collection consists of 30Mb broadband, 75 channels of TV and included weekend calls for £25 a month, with the first 6 months at £12.50. The Premiere Collection consists of 60Mb broadband, free Spotify Premium for 3 months, 175 channels of TV and included evening and weekend calls for £45 a month, with the first 6 months at £22.50. Finally the VIP Collection consists of 100Mb broadband, free Spotify Premium for 3 months, 205 channels of TV with Sky Sports F1, Sky Sports 1 and 2 HD and Sky Movies HD and included anytime calls for £90 a month, with the first 6 months at £45. This ‘give me everything you’ve got’ bundle also comes with a 1TB TiVo Box as opposed to the standard 500GB storage TiVo Box – if you’re not aware of TiVo check out our Virgin TiVo page for more details as it’s pretty impressive.

When does it expire?

Offer ends June 30th 2012.

BT Offers

What’s the deal?

BT Vision

4 Months Free Broadband + Evening & Weekend Calls – Broadband + Evening & Weekend Calls costs £13 a month but is free for the first 4 months – if you’re looking at BT Vision this is £4 a month on top of the broadand and phone package so under this deal a TV, broadband and phone triple bundle will be £4 a month for the first 4 months and £17 a month thereafter. Broadband + Evening & Weekend Calls is an 18 month contract, if you take the TV element that is a 12 month contract.

When does it expire?

5th July 2012.

Free £25 Sainsburys Gift Card with Broadband + Anytime Calls – There are 2 offers in one here on Broadband + Anytime Calls, firstly a £25 gift card for Sainsburys and secondly the ‘Anytime’ part of the calls is essentially free for a year as the price per month is £13 – the same as Broadband + Evening & Weekend Calls. This is a 12 month contract.

When does it expire?

26th April 2012.

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Free Set Top Box with Top Up TV Sports

Posted on February 28, 2012 by digital-tv-advice

Top Up TV

Top Up TV have a new offer for sports fans – get a free set-top box and one month free when you take Sky Sports 1 with ESPN on a 12 month contract. The normal cost for the box is £49.99 and the ongoing monthly fee £32.99, so the free box and 1 month represents a saving of £82.98.

Top Up TV is mainly known for offering Sky Sports on a ‘no contract necessary’ basis one month at a time, so how does the one year contract add up against the other providers? Let’s imagine you don’t have a contract with anyone at the moment as if you were with, say, Virgin Media for your TV it would almost certainly make sense to add Sky Sports with them for £14.50 a month extra. If you’re starting from scratch and opt for Top Up TV with this deal your outlay for the year is going to be eleven months at £32.99 plus a £20 connection fee, which isn’t mentioned on the ads but will be there in the basket – total £362.89.

Just a reminder of what you get for this;

  • >> A Top Up TV box, essentially a Freeview Plus box, which enables you to pause, rewind and record all of your Freeview channels and the Sky Sports and ESPN channels too
  • >> Sky Sports 1 and ESPN for 12 months

If you went for Sky Digital on the most basic triple bundle and added Sky Sports 1 and ESPN your monthly costs would be;

  • >> £20 for the TV, Broadband and Talk
  • >> £12.25 line rental
  • >> £12.50 for Sky Sports 1 and 2
  • >> £9 for ESPN
  • >> Total £53.75

Sky give away a voucher for Marks and Spencer to new customers – at the moment £100 but usually £25 – so let’s take that amount into account when looking at the whole year and make it 12 x £53.75 minus £25 – £620.

The difference in annual cost between Sky and Top Up TV is £257.11 but for that you’re getting phone and broadband too (plus a lot more channels on TV and Sky Go on your laptop, iPad or iPhone). So if £257.11, or £21.43 a month, is less than what you pay now for broadband and landline it’s a good deal for you. If you don’t want a landline and broadband, go for Top Up TV.

If you go for Virgin Media on the most basic triple bundle and add Sky Sports 1 and ESPN the figures are very similar;

  • >> £20 for the TV, Broadband and Talk
  • >> £13.90 line rental
  • >> £14.50 for Sky Sports 1
  • >> £6 for ESPN
  • >> Total £52.40

So the same conclusion here – if you don’t need landline and broadband or have a great deal on broadband already but want Sky Sports the Top Up TV deal is definitely worth a look…

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Free £50 Sainsburys Gift Card from BT

Posted on February 27, 2012 by digital-tv-advice

BT Vision

BT have just inproved their Winter Deal by adding a free £50 Sainsburys Gift Card for any new customer taking BT Broadband with or without BT Vision TV. This is an online-only exclusive which can be used in conjunction with the 4 months free offer already running, giving you an effective saving of £114 – not to be sniffed at.

See deal »

4 Months Free BT Broadband Offer

As this is the leading BT Winter Deal let’s have a closer look at what you get with the 4 Months Free offer combined with the £50 Sainsburys Gift Card…

The deal consists of

  • >>BT Total Broadband with up to 20Mb download speed
  • >>Anytime Calls
  • >>Option to add BT Vision TV Essential for an extra £4 per month
  • >>First 4 months free then £16 a month or £20 a month with TV Essential plus line rental
  • >>Free £50 Sainsburys voucher exclusive to online orders

BT line rental is £14.60 a month on direct debit, which is higher than both Sky Digitsl and Virgin Media, but you can opt to pay a whole year upfront by debit or credit card to save money. At the time of writing it costs £120 which is rising to £129 after March 2nd, giving a price per month of £10.75, which is the cheapest of the big 3 with Sky at £12.25 and Virgin at £13.90.

Total Broadband

BT Total Broadband comes on an 18 month contract and gives you speeds of up to 20Mb with a 10GB monthly usage allowance. The BT Home Hub router is their most advanced to date and is really easy to set up, just plug and go, and the package also includes free WiFi minutes on BT Open Zone – handy in a lot of airports, cafes etc if you have no 3G or want to save your bill.

TV Essential

TV Essential is the basic BT Vision package where you add a Vision+ Box (free but with a £40 activation charge) and pay an extra £4 a month to be able to pause, rewind and record your Freeview channels and access on-demand programming on a Pay As You Go basis. The alternative for pausing, rewinding and recording Freeview is to buy a Freeview+ box outright for upwards of £75. The on-demand content comes through the broadband connection and starts from 50p a show, however you can upgrade to TV Unlimited and have unlimited access to their TV shows.

Your £50 at Sainsburys may just go towards your shopping bill but you could, of course, put it towards a new TV or laptop in store or from the Sainsburys website to make the most of your new BT services.

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More Plus Points for Sky Anytime

Posted on February 9, 2012 by digital-tv-advice

Sky Anytime Plus

Good news for Sky Anytime+ users this month, and for this who would like to get it but don’t have Sky broadband, as changes to the service announced at the end of January start to take effect. These include a better range of ITV and BBC content on demand, access to the service through other broadband providers and the arrival of something that up until now has given Virgin and BT a killer edge, the BBC iPlayer.

Thanks to an improved deal with ITV there is already new content from the channel in the main Sky Anytime+ menu including Cold Feet, Lewis and Prime Suspect. There’s a dedicated ITV Player section too but the amount of programmes available will increase later in the year.

The deal with the BBC is perhaps more exciting as the hugely popular iPlayer service has not been available on Sky TV up to now, which always feels like a big disadvantage against their competitors Virgin Media and BT Vision. The iPlayer will be arriving later in the year, no date given yet, but in the meantime there is a selection of archive BBC programmes on Anytime+ including some Doctor Who, Outnumbered and Top Gear.

Anytime+ is currently available free to anyone with Sky TV and Sky broadband as part of all bundled Sky TV packages and is being used by around a million households. Popularity is growing too as Sky have seen weekly usage figures rise by 80% in the last quarter of 2011, and the decision to now open it up to Sky TV customers with any broadband connection will mean over 5 million more homes in the UK will be able to access it.

What you can watch on Anytime+ depends on your Sky TV subscription both in terms of the main package you have – Entertainment or Entertainment Extra – and any added premium channels. So if you have Entertainment with Sky Movies as a add-on you can watch on demand content from any of the 50 or so channels in Entertainment and archived Sky Movies, but not for example the Sky Sports content. It’s not just Sky content on demand but a lot of programmes from the partner channels, including MTV, Discovery, FX, History, Disney, UK TV and National Geographic Channel.

For more general info see the Sky Anytime+ page or click on the button below to read more on the Sky site…

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BT Vision Growing – How Does It Work?

Posted on February 7, 2012 by digital-tv-advice

BT Vision

With the Virgin Media TiVo box everywhere and Sky TV offering free movies and M&S vouchers you could be forgiven for thinking that BT are having a hard time recruiting customers to the BT Vision TV service – you’d be wrong. In the last quarter of 2011 BT Vision gained almost as many new customers as Sky at around 40,000 and it was also the fastest growing pay TV service in quarter three. It doesn’t mean BT Vision is taking over, far from it as the service now has just under 680,000 subscribers against Sky’s 10.25 million with Virgin somewhere in the middle, but something about the offering that many thought would never take off has obviously grabbed the British public and BT must now feel like the magic 1 million subscriber number is at least in sight. The fact that they are the biggest UK broadband provider gives them a huge advantage here of course, as the TV service can be added for a very small extra cost if you already have BT broadband.

What are the Pros and Cons of BT Vision?

As mentioned above if you already have BT broadband or have decided that’s the one for you then it’s a cheap add-on if you go for TV Essential at £4 a month – TV Unlimited at £12.50 a month needs more comparison, we’ll look at that in a moment.

Here’s how it works;

The Vision+ Box is essentially a Freeview Plus box, that is it receives Freeview channels and uses the built-in hard drive to let you pause, rewind and record programmes. The difference with the Vision+ Box is that it connects to your BT broadband to download on demand content and catch-up such as the BBC iPlayer. If you have TV Essential the catch-up TV is unlimited and included but the on-demand content is accessed on a pay-as-you-go basis from 50p a show. If you opt for TV Unlimited you can watch the on demand content as often as you like, plus you get free ESPN – well, no monthly fee after you buy a one-off £10 viewing card.

Why not just buy a Freeview Plus box? Freeview Plus boxes start at about £70 and there’s no ongoing subscription charge, however that won’t give you the catch-up and on demand. There is a £40 activation fee for the Vision+ Box (sometimes discounted or waived depending on the BT deals on offer) so it adds up quite well.

BT Vision – Good Bits

The Vision+ Box is HD and 3D ready – there isn’t a huge choice of HD channels but if you just want the main terrestrial channels in HD like BBC, ITV etc it’s a lot cheaper than Sky or Virgin.

BT Vision – Bad Bits

It’s Freeview based so you have to make sure the Freeview reception in your area is good enough to give you a reasonable selection of channels. This includes extras like Sky Sports – if you get Sky Sports on BT Vision it’s delivered to you via Freeview so you need to check availability first. Not great for those who want a huge selection of channels.

Check it out on the BT site by clicking on the button below.

Click here »

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Make the Most of Sky Anytime+

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Ted

Sky Anytime Plus

There are so many channels to choose from on Sky TV, so why is it we still flick from channel to channel to find something to watch? Perhaps it’s because we know what we want to watch and when we actually want to watch it, but the timing is never right – if this is you, Sky Anytime+ could be the answer.

Sky Anytime+ allows customers to stream a whole load of TV programmes and movies to the Sky box at the touch of a button. So what about the content on there? To begin with, Sky Anytime+ is a free service which is available for Sky TV customers who also have Sky Broadband. Anytime+ can be accessed by pressing ‘TV Guide’ followed by the ‘Anytime’ button (the red button). Unlike the old ‘Anytime’ which provided a smaller selection of movies and TV programmes, Anytime+ has a category bar where you can narrow down a specific genre from a selection of nine choices. These genres include Movies, Documentaries, Sports and Kids, to name a few.

So, if you decide to select the ‘Movies’ tab, the genres are then broken down further (into 10 boxes) to help you find which type of movie you are looking for. For instance, you can choose from ‘Most Popular’ to ‘Box Sets.’ Alternatively, if you fancy browsing the entire library, you can even opt to do that.

Once you decide on which movie you would like to watch, accessing the movie is also very easy to do. All you have to do is press the ‘record’ button on your Sky remote control; this will then transfer the movie by downloading it into your ‘Planner’. It makes you wonder, with so much choice, whether you ever to rush out to rent a DVD from your local store when you have access to this many movies, from new to old, at the touch of a button.

With so many movies to choose from (over 600) those with young children may be worried that they may have access to films which are unsuitable for them – worry not. The usual parental controls exist for Anytime+ hence you can ‘lock’ any programmes/movies which you deem inappropriate for younger viewers.

All this considered, Anytime+ is obviously a major bonus for any Sky TV customer. If you are a Sky TV customer but don’t currently have Sky Broadband it would be worth looking into getting it in order to make the most of Anytime+ – make sure you get Broadband Unlimited though as everything you download to watch counts towards your monthly limit on Everyday Lite.

Good news for Virgin TV customers too as last year Sky Anytime+ vbecame available on Virgin’s top TV package XL as part of the on-demand offering (coupled with TV Choice XL it’s hard to beat for choice).

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Smart TVs – All You Need to Know

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Ted

3D TVs were the phenomenon of 2010, followed by Smart TVs in 2011, but how much do you actually know about them? A Smart TV is a TV which has the ability to connect to the internet by itself, giving you access to features you are more used to using on a mobile phone or laptop. Smart TVs are available in LCD, Plasma and LED and come in various sizes, many of them with Freeview HD built-in.

Features of a Smart TV

With a Smart TV you can download apps, similar to an Android phone or an iPhone – the kind of apps available including gambling apps, Catch-UP TV, movie apps and social networking. Other common apps include Skype, You Tube, Love Film and BBC iPlayer – the particular beauty of Skype on a TV is that it enables you to make a video call on the big screen- all you need to do is plug in a webcam to the USB port on the TV.

Connecting to the Internet

On a Smart TV you will find an ethernet port which allows you to connect to your broadband using a cable. Many Smart TVs are Wi-Fi ready too, so you can buy an optional wireless dongle which plugs directly into the TV and picks up your home Wi-Fi broadband. The more expensive Smart TVs have Wi-Fi capability already built in, so no need for the dongle.

Smart TV Remote Control

You’ll get a remote control with your Smart TV, as you’d expect with a TV, but with top end models from Samsung you would receive a touch remote – this has a small LCD screen which even allows you to watch a different channel to the one on the main TV. Additionally, you can use your Android device or Smart Phone as a remote control on some Smart TVs.

Other Features Available on a Smart TV

Smart TVs feature DLNA Digital Living Network Alliance technology – in basic terms, DNLA is a piece of technology which enables a wide selection of devices and gadgets to ‘communicate’ with each other, a bit like Bluetooth. In turn, this means they offer you the option to send music or photos to your television wirelessly from your mobile phone.

Access to the Internet from your Smart TV

Cheaper Smart TVs will not have an internet browser included so you would not be able to surf the internet as you would on a laptop, you would only be able to access apps. On the other hand, expensive Smart TVs will include a browser enabling you to surf pretty much any site from the comfort of your sofa.

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Get Free ESPN for a Weekend of Sport

Posted on January 25, 2012 by digital-tv-advice

ESPN

Calling sports fans – if you’re a Sky TV customer or your TV service is Freeview get ready for the first weekend in February when you’ll be able to watch sports channel ESPN absolutely free. It’s all thanks to a deal between ESPN and Nokia to promote the Nokia Lumia and it means free access for all satellite and Freeview viewers from 6am on Friday 3rd to 6am on Monday 6th February – the Freeview element means that customers of BT Vision and Top Up TV will also get the deal.

They’ve picked a good weekend too as there’s a range of decent events on the schedule, from Premier League action to boxing to basketball, so there’s a good chance a lot of sports fans are going to really enjoy this and be tempted to subscribe – surely the intention… more on how to do that below.

What’s on over the free weekend?

Here’s a rundown of the highlights on ESPN’s free weekend…

Football

The weekend kicks off with Nuremberg v Dortmund in the Bundesliga at 7.30 on the Friday and there’s a good helping of European games on with French and Italian fixtures over the weekend too. The big double bill on the Saturday is Fulham v Man City in the Barclays Premier League at 4.30 on Saturday followed by Italian Serie A excitement with Roma v Inter Milan at 7.45pm.

Boxing

In the middle of the night at 3am you can watch the UFC143 welterweight fight between Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit live from Vegas. This was originally to be Diaz v George St Pierre but he had to pull out following a knee injury.

Basketball

If you follow NBA basketball this is a major game – the New York Knicks at the Boston Celtics can be seen at 1am on Sat 4th, so something to round off your Friday night if you have the staying power perhaps.

How to Get ESPN

So what to do if you love the free weekend so much you can’t bear to be without ESPN? If you’re a Virgin Media customer you get ESPN included in the XL package, so adding the channel is simply a case of upgrading to TV XL. On Sky you can add ESPN as you would any other premium channel – it costs £9 a month if you’re a Sky Sports subscriber and £12 a month if you’re not.

Top Up TV is a Freeview-based service that allows you to pay a monthly fee for a card or adaptor which enables you to receive channels like ESPN and Sky Sports 1 and 2 on Freeview – without a subscription to Top Up or BT Vision you’ll find the channel on the Freeview EPG but it will be blocked. ESPN on Top Up TV costs £10.99 a month with no contract – you just take it a month at a time.

Finally, here are the highlights of the free weekend:

  • Fri 3rd Feb
  • 19:30 – LIVE Bundesliga: Nuremberg v Dortmund
  • Sat 4th Feb
  • 01:00 – LIVE NBA New York @ Boston
  • 16.30 – LIVE Barclays Premier League: Manchester City v Fulham
  • 19:45 – LIVE Serie A: Roma v Inter Milan
  • Sun 6th Feb
  • 03:00 – LIVE UFC 143 Condit v Diaz
  • 11:30 – LIVE Serie A: Genoa v Lazio
  • 13:45 – LIVE Serie A: Fiorentina v Udinese
  • 16:45 – LIVE Bundesliga: Kaiserslauern v Cologne
  • 19:15 – LIVE Serie A: AC Milan v Napoli

Enjoy!

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