Broadband & digital TV

Broadband & digital TV explained

Belts are being tightened across the country. And with that in mind, internet service providers are offering some great broadband and digital TV packages to help cut costs. A broadband and digital TV bundle allows you to group all your home telecoms services, so you have one service provider for all these services.

Bundling broadband with digital TV and a home phone, means not only paying fewer bills, but making massive savings on your monthly telecoms costs. By choosing a broadband and digital TV package that also comes with a home phone option, you could save more than £300 per year.

It is also important to remember that if the signal hasn't already been switched off in your area, the Government will be switching off analogue signal everywhere by 2012. This means you will need to get a digital TV box. Getting a broadband and digital TV package will prepare you for the digital switch over.

Important factors when choosing Digital TV - broadband bundles

• Quality of broadband service: speed, download allowance
• Number of channels offered
• Installation cost (if any)
• Set box cost (if any)
• Length of contract
• Additional landline costs

Broadband and digital TV options:

Different broadband and digital TV packages will provide your digital TV in different ways. You can watch digital TV at home via cable, satellite, IPTV, or just through your TV aerial using a Freeview or digital set-top box.

• Satellite - Satellite TV as the name suggests, delivers TV into your home via communications satellites. You need a satellite dish and a receiver box in your home for this to work.
• Cable - 12.6 million UK homes can get digital TV through the UK's cable network, which is operated by Virgin Media. Cable TV delivers TV into your home using a network of fibre optic cables.
• IPTV - IPTV delivers TV over your broadband connection. For more information about how IPTV works, see our guide: What is IPTV?.
• Freeview box - Freeview is a free terrestrial digital TV service, accessed using a set-top box.

Award-winning broadband and digital TV

Sky took home the much-coveted award for best broadband and TV provider at Top 10 Broadband's 2009 awards. To find out what the judges were impressed by see our best broadband & TV awards page.

Broadband and digital TV ISPs

As more and more of us decide to opt for broadband and digital TV bundles, providers are being driven into heavy competition to offer the best broadband bundles. Most of these ISPs offer broadband with digital TV and a home phone.

Virgin Media broadband and digital TV bundles

Virgin Media offers a huge range of broadband and digital TV bundles that feature options to include a home phone package and start from £14 per month.

It's important to remember that you can only get Virgin Media's digital TV service if you are in a cabled area. To find out more about cable services and compare all cable deals see our cable broadband page.

Virgin Media's cable broadband and digital TV bundles are made up of the M, L and XL elements of each of the three components. This means that with a Virgin Media broadband and TV package you get exactly the right combination of broadband package, digital TV package and phone package in your bundle. Each of these broadband packages includes a free wireless router, unlimited download allowance and PC Guard. The difference between the three packages is the download speed:

• Virgin Media Broadband L - up to 10Mb
• Virgin Media Broadband XL - up to 20Mb
• Virgin Media Broadband XXL - up to 50Mb

Virgin Media TV

Virgin Media's TV offers more than 40 TV channels delivered through the cable network. You need a Virgin Media V or V+ Box to receive Virgin Media TV.

V Box
- Offers Sky channels: Sky 3, Sky News, Sky Sports News.
- A library of films, TV and music available to watch on demand.
- Catch-up TV - view the last seven days for free.
- BBC iPlayer and Channel 4 On Demand.

V+ Box
- Pause, rewind and record live TV.
- Ready for the HD revolution? V+ lets you watch stuff in crystal-clear HD.
- Record 2 shows while watching a third.
- All the features of the standard V Box.

Virgin Media Talk doesn't require that you pay BT line rental. However, it is worth noting that their free calls only last for the first hour of any call.

Sky broadband and digital TV Bundles

Sky's broadband and digital TV bundles start from less than £20 per month. All Sky digital TV packages now come with free broadband and free UK evening calls, so anyone choosing Sky is signing up to a great value broadband and digital TV bundle with a home phone package included. You just need to decide what you need, then choose your Sky broadband and digital TV bundle.

Sky Broadband comes in three options for Sky's broadband and TV bundles. The basic Sky broadband option, Sky Base is free with your Sky digital TV subscription.

All Sky broadband packages include a free wireless router worth £50, 12 months free McAfee Internet security suite worth £49.99, and up to 10 sky.com email addresses.

Sky Base
- Up to 2Mb download speed. - 2GB download usage allowance.

Sky Everyday - Up to 10Mb download speed. - 10GB Monthly usage allowance.

Sky Unlimited
- Up to 20Mb download speed. - Unlimited usage allowance.

Sky Digital TV offers more than 100 digital entertainment channels, with the option to build a digital TV package tailored to your own viewing preferences. Dedicated sports and movies packages are available that you simply choose to add into your broadband and digital TV bundle.

Sky digital TV is received via satellite and requires the user to have a digital set-top box. Sky has three different set-top boxes:

Standard Sky Box
- On-screen TV guide.
- On-screen program reminders.
- Parental controls.
- Email, play games and shop through Sky Active.

Sky+ Box
- Record and store show, without tapes, discs or timers.
- Record whole series at the touch of a button.
- Pause, rewind and replay live TV – perfect if your viewing is interrupted.
- Set-up recordings when you're out using your mobile phone.
- All the functions and benefits of a standard Sky box.

Sky+HD
- Sharper images, more vibrant colours and up to 4 times the picture detail of normal TV.
- Europe's widest choice of HD programmes across 18 channels.
- All the Sky+ features and double the storage capacity of a Sky+ box.
- Sky Anytime TV.

Sky Talk offers free UK evening and weekend calls to Sky customers. It is worth bearing in mind that you still pay £11.25 for your BT line rental if you are a Sky Talk customer.

BT Broadband and digital TV bundles

Most of us have a BT landline at home, and BT has made the most of the bundle revolution by offering great value home broadband and free digital TV bundle deals to go with their home phone packages. BT broadband and digital TV bundles start from £7.78 for the first three months.

BT Broadband has three packages available as part of BT Broadband and digital TV packages. All come with a free BT Home Hub and offer an up to 20Mb download speed.

BT Broadband Option 1
- 10GB monthly usage.
- 250 WiFi Broadband minutes a month.
- Basic Security.

BT Broadband Option 2 - 20GB monthly usage - 350 WiFi minutes a month - Advanced security.

BT Broadband Option 3
- Unlimited monthly usage.
- Unlimited WiFi broadband minutes every month.
- Advanced security.
- BT Home Hub comes with BT Hub Phone.

BT Vision - Digital TV

BT Vision is BT's on-demand TV service that comes with a BT Vision V Box. BT Vision offers you all the channels available on Freeview TV with add-on extras that come in 'packs', on-demand movies and the ability to pause and record live TV.

BT Vision V Box
- High Definition (HD) ready box.
- Smart Digital TV recorder.
- Pause, rewind, replay and record live TV.
- Catch up on the last seven days of TV programming.
- Optional sports add-ons.
- On-demand movies.

BT home phone line

Adding a BT home phone line to any of these packages is hassle free with BT, with a range of free call packages to choose from.

Tiscali Broadband and digital TV Bundles

Tiscali pioneered the broadband and digital TV bundle, and still leads the way with great value broadband, digital TV and home phone bundles. The good news with Tiscali is that all of its broadband and digital TV bundles come with a home phone option, so you get a complete telecoms package. Prices start from a very reasonable £19.99 per month.

It is worth noting there’s a one-off £30 installation fee with Tiscali bundles.

Tiscali Broadband

Tiscali broadband comes with a free Speedtouch 585 wireless router, download speeds of up to 8Mb and unlimited downloads.

Tiscali Digital TV

Tiscali digital TV offers all the programming options of Freeview TV, you need a Tiscali+ set-top box to receive Tiscali TV but this comes free with both broadband and digital TV packages and includes:

• TV variety pack, over 70 of the best digital channels including Sky1.
• Free 7 day catch up & on-demand programmes.
• More than 1500 movies on-demand.

Tiscali customers also benefit from a great high-definition electronic programme guide (EPG) to allow them to access content quickly and easily by using search terms to find the programmes they want to watch.

Tiscali Talk offers either free weekend calls or free anytime calls and comes as part of either of Tiscali’s broadband and digital TV packages.

Want to add home and/or mobile phone packages to your broadband and digital TV bundle?

To find out more about adding the home phone option to your broadband and digital TV bundle, See our broadband bundles page for more bestselling broadband bundle packages.

Want to keep your broadband and digital TV separate?

Compare all the UK's bestselling home broadband packages here home broadband