[Help] Broadband / TV package

The Optimist · Feb 23, 2025

Looking for any advice on the best options for getting a broadband / TV package.

Currently with BT and get broadband, TNT sport and Sky Sport (through a Now TV package) and my current contract runs out soon.

I don’t need a phone line, I want broadband that will support working from home including Teams meetings (no one else is normally using the internet when I’m working) and I want the football channels (TNT and Sky Sports).

Any advice on the best offers to get the above?

Thanks in advance

atfc village · Feb 23, 2025

EE/BT avoid it's cheap for a reason ,left Sky in 14 August we were paying £150 a month worst thing we did . Got a deal with BT/EE for £74 a month first 3 months for £34. 14 days in live tv crashed ,3 visits and 42 days later the fault was fixed . Everything was fine until the day of the First New Zealand v England Test and the internet went down thus rendering the whole system useless ,i wanted the tests that's why we went with them. Phoned them up and told it would be 14 days to send an engineer out to look at it [not a definate fix] enough was enough we binned them sent letters to OFCOM and told them this as they demanded a £500 contract break ,their small print stated if a fault wasn't fixed in 28days you could walk away . We sadly had to go back to Sky but we got a full package bar TNT Sports for £60 a month . This is my experience i know people in the trade who say nothing good about EE/BT

Mr deez · Feb 23, 2025

That's so weird, I've had BT for maybe 7 years across 2 properties and I'll never once had my internet drop. Once I wasn't getting full speed and had to restart the router, that's about it. I also don't think they are especially cheap!

This is the problem with getting advice on the internet - every company has it's knockers.

In my experience from work - it seems that literally every time someone tells me their internet is down, it's Virgin.

atfc village · Feb 23, 2025

Mr deez said:
That's so weird, I've had BT for maybe 7 years across 2 properties and I'll never once had my internet drop. Once I wasn't getting full speed and had to restart the router, that's about it. I also don't think they are especially cheap!

This is the problem with getting advice on the internet - every company has it's knockers.

In my experience from work - it seems that literally every time someone tells me their internet is down, it's Virgin.

Totally agree with you ,just my experience . First engineer came out and went to the broadband ,i said broadband wasn't the problem its the TV . His reply was im not involved in the TV set up . Anyway he went to the Junction box and came back an hour later telling us our broadband was now full speed,then he added strangly you were connected to someone else's Broadband . We then waited 3 weeks for a specialist team to come out and they couldnt fix the problem . The problem was finally solved when they told us there wasn't enough power coming from their end to power live TV . They were just a shambles for the 120 days we were with them it properly worked for 42 ,totally unacceptable.

Driver 8 · Feb 23, 2025

I had such a nightmare with EE after switching from Sky that after about six weeks they agreed to cancel my contract without penalty. Went back to Sky.

Eeyore · Feb 24, 2025

The Optimist said:
Looking for any advice on the best options for getting a broadband / TV package.

Currently with BT and get broadband, TNT sport and Sky Sport (through a Now TV package) and my current contract runs out soon.

I don’t need a phone line, I want broadband that will support working from home including Teams meetings (no one else is normally using the internet when I’m working) and I want the football channels (TNT and Sky Sports).

Any advice on the best offers to get the above?

Thanks in advance

I'm currently paying £49 a month for Virgin Broadband with basic TV package and Sky and TNT Sports.

Quite how it is that cheap I don't know. But Virgin does seem to be the best option (if you don't mind the appalling customer service). But thankfully that has rarely been an issue.

happypig · Feb 24, 2025

The Optimist said:
Looking for any advice on the best options for getting a broadband / TV package.

Currently with BT and get broadband, TNT sport and Sky Sport (through a Now TV package) and my current contract runs out soon.

I don’t need a phone line, I want broadband that will support working from home including Teams meetings (no one else is normally using the internet when I’m working) and I want the football channels (TNT and Sky Sports).

Any advice on the best offers to get the above?

Thanks in advance

All SPs who use Openreach are, to a greater or lesser degree, a bit shit. That's because:
1. OR charge them if they go out on a fault and it's not proven to be an OR fault.
2. If OR miss a target, they de-prioritise the job in order to hit the targets on other jobs. Meaning the customer is left hanging....

If you can, look at Alt-nets who have provided their own infrastructure and fibre (I'm with Lightning Fibre in Eastbourne) but you might find City Fibre are in your area.

As for the WFH stuff, you don't need oodles of bandwidth but I would advise using a router that enables Quality of Service prioritisation. A lot of ISP routers are shite and investing £100ish on a decent one is a good investment.

The Optimist · Feb 24, 2025

happypig said:
All SPs who use Openreach are, to a greater or lesser degree, a bit shit. That's because:
1. OR charge them if they go out on a fault and it's not proven to be an OR fault.
2. If OR miss a target, they de-prioritise the job in order to hit the targets on other jobs. Meaning the customer is left hanging....

If you can, look at Alt-nets who have provided their own infrastructure and fibre (I'm with Lightning Fibre in Eastbourne) but you might find City Fibre are in your area.

As for the WFH stuff, you don't need oodles of bandwidth but I would advise using a router that enables Quality of Service prioritisation. A lot of ISP routers are shite and investing £100ish on a decent one is a good investment.

Hyperoptic are always advertising in my building (block of flats) - I’ll look into them. The issue seems to be paying for TNT and Sky Sports as standalone packages seems to be expensive.

On the BT thing, I’ve been with them for years and had no issues with service.

Nobby Cybergoat · Feb 24, 2025

Virgin customer service is awful, but the reliability has been fine.

The sports packages aren't cheap. I'm paying an extra £28 for TNT who don't have that much sport. In fact, they sometimes show fishing. Somehow I'm paying nearly 100 quid a month in total.

I don't think there's a better or worse provider. Its who can you most tolerate being mugged off by

Mr deez · Feb 24, 2025

Mr deez said:
That's so weird, I've had BT for maybe 7 years across 2 properties and I'll never once had my internet drop. Once I wasn't getting full speed and had to restart the router, that's about it. I also don't think they are especially cheap!

This is the problem with getting advice on the internet - every company has it's knockers.

In my experience from work - it seems that literally every time someone tells me their internet is down, it's Virgin.

As if to prove my point...

Virgin Media is down – here's everything we know about the outage

Virgin Media is down leaving thousands without internet access

www.techradar.com

dadams2k11 · Feb 24, 2025

People still pay for Sky TV?

Fire stick - £35
IPTV - £30 per year
Broadband 1GB speed - £40 per month.

East Staffs Gull · Feb 24, 2025

The Optimist said:
Hyperoptic are always advertising in my building (block of flats) - I’ll look into them. The issue seems to be paying for TNT and Sky Sports as standalone packages seems to be expensive.

On the BT thing, I’ve been with them for years and had no issues with service.

We are happy with Hyperoptic. We use NowTV for SkySport (£18pm) and TNT (£20pm).

Arthur · Feb 24, 2025

atfc village said:
EE/BT avoid it's cheap for a reason ,left Sky in 14 August we were paying £150 a month worst thing we did . Got a deal with BT/EE for £74 a month first 3 months for £34. 14 days in live tv crashed ,3 visits and 42 days later the fault was fixed . Everything was fine until the day of the First New Zealand v England Test and the internet went down thus rendering the whole system useless ,i wanted the tests that's why we went with them. Phoned them up and told it would be 14 days to send an engineer out to look at it [not a definate fix] enough was enough we binned them sent letters to OFCOM and told them this as they demanded a £500 contract break ,their small print stated if a fault wasn't fixed in 28days you could walk away . We sadly had to go back to Sky but we got a full package bar TNT Sports for £60 a month . This is my experience i know people in the trade who say nothing good about EE/BT

Sounds similar to my parents experience. They switched from sky through a dish to BT and for the first six months had nothing but problems. Most of the issues happened during peak times so engineers would come out and say there is nothing wrong then my mother would sit down to watch Corrie or whatever dross she watches of an evening and the picture would just pixelate or at worst not appear.

They tried to get out of their contract and go back to Sky but BT wouldn't let them without paying the contract break fee you mention. They've stuck with them and I think the service is a lot better now and I don't think they've had any problems for a while.

I'm still not interested about TV over the internet until they fix the latency issues. Watching anything live especially sport is crap when you are at worst minutes behind the live action.

I do have my internet with BT as they were offering an amazing deal (£40 a month for their top package) when they launched fibre to the door on my street. Was with Sky before that and can't grumble about their service either. I only moved because of the aforementioned deal (Sky equivalent was £65 a month!). TV comes from Sky over a dish. Might be more expensive but it's reliable and as close to real time as it's going to get.

PascalGroß Tips · Feb 24, 2025

Nobby Cybergoat said:
Virgin customer service is awful, but the reliability has been fine.

The sports packages aren't cheap. I'm paying an extra £28 for TNT who don't have that much sport. In fact, they sometimes show fishing. Somehow I'm paying nearly 100 quid a month in total.

I don't think there's a better or worse provider. Its who can you most tolerate being mugged off by

Just tell them you're leaving a month before the end of your current deal - and be firm.

I do that every time. Currently paying £62.29 for full TV, 1gig BB, Sky Movies and Sports, TNT and Netflix.

I've been with VM all the way from when they laid down the cables in Shoreham in the early 1990s (Nynex) - then NTL, Cable and Wireless and finally VM. Over 30 years with hardly any issues during that time.

Every 18 months I look elsewhere but just can't find anything to beat what I get from VM in terms of BB speed and access to the sports channels I want. Netflix is an added bonus.

Nobby Cybergoat · Feb 24, 2025

PascalGroß Tips said:
Just tell them you're leaving a month before the end of your current deal - and be firm.

I do that every time. Currently paying £62.29 for full TV, 1gig BB, Sky Movies and Sports, TNT and Netflix.

I've been with VM all the way from when they laid down the cables in Shoreham in the early 1990s (Nynex) - then NTL, Cable and Wireless and finally VM. Over 30 years with hardly any issues during that time.

Every 18 months I look elsewhere but just can't find anything to beat what I get from VM in terms of BB speed and access to the sports channels I want. Netflix is an added bonus.

Nice.

There's no overhead cables to my house and one can't be easily fitted, so i kind of have to stay with Virgin. I did threaten to leave but they didn't significantly reduce my monthly fee. If i didn't know better I'd say they knew they had me over a barrel. Probably I'm just shit at negotiating.

PascalGroß Tips · Feb 24, 2025

Nobby Cybergoat said:
Nice.

There's no overhead cables to my house and one can't be easily fitted, so i kind of have to stay with Virgin. I did threaten to leave but they didn't significantly reduce my monthly fee. If i didn't know better I'd say they knew they had me over a barrel. Probably I'm just shit at negotiating.

In my experience, you need to use the actual words “I want to leave”. The best deals are only offered by the UK retentions team. The overseas team will offer a deal … but not the best. And I guess it might also come down to timing etc. My current deal is the best I’ve had for a number of years. My next chat will be in about 5 months

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