Wholeheartedly agree with you.Topuptv is a rip off.It is;

A)Not worth subscribing to as when you take out TVX the cost comes to 17.99 and for just two or three quid more you could benjoying over forty digital channels such as Skyone which has been given a big revamp,Skymix and see here for the rest on www.ntl.co.uk

www.sky.com

B)7.99 for a lot of cut and trimmed channel streams is really a bad deal.I am glad Sky operates in my home because you get more channels for better value for money.And you can upgrade.Sky are now doing free installation and once the month passes you can choose which channels you want.

Movie lovers will really enjoy Skymovies.
Sport lovers will love skysports.
Comedy lovers can enjoy lots of sitcoms and british comedy.
Documentary fans can enjoy lots of fascinating shows from Atlantis to Space exploration and I saw something last night which was about a guy who cut his hand off after being trapped by a boulder.This was fascinating and very gripping.Courtesy of Discovery.

LOL I love it. In order to back your argument up you have to work on the assumption that people have subscribed to TVX and so are paying £17.98 a month. Porn channels are a rip off no matter what platform you subscribe to them on. The TUTV subscription of £7.99 a month on the other hand does offer good value for money.

And I do agree that Sky's family pack is good value when you consider what you get for it, but on the other hand it's subscription cost has gone up by a third in less than 3 years (with two price hikes in this year alone) and shows no signs of leveling off. I hate to think what Sky might cost in 3 years time, which must be a serious consideration to anyone taking out a subscription to it now.

But in any event, it is a substantial chunk of money which many people may not be able to afford, and of course those people are also tied to a contract for a year. There are of course cheaper Sky packages available, but these all offer less choice than TUTV does but charge more for it.

The £7.99 TUTV subscription is much more affordable, and is also less of a risk for people unsure if they will be able to afford it, because they can cancel at any time.

Who can resist Tvx?Not many.Come on be honest.
Price hikes.Honourable friend,everything goes up in price every year.It is called inflation.


sure getting contracted to 12 months worth of services is not as bad as it sounds.You have rights and you can test the contract in Court of law if fowl play is made.contracts can be gotten out of.It is not easy but it is still possible.It is not like they have got your soul forever.After 12 months dont renew,You will also benifit from lower costs,better value for money and good lineup of channels.Freeviewers have to pay for repairs and faults.Sky and ntl customers dont.Throughout the life of contract.Sky after 12 months you pay but cable companys will pay throughout the life of comiitment even if you renew.

I have never subscribed to a porn channel or PPV event in all the six years I've had one form or other of subscription TV. But maybe I am just odd.

Well I would never pay £10 / month for *very* soft porn, that's for sure.


Yes but Sky goes up way, way above inflation. The family package subscription has almost doubled since Sky Digital launched 6 years ago - and most of that price hike has been in the last 2 years. And it's Sky Analogue predecessor, the Sky multichannels package, started out life 11 years ago with a £2.99 / month subscription. When it was retired in 2001 (and offered only two channels - one of which was FTA most of the time anyway - at the very end) it had gone up to £13.99 - hardly a rise in line with inflation.

So a Freeview box costs about £40 to replace if it breaks down, how much does a brand new Sky DigiBox cost if you have to buy a new one

The subscription cost for Sky includes the purchase of the box, does the subscription fee go down once you own the box?, presumably this is 12 months as after that you would have to purchase a new one or get it repaired yourself is its faulty

One of the best things about TUTV is no phone call trying to upsell you to a package, phone line or broadband you really don't want.

I think a brand new Sky Digibox is £280 - quite a rip off price actually. But that said, you can often get some excellent condition second hand ones in the paper for around £30-£40.


Quite the reverse actually, when you are under contract you are protected from any price rises - someone who subscribed to the family pack in December 2003 will still be paying £18.50 for it in November, even though it will be £21.50 by then.

The box is given away free when you subscribe, and because it comes with a 12 month warranty you can get it replaced/repaired during the first year. After the contract is up I believe Sky offer an extended warranty on your box if you want to take it.

I don't understand this argument.
abc1 appeared yesterday and ITV3 is due on 1st November.
There is some talk of improved compression, which is a bit above my head.

What I was trying to say, in reply to a comment that tutv is using space that could be used for other channels

I also think that some of the fta channels are wasting space and could be put too better use (not neceserilly other pay channels , just better channels)

My mistake, I was under the impression that the subscription cost covered the purchase of the box, this was one of the reasons for a minimum contract

Honourable friend,it looks like travel in london will go above inflation.usually for a good reason.To gain more funding to improve London transport service.Similaly,Sky could be trying to get enough funds to improve their sky service.At one time Sky plus was subscriptionised.Now it is with free subscription.

Eleven years ago,many things were cheaper.Look at todays economy.September 11th changed the economic stability for ever.Shares went down to a new low and even in today,we are still recovering.

The war on Iraq,Who is paying for that?Us.Double taxes to pay for building up a country that is not sure of itself.A country of confuson and evre increasing violence by the day.Oil barrels gone up by 50 dollars a barrel.

The economy 11 years ago was alright.Now we live in uncertain times where shares and stocks are not secure enough.I know someone who lost two million quid last year.Through the markets.

Check out CNBC Or visit Bloomberg,5am to 10am on topuptv.

It could be more of a case that you could be getting a bad deal should you subscribe to the service and watch only 2 hours a week of the channels on offer.

or worse you pay for it and never use it.

Then I would say yes you are being ripped off by your own investment, should you buy it and watch many of the shows and video others then you could make it value for money for yourself.

I find nothing wrong with the concept of TopUpTV.

It's the way that they've implemented the thing that annoys me. Too many channels shoe-horned into the 4.5 streams that they have access to, and very silly scheduling between them. Particularly silly is the fact that they run exactly the same schedule at weekends as on weekdays, meaning that the channels that I'd want to watch are not being shown at the times I want to see them.

I probably would have subscribed if the implementation of TopUpTV had been better. In its current form it IS a waste of money.

Compared to ITV Digital Top-Up TV isn't very good value for money. For £99 p/a (£8.25 p/m) ITV Digital gave you six channels and use of the hardware. Those six channels were of your choosing (from a decent selection), not four made up of bits of several others which TUTV think you'll want (or could get cheapest).
When you include the connection charge TUTV is more expensive than ITVD was and you get less and a poorer selection for your money.
I personally don't like TUTV's selection and split of channels and it wouldn't suit the times I could watch it. But if you find it suits you and you get use out of it it could be VFM - although, I still think that £8 p/m is too expensive for four channels made up of a selection that you have no choice over.

The concept is sound and okey.But the deal is very bad.Itv digital was better.At least you could choose and there were twos channels that counted as one choice.

Waste of money.I think if they charged 4.99 then it wouldnt look like a rip off.It really would be the right price.I agree with you and Glen.

I prefered £3 for 15 channels - few time shared

Yeah I would agree that the broadcast hours need tweaking, and I would also agree that a different weekend schedule is worth looking in to. I would further agree that they do have too many channels. Unfortunately they need the magic 10 figure in order to get into double digits to make them sound worthwhile with the 'more channels is better' philosophy that's rife with multichannel television.

That said, there is always the argument that they are trying to cater to a wide audience, and just because you or I might be able to identify some channels which could go that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone would want them to go.


Assuming you reach £99 from the prepaid package, that was unsustainable for them to offer - made patently obvious when they ended up withdrawing the original 6 channel prepay and replaced it with an all primary channels prepay, marketed as a newer and better product but actually it left people worse off since the extensive discount you used to get was largely gone.

ITV Digital used a lot of tactics to try and compete with Sky, and few of them - including the free loan of the box - weren't viable. They collapsed because they weren't a viable business, the sports channel fiasco was only the thing which pushed them over the edge.

The bottom line is that they couldn't afford to offer the things they did for the money they charged. It is no surprise that TUTV does offer a more limited service than ITV Digital and it's also no surprise that their subscription is close to the £9.99 / month for 6 primary channels which On Digital charged at launch (although you do have to take into account 6 years of inflation and the general rise in supscription television that's gone on since then) - they intend to be a viable business which will break even, they don't intend to be ITV Digital MKII - an unviable venture that will flop spectacularly.

Topuptv is a stinking rip off.

17.99 for the full shoehorned eleven channels.

Occassionly topuptv will replace you topuptv card.This is for security reasons.So

20.00 for new updated card and
17.99 for the full shoehorned eleven channels.

37.99

For that price you could get family pack on Sky or cable plus a premium or too.Full time and not shoe horned.

topuptv customers are being reckless with their money.

My new motto for topuptv.

A lot more money a lot less TV

And I just have to say this.Those gnomes make me laugh.Everyone I know starts bending when they visit the website.honest to God.

Check out my is it time to make the switch for links to all better subscribing companys.

even with 7.99 plus 20.00 update fee.it still comes to nearly thirty quid.Ntl customers can have family pack plus standard line service.

about 30 quids including line rental.

you might say well it is thirty quid and not 27.99 but that is like taking base pack and having movie pack two.One would ask why for the sake of two or three quids?

I rest my case.
Last edited by Blue100 : 30-09-2004 at 13:18

Where do you get your figures from, TVX is an optional part, tutv itself is £7.99 and not £17.99, when talking about Sky do you include every single channel, Porn ppv etc, that would probably make Sky over £100/month

Why would they charge for a new card, do other providers?

So NTL is £30./month, does that include every single channel (porn and whatever else) as you seem to include this type of channel in tutv subscription

Wonder why this guy has in for Top up so much and advertises Sky packages all the time? :yawn:

I have read with interest why people think Top Up TV is a rip off, I have it, I personally think its good, I dont have cable in my area and I live in a listed building that strictly forbids Sky dishes - so its Freeview (which is good) and TUTV for extra channels.
I appreciate Sky offers more channels and is better value but I dont have any choice, so if I want UK Gold, E4 etc this is my only option. I intend to continue my subscription, I personally thinks its worth £7.99 = approx 26p a day. I dont subcribe to TVX, I dont need to see porn on my tv at an inflated price, and wouldnt watch it on SKY if I had it.

Chris

Thats similar to be and one of the reaosns I have dtt, luckily I get dtt from an internal aerial, as I cant put one of them outside either

But this 'Is TUTV a Rip-OFF' isnt this personnal choice, If people think its a rip-off then dont subscribe, simple

It isnt a compulary thing, you have a choice

well said!

Do all the people of claim it to be a rip off actually subscribe? If so maybe you should vote with your feet and move to Sky, which everyone seems to be claiming is the only thing to have for television!!!

Chris

No because most of them have Sky!