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Old 18-03-2014, 06:01
gwatuk
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The basic price for TalkTalk Plus TV will be increasing from £15.50/month to £18.50/month.
The package will incorporate seven Sky channels as standard from April 5 onwards.
Channels are Sky 1, Sky 2, Sky Sports News, Sky Living, Sky Livingit, Sky Arts1, Sky Arts2 (these are currently the TV Starter boost).
Sky 1, Sky Living and Sky Arts will also be available on demand.

This means an increase of £3 for most customers or a £2 discount to customers who were already taking the TV Starter Boost.

See: TalkTalk Plus TV adds Sky 1 and six more channels as prices rise

Line rental will also increase from £15.40 to £15.95 per month.
Value line rental will be the monthly equivalent price of £11.75.



For existing customers the new pricing comes into effect on the 1st May 2014.
The firm will be sending out price change notifications from 27th March, giving them 30 days notice of the price rise and the option to leave the service for another provider at no charge.

TalkTalk's announcement is here: http://help2.talktalk.co.uk/price-increase
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Old 18-03-2014, 08:55
David Waine
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So what happens to people like me who currently take the Entertainment Boost, which includes those Sky channels, plus about twenty others. Will the price of the Entertainment boost be reduced or will they offer us more channels to compensate?
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Old 18-03-2014, 09:10
ney
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TalkTalk may have a lot more channels than BT but I still think BT is better value at a good price.
Every company seems to put there prices up at lest one a year or makes minor changes to there packages.

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ney is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-03-2014, 09:41
David Waine
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They make the point that their broadband is now half the price that it was eight years ago, bearing in mind that many homes now have multiple computers, tablets, smartphones and Internet TV. TalkTalk Box Office is to be greatly expanded, which could possibly make up for the lack of LoveFilm or Netflix, especially as we already have Sky Store as well. It also states that we will be able to pause, rewind and record our additional channels at last.

That doesn't sound too bad, all things considered. Price rises are inevitable on all platforms sooner or later. It all boils down to what you are getting for your money. Most of the Entertainment Boost channels that I watch on a regular basis will now be included in my Plus package, but I wait to see what they will charge for the others.

The only other thing I am waiting for is a review on that new Huawei YouView PVR. Is it a serious upgrade on the existing one and will TalkTalk offer a trade-in on it?
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Old 18-03-2014, 10:03
wilt
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I would leave, but they are still the cheapest even post price rise so can't complain really.
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Old 18-03-2014, 21:10
barbeler
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I thought that you were guaranteed a fixed price for the duration of the contract. As I took up the TV offer last June, I assume that if there's a price rise, I will be free to leave the TV service and keep the box.

I'm getting fed up with it anyway, as yet again, the programme guide is failing to load, even though I've left it attempting to for over an hour. Luckily, a scheduled recording appears to be working, but I would have been unable to make any more tonight, as there is no manual bypass.
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Old 18-03-2014, 22:31
David Waine
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If the programme guide is failing to load, there must be something wrong with your box. Mine certainly does not behave like that. It doesn't load as quickly as I would like, but it is only a matter of seconds, not an hour.
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Old 19-03-2014, 00:03
joshua321
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So what happens to people like me who currently take the Entertainment Boost, which includes those Sky channels, plus about twenty others. Will the price of the Entertainment boost be reduced or will they offer us more channels to compensate?
I would like to know the answer to this too, so if you find out, please let us know. To me it doesn't make sense to charge Plus TV customers an extra £10/month for the Entertainment Boost now that it doesn't include the Sky Channels (because these are already included). Really they should just charge the £10 - price increase = £7 for the Entertainment Boost, so that Plus TV customers who take the Entertainment Boost are paying the same total price as before.

Otherwise we're paying the same for less, and Essentials TV customers are getting the benefit of Sky Channels and the other IPTV channels for their extra £10/month, whereas we're only getting the benefit of the other IPTV channels for ours.

I wonder if instead of leaving altogether, they will allow existing Plus TV customers still in contract to downgrade to Essentials TV with or without Entertainment Boost etc? Obviously we would lose the Anytime Calls. If we downgrade to Essentials or leave altogether while still in contract, I wonder if we can still keep the PVR box?

Glad to hear that we are finally going to get the ability to record/pause/rewind the IPTV channels, though I'll only believe it fully when I see it. Still wish we could get the Freeview channels through IPTV also for no additional cost, for more multi-record options and for those with poor Freeview signals. These could go in the higher 400s on the EPG.

Wish also that we could pick and choose our extra channels a bit more, as most of the Sky channels (apart from Sky Arts 2) don't really interest me - the only extra channels I really watch are Comedy Central, Comedy Central Extra, Fox, TLC and occasionally Universal.
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Old 19-03-2014, 00:06
barbeler
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If the programme guide is failing to load, there must be something wrong with your box.
It's done it twice before but was fine the next day. I suspect it's something that goes wrong one of the regular updates to the box.
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Old 19-03-2014, 00:24
Egg The Goth
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If the programme guide is failing to load, there must be something wrong with your box. Mine certainly does not behave like that. It doesn't load as quickly as I would like, but it is only a matter of seconds, not an hour.
Well David, is it STILL looking so good through your tinted specs.

Since I left, better broadband speed, more channels to record, lots more on demand including down my phone,computer and tablet.

i was so blind I could not see,
How talk talk was doing nothing for me.

Already signed a friend up too, so cost me less than TT too this year .......

Nice to see you coming on the boards still to help out all the people with Talk Talk issues..........
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Old 19-03-2014, 05:33
David Waine
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Oh, you're back, are you? Enjoy your gloat, Egg. I'm sure that you and Rupert will be very happy together.
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Old 22-03-2014, 21:56
Egg The Goth
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Oh, you're back, are you? Enjoy your gloat, Egg. I'm sure that you and Rupert will be very happy together.
It was NEVER about gloating David.

It was all about how TT, together wih Youview, came along, suggesting their service was a comparable alternative.
It wasn't.
You know how frustrating I found Youview, having had it's previous incarnation from Tiscali

I applaud your fortitude of sticking with it, my how they have dangled carrots in front of you for that, it has to be said I also commend you for helping others out on these boards when you do.

I still find it hard to find a proper comparison site to actually say what it is that you get from all these services.
Promises of futures shouldn't be there TBH, as one person's idea of coming soon is most definitely different to ISPs version of the same thing.

Then again, we have all witnessed the "unlimited" marketing con over the years too........
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Old 23-03-2014, 07:37
David Waine
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Really, Egg? Have another look at your post, dated 19th March, and tell me, hand on heart, that you weren't gloating.

Thank you for the compliments. The only carrot they dangled in front of me was a special discount for three months - and they rang me up to offer it out of the blue. I don't think it had anything to do with the help I have given people on this forum.

I was never with Tiscali, so I can't comment on that. I was, however, a Sky subscriber for six years and wild horses couldn't drag me back. All of which goes to show that there is more than one way of looking at things. Your experience with TalkTalk was unsatisfactory, and who am I to argue with that? Mine has been much better. Maybe I am one of the lucky ones - or maybe their detractors are more vocal than their satisfied customers. No organisation gets it right all the time - nor is it all bad.

YouView is not perfect - I never implied otherwise - but it is still developing and it has huge potential. The second generation of boxes is now appearing and initial indications are that they offer a significant improvement in performance over the original ones. The roll out of fibre optics will further boost all Internet-based services, including YouView.

I am not in any great hurry. YouView already provides me with all the TV programmes that I actually want to watch, so there would be no benefit in switching to another supplier for that. Then it is down to how the service is delivered and how much it costs. I am content to watch how the platform develops over the next two or three years. It doesn't cost me an arm and a leg each month and provides what I need. Each to their own. Perhaps we should agree to differ.
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Old 26-03-2014, 23:32
Egg The Goth
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Really, Egg? Have another look at your post, dated 19th March, and tell me, hand on heart, that you weren't gloating.

Thank you for the compliments. The only carrot they dangled in front of me was a special discount for three months - and they rang me up to offer it out of the blue. I don't think it had anything to do with the help I have given people on this forum.

I was never with Tiscali, so I can't comment on that. I was, however, a Sky subscriber for six years and wild horses couldn't drag me back. All of which goes to show that there is more than one way of looking at things. Your experience with TalkTalk was unsatisfactory, and who am I to argue with that? Mine has been much better. Maybe I am one of the lucky ones - or maybe their detractors are more vocal than their satisfied customers. No organisation gets it right all the time - nor is it all bad.

YouView is not perfect - I never implied otherwise - but it is still developing and it has huge potential. The second generation of boxes is now appearing and initial indications are that they offer a significant improvement in performance over the original ones. The roll out of fibre optics will further boost all Internet-based services, including YouView.

I am not in any great hurry. YouView already provides me with all the TV programmes that I actually want to watch, so there would be no benefit in switching to another supplier for that. Then it is down to how the service is delivered and how much it costs. I am content to watch how the platform develops over the next two or three years. It doesn't cost me an arm and a leg each month and provides what I need. Each to their own. Perhaps we should agree to differ.
Maybe winding you up a little bit before David, let's be fair you went for it too

I also used to have a good relationship with the Tiscali people in the early days of their TV service and when their newly introduced traffic shaping was causing a lot of issues. They used to phone and show genuine interest and deal with the issues I demonstrated for them.
The final TV service they ended up with was imho very good, cheap and had quite a lot of features now taken for granted on others. It was nicely situated in the marketplace.
What was really irksome was the "forced" migration onto Youview when Talk talk took it over.,which was not delivering anything we didn't already have or could get for free, particularly the way it was coming across from the marketing as being something bigger and better than what had gone before.
Anyway moving on from there, the Youview service can get up there with the rest and can fill a hole and regain a respectable position in marketplace but I just wish it had not strung people along so much and had been a bit more forthright.
Time will tell. if it does, you never know, we may end up on the same side of the fence again
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Old 27-03-2014, 22:03
sky active
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Will the sky channels be delivered through the aerial, or as internet channels?
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Old 28-03-2014, 05:41
David Waine
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They are Internet channels. Anyone with a TalkTalk subscription can receive them now if they pay for one of the boosts. It is just the package system that is being altered. The announcement also implied that the Internet channels would become recordable soon, but - annoyingly - did not actually stipulate that it would be on the same day that the packages change. I really don't know what the delay is. They have been recordable on Humax boxes for months. It is also unclear how those of us (myself included) who take the Entertainment Boost, which includes the Sky channels that are to be added to the Plus package, will be affected. Currently we pay £10 per month for those channels.
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Old 28-03-2014, 06:23
gwatuk
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...The announcement also implied that the Internet channels would become recordable soon, but - annoyingly - did not actually stipulate that it would be on the same day that the packages change...
David - you need to take TalkTalk's suggestion that this will happen "soon" with a pinch of salt.
The software has not yet been given a final trial.
A trial (hopefully the final one) is due to begin in the next few days with (I think) quite a large number of users. I guess it will last several weeks and if it throws up serious problems it could be quite a while before it is released to everyone else.

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Old 31-03-2014, 11:11
barbeler
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Can anyone remember if the TalkTalk TV contract is for 12 months? I dont's want any Sky channels and don't want to pay any more, so wish to cancel mine as soon as possible.
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Old 01-04-2014, 20:05
barbeler
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I've now cancelled TalkTalk TV, although they've rigged it so that I will still be paying more than at present, although not as much as when the price increase would have kicked in. I will also have to send the box back (no doubt for them to throw it in a skip), although it's no great loss and I feel that I'm free from their upselling schemes.

The only regret is losing all of my recordings, but I was getting fed up with the erratic and contrary performance of the box.

Can anybody recommend a suitable HD recorder with iPlayer, etc as a replacement?
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Old 02-04-2014, 15:27
niceguy1966
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I have to admit to being very underwhelmed with the changes. Maybe I will watch 1 hour a week of Sky1, but apart from that, I see no benefit.

I pretty much went with Talk Talk because it was cheap. If I'd wanted to pay more for Sky channels, I probably would have gone to Sky!
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Old 03-04-2014, 16:23
Daleytomcat
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I agree with niceguy1966, I don't need the new Sky channels and I joined TalkTalk because it is ( or was) great value.
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Old 06-04-2014, 14:37
niceguy1966
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I just checked out Sky1 for the week ahead. Two programmes I thought I might watch were Mooney Boy and Duck Quacks Don't Echo. Neither are on.

So I thought I might watch an hour a week on Sky1, but I actually think I'll not be watching anything on the new channels this week. A price rise with zero benefit.

Does anyone have any recommendations for anything to watch on the extra channels?

Some of the dramas are mid series, so not easy to join at the moment.
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Old 06-04-2014, 22:28
David Waine
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It all depends on your tastes. One man's meat is another man's poison. Sky One does little for me, but I can often find something interesting on Living or Sky Arts.
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Old 07-04-2014, 23:39
sky active
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I have Plus TV - but no Sky channels in the guide .. Any ideas as to why?
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Old 08-04-2014, 05:35
David Waine
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There should be. Have you done a retune?
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