BT Starter pack is £0 a month (but the box doesn't record, just pauses/rewinds) and with that, BT Sport (full package) is free.

The catch is: 12 month contract and £35 setup fee (i.e. £3 a month, paid up front). You could keep Sky of course, whose recent price rise was similar to what you'd be paying BT for the box.

Cheapest PVR package from BT is £10 a month, with Extra Channels - plus available extra-cost add-ons such as Sky Sports 1&2, so if you can manage without some of the Sky channels not on BT, and cancel Sky, it might be the cheapest option. Or cancel Sky anyway and wait for a half price offer then reinstate it and take BT TV too, also with discounts, like I did...

If you out of contract then BT Sport Lite will be charged at £6.75pm plus £5 if you want the full pack.

So is this correct by downgrading you enter another 12 month contract? I am on an offer with BT Broadband which is up now in October, when its up I want to leave as my broadband price etc almost doubles.

No you can still downgrade and receive BT Sport Lite for free without renewing, but once your contract expires they will start charging you £6.75pm.

I didn't trust them with regards to billing so I just cancelled it fully, then I know I wont be charged.

Yes think I'll do the same. Safest option

I'm on Sky Fibre but last year, BT offered me free broadband and BT Sport for a year on my BT line. As I had nothing to lose, I signed up whilst retaining my Sky Fibre and Sky phone. I never used BT's Broadband but occasionally watched BT Sport on my Sky Box. BT rang me up yesterday to see if I wanted to upgrade but in fact, I asked them to cancel both services (not the phone). To my astonishment they told me that I would be subject to a £30 cancellation charge. This charge was never mentioned to me when I signed up and I have talked to three people in their Call Centre who tell me that they have mentioned the charge WHEN I CANCELLED! Has anyone else encountered this problem - certainly, I don't want to pay a charge that I knew nothing about?

They do charge for cancelling broadband, they never told me either, I only know this as I have heard others talking about it, I think they are one of the few if not the only provider who do charge for leaving. There is no charge for cancelling BT Sports, just cancelled mine this evening.

Got a phone call yesterday from BT. They said I see you've downgraded to BT Sport Lite online and did I realise that I could have it for free if I took BT TV. I politely declined.

They did say if I phone up in a month or two (near end of my contract) they might be able to give me a deal on my BT Infinity (I'm currently on a deal paying £15 for unlimited Infinity 1),

You cannot have BT broadband on a Sky line, or Sky fibre on a BT line, so I presume you have 2 lines , if you took BT's offer of free broadband ( sport is free with BT broadband) on your BT line, you took 'free' broadband for a year, if you don't renew, the £30 is in part for restoring the line back to an ordinary line, this isn't payable if you migrate broadband to another ISP but is payable if you just cancel broadband or don't use the appropriate migration process, obviously they hoped you would renew, you don't want to, which is fair enough, but the £30 disconnect is in the T&C's,

Even if he had honoured the year contract he would've been charged £30 for cancelling?

Yes, may be a bit unfair, but obviously if they say it's free for a year but if you don't keep it it's £30 to cancel they will get fewer takers...the £30 charge is well known, and unless they lied and said have b/band and the sport for free for a year and even if you don't want it after 12 months it won't cost you anything, it's a normal charge.
TBH I've not seen a deal like this , and even though the poster through choice didn't use the service much, 12 months for £30 is quite a deal, £2.50 a month,

Most providers charge for removing broadband from the line, because there is physical work required by OR and BT Wholesale,in the exchange, the charge is raised by OR/BTW to the ISP who usually pass it on to the end user, this isn't just BT Retail, it's the majority of them, after all why would they absorb the cost of removal for a customer that's leaving their company ?
You may think it's unfair to charge for a cease, but I'm sure that OR would say why should they have the expense of removing another company's customer ( or ex customer to be accurate) from the broadband equipment in the exchange...this charge is only if broadband is removed completely ,not if you move from one ISP to another

In this case I might of been lucky, I moved from Wanadoo to AOL to Orange and now to BT and never received any charge for removing broadband.

That's probably because they took over the line and broadband and you didn't cancel.

You only get the charge if you cancel services without another provider taking them over.