Light Reading reports that U.K. cable giant NTL has unveiled its response to to “free” broadband offers from Freeview and BSkyB with a “free TV” plan of its own for new fixed-line customers.
NTL (Wikipedia) also has a package of all four major services — broadband, video, voice, and wireless — that allows customers to mix and match.
The operator using Virgin Mobile, to offer fixed-line telephony, mobile telephony, TV/video on demand, and broadband (up to 2 Mbit/s) for £40 (US$74) per month. (See LR: NTL Takes Virgin.)
The “free TV” offer includes:
- Free digital TV service for all home phone customers
- Free for life of subscription
- Superior to Freeview, enabling all subscribers access to advanced next generation services including some that even Sky can’t match, like video-on-demand
- Compatible with high definition TV services and personal video recorder
- Customers can upgrade to higher level TV packages anytime they want
- No hidden installation or connection charges
- Available on or before September 1st
The quad-play offer includes:
- First and only quad-play in the UK
- Available to new and existing customers
- Announced just three weeks after Virgin Mobile acquisition
- Combines ntl:Telewest’s three for £30 service with a Virgin Mobile pay monthly contract
- All for just £40 a month
NTL, a cable/broadband provider, will use television content supplied by Flextech and UKTV, the largest suppliers of basic channels to the UK pay-TV market. Customers will be able to pick and mix “quad play” services in any combination they want, with any two of the services for £20 ($37) per month or any three for £30 ($55.50).
The most recent “free” offer was launched last week by NTL’s main TV service rival, Murdock’s satellite television service, BSkyB (see DailyWireless: BSkyB: Free Broadband).
NTL’s “free TV” offer is aimed at bumping up subscriber numbers at the low end of the market. New customers that want a basic fixed-line phone package, costing £11 ($20.36) per month, will get a base-line TV package thrown in free. Notably, the deal does not include any installation or connection charges. It will be available on September 1 or before, says NTL.
By contrast, Sky’s DSL offering, provides free broadband, after an activation charge of £40 ($74), of up to 2 Mbit/s for customers that subscribe to Sky’s TV service, which starts at £15 ($27.75) per month for the most basic set of channels.
NTL is already the U.K.’s second biggest broadband provider after BT Group. At the end of March this year NTL had nearly 5 million customers using a variety of services: More than 2.8 million were using the operator’s broadband service, 4.3 million were fixed-line telephony users, and 3.3 million subscribed to the TV service.
The closure of the Virgin Mobile acquisition earlier this month added more than 5 million mobile subscribers to the company. (See NTL Completes Virgin Buy.)
NTL merged with its major cable rival, TeleWest, late last year. It also has been busy revamping its network infrastructure and migrating to a less complex architecture in recent years.
Free seems to be everywhere in the UK. The Freeview settop box started the ball rolling. Using a DVB-T settop box (for less than $99), consumers in the UK can get more than 20 digital tv channels, 30 radio stations and other services — over the air — free. The UK uses COFDM-based DVB-T system which allows reception even with rabbit ears.
As of March 2006, more than 10 million Freeview-enabled receivers have been sold and approximately 6.4 million homes have the service.
Murdocks’s satellite television service, BSkyB, followed with a “free broadband” offer for satellite tv subscribers who paid for their equipment and installation. Now broadband provider NTL/Telewest is offering their cable television service package “free” with their phone service.
Related DailyWireless stories include; BSkyB: Free Broadband, AT&T/Echostar VOD, Murdoch to Offer Free Broadband?, Winner of the Triple Play, The Free Triple Play, Telco’s Left Behind in IPTV Armageddon?, DirecTV Quinella?, Murdoch: Bang…Zoom!, DirecTV Readys Two-Way, WildBlue Partners with DirecTV & Echostar, WildBlue: AT&T’s DeathStar?, AOL + Clearwire and Satellite/WiMax Hybrids.
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