help me save on TV/broadband please

[bumbleandbumble]

I have missed payments with sky and now I am out of contract and looking for a new provider or perhaps package. I was paying £75-90 per month with phone calls and one or two purchased movie rental.

I need to cut this bill. Anyone have a suggestion? Virgin? Talk Talk?
Who has the best deal?

Don't bother with cable or satellite tv. We have free view , that's all. We used to get films via Lovefilm for about £5 per month but now don't bother.

For internet Plus net is meant to be cheapest.

whats free view? what channels do you get?

Your tv needs to be set up for it or you can buy a digi box. It's just the free digital channels, nothing fancy.

www.freeview.co.uk/whats-on/channels

I do have a tv that has it...a sony bravia, but how do you make it work? I don't understand how to turn it on and get the channels...all i get is fuzz/snow

Hmmmm. You need to plug it into an ordinary aerial socket. Have you got a cable and an ordinary tv aerial?

I've just signed up to EL for unlimited broadband and free weekend calls for £162 for the year but I'm getting £130 cash back. So, it's only costing me £32 for the year, then I'll switch again before it gets expensive. Have a look on money saving expert for some good deals.

We use Lovefilm for movies and it costs us £8 a month. Blinkbox is £3.49 for a new release but if you go through Topcashback you can get 35p back.

Freesat (same as free view but stronger signal in rural areas)
Netflix for films / series
Plusnet for broadband and phone
Blinkbox for renting new release dvd rentals online

Works out all in about £20 a month. (Plusnet on a deal at the moment, Google and see what offers they have).

If you get a Google chromecast (£18-30) you can watch you tube, Netflix and iplayer etc all on your TV.

Don't bother with freeview. That's more than £12 a month! If you aren't watching sports why bother even with live tv? Just get netflix or lovefilm. It is only £5 or £6 a month. Iplayer and 4od and channel 5 on demand are all free (as in real free unlike freeview and freesat). You can even get sky channels on now tv also through the internet for I think £5 a month.

These are all available using a Xbox or playstation. Or chromecast as already suggested. Another alternative is roku.

If you have a dish with sky you use freesat. But as I said it's not actually free as you have to pay tv license. The alternative is to get all of that via broadband which you do not have to pay tv license for, until they get their act together and charge everyone with internet access instead.

I'll just point out that if you watch tv as it is broadcast, even via the internet, then you need a TV licence. We wait a few hours and use a catchup service. We have the Amazon service for series (£5.99 pm) and "Sunday afternoon" movies, and buy the odd thing from Blinkbox.
If you're OK with paying the telly licence use Freesat, as you already have the dish.
For phone and broadband have a look at Quidco and Topcashback for the latest deals and cashback. You can usually save quite a bit by paying for your line rental a year in advance. The last time I looked TalkTalk were doing it for £10p/m under this scheme, so the others will have similar deals.

I pay £26 per month to virgin media for broadband. No Tv as freeview built in and it only ever goes on for cebeebies anyway.

no landline as don't need it.

I do pay £5.99 for netflix though and watch it on my phone.

Sorry to suggest it but Sky have an offer starting tomorrow for unlimited broadband and phone rental for £184 for a years contract, but you get £185 of M&s vouchers. So essentially free if you are happy to shop in m&s. Then you could use free view and pay licence or watch catch up only.

I've a sat dish & decoder - about €120 to get installed2 yrs ago, no ongoing fees.

Netflix €8 pm.

DD & I have unlimited data so use our phones for broadband (phones are €40 pm ea but are iPhones - last time my contract ended I sold phone for €250 & upgraded for €100).

Lots of free calls & texts (350 units - 1 unit is 1 min or 2 texts) so no landline. Have never gone over units in 3 yrs.