Are you paying too much for your TV and broadband?
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Consumers could be wasting up to £380 a year paying for TV channels they never watch and broadband capacity they do not need, according to research from the Post Office.
It found that two-thirds of paid-for channels are never viewed, while a quarter said they only spent 5% of their viewing time on non-terrestrial channels.
Almost three-quarters of the households surveyed paid for broadband capacity they did not need, using it solely for surfing the web and checking emails, rather than playing online games or downloading films.
According to the Post Office, the average monthly spend on a TV, phone and broadband package is £45.82 a month.
However, one in four are paying a whopping £75.
Bundle packages
Hugh Stacey, head of Post Office Home Phone and Broadband, says: "There are a vast range of enticing home phone, broadband and TV 'bundle' packages available on the market offering hundreds of TV channels and high capacity broadband.
"While at face value they may seem to offer a great deal, our research shows they provide far more than the average person needs. For example, the top five most watched non-terrestrial channels are; ITV2, ITV3, BBC 3, BBC News and Sky Sports 1. Four of these can be received for free."
How to find the best deal
Comparison sites such as moneysupermarket.com, uSwitch.com and simplifydigital.co.uk are useful in helping you research the deals available from the handful of providers offering TV, phone and broadband packages.
However, with so many different choices it's easy to be overwhelmed so before you start, make a note of what you really need. Think about what channels you watch most, bearing in mind sport and movie channels will be the most expensive.
It may be that you can get away with a FreeSat box, which, after you've paid for the set top box allows you to watch over 150 channels subscription free.
Also think about what you use your broadband for and when you use your landline. For instance, there's no point paying over the odds for free calls all day if you are at work for most of it. In some cases it may be that you can find deals that genuinely reflect your needs by ditching the bundle and buying each service separately.
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Your Comments
I think that the main problem in this area is one of restrictive practice. For example, nearly every "deal" requires a customer to buy a package with a telephone line. In my area, the only cable service available is from Virgin which owns the cables and is the only provider that offers a broadband only connection but at an exorbitant price. All other provision is slow on an old BT lines and requires a phone line as part of the package.
We have two Vodaphone PAYG mobile accounts which we can use for emergency services, Skype via the internet and with a Skype area number for additional phone services, Freeview for our TV, and Virgin as an internet provider. This custom blend is cheaper than any package or standard contract offer but still too expensive owing to the artificially high price Virgin charges for an internet only connection.
We should not be forced to pay artificially high prices by these companies for bundled services that we do not need (all companies) or for an internet only connection (Virgin) that is priced too high.
The sooner that phones are stripped out of packages the better. This also applies to forcing the cable companies to provide open access to their networks. At present we all pay far too much for inferior services. One should be able to have separate internet or telephone connection by either cable or twisted wire.
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