TalkTalk TV Packages

TalkTalk TV can be bundled with TalkTalk broadband and offers an Ultra HD set-top box with Freeview and access to a range of on-demand apps.

There are exclusive discounts on Sky content with NOW, as well as support for Netflix, Prime Video, and any app on the Google Play Store.

For customers happy with a streaming-only set-top box, TalkTalk TV rivals the bigger players for value for money.

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At a glance

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Who is TalkTalk TV best suited for?

TalkTalk TV is best suited to households happy to sign up with TalkTalk broadband and who want a simple, commitment-free, set-top box for online streaming.

While the set-top box offers access to 70+ live Freeview channels, all other content relies on taking additional subscriptions with various streaming services, although there are exclusive discounts available with NOW and Netflix bundles.

The new Android powered hub provides access to the Google Play Store, so, the most popular apps are all supported, including Amazon Prime Video, Discovery+, Paramount+, Disney+, Apple TV+, as well as BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, My5, and YouTube, among others.

Those wanting to watch Sky Sports, Sky Cinema and Sky Entertainment are especially catered for with exclusive discounts on NOW Memberships and NOW Boost, which offers viewing in full HD and ad-skipping, included for free.

One downside to TalkTalk TV is that it is only available in Openreach enabled areas, be that for customers on fibre-to-the-cabinet or fibre-to-the-home connections. Those living in CityFibre enabled areas who can sign up to TalkTalk full fibre broadband won't be able to access TalkTalk TV, and will need to opt for a service like Sky Stream instead, as it can be taken with any broadband package.

Overall, TalkTalk TV is a good addition to TalkTalk broadband, but offers particular value for money for customers who want to watch Sky content in full HD on a larger screen.

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What does TalkTalk TV offer?

TalkTalk TV is available as an added extra to TalkTalk broadband, and costs just £5 per month with no setup fee. It's a highly flexible service with a 30-day minimum term and cancellation with just 48 hours' notice thereafter.

Customers are provided with the new Android-powered TV Hub, which supports Freeview over an Internet connection, as well as access to a wide range of apps through the Google Play Store.

While it's possible to take TalkTalk TV on its own, and then add whichever subscriptions a customer wants, the best value for money is found in their new pre-made bundles, which offer exclusive savings on NOW and Netflix.

The new TV bundles include:

• Entertainment: NOW Entertainment & Netflix
• Sports: NOW Sports
• Ultimate: NOW Entertainment, NOW Sports, NOW Cinema, and Netflix

These bundles can be taken with any of TalkTalk's broadband deals, including Fibre 35, Fibre 65, Full Fibre 150, Full Fibre 500, and Full Fibre 900, with only the price of the broadband element varying.

Here is the latest pricing for each of the TalkTalk TV bundles with Full Fibre 150:

While these plans are offered as a bundle deal, the contracts for TalkTalk broadband and TalkTalk TV remain separate.

Customers sign an 18-month contract for TalkTalk broadband, yet, the TV element is made available on a 30-day rolling term, so it can be cancelled at any time after the first month.

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TalkTalk TV packages

As mentioned, it's possible to simply sign up for TalkTalk broadband and add the TV service for an extra £5 per month. Customers can then choose from various on-demand subscription apps, including discounts on NOW.

However, TalkTalk are now also offering three pre-made bundles that increase the discounts available to customers.

At the time of writing these discounts include:

• Save £5 per month with NOW Entertainment & Netflix
• Save £14.99 per month with NOW Sports
• Save £24.99 per month with NOW Entertainment, Sports, Cinema, & Netflix

The deals are cheaper than signing up to NOW directly, and they're also cheaper than taking TalkTalk TV separately and adding subscriptions later, so they offer very good value for money, especially when you consider NOW Boost is also included for free.

NOW Memberships offer access to premium content from Sky, including Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, and Sky Entertainment which includes channels like Sky Atlantic and Sky Max.

NOW Boost usually costs £6 per month, and boosts any NOW content to full 1080p HD and removes ads on some programmes. It also allows customers to watch on up to 2 devices at the same time.

Those who opt for the new Entertainment or Ultimate TV bundles will also get a subscription to Netflix Standard with Ads as well.

Each of the bundle deals can be taken with any of TalkTalk's broadband packages, as long as a customer is within an Openreach part-fibre or full fibre enabled area.

Entertainment

The Entertainment bundle from TalkTalk includes NOW Entertainment, NOW Boost, Netflix, and the Android TV Hub.

This plan costs an extra £15 per month on top of the price of the broadband, and saves customers £5 per month over taking the services separately.

NOW Entertainment includes 15 Sky channels, including Sky Max, Sky Atlantic, Sky Documentaries, Sky History, Sky Witness, and Sky Comedy. It also includes 7 kids' channels, including Sky Kids, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon.

The Netflix plan included in this bundle is Standard with Ads, and worth £4.99 per month.

Here's the pricing of the Entertainment plan with different TalkTalk broadband options:

This could well be TalkTalk's most popular bundle, however the bigger savings are found in the following Sports and Ultimate plans.

Sports

Those looking to watch Sky Sports and the new Sky Sports+ service will find these in TalkTalk's new Sports bundle.

The plan simply includes NOW Sports and NOW Boost to watch Sky Sports channels in full 1080p HD with free ad-skipping, yet, customers can save £14.99 per month.

NOW Sports is discounted to just £25 per month, including the £5 TalkTalk TV fee, so offers great value for money for those looking for a cheap way to watch Sky Sports, as the usual price for NOW Sports is £34.99.

Here's the Sports plan with different TalkTalk broadband options:

This is one of the market's cheapest ways to watch Sky Sports so is likely to prove popular.

Ultimate

For those who want all-round home entertainment at a low cost, TalkTalk's Ultimate plan combines NOW Entertainment, NOW Sports, NOW Cinema, and Netflix, and TalkTalk say this plan saves customers £24.99 per month.

It costs an extra £40 per month, but includes:

• NOW Entertainment, worth £9.99
• NOW Cinema, worth £9.99
• NOW Sports, worth £34.99
• NOW Boost, worth £6
• Netflix with ads, worth £4.99
• TalkTalk TV, worth £5

Separately, these services would come to £70.96, so the Ultimate bundle actually saves £30.96 every month.

As with the other bundles, Ultimate TV can also be taken with each TalkTalk broadband deal:

Similar plans to TalkTalk's Ultimate TV bundle are available with BT, Sky and Virgin Media, and so, this is how it compares price wise for the same range of content:

As you can see, TalkTalk's TV & broadband bundles offer good value for money, coming in at a similar price level to Sky TV, and noticeably cheaper than both BT and Virgin Media for a similar range of content.

Availability for TalkTalk broadband varies, although around 97% of UK homes can access the Fibre 35 and Fibre 65 superfast plans.

TalkTalk Full Fibre plans are currently rolled out to around 15 million homes via the Openreach network, where the TalkTalk TV add-on is available. Coverage for these faster deals is rapidly expanding, so it's worth checking availability in your area on our TalkTalk deals page.

Read more in our main review of TalkTalk broadband.

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TalkTalk TV Hub

The TalkTalk TV Hub is the newer set-top box which is now offered to all customers taking TalkTalk full fibre broadband plans.

The TV Hub is powered by Android and has Chromecast built-in. The main difference of this box is that it offers access to the Google Play Store, and with it the ability to download over 10,000 apps.

That means it offers support for the widest range of on-demand apps, including everything from Paramount+, Discovery+, Disney+, Apple TV+, and many others, as well as games.

The main downside to the new TV Hub is the lack of live channels, with the box only coming with the ability to watch 70+ live Freeview channels, compared to over 200 with the previous Netgem 4K TV Box.

However, customers will get the following benefits with the new TV Hub:

• 70+ live Freeview channels
• 7-day guide and catch-up
• 4K Ultra HD resolution support, and Dolby Atmos sound support
• Access to thousands of apps via the Google Play Store

The full list of apps available is almost endless, with over 10,000 available via the Google Play Store, including:

• Netflix
• NOW
• Amazon Prime Video
• Discovery+ (with TNT sports)
• Disney+
• Paramount+
• Apple TV+
• YouTube
• Pluto TV
• BritBox
• Redbull TV

Ultimately, any user will be hard pressed to find an app that isn't supported on the new TV Hub.

One we have come across is the new Ultra HD add-on for NOW, NOW Ultra Boost, which oddly isn't supported on the TalkTalk TV Hub, despite NOW Boost being included at no extra cost. Other UHD services are supported, however.

How to watch TalkTalk TV

The TalkTalk TV Hub comes with a HDMI port so it can be connected to any modern TV set. It also connects to the Internet wirelessly or via Ethernet LAN, and has an aerial socket to watch live Freeview channels.

Customers can pause and rewind live TV up to around 30 to 45 minutes, although there is no ability to record programmes other than watching them via catch-up apps.

Both 4K Ultra HD and 1080p full HD content are supported, as is Dolby Atmos sound if programmes or apps provide this.

Other unique benefits of the TV Hub for viewers include Google Assistant voice control, as well as options to integrate with Alexa.

Here are more specifications of the box:

Android TV Hub vs Netgem 4K box vs YouView

Existing TalkTalk broadband customers who already have TalkTalk TV with one of the previous YouView boxes may be able to upgrade to the Android TV Hub (postage may apply). However, they may be wondering whether it's worth it.

TalkTalk's new Android-powered TV service has some benefits over the previous YouView box, including:

• Ultra HD viewing where 4K content is available (a 4K TV is required)
• Wide app support via the Google Play Store
• Voice control with Alexa is more limited than with the Google Assistant, and older YouView Plus boxes (DN370T) don't offer this feature at all

There are some drawbacks though, where the more advance YouView Plus box especially offered more features than the new TV Hub does.

• No multiroom option with the TV Hub
• YouView Plus had built-in storage for recording up to 185 hours of SD TV
• The Android TV Hub can only pause and rewind 30-45 minutes, while the YouView Plus box can pause and rewind up to 120 minutes.

Side-by-side, the Android TV Hub and YouView TV boxes look like this:

TalkTalk YouView TV is still supported by the provider, including existing multiroom subscriptions. However, customers with the YouView box may be inclined to upgrade to the new TV Hub for the wider on-demand app support.

Those with a newer YouView Plus box may see little reason to upgrade however, as the box offers built-in recording as well as a more advanced pause and rewind facility. Earlier versions of the YouView Plus box (DN370T) don't support Prime Video though, so that may be one reason to upgrade.

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How does TalkTalk TV compare?

TalkTalk TV is a simple set-top box offering accessing to various streaming platforms. However, with the launch of Sky Stream and Virgin Stream last year, the service is facing increasing competition.

The service is also in direct competition with BT, who also offer a TV service for their broadband customers based on NOW Memberships.

Here's how TalkTalk TV compares on price:

Sky and Virgin Media offer TV packs more directly and don't use NOW Memberships, they also provide content in 1080p HD as standard.

While TalkTalk TV comes with NOW Boost and therefore full 1080p HD, BT TV don't include Boost, and so content is in SD or 720p, unless customers pay extra for the HD add-on.

Overall, TalkTalk TV offers good value for money against rival options, although services like Sky Stream offer more live channels with greater discounts for bundling Sky broadband.

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Customer service

As a budget provider, TalkTalk aren't renowned for their customer service, and have a fairly poor record of high complaints for their broadband service.

However, of the four pay TV providers included in Ofcom's complaint records, TalkTalk still had less complaints than the industry average in the first quarter of 2024.

TalkTalk have been performing well on complaints for their pay TV service since the latter half of 2020. Prior to this they did receive more complaints, although either BT or Virgin Media have received the most complaints over the past several years.

Pay TV generally receives much less consumer complaints overall than broadband, and TalkTalk often receive higher complaint figures for broadband, however they're rarely the worst provider.

In terms of customer satisfaction, Ofcom's latest Comparing Service Quality report, last updated in May 2023, found TalkTalk customers were generally less satisfied with their service than the industry average, yet they had less customers with a reason to complain than Virgin Media.

TalkTalk also performed well for call waiting time, with customers waiting on average just 1 minute 22 seconds to speak to an advisor, compared to the industry average wait time of 2 minutes and 37 seconds.

Overall, as a budget provider TalkTalk focus on low-prices, and their customer service record shows improvement is needed, however customers seem happy with TalkTalk TV as it has received few complaints in the last two years.

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Verdict: Is TalkTalk TV any good?

TalkTalk TV offers unparalleled value for money for those who want to watch premium Sky content on a big screen.

The TalkTalk TV Hub offers some unique features, including Ultra HD viewing and wide app support, and the low-cost makes it an easy addition to TalkTalk broadband packages.

While it doesn't offer the same level of live channels seen on Sky and Virgin Media's premium platforms, it does rival them on price and sports fans are well catered for.

What we like most about TalkTalk TV:

• Wide app support with the Google Play Store of over 10,000 apps
• Ability to bundle NOW and Netflix subscriptions at a discount
• NOW TV Boost included for free in all plans for 1080p HD and ad-free viewing
• Ultimate flexibility with just a 30-day minimum term, and 48-hour cancellation thereafter

Where TalkTalk TV falls down:

• Lack of live channels as seen on Sky and Virgin Media
• The mobile app is missing entirely on the new TalkTalk TV Hub
• No Ultra HD support for the new NOW Ultra Boost add-on

Ultimately, TalkTalk TV gives TalkTalk broadband a serious edge over budget rival Plusnet who withdrew their TV service in January 2021.

TalkTalk TV also creates some serious food for thought as a low-cost TV platform that stands up to contenders Sky, Virgin Media, and particularly BT, on cost.

Check out TalkTalk's latest prices, or read more on TalkTalk vs BT and TalkTalk vs Sky.

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