TalkTalk stop selling TV Boosts to customers

No new Boosts are available to purchase by new or existing customers under the change which came into force on Monday 2 November 2020.

TalkTalk aim to phase Boosts out during 2021, so any existing customers changing their package will lose access to existing Boosts.

Instead of Boosts, TalkTalk are encouraging customers to take Now TV passes through their TalkTalk TV box.

Credit: chrisdorney/Shutterstock.com

Boosts disappearing

TV Boosts have been an integral part of TalkTalk's TV service for several years, but new and existing customers can now no longer purchase them.

Customers who already have Boosts attached to their broadband and TV bundles can keep them for now. However, if they decide to change their contract at any point, they will lose access to them and will not be able to add fresh Boosts.

While the guidance on TalkTalk's site isn't completely clear, we would expect this to include any customers who recontract with TalkTalk at the end of their contract.

This is because the provider has committed to phasing Boosts out completely in 2021, so customers should expect to lose access to them when they change their contract in any way.

Now TV

In place of TV Boosts, TalkTalk are now directing customers towards Now TV passes instead.

Now TV can be streamed through the TalkTalk TV box, although customers will first need to sign up online, and the following passes can then be purchased:

• Entertainment Pass - £9.99 per month
• Sky Cinema Pass - £11.99 per month
• Sky Sports Pass - £33.99 per month
• Kids Pass - £3.99 per month
• hayu Pass - £4.99 per month

All passes run for 30 days and can be cancelled at any time.

To sweeten the deal, TalkTalk TV are offering voucher codes to existing customers by email which are then redeemable against specific Now TV passes.

However, customers with older recordable TalkTalk TV boxes won't be able to access Now TV and should contact TalkTalk directly to discuss updating their TV box.

Plus, as the Now TV pass is essentially a subscription with another company, it can't be managed through TalkTalk's My Account feature and must instead be managed through Now TV's official channels.

Read more about TalkTalk TV and Now TV passes and the channels they offer.

Pay TV changing

This announcement from TalkTalk wasn't entirely unexpected as they stopped offering Sky Cinema and Sky Sports Boosts several months ago.

They have now followed BT TV in moving to a service dominated by Now TV passes rather than curating their content and offering it directly to customers.

For TalkTalk TV customers, it has the effect of reducing the content available to them while simultaneously altering prices. These aren't necessarily price increases - some Now TV passes may work out cheaper depending on which content a customer wants.

Yet the switch towards Now TV reduces options for customers comparing their pay TV choices.

With BT TV now mainly offering Now TV passes, it seems likely their subsidiary Plusnet will follow suit at some point, replacing their rather basic YouView service.

Other broadband providers like EE and Vodafone offer Apple TV 4K add-ons to their contracts, while both Origin and Zen are launching partnerships with Netgem TV to provide limited TV services to their customers.

This leaves Sky TV (which can be taken as a standalone service) and Virgin Media (which can't) as the main options for customers looking to take traditional pay TV services in the UK.

The popularity of streaming services has fragmented the pay TV market, yet it's unclear whether customers are getting better value for money once all their subscription services are added together.

For instance, a customer taking Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Now TV's Entertainment Pass would pay around £27 per month, rising to almost £40 if we added in BritBox and Disney+ subscriptions too.

That said, one major benefit of streaming services is they don't tie customers into a long contract, while traditional pay TV is often more rigid.