BT TV, the TV platform offered by BT to its broadband customers, is celebrating Black Friday early this year – with a 6-months-half-price offer on all of its TV and broadband packages.
Unlike BT’s offer last month, which only included the basic “Entertainment” bundle – this time they’re offering to cut ALL TV and Broadband bundles in half – for 6 months.
BT’s TV bundles include subscriptions to popular streaming services and sports, and all come with BT’s 4K Youview recorder box, which also lets you watch Freeview without an aerial.
So, for example, BT’s Entertainment Bundle offers the “Basic” Netflix subscription, Sky’s NOW Entertainment (which includes Sky Atlantic) membership, and the 4K Pro box – for £9/month with no upfront costs. After the 6 months are done, the price goes up to the regular £18/month.
The BT TV VIP package comes with the Netflix “Standard” plan (so 1080p and up to 2 devices), Sky’s NOW Entertainment membership, NOW Sky Cinema, NOW Sky Sports, BT Sport and the 4K Freeview box – for £37.50/month for 6 months, and then £75/month (see more plans and offers below).
These flexible TV bundles are available for both new and existing users of BT Broadband (which is required – you can’t get their TV offers with other broadband providers).
If you’re a new BT Broadband customer, the Broadband + TV deals offer even deeper cuts – though, again, only for the first 6 months – and some bundles even add a Mastercard Virtual Reward Card of up to £110 on top.
The BT TV Box Pro, which you get as a part of these bundles (as a loan – you don’t own the box), recently got upgraded with a new ‘Internet Mode’ – which finally lets you watch some Freeview channels without an aerial.
This makes BT’s bundles a tempting offer for those who can’t use an aerial (due to bad reception), and is in direct competition with Sky’s standalone Stream box, and Virgin Media’s Stream Box – both of which also let you stream Freeview channels via broadband.
One important caveat to remember is that all the bundles come with a 24-month contract, so over the course of the full two years, Cord Cutting would, in many cases, still come out cheaper.
But if you’re with BT Broadband anyway (or planning to join), and know you will surely want these TV offers for the whole duration – then you might as well save some money.
- BT TV Black Friday Offers For New Customers
- BT TV Black Friday Offers For Existing Customers
- BT Broadband Black Friday Offers
BT’s TV Platform Explained
BT has been bundling Netflix into its TV packages since last year, shortly after launching its 4K BT TV Box Pro box. In addition, it lets you add Sky’s NOW streaming memberships.
The box is a 4K/HDR YouView-based device with streaming apps and plenty of storage for Freeview recordings.
It supports Dolby Atmos sound, has 4 tuners (so you can record up to 3 shows on separate channels and watch a fourth), 1TB of storage, a Bluetooth remote and WiFi/Ethernet connectivity.
The BT TV Box Pro also has a long list of supported streaming apps – Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, NOW, Britbox, BT Sport, BT Player, Milkshake and more, as well as all the standard catch-up streaming apps – BBC iPlayer, ITVX, All4, My5, UKTV Play, S4C, STV Player and BBC Sounds.
And, as mentioned, you can use it to watch many (but not all) Freeview channels without an aerial – and even record programmes from those channels to its internal storage, something both Sky Glass/Stream and Virgin’s Stream Box can’t really do.
For those who want to watch in additional rooms – BT recently launched the BT TV Mini Box, which also includes streaming apps and the ability to stream Freeview channels via broadband – but it doesn’t have any recording capabilities.
BT’s “Flexible” TV packages are attached to BT’s broadband plans (you can’t get BT TV on its own, except for BT Sport, which is also available as a monthly pass and on Sky and Virgin Media).
The BT TV packages, along with BT’s broadband, come with a 24-months contract – so in practice, they’re not very “flexible” – not as flexible as standard streaming services, at least.
But the flexible part does come from being able to change your TV package every 30 days – switch from Entertainment to Sports, cancel one and add another, or just get the VIP package which includes everything (but you can’t cancel the TV contract completely, until your contract is up).
However, if you switch TV plans during the 6-months-half-price period, you will most likely not be able to get the new bundle at the discounted price – so it might be better to wait until your first 6 months are up before you start switching TV plans.
In addition to seamlessly switching between packages, customers can also attach stand-alone add-ons to their packages – such as more of Sky’s NOW streaming plans, Amazon’s Prime Video, and more – or upgrade to Netflix’s higher tiers (to get 4K content, for example).
BT TV’s Black Friday Offers
From now until December 8, you can get most of BT’s TV and Broadband packages for half price – for the first 6 months (after which the price goes back to normal), with a 24-month contract.
The cheapest BT TV bundle (for existing BT customers as an add-on, or for new customers) is the “Entertainment Package”, which includes:
- Sky’s streaming service – NOW – with its Entertainment Membership, which includes Sky’s TV channels such as Sky Atlantic and Sky Max.
- Netflix’s Basic Plan – This plan lets you watch on one device at a time, with 720p picture quality. Note that this isn’t Netflix’s Basic with Ads tier – so you won’t be seeing adverts.
- The AMC Channel, which is exclusive to BT TV and includes American shows and films.
- The BT TV 4K Pro Box
You can now get this package for £9/month, for the first 6 months – and then it will go up to the usual £18/month, with a 24-month contract.
It’s worth mentioning that last month, BT had a better deal for this offer – £6/month for the entire duration of the contract. But this time – the other TV bundles are also half-price, which wasn’t the case last time:
The Big Entertainment bundle also includes Netflix Basic, NOW Entertainment and the 4K Pro Box – but also adds the NOW Sky Cinema membership, with 12 Sky Cinema channels and films on-demand.
This plan is offered for £14/month for 6 months, and then £28/month.
The Sport bundle doesn’t include Netflix or NOW, but includes all 4 BT Sport channels, along with Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2, the AMC Channel and the BT TV 4K Pro Box.
For Black Friday, you can get it for £8.50/month for 6 months, and then £17/month.
Then there’s the Big Sport TV bundle, which also adds the NOW Sky Sports membership on top – so you get it all for £21/month for 6 months, and then £42/month.
And lastly, there’s the VIP TV Bundle, which includes – well – everything:
- Sky’s NOW – Entertainment and Sky Sports
- Netflix’s Standard Plan – This plan lets you watch on two devices at a time, with Full HD (1080p).
- BT Sport
- The AMC Channel, which is exclusive to BT TV and includes American shows and films.
- The BT TV 4K Pro Box
For Black Friday, you can get the VIP Plan for £37.50/month for 6 months, then it goes up to £75/month.
- Check BT TV Black Friday Offers For New Customers
- Check BT TV Black Friday Offers For Existing Customers
BT’s Black Friday Broadband Offers
Customers who aren’t yet signed up for BT’s broadband, can get Half-Price offers on most of BT’s broadband plans as well – again, for the first 6 months, as well as a free activation.
Furthermore, you can get bundles that include both broadband and BT’s TV plans for even cheaper prices – as well as get Mastercard Virtual Cards of up to £110 with some of the plans.
It’s hard to compare broadband prices and offers, since prices often depend on your location and the type of plans and speeds you can get (check here), but a few examples include:
- Fibre 2 (67Mb) + BT TV Entertainment, for £25.99/month for 6 months, then £51.99/month – and you also get a £110 reward card.
- Fibre 2 (67Mb) + Big Sport, for £37.99/month for 6 months, then £75.99, along with the £110 reward card.
- Full Fibre 100 (150Mb), for £17.99/month for 6 months, then £35.99/month, with a £50 rewards card.
All broadband plans come with a 24-month contract.
Are BT TV’s Black Friday Deals Worth It?
Let’s look at the Entertainment bundle first:
Without BT, the Basic Netflix plan normally costs £6.99/month (after this year’s price increase), and the NOW Entertainment membership costs £9.99/month if you buy it directly – so £16.98/month in total.
Furthermore, Netflix recently launched its ad-supported tier, which costs £4.99/month – so if you’re willing to watch adverts, you’ll pay even less.
So, at the regular price of £18/month, not only are you not saving money with the BT Entertainment Package – you’re actually paying more, unless you take into account the BT TV Pro 4K box.
A similar Freeview recorder, which also includes streaming apps, like the Humax Aura (see our review), costs around £250. So you’re basically getting an expensive recorder/streaming box for “free” (but you have to give it back if you leave BT).
With the Black Price half-price offer, you’ll be paying £9/month for the first 6 months, and then £18/month for the remaining 18 months of your contract.
So on average that comes down to £15.75/month over the life of the contract (24 months).
Therefore you’re saving about a pound each month, compared to taking Netflix and NOW directly (but you’re also getting the 4K box and Freeview without an aerial).
Obviously, that’s not a very impressive discount – plus I’m not a big fan of long TV contracts, where you lose the flexibility that cord cutting normally gives you, when you sign up for a Netflix/NOW package for 24 months.
Things are better with the other offers – especially when you look at the Broadband + TV bundles for new customers.
You can save more – but that’s only relevant if BT’s Broadband is a good solution for you, and that depends on where you live.