UK ISP BT Bundle FREE YouView TV Box with Superfast Broadband Signups

BT has announced that customers who take one of its superfast broadband BTInfinity (FTTC / P) packages (costing from just £18 a month) will from 26th October 2012 also get a FREE YouView set-top-box (normally £299) with no TV subscription fee. Except it’s not completely “free“.

YouView is a subscription free and broadband internet (IPTV) based, video-on-demand and catch-up TV solution that is being bundled by several big ISPs including BT and TalkTalk. BT’s press release states that the “free” box, which incidentally is manufactured by Humax, is also available in non-Infinity areas but only with a basic BTVision TV Essential subscription (i.e. from £4 a month extra).

By comparison BTInfinity subscribers are told to expect a “free YouView set top box with no TV subscription“, although a quick glance at the small print contradicts this. Firstly there’s a £6.95 delivery charge and on top of that you still have to pay a £49 activation fee (includes powerline adapters). Adding further confusion BT’s small print states that “to get a free YouView box you’ll need to sign up to BT Infinity/BT Broadband and BT Vision Essential“. This actually means that BTVision Essential is included FREE with BTInfinity but not standard BT Broadband (as above).

Existing customers can also take advantage of this offer but BT states that they will first need to be out of their current minimum term contract (i.e. you will need to start a new 12 month contract to benefit).

Alex Green, BTRetail’s Director of TV, said:

“This is a fantastic offer. Customers will now be able to enjoy BT’s super-fast fibre broadband with a YouView box and TV Essential pack all for £18 per month. With YouView from BT not only can customers experience a great new way to watch TV they will also be able to access a huge range of on-demand content from BT Vision. The launch of YouView from BT is another piece of exciting news about BT’s plans for TV.”

BT’s YouView set-top-box includes the usual array of digital Freeview TV / radio channels, access to BT’s pay-TV BTVision service, 500GB of hard drive storage for recording (PVR), seven day catch-up TV and content from BBC iPlayer, ITV player, 4OD, Demand5, Milkshake and NowTV.