ISP TalkTalk UK Joins BT TV in Removing the Universal Channel UPDATE

Customers of broadband ISP TalkTalk, specifically those who take their YouView (IPTV) powered TV service alongside the premium ‘Entertainment Boost‘ add-on, may be displeased to learn that they too will now be removing the Universal Channel from display (BT confirmed the same last month).

At the time of writing we note that the popular Universal Channel is still being listed alongside 32 other channels as part of the provider’s £6 per month (normally £12) ‘Entertainment Boost‘ add-on (other big name channels in this selection include Syfy, Fox, MTV, Comedy Central, National Geographic, History and Sky One etc.). The boosts only attach a monthly contract and so the ISP doesn’t need to give lots of advanced notice.

Nevertheless we have been informed by the provider that the Universal Channel is due to be removed and we’re currently attempt to confirm precisely when this will occur (assumed to be within the next month), although it’ll probably be removed from display (advertisements) for new customers within the next few days or weeks.

We suspect that the reason for this is the same as with BT TV and ultimately stems from Comcast’s earlier takeover of Sky (Sky Broadband), which among other things included the merger of some Sky and NBCUniversal International operations.

As a result of the above Sky has largely taken operational control of NBCU’s UK channels (e.g. Universal TV, Syfy UK etc.) and thus you can find many related TV shows on Sky’s own channels, such as Sky Witness, although this in turn means that Universal has been gradually ceasing on other platforms.

In fairness the complexity of modern TV content licensing means that some related TV shows, such as Mr Robot, can still be found on other platforms like Amazon Prime Video. In other words, you don’t always need to be taking the Universal Channel in order to access some of its top shows.

At present it’s not known if TalkTalk will be adding any new channels to their boost in order to compensate customers for the loss. We hope to report back with an update from the ISP shortly.

UPDATE 23rd Jan 2020

We understand that the channel will be removed from TalkTalk TV on 27th January 2020 and then any related recordings that have been made by customers will work until 23rd February (more or less identical to BT’s situation). As we’ve said before, the closure of the Universal Channel is happening across all TV platforms.

However as it stands TalkTalk has not added any new channels or decided to reduce the price of their boost in order to compensate for the lost content.