Vodafone and Three UK Reportedly Exploring TV and Broadband Bundles
In a somewhat unsurprising development, newspaper reports have today claimed that Vodafone and Three UK (CK Hutchison) may be gearing up to support their merger by discussing the launch of a new Pay TV service. Such products are typically sold as part of a bundle (convergence), such as alongside fixed broadband, phone and mobile plans.
The merger, which was approved by the CMA in December 2024 (here) and is said to be worth £15bn+, is due to complete any time now. The deal will see Vodafone retain a 51% slice of the business and CKH (Three UK) hold 49%. Both operators have previously promoted the deal as being “great for customers, great for the country and great for competition,” while also resulting in a major £11bn investment to upgrade the UK’s 5G mobile (broadband) infrastructure and coverage.
At present, Three UK is a mobile-only operator, while Vodafone have long since branched out into home broadband by offering related packages via Openreach and CityFibre’s national networks. Despite this, it’s not uncommon for major mergers in the telecommunications sector to be followed by a focus on greater convergence of different services, much as we’ve seen via O2 and Virgin Media, as well as BT and EE before them.
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According to the Sunday Telegraph (paywall), both Vodafone and Three UK are allegedly considering something similar post-merger, with the possible future introduction of a Pay TV service and or broadband bundles via Three UK forming part of their discussions. But a spokesperson for Vodafone warned it was still too early to comment on the company’s plans post-merger.
Karen Egan, Enders Analysis, said:
“There are certainly some opportunities for cross-selling Vodafone’s broadband product to Three’s 9.3m mobile subscribers, but broadband is a really tough market right now with very slim margins so they’ll be quite constrained in the level of incentive discounts they can offer.”
In recent years’ convergence has become somewhat an area of mixed success. This is partly because many consumers have been gradually navigating away from the traditional Pay TV model and preferring to sign-up independently via a collection of often independent streaming providers (e.g. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, NOW TV, Disney+ etc.).
The situation has been somewhat underlined by the recent softening of focus on Pay TV services by the likes of TalkTalk and BT, as well as the complete removal of the TV products by BT sibling PlusNet. Suffice to say that it’s much harder today to make an attractive Pay TV product, and broadband can also be very challenging.
However, it’s worth noting that Vodafone has been seeing strong UK take-up of their home broadband products in recent years, and the operator does have experience in Pay TV via some of their other markets outside the UK. The potential is certainly there to do something more with bundles, but whether that would be successful is another matter.
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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No one talking about the Three data/ internet issues for the past 4 days? Im wondering if its because of this so called ‘merger’ that so many issues are now arising on the Three network.
I use smarty, and it was okay last week and on Saturday, I don’t know about yesterday as the phone was connected to Wi-Fi for most of it.
What Three data/internet issues? My Smarty sim has been going like gangbusters over the last week.
That being said, I’m sure it won’t last – when Vodafone customers have access to Three’s network it’s going to be mayhem here (as Vodafone is 2G – yes, really – while Three has 4G and some 5G).
@tinker Probably not where you are. Just look on downdetector & see. Even Three Network status shows issues for the past 5 days.
Vodafone should have jumped at the chance with BSKYB years ago this would have created a massive monopoly of Pay tv and great Mobile but oh well
the need to team wth youfibre ,, it pritty much the best internet UK has
ITV is currently in play. The ITVX service would make a good fit once the studies go to the international buyers.
Is there any space in the market for another TV service? It also depends on what they offer content wise, Sky has the sport market.
I am not going to stick myself in 24-month contracts, I am fine with what I have and since I don’t have and not likely to get a TV licence, TV services that show live TV is out for me anyway.
Also I vowed few years ago not to go for bundles again, certainly ones that I am stuck in, I will stick with Smarty if they carry on as they are and keep giving the deal I have, they are certainly not going to make a lot of money from me, at £5 a month. 🙂
A USP would be something that can provide Sky channels whilst also having a local DVR, given Sky and VMs push/move to stream only IPTV, probably won’t happen though.
Instead I’d just expect a box with Now TV (i.e. Sky stuff is stream only) and maybe Freeview.
As Mark said in the article customers are veering towards a pick ‘n’ mix of streaming channels that you only have to buy a month at a time as and when you want to. Sky are going that way with the Now service having been upgraded considerably over the last year.
@Big Dave, I prefer the pick and choose thing, I can go in and out when ever I want, no contract for streaming. I had Now TV a few years ago, I got the box, entertainment and movies on a Black Friday offer, but then dropped the movies and went for entertainment when the offer was over. I did not have a smart TV then. The problem was and still is you pay extra to get HD, while on my old Plasma, 720P look okay, but would want something a bit better on the set I have now.
I really don’t think there is a need for TV here. If I look at my wider family, myself, brother and my wife’s sisters. None of us have TV anymore. We all have a smart TV with access to prime or netflix, obviously there is much more streaming options out there.
The UK I think is moving to a streaming format it’s happening at such a rate that the government and the BBC are trying to figure out how they can still take a licence fee from you. Lol
I could be wrong but this feels like a dead duck. For me I am content with Netflix and Prime, I have an Altnet supplier total cost is 45ish a month.
It would be interesting if they could do a deal with Freely to include that in their set up box as Freeview will probably be no more in about 8-9 years.
For example Great movies looks like it is going to be IP only as an internet channel on Freeview soon.
It would be interesting if they could do a deal with Freely to include that in their set up box as Freeview will probably be no more in about 8-9 years.
For example Great movies looks like it is going to be IP only as an internet channel on Freeview soon.
AFAIK there is no Freely app or device coming soon, but it will have to come if Freely is to take off. I suspect an app on streaming devices such as Roku and Fire TV stick will come first.
Re: BBC, put adverts instead of a TV fee.
There’s only so much advertising money to go around. If the BBC had adverts, even a limited amount, it would cause major problems for other channels, not least the other three main PSBs (ITV, Channel Four and Channel Five). It’s a solution but, in this case, not a valid solution. What the answer is however, I’m not sure. It clearly needs funding (else we’ll end up with a media market much like the U.S. only with much more national content (local content here is hard to make pay)), but how to fairly do it is another question. Either way, it won’t be the same BBC as it is now, and that’s not nearly the same as its heyday.
Three UK isn’t a “mobile-only operator.” I receive 5G home broadband from Three, and it’s pretty good.
You’re one of the lucky ones.
I tried it in 2023. It was super for 6wks and then it was dreadful.
Three customer service was absolutely horrific. It took several weeks before they let me cancel the contract. That was due to sheer determination on my part.
I swapped to Vodafone and the connection (City Fibre) has been fantastic, with not one outage.
Watch out for giffgaff launching a £10 a month package for 500mb BB a telecom’s war is beginning hopefully
Anyone here have Vodafone fttp via cityfibre with SKY Q? Does SKY work / stay connected okay or does it keep dropping?
I moved from Vodafone and went PAYG with Superdrug Mobile and I have to say moving from Vodafone which was atrocious in my area in County Durham as you would be lucky if you got 3G at times and moved to Superdrug Mobile which uses the Three network and having 5G as soon as I step out of my front door is really good, and the speed is good around my area as well.
Hi Mark.
Is there any updates regarding Vodafone RedStream Fibre Network
None of this makes srnce im with Vodafone use my phone everything and have bt ee tv connected too my phone nothing makes sence package with bt and prime amozon nobody has explained mouthing had too have Internet too have tv and landmine nothing sence also Vodafone contract yet have pay licence fee