Multi Room TV Trial Gets Underway at UK Broadband ISP TalkTalk UPDATE

Broadband customers who signed-up last year to trial TalkTalk’s new YouView (IPTV) based Multi-Room TV service are finally starting to receive their kit. The ISP is aiming to launch the service commercially during early 2018 (most likely around late March or April).

The ISP first demonstrated the upgrade in November 2017, which essentially consisted of a second set-top-box (i.e. possibly like the TV Plus box with an internal hard disk) and the multi-room service itself is then sold as part of an optional ‘Boost‘ for an additional fee (after the trial we believe this will cost an extra £4 per month but that is not finalised). At launch TalkTalk are only expected to support a maximum of two boxes but this may expand in the future.

Customers who adopt the service will also need to be mindful of the fact that a single TalkTalk TV box currently requires a minimum broadband speed of 3Mbps (or 5Mbps for premium channels like Sky Sports / Cinema). Obviously if you expect a lot of multi-room use then that minimum should probably be doubled.

TalkTalk’s Nov 2017 Results Statement

“In H2 we expect to launch a multi-room proposition allowing us to address a new segment in the market, and a new multi-screen platform, which will offer consistent access to Video On Demand and linear content, complementing the YouView set top box experience.”

Last year’s update also mentioned a new multi-screen viewing feature, which will be added for existing TV subscribers but we don’t think that attracts an extra cost. This will work much like any other multi-screen service, although we don’t yet know if they’ll place a limit on the number of other devices that can view content via your account (most video streaming providers impose a limit to stop abuse).

UPDATE 20th Feb 2018

TalkTalk has clarified to us that the Multi-Room TV service will only be available to their “fibre broadband” (FTTC and FTTP) subscribers.