Broadband ISP Zen Internet UK to Offer Netgem TV Service
Broadband ISP Zen Internet looks to have become the latest provider to add a Pay TV service after they began contacting existing customers to offer them a special deal on the Netgem TV (IPTV) platform, which reduces the normal monthly cost from £14.99 to £9.99 and is free for the first month (on a 12 month contract).
Subscribers will, among other things, receive Netgem’s latest Netbox 4K set-top-box (free postage), which tends to be similar to some of those supplied by rival video streaming companies like Roku (Now TV). The box includes the usual array of premium content (sports), apps (Amazon Prime Video, hayu, Rakuten TV, YouTube etc.), live TV channels (Freeview) and catch-up content.
The TV company’s kit has already been adopted by a number of broadband ISPs (e.g. WightFibre, Gigaclear, Origin Broadband) and now Zen Internet has joined their ranks. Curiously Zen makes no obvious mention of this on their main website and we only spotted it after one of our readers (Rik) notified us of a recent communication from the ISP.
Summary of Content Included
– 120 Freeview and Premium Channels including Premier Sports and LaLigaTV
– Ability to record Freeview channels
– Over 30,000 hours of catch-up TV (BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All4, My5 and UKTV Play)
– Access to the best streaming services including Prime Video, BritBox and Rakuten TV
– Selected internet channels available through the Netgem TV mobile App
– 4K box included and shipped for free (worth £129)
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 and Linkedin.
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Are the freeview channels via a digital TV signal, or over the internet?
Does the box need to be sent back at the end of contract, or face a fee/penalty?
They way I understand it, although I may be wrong…
It’s very similar to BT TV/TalkTalk/Youview type box, where just like your typical Humax STB you can buy from currys, it is a Freeview HD box (using standard roof antenna) with a HardDrive for recording. It also has catchup apps (however these probably aren’t as seemlessly integrated into the EPG, like on Youview)
The difference from what you can buy off the shelf, as it also supports IPTV for premium sports/movies which can be part of a subscription you pay with your broadband, which will be delivered over broadband without the need for the TV aerial.
The biggest drawback of the Netgem boxes appears to be the absense of an Netflix app. They’ve never had it, amazon reviews for these always bring it up.
As the quote say’s you get it for “free”, I assume it’s yours at the end of the contract.
Looks more like an affiliate type deal that Zen becoming an official NetGem supplier.
The Zen sales team told me it was just a one off special offer and that the contract would be directly with NetGem as would support etc.
I had a trial of the Netbox 4K, unfortunately it isn’t a full fledged PVR. The ‘PVR’ facility is via you plugging in a USB drive. As the Netbox 4K only has one tuner you mostly cannot change channel while recording, However, you can change channel so long as the channel you tune is broadcast on the same Freeview Mux, making it’s PVR capability very limited indeed.
Netgem TV is cacca.