Broadband ISP TalkTalk Bundles Cheaper Netflix without Pay TV

Budget UK ISP TalkTalk has today introduced a new package that bundles a home “Fibre Broadband” (FTTC / VDSL2) service with a cheaper subscription to Netflix’s popular internet video streaming service, albeit without requiring new customers to take out a traditional Pay TV service first in order to benefit.

Essentially, customers who take out TalkTalk’s 65Mbps (average speed) Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) package on an 18-month contract term will get the Netflix Standard plan (usually £9.99 per month extra) included in the price – on one bill. If you happen to want their 4K streaming Netflix Premium tier, then that does attract an extra cost of £4 per month, which sounds a lot lower than the official subscription price of £13.99.

We figured there had to be a catch somewhere in TalkTalk’s Netflix Package and there is. For example, if you take out the Fibre 65 package today then it’s currently on offer for just £23 per month on an 18-month term, while the Netflix bundled alternative costs £31.95 per month (that’s £8.95 per month more). In other words, you’re effectively only saving £1.04 off the normal Netflix Standard plan price.

The press release mentions that it can also be taken alongside TalkTalk’s slower Fibre 35Mbps package (£29.95 per month with Netflix on an 18-month contract), but in our tests we were never actually given that as an option.

Asanga Gunatillaka, Commercial Director of TalkTalk Consumer, said:

“The broadband market is full of big-bundle offerings that can end up costing customers a lot of money. There are millions of households that simply want great broadband and great content for great value. That’s why we’ve launched the Fibre and Netflix package so there’s a value option on the market. What’s more, it’s available all on one bill, making it easier for customers to keep track of their outgoings.

The partnership marks the latest step in our mission to provide great connectivity and entertainment that is accessible for everyone.”

One other question mark concerns future price rises. Netflix tends to increase their prices quite a bit every couple of years, while TalkTalk will jack up the monthly price from April 2022 every year, by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate of inflation plus 3.7%. With such a tight margin of benefit, it’s hard to know whether this will work out cheaper in the long run than just taking both services as separate products.

Finally, it’s a little disappointing to see that TalkTalk were unable to make this an option on their ultrafast and future fibre broadband packages too.