Customers of budget internet provider TalkTalk, specifically those who take their Pay TV service, have had it confirmed that the ISP will be phasing out their single billing integration of Sky’s NOW TV streaming service (i.e. customers will no longer be able to add NOW TV Plans to a single bill from the ISP). Netflix integration was also removed last month.
The change was first spotted earlier last month after several of the ISP’s customers noticed (community forum) that they could no longer add NOW TV’s streaming plans (e.g. NOW TV Entertainment or Cinema) to their existing TalkTalk service (credits to one of our readers, Mehran, for the news tip).
As one customer, Nick_89, asked: “Why has TalkTalk taken the decision to end the association with Now TV because if I make any changes to the Now boosts I won’t be able to get them back. Does TalkTalk really think people will sign up for what is essentially a Freeview plus box for £5 per month? It’s Freeview! Most TV’s have the apps that are on the TalkTalk TV box anyway.”
Advertisement
According to a member of TalkTalk’s support team, the ability to add both Netflix and NOW TV to an existing TalkTalk bill/account has now “been withdrawn” and is “no longer available” (i.e. customers would need to go directly to NOW TV in order to add a subscription): “For now, existing subscribers will still continue, however this will be phased out at some point in the new year. Customers will be contacted beforehand when this happens. As yet I have no dates for this“.
A spokesperson for TalkTalk told ISPreview:
“We regularly change the offers available to our customers. We do not currently have any NOW or Netflix deals available with TalkTalk TV, but customers can continue to access these streaming services through their TalkTalk TV device. TalkTalk TV customers with an existing NOW or Netflix subscription via TalkTalk can continue to use their package.”
The mention of Netflix above could relate to the fact that the ability of existing customers to be billed for this through TalkTalk was separately stopped on 9th December 2024. In a brief web update, Netflix said (here): “Netflix billing through TalkTalk is not available for new or rejoining customers and will be unavailable for existing customers as of December 9, 2024..”
UPDATE 9th Jan 2025 @ 5:22pm
TalkTalk has asked us to point out that, where Netflix is quoted regarding billing through TalkTalk (directly above), this is actually in reference to a product that the ISP stopped selling a number of years ago. “Existing TalkTalk TV customers with a Netflix subscription through TalkTalk do not need to update their payment method,” said the provider’s spokesperson.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Probably better off going directly with NOW TV anyway. There’s usually a good discount on offer when you go to cancel.
Talktalk TV, the bane of my existence for years. They were wanting to grow their subscriber base back when it first launched so they had this great idea to just randomly send out a ton of boxes to customers on the Talktalk Pro or Plus package as it was known then. The boxes were sent without warning but a letter explained, it’s free! Just plug it in, but if you really don’t want it, call us and we’ll send you a bag to send it back.
Those that plugged in their free unsolicited box were then counted by Talktalk as being a new TV subscriber. Those that called us to cancel, when i worked in their “Options team” which later became known as “Loyalty” in Preston, had to take these calls and if we didn’t convince the customer to plug in their free and unwanted box, it counted against our stats and ultimately, bonus.
Their TV has always been a poor offering. TV channels would take an age to load and customers who had the recordable box were never clearly told that if the channel is streamed, you can only record what you’re watching. It was a poor answer to Sky who at the time, you could record one channel while watching another.. I’m surprised to see they’re still trying.