To Freeview or not to Freeview?

by Ally Hunt on 24 September 2009  |  17 comments
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Our Freeview box has died so the question is - what should we replace it with?

After years of paying for an NTL TV package (now Virgin) a few years ago we decided to switch to Freeview. And while we didn't miss the monthly bills our Freeview box was often disappointing. Not only was it even slower to use even than our old NTL box, it wasn't particularly functional either. But then we had gone for a relatively cheap one.

Anyway, the Freeview box died this week, and once we got over this annoyance had to turn our thoughts to what we would replace it with (particularly as terrestrial TV is to be turned off in our area very soon).

A trip to Comet revealed that things have moved on since we'd last looked as you can now buy a Freeview box with a built-in 320 GB hard disk recorder for less than £150. And what really sold it to me was the salesman's comment that it was "just like Sky+". Really?

Sky+

If you haven't heard of Sky+ it's essentially a box you buy from Sky that amongst other things easily lets you record programmes, whole series of programmes as well as pause and rewind live TV. It's pretty cool.

It's expensive

But it comes at a price - looking at the Sky website you can currently pay a one-off set up fee of £79. But then, depending on the TV/Movies/Sports package you choose you pay between £17.50 and a stomach clenching £47.50 per month to subscribe. Yikes. Can a souped-up TV package really be worth £570 per year?

Well no doubt those who subscribe reckon it is. And the most expensive "World" package does include movies, Sky Sports, plus favourites such as Sky One - TV heaven for many.

And of course, Virgin has a similar box offering much of the same functionality.

So what did we decide?

Anyway, after a bit of deliberation we plumped for...yes you've guessed it, another Freeview box. The prevailing thought was, if you don't watch a lot of TV, why pay monthly if you don't need to?

Of course, we're only getting the bare bones channel-wise. But, in a similar way to Sky+ the Freeview box we've gone for allows us to pause and rewind TV plus record a whole series very easily (which was "Sky+ like" enough for us).

And even though it cost £150, when you compare this to the minimum Sky+ package (£79 set-up + £17.50 per month) we've still saved £139 this year. What's more, Sky+ would cost another £210 in subscription fees for each subsequent year.

Let's hope we've made the right decision!