You’d have had to have been living in a soundproofed cave with a lead bucket over your head for the last five years for you not to notice the rise of digital TV in the UK. The old analogue broadcast signal is being progressively shut down region by region, allowing for the airwaves to be cleared for the arrival of the TV of the future.

Digital TV offers a whole range of benefits, chief among these being a sharper picture and audio quality and clearer reception. As well as this, viewers can get access to a whole host of extra channels such as Film Four, BBC Three and Five US, in addition to the traditional five analogue channels.

The analogue signal will be permanently turned off in 2012, in time for the London Olympics, so that everyone in the host country will be able to see the games (and that terrible logo) in pin-sharp digital glory.

Now more than ever, there are multiple ways to enjoy top quality digital TV entertainment in the UK from a number of providers. This month, we’ve seen the launch of the new Freesat service, the free-to-air digital satellite service which gives punters access to a growing roster of digital TV channels, many of which are broadcast in glorious High Definition (HD) resolution. Freesat is a great one-stop solution for those who want to get next-gen digital TV entertainment, with customers paying out once for the set-top box equipment and the satellite dish.

Freesat is the sister service to Freeview, the pioneering TV platform which brought digital TV to the masses and remains the most popular digital TV choice for UK viewers – in 2007 UK consumers bought around 9.7 million Freeview-enabled devices, with 3.8 million of those purchased during the run up to Christmas.

Freeview and Freesat are popular with viewers for the simple reason that they’re both affordable, and offer a decent service. However, there are still some telly addicts out there who want more. Below is a brief round-up of the main subscription TV options available to customers in the UK, and despite the perceived added expense of pay-TV, there are actually some great deals to be had out there.

Digital Satellite

Sky, who revolutionised British TV with the launch of their satellite services back in the late eighties, have been making waves with their popular “See Speak Surf” bundle deal, which combines Sky digital TV entertainment with fixed-line phone calls and broadband internet access into one money-saving monthly bundle.

Last year Sky also gave customers the option of picking and choosing from different channel packages, so customers would only pay for what they wanted to watch, allowing customers who didn’t want the football or the news channels to cut down their monthly subscription.

Cable TV

The Virgin Media cable TV service is Sky’s main rival in the market place, offering a similar roster of channel options and Sky+ style functionality in the shape of their V+ service. Virgin Media also boasts a well-stocked on-demand library of films and music videos, adding real value to the service – the cost of watching a film on-demand is more often than not a fraction of what it would cost to buy or rent on DVD.

Virgin Media TV is also available alongside their broadband and fixed-line phone offers, with TV packages available as part of their many “2 for £20″ and “3 for £30″ bundle deals, allowing punters to save plenty of pennies each month.

Both Sky and Virgin Media have their own HD options, with Sky HD offering the same range of channels and recordable function as Sky+, but with selected programming broadcast in ultra-sharp HD resolution. Virgin Media’s V+ platform broadcasts selected programmes in HD as standard.

IPTV

For customers who like the one-off payment aspect of Freeview, but want a bit more from their TV, then an IPTV (TV via the Internet) option might be the best choice.

The small, but growing BT Vision IPTV service gives BT Broadband customers the standard Freeview channels with the option of downloading a range of on-demand programming, charged on a pay-per-view basis rather than a monthly subscription. BT Vision is popular with Freeview customers who want to watch the occasional movie, but don’t want to sign up to a lengthy contract.

Broadband and phone providers Tiscali also have their own Tiscali TV IPTV service which works in a similar way to BT Vision. You pay for what you want to watch every month – if you don’t end up watching anything in a month, then you don’t have to pay.

Availability of all of these services ultimately depends on where you live and which broadband providers are operating in your area - check sites such as Broadband Finder and Samknows to see which services are available by performing a quick postcode check.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Savings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.