Digital TV

Digital TV offers a wealth of choices over and above the five terrestrial channels: BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Five.

If you would like to expand your viewing horizons, then there are lots of different packages to choose from – some would say a confusing amount!

Here is a quick rundown of the various companies offering digital TV in the UK.

Freeview

If you want digital TV on the cheap, then Freeview is the best option for you. Received through you standard TV aerial, it offers around 40 channels and 25 radio stations.

All the channels are free to watch and there is no installation or subscription fee to pay. With this package, you can also avoid signing up to a contract or having an engineer round to your home.

All you need to buy is a Freeview set-top box, or a new television with a built-in Freeview receiver.

However, the choice of channels is more limited than with the other digital options and, like most digital TV services, it is not available in some areas.

Satellite

Sky Digital is the leading digital satellite provider in the UK. It offers the largest range of channels, including Sky One, a variety of film channels and sport, music and children’s channels to boot.

If you want Sky, you must sign up online and arrange for an engineer to visit you to install a satellite dish and hook up a digibox to your TV. One other advantage of Sky is that you can also have Sky+, a digital recording service that can be programmed to record all your favourite shows, as well as pause live TV should you need a bathroom break!

It is much more expensive that Freeview, though, with installation fees alone ranging from £30 to £60 and monthly charges starting at about £16 a month.

The other option for satellite viewers is to investigate Freesat, a joint venture between the BBC and ITV, which offers a number of free-to-view channels via a satellite dish and digibox.

Cable

Cable TV is not available to everyone – it depends whereabouts in the country you live. However, if your area is covered by Virgin Media, then it can provide you with cable TV, home phone and internet packages.

As with Sky, an engineer will have to visit your home to install a set-top box and connect it to the Virgin fibre-optic cable from which TV of this kind gets its name.

BT Vision

If you have BT Total Broadband, then you can also get BT Vision TV free of charge. It offers all the Freeview channels, can be used to record up to 80 hours of your favourite shows and – like Sky+ - can also be used to pause live TV. BT Vision users can also download films, TV shows and sports events over their broadband internet connection.

Top Up TV

With Top Up TV Anytime, you receive the Freeview channels plus the ability to download some shows from channels such as GOLD and Living TV, overnight onto a built-in hard disk. The box will hold 100 hours of downloaded content and is refreshed every seven days.

You do, however, need to be in a Freeview area to get this service, which costs £9.99 a month, plus an eye-watering £99.99 fee for the set-top box.

Tiscali

Tiscali TV is only available in certain parts of the country, such as London and Liverpool. If you can get it, then it will give you more than 70 digital TV channels via your home phone line. Other features of the service include 1,500 on-demand films and a TV rewind option.

If you’ve discovered a great on digital tv, let us know about it – contact us.