TalkTalk adding 10,000 YouView customers a week with free box deal

TalkTalk adding 10,000 YouView customers a week with free box deal
Free YouView boxes are enticing, but £299 ones are not

The YouView internet TV venture has racked up an estimated 230,000 subscribers in the six months since it launched, reports on Tuesday claimed.

Broadband and home phone provider TalkTalk, which has been offering a free YouView set-top box with its packages, appears to be driving much of the demand.

The company is signing up 10,000 new users a week and has collared 120,000 in total, according to The Guardian, while "maybe" 20,000 people have bought YouView boxes on the high street.

BT Vision, which is also touting free boxes - usually priced at a somewhat pricey £299 - in order to give the service some early traction and is believed to have hooked-up 90,000 users.

So far, so good

"It's early days yet, but we are pleased with the take-up we've seen so far for YouView," said a spokeswoman for YouView

The on-demand service which combines the BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD and Demand Five, as well as live TV and content from Sky Movies finally hit the shelves last summer following long, long delays.

It has been promoted heavily in its own right, as well as in BT and YouView commercials, so the awareness is certainly out there.

For those not obtaining boxes through BT and TalkTalk, the price of the hardware is probably still a little too high for most curious parties, hence the poor sales.

YouView will soon benefit from Sky's decision to offer day-passes to Sky Sports channels via Now TV, so it'll be interesting to see whether that makes a difference.

Via Guardian

Chris Smith

A technology journalist, writer and videographer of many magazines and websites including T3, Gadget Magazine and TechRadar.com. He specializes in applications for smartphones, tablets and handheld devices, with bylines also at The Guardian, WIRED, Trusted Reviews and Wareable. Chris is also the podcast host for The Liverpool Way. As well as tech and football, Chris is a pop-punk fan and enjoys the art of wrasslin'.