Switching broadband and TV: what stays and what stops

A full fibre offer lands at half what you pay now, and the switch stalls on the same question every time. What happens to the telly? Nobody sells the two things together and then explains them apart, so switching broadband and TV feels like one decision with one outcome. It is not. One half is handled for you by an industry process with rules and deadlines. The other half is left entirely to you, and the households that discover that afterwards are the ones staring at a dark box on the wall.

Switching broadband and TV are two separate jobs

The switching system that makes changing broadband provider a single phone call covers fixed broadband and landline services, and nothing else. Ofcom is explicit that it does not apply to other services even where you bought them in a bundle. Television is one of those other services.

So the broadband half runs itself. You place an order with the new network, it contacts the old provider on your behalf, and the old service ends without you ringing anybody. Our guide to how switching actually works goes through the timings.

The television half runs itself into the ground. Nothing about placing a broadband order tells the old company what you want to happen to the TV, so it keeps billing you for it, or it cuts it off without warning, depending on how it is delivered. Either way that outcome is yours to arrange, and the only way to arrange it is a call.

Will I lose my TV when I switch broadband?

That depends on one thing only: how the pictures reach your screen. Not who sold them to you, not what the bundle was called, and not which provider you are moving to.

Television that arrives through a satellite dish or a rooftop aerial is independent of your broadband, because it was never travelling down that line in the first place. Television that arrives over the internet splits into two kinds: the sort that works on any connection, and the sort that only works on the provider’s own. The first kind moves house with you. The second kind does not, and there is usually no arrangement to be reached about it.

Work that out before you do anything else and the rest of this is straightforward. Guess at it and you can end up switched over, saving money, and unable to watch anything.

Which TV services survive a broadband switch?

Most of them, which is the reassuring half of the answer. Policies and product names change often in this market, so treat the shapes below as what to expect and the provider’s own help pages as the answer on the day you switch:

• Satellite and aerial television. A Sky dish, a Freesat dish or a Freeview aerial carries on regardless of who supplies your broadband. The signal comes off the roof, not out of the router. A Sky subscription taken this way is a separate agreement with its own end date and it is unaffected by the switch.
• Streaming boxes and TVs that work on any connection. Sky’s streaming products are the obvious example: they carry the pictures over your broadband but they do not require Sky’s broadband, so they keep working on a new network provided the connection is decent. What they need is speed and stability, not a particular company.
• Anything you subscribe to yourself. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, NOW, iPlayer and the rest have no relationship with your broadband provider at all. They will not notice the switch happened.

The pattern worth remembering: if the television did not come from your broadband company, your broadband company cannot take it away.

Which ones stop

The exceptions are the packages where the television is delivered down the provider’s own line and sold only alongside its broadband. Two arrangements dominate here.

Virgin Media’s television arrives over the same cable as its broadband, and its boxes need that connection to run. It is not offered as a television service on its own. So a household on Virgin is making one decision rather than two, and that changes the sum: the saving on the broadband has to be weighed against replacing the television as well.

The television service sold with EE and BT broadband works the same way. It is available to their own broadband customers, so it goes when the broadband goes. Neither of these is a company being awkward. The set-top box is built around the line it arrives on, and unpicking that was never on the table.

What happens to the price of what is left

This is the part that surprises people who did everything right. A bundle is priced as a bundle, so pulling the broadband out of one can leave the television standing on its own at a price nobody quoted you. The discount was attached to the pair.

The television may also carry its own minimum term, and where the two services share a single contract, ending part of it early can be charged as though you ended all of it. Our guide to what it costs to leave early covers how those charges are worked out. Ask two questions on the same call: what the TV costs by itself from next month, and what leaving it early would cost today.

There is a real trade-off to concede here. A household that switches the broadband and keeps a bundled TV service can end up saving less than the comparison suggested, because the TV quietly went up. That is not a reason to stay put. It is a reason to get the second number before you order rather than after.

What to do before you place the order

Half an hour of this saves the mess entirely, and none of it needs anything you do not already have:

• Find out how the television arrives. Dish, aerial, or over the broadband. If it is over the broadband, the question is whether that box works on any connection or only on your current provider’s.
• Ring the old provider about the TV only. Say plainly that the broadband is moving and you want to know what happens to the television. Ask for the answer in writing if you can.
• Ask what the TV costs on its own. Then decide whether you still want it at that price. Plenty of households find the honest answer is no.
• Check the new line will carry it. Streaming several screens at once is undemanding on full fibre, and our guide to what speed a household needs puts real numbers on it.
• Do not cancel the broadband yourself. The new provider does that, and a helpful cancellation call can end the old service early and leave you offline in between.
• Get the order of events right. Sort the television out first, place the broadband order second. Reversing that is how the gap appears.

Ofcom’s own guidance on switching is worth a read alongside this, because it sets out what the process does for you and, by omission, what it leaves behind.

Our view

A television package is not a good reason to stay on an expensive broadband deal. It is a very good reason to spend one phone call first. For most households the answer turns out to be cheerful: the dish keeps working, the streaming boxes keep working, and the apps never cared. For a household with a Virgin, EE or BT television box it is a real decision, and it deserves to be made deliberately rather than found out on the day the engineer leaves.

Start with what is actually available at your address, then make the call about the TV before you place the order. In that order, this is an afternoon of admin rather than a fortnight of regret.

Frequently asked questions

Does One Touch Switch cancel my TV as well?

No. The switching process covers your broadband and your landline, and a television subscription sits outside it however it was sold to you. Your new provider ends the broadband with the old company, and the TV part carries on billing until you ring them and stop it yourself. That call is the thing most likely to be forgotten, and it is the one that keeps costing money for months after the switch itself is finished.

Will my Sky dish stop working if I leave Sky broadband?

No. Satellite television arrives from the dish on the wall rather than down your broadband line, so who supplies the broadband makes no difference to it. The subscription is a separate agreement with its own price and its own end date, and it carries on exactly as before. The same is true of anything you watch through a rooftop aerial, which needs no internet connection at all.

Can I keep Virgin TV and take broadband from someone else?

Generally not. Virgin’s television arrives down the same cable as its broadband and its boxes need that connection to work, and it is not sold as a television service on its own. Leaving the broadband therefore means leaving the TV with it, so a household with a Virgin box is making one decision rather than two. Ring them and ask before you order anything, because this is the arrangement where the answer is least likely to bend.

Will a new connection be fast enough for streaming TV?

Almost certainly, though it is worth checking rather than assuming. A streaming box wants a steady connection more than a fast one, and the speeds sold on full fibre sit well above what several screens at once need. The thing worth looking at is not the headline number on the deal but whether the wifi actually reaches the room the television is in, which is a different problem with different fixes.

What if my TV and broadband are on one contract with one end date?

Then read the exit terms before you order, because ending part of a package early can be charged as though you ended all of it. Some providers will let the television carry on at a new price once the broadband goes, and some will not. Ask what the TV costs on its own and what leaving early would cost, then hold both numbers against the saving you were switching for.