Gary, you seem unable to grasp the concept that in the eyes of most of the public and also for that matter the users here, that we could not care about things like transmission methods and the like. What we see is the fact that on NTL and Sky, you receive a range of TV channels. All of the channels on NTL are on Sky (with a few minor issues over sub regions on ITV and BBC 1). If I pay my £19.50 to Sky (as I do), I get all of the channels I have on the NTL £29 (I think it is now this price) plus a whole lot more. I'm not bothered if the TV comes from a dish on the wall, or a cable underground. At the end of the day, a cable comes into my lounge and is connected to a box. This lets me select the channel I want to watch.
As far as the phone service goes, I have a phone that when I dial a number, connects me to the person I have called, and when that person calls me, I hear my phone ringing and answer it. Now here is the difference. With BT, I have an informed choice to answer the call or not, as I have caller ID. With NTL this is not possible. In fact NTL charge me money for the added services BT gives away for free (1571 voicemail and fully itemised phone bill).
Now if you look at the NTL pricing sales pages here
http://www.ntlhome.co.uk/ntl_telephone/freeRange.html you will see that the phone line rental is £9.50 for basic service and £11.50 for the equivalent of BT Together. Now looking here
http://www.ntlhome.co.uk/ntl_tv/inde...com_tvtextlink it states that the cost of the TV service is "including your line rental" Taking that £9.50 from the £28 listed, soon to become £29 for the Family Pack, you end up with £18.50 or £19.50 which is the cost of the Family Pack from Sky before and after their price rise.
While I'm sharing links, take a look at this list
http://www.ntlhome.co.uk/ntl_tv/family_listing.html and compare it to this list
http://www.sky.com/skycom/packages/c.../0,,16,00.html you will find that all of the channels listed on NTL are there on Sky except for the Channel NTL which Sky have an equivalent for.
Ok, looking at the above channel comparisons, I feel I do owe you an apology. They are not equivalent. NTL has far less channels than Sky, so you are not comparing like for like. Sorry Gary.
Well, that's all I have to say for now, except, can you use other call packages on NTL lines like Talk Talk and have the same choice of call provider as you can on BT?