[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by Charlie_Bubble

So, if every car manufacturer suddenly decided to group together and insist you bought a caravan with each car and pay £5k more, you'd wouldn't think that stupid? You could argue, I have a house, I use hotels when I go on holiday, but you'd still have to buy the caravan. The logic doesn't stand up.

NTL will give you their phone service on it's own, their broadband on it's own, but not the TV service. I'm pretty sure they are missing out on customers here. I don't want the phone. It's no use you arguing I should take the phone, the cost is hidden, because I know it's there. I have a BT line for ADSL which I don't really use except for incoming calls only, because I use my mobile for calling out. Maybe one day they will get rid of this stupid idea and I can start handing £40 over to them, until then, I'll settle for freeview.

I would imagine NTL insist on you having the phone line with TV is so that they can offer free installation. If they were to offer free installation with just TV and kept the package prices the same as Sky they would lose money on every customer who decided to end their TV contract after the initial 12 month period. There is far less profit on TV than there is on phone and broadband (taking the BB abusers out of the equation).