How to only pay for TV shows you actually want to watch

Fed up with spending a fortune on channels you never use? This guide will help you ditch them

CHOOSING what to watch on TV and where to watch it has become a minefield. Until around 15 years ago, you had to make do with just five channels unless you had satellite. Today there are hundreds of channels on offer, showing everything from top-level sport to the latest blockbusters. But if you aren’t careful, you could end up spending hundreds of pounds a year on shows you don’t want. Here, with the help of comparison site uSwitch, we talk you through the best deals.

WHAT CHANNELS CAN I GET FOR FREE?

THE default free option is Freeview, where you get access to 70 channels showing news, sport, films and reality TV. In fact, Freeview claims to show 95 pc of Britain’s favourite shows on channels such as BBC1 and 2, ITV, Channel 4, 5, Film 4, Dave and the Food Network.

And for sports fans, Government rules dictate that free channels must be able to show so-called ‘category A’ events such as the FA Cup final, the Olympics, the Grand National, Wimbledon and the Rugby League Challenge Cup final.

BBC also shows the Six Nations, snooker and world amateur boxing championships among other sports.

Last week, new channel FreeSports launched, showing ten live football games a week from the top divisions in Belgium, Portgual and Argentina, as well as the second division in Spain. It will also show ice hockey, rugby league, motor racing, mixed martial arts and horse racing.

BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Film 4 and the Sony Movie channel also show a wide range of films.

Beyond Freeview, choices start to get confusing and expensive.

The average household with a satellite or cable subscription spends £508 a year on it, according to uSwitch. Some telecoms giants will only let you take out one of their TV packages if you sign up for telephone and broadband, too.

These ‘bundles’ can work out cheaper — but you could end up paying for services you don’t need.

Some newer TV providers are better at allowing you to pick what you want to watch, but don’t always offer the same variety of shows. You may need a combination of deals to get exactly what you want, adding to the confusion.

In order to make it simpler to compare deals from TV firms that insist you take their broadband deal and those that don’t, we are using the average monthly broadband bill of £20. This will give you a good idea of whether you will save money or end up spending more.

IF YOU’RE MAD ABOUT SPORT

FOOTBALL fans will almost certainly have heard of Sky Sports and BT Sport, which own the rights to 126 and 42 Premier League matches respectively this season.

If you want to watch all 168 games, you must subscribe to both. But if you don’t mind missing a few, it’s much cheaper to subscribe to one.

Sky offers the biggest selection. It has dedicated channels for football, cricket, Formula 1 and golf, as well as Sky Sports Arena, with wrestling, American football and boxing.

It costs £42 a month to subscribe for 18 months, and for this you get 270 channels, including Sky Atlantic, Sky1 and Fox, as well as all ten Sky Sports channels.

There is also a £20 set-up fee to cover the cost of sending you a Sky Box, which you plug into your television to access the channels.

If you choose basic broadband (17 megabits per second or 17Mb) as part of the deal, you’ll pay £57 a month for the first year, and £70.99 for the final six months. If you can’t bear to miss out on the other 42 football games, you can add BT Sport’s channels to your Sky TV package for £22.99 a month on a 12-month contract.

This will bring a £42-a-month deal to £64.99 a month. If you are taking the broadband offer, you’ll pay £79.99 a month for a year, and then £93.98 for six months after that. There is also another £20 set-up fee.

If you ignore Sky Sports and just sign up to BT, it works out much cheaper, but you don’t get access to as much sport. You must also take out its broadband deal.

BT has four channels and also gives subscribers access to Box Nation, a dedicated boxing channel. As well as Premier League, it shows top-flight football from Italy and Germany, Aviva Premiership rugby, cricket, tennis and American sports such as baseball, basketball and American football.

For £33.49 a month you get BT Sports along with 80 other channels,