ntl DESPERATE-special summer offer

a bientot

ntl would appear to be desperate to get a few more -go digital- customers as they are now advertising half price connection charge (32 euro50) as a 'summer offer'.
Obviously the new owner is lurking in the undergrowth.......

Strange weird marketing as summer is not seen as the best time to promote tv but perhaps it is linked with the close down (effectively) of terrestrial tv and radio as Pat Kenny el al take annual hols......

It would appear that most people who want extra channel choice have made the decision to go BskyB (even in cable areas) or to take the package offered by ntl. The new channels going on ntl (digital) will not have much effect on sales.....after all it has taken over two years to get 25,000 out of 375,000 to -go digital-.

It is well known that only 9% of adult cable customers (ntl and Chorus) actually bother to look at the 'satellites' and this includes those who make the conscious decision to pay extra to watch sport and cinema channels originating from the Sky stable.

ntl's decision to get up the noses of the majority of their customers by removing channels and increasing the basic charge by over 50% over the past two years (17 euro per month) - unique in the E.U. - seems to have left most indiffferent as cable charges are seen as just an extra to add to Telecom Eireann, ESB, tv licence, car tax, insurance and house rates (bin charges)

But why don't we care even when we see our mainland (Europe) friends paying 123 euro per year(10 euro a month) for forty tv channels?

JTMan

Originally posted by a bientot
ntl would appear to be desperate to get a few more -go digital- customers as they are now advertising half price connection charge (32 euro50) as a 'summer offer'.

Cool

Originally posted by a bientot
Obviously the new owner is lurking in the undergrowth.......

I don't think this proves anything about a new owner. I would doubth that there will be a new owner in the short term.

Originally posted by a bientot
The new channels going on ntl (digital) will not have much effect on sales.....

Says who? Have you seen the full list of the 40 stations? The gap between ntl and SKY in terms of number of channels is been bridged.

Originally posted by a bientot
after all it has taken over two years to get 25,000 out of 375,000 to -go digital-.

No. They launched coverage in 90% of their franchises in Jan. 2002. 13.5% of those who can get the new service have in little over a year.

That One Guy

If I use the same brand of logic you use in stating that new ntl owners are "lurking in the undergrowth" because of a half-off install fee, then Sky is already sold and they're getting a new logo ready to paint on the side of the building:

Sky Digital for £1 in UK

For potential Sky Ireland customers, the offer is €15 for everything including installation.

ObNote: You forgot to add your obligatory rant about TV5, just wanted to remind you for next time.

spongebob

the offer will move more from Analogue to Digital. They will then announce a closedown date for Analogue...end 2004 to mid 2005 I should think.

this will free up bandwidth on the cable for 'other things'

shamoan

i have ntl at the moment and to say the service is an unmitigated disaster is an understatement,im actually thinking about getting sky...where can i get it for £15 ?

ShaneOC

Originally posted by shamoan
i have ntl at the moment and to say the service is an unmitigated disaster is an understatement,im actually thinking about getting sky...where can i get it for £15 ?

All retailers are doing Sky for €15.

JTMan

Originally posted by Muck
They will then announce a closedown date for Analogue...end 2004 to mid 2005 I should think.

this will free up bandwidth on the cable for 'other things'

Not true ... There was a thread about this before. ntl say that they aim to get rid of analogue by 2007 in Ireland. Most people think that 2007 is over ambitious.

The main advantage of ntl at the moment is Muti room analogue viewing which is heavily advertised. There would be chaos if they attempted to remove analogue in 2004.

celticfc

Originally posted by Fungus
The main advantage of ntl at the moment is Muti room analogue viewing which is heavily advertised. There would be chaos if they attempted to remove analogue in 2004.

I agree , multi room viewing is ntls biggest selling point.
Theyed be lost without analogue.

kamobe

For the record, in the past two weeks we've had three decoders and maybe an hour and a half on the phone to NTL folk. Most of this time was, of course, spent on hold. We did give up after 20 minutes a few times.

Firstly, the picture began to freeze randomly. Ye old reboot box and remove card 'trick' didn't work, to the apparent shock of the support staff, who then seemed to be out of ideas. So they sent out a technician. I must say fair play to the guy, I've never seen anyone replace a decoder with such grace. In less then 3 minutes the decoder was setup, he was gone, same problem.

Again with the ringing, again the promise of a new decoder. I explain, yeah ye've tried that, didn't work. After a long consultation I was advised that the "levels outside my house" must be the problem (????). They were to come out. Didn't. Called again, oh yeah - must be the levels, we'll send an engineer out the sort it. Today engineer arrives with another new box, still the same problem.

Never mind looking for new customers, they should concentrate a tad more on keeping their own.

sceptre

Originally posted by a bientot
Strange weird marketing as summer is not seen as the best time to promote tv

Probably the point. Installs are slow over the summer - getting people to install now means that they're quits (at worst) by getting you to install a few months earlier and there's less of a wait in August when people get the urge to order NTL for the soccer as they've covered some of the August installs already.