We’ve issued a press release today announcing the findings of our most recent piece of research - looking at people’s choice of home phone, broadband and digital TV providers, how long they’ve had them and some of the reasons behind people not benefiting from some of the best deals they could do.

We’re always looking for ways in which we can help people save money, so the reasons why people don’t switch and bundle their services are always really interesting to us. Here’s what we found out: 

> Cash strapped Britons are wasting £900 million by sticking to legacy deals on their digital TV, broadband and home phone services!

> Over half of you (59%) feel under pressure to save money on digital services due to the credit crunch.

> 1 in 3 people have not changed their home phone provider for over 5 years. 

> 1 in 4 of you are still buying all three services separately instead of saving £360 a year by bundling them together! That’s the equivalent of a return flight to New York or £30 a month to put back into the family budget. 

> Over 45% of consumers have not switched their broadband provider in the last 2 years and a third (33%) have not changed their home phone supplier for over five years.

> Nearly two out of three people (59%) feel under pressure to save money on digital services as a result of the credit crunch, and 63% have taken the trouble to research the market within the last 12 months, but only one in five (21%) have actually switched in the last year due to total confusion.

So why are people so confused and seemingly unable to switch and save?  Well just under 50% of people say that the reason that they have not switched is as a result of a combination of confusion as a result of too many conflicting deals available (19%), fear of the sheer time and effort required to switch (14%); and a lack of impartial advice as to where the best deals are to be found (13%).

As Charlie (our CEO) puts it, “This is where Simplifydigital can really help, it is the only company in the UK to be accredited by the regulator Ofcom to provide a completely free and impartial advisory service to help people save money on their digital TV, broadband and home phone services.”  

Enough said. Get in touch on 0800 988 8148 or head on over to the special triple-play section of our site here to find out how to help us help you make that £900 million figure smaller next time. 

PS: The full press release is available over here - we’d be interested to hear what you think of the results and the juicy bits that we’ve highlighted.

Written by Jonathan

Of com has just released its latest report on The International Communications Market 2008 and it’s packed with lots of interesting and (less than interesting) data on global trends in the use of all things digital, including TV, broadband, telephony and radio.

Here’s our take on what’s most interesting in the report, hope it’s useful. 

The digital world is converging fast!

> There are 26 broadband connections per 100 people in the UK, placing us third behind the Netherlands (35%) and Sweden (31%) and penetration is growing at about 5% per year.

> UK surfers are spending nearly 14 hours per week online, second only to US internet users who spend 15 hours online each week and this is growing at an average annual rate of 30% - so by our calculations, if this continues for another ten years web users will be online 24 hours per day, seven days per week.

> More and more people are viewing TV shows over the web and its growing in the UK at a rate of 69% per year. The US lead the world with 26 downloads per head per year, with UK second at 8 downloads per head per year.

> As a result 15% of UK web users claim to watch less broadcast TV as TV viewing retains its basic appeal (thanks to X Factor no doubt).

> Mobile broadband availability (via HSDPA) is highest in the UK covering 87% of households.

> The age of the CD is well and truly coming to an end - digital recorded music sales are growing at 20% per year and mobile music downloads now account for over half of all recorded digital music revenue in France, Italy and 29% in the UK. Whilst in Japan, mobile accounts for a staggering 90%+ of all digital music revenue!

> Use of social networking sites on mobile phones is growing but still very niche, but broadcasting TV on mobiles has had less success with various service closures around the globe over the last 18 months.

The UK is the world capital of digital television!

> The UK leads the way globally with the 86% of main TV sets connected to digital, followed by the US with 70%. Within digital TV, pay-TV thanks to successful marketing by Sky and Virgin Media continues to grow and is now in 47% of UK households.

> High definition (HD) TV remains niche with approximately 1m homes enjoying HD (out of a total of nearly 25m TV homes) in the UK.

> Nearly one third of UK households have a DVR (digital video recorder). This is the highest penetration in the world. This is largely due to the huge appeal and success of Sky+ which is now in over 4 million households.

> TV is still a major national pass time with viewers in the UK watching over 3.5 hours of television a day, 7 days per week! This is less though than the Americans who watch an hour a day more on average.

Telephony use and spend just keeps on growing!

> Telecoms companies keep on getting richer. In the UK alone their revenues continue to grow at 5% per year, driven by increased mobile use and broadband take-up whilst fixed line revenues fall slightly.

> Broadband take up continues apace in the UK, but as penetration increases it is slowing from 20% in 2006 to 14% in 2007.

> Texting keeps charging ahead with volume of texts sent growing by over 35% in the UK alone in 2007.

> The UK lags the world in the provision of state-of-the-art fibre-optic delivery technology. In Japan an amazing 85% of the population have access to a full fibre-to-your-door service, whilst in the UK this is only 1% of the population. This reflects Virgin Media’s approach of running fibre to the street, rather than your door.

Still want more? Then head on over to the BBC, Daily Telegraph or WebUser for further analysis.

Written by Jonathan

TalkTalk has today announced a new package that offers people the chance to experience superfast broadband. Called myTalkTalk, the basic monthly price at launch is £6.49, with a series of add-ons for £4 including a speed boost of 24Mbps. That’s pretty quick, especially if you’re used to less than 1Mbps which a lot of people are. In addition to the potential for a good old speed boost, you can also double your download limit from 40Gb to 80Gb. 

There’s more too. TalkTalk estimate that only 10-15% of you will be able to get up to speeds approaching 24Mbps, so it’s offering a test upfront for you to check what you’d be getting and a refund if you’re not happy. We think this is a really good thing to do as we’re up for total transparency and super happy customers that get what they wanted in the first place. 

So, what are you waiting for? Don’t just sit there and plod on with your current broadband package. Give us a call on 0800 988 8148 or head on over to the main Simplifydigital site and see what the best package is for you.

Written by Jonathan

We want to let more people know about what Simplifydigital does and how it can help you get the very best deal when it comes to choosing your digital TV, broadband and home phone packages. Up until now this blog has been used mainly to share the latest news from us, along with other useful guides, tips and tidbits to help make finding the very best package and keeping up to speed on the latest deals as easy as possible. Now, we want to up the ante a bit and start using the blog as much more of a conversation platform, a way to talk directly with you, share some of the good stuff people say about us, find out more about what you’re looking for in a service like us and ultimately give us a home on the web that we can link back to and share more useful things with you. So, do get involved and let us know how we’re doing. 

Our Smartsearch comparison tool is free and officially accredited by the industry watchdog Ofcom for providing impartial advice. Indeed, we’ve noted in the past that research has shown that consumers can save on average £160 a year (!) by bundling their services and Simplifydigital is here to offer free consultations with experts! We have a team here that really does know their stuff and you can call them right now (for free!) on 0800 1388 388 or if you prefer, just head on over to our Smartsearch comparison tool and see what package our clever little piece of technology recommends for you. You might be surprised, or just a little bit reassured. Either way, give it a go and let us know what you think. 

And to kick things off, here’s Jon Bentley giving us a big thumbs up on the Gadget Show this week as he went in search of the best broadband deal in Britain. It was a great piece, in fact so good our site went down for a few minutes after being hit by a wave of Gadget Show viewers eager to try us out! We also experimented a bit with Twitter that night (Follow us here) by following people that were watching the Gadget show or talking about broadband-related things and saying hi. This seemed to go down pretty well and one Twitterer John Hood loved it so much, he has since written very nice things about us on his blog, which all you Mac and/or Star Wars fans should check out. 

So, over the next few weeks, expect to hear a lot more from us as we ask you about your experiences and how we can help out. We’d like to get a conversation going and let even more people know about Simplifydigital because we (obviously!), and lots of other people (check out some of our reviews), think it’s pretty smart. Oh, did we mention that it’s free?

Written by Jonathan

Ofcom has officially announced that Simplifydigital is the first and only digital TV, broadband and home phone retailer to be given its official accreditation of impartiality for its price comparison calculator.

Ofcom has officially announced that Simplifydigital, is the first and only digital TV, broadband and home phone retailer to be given its official accreditation of impartiality for its price comparison calculator.

Simplifydigital’s accreditation is significant given that no other retailers or consumer comparison sites offering these services have been accredited and consumers are crying out for accurate and impartial digital TV, broadband and home phone advice they can trust.

A recent survey* showed that impartiality was the single most important factor of all those considered by customers,when they use a comparison service with over two thirds (69%) of respondents wanting reassurance that the advisor they were speaking to was genuinely impartial.

The Ofcom accreditation of Simplifydigital confirms to consumers that its price comparison calculator is not only impartial, but also, accurate; transparent in showing customers how it makes money; and offers comprehensive choice.

Simplifydigital was launched earlier this year by former Sky Marketing Director Charlie Ponsonby. It offers consumers a free digital advisory service, to cut through the confusion and ensure that they find the best value digital TV, broadband and home phone deals that meet their unique requirements. Simplifydigital’s experts are also on hand to ensure that the services are installed in customers’ homes with minimum of fuss.

The free Simplifydigital service is delivered via their experts over the phone or online at www.simplifydigital.co.uk and uses Simplifydigital’s proprietary comparison technology to match an individual’s unique digital requirements to one of over 15,000 package combinations on their database containing all the UK’s leading digital TV, broadband and home phone service providers.

Charlie Ponsonby, CEO of Simplifydigital commenting on the Ofcom accreditation says:

“Consumers can save an average of £160** per year if they are clever in the choice of their digital TV, broadband and home phone services. But finding the right deal can be a nightmare in a world of complicated technology and confusing offers. Trust, transparency and impartiality are the biggest concerns of consumers. This new accreditation sets the benchmark against which all other companies will be judged and assessed. My hope is that all other companies will go through the same rigorous process that we have. Consumers deserve it!”

Compare broadband, home phone and digital TV

Written by matt