This was a working and reliable TV service, that is, up until recently when I can't access it at all. When I try to go to their website, all it says is "Maintenance mode" and then another messag... See more
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I have been a member right from the very start. Superb service at a terrific cost. Bronze, Silver & Gold plans available to meet any budget. Support staff are always responsive and courteous on the... See more
The British TV Club team make sure to communicate with the membership and let us know when something may cause a concern, such as local power outages or comms line issues. This allows us to really kno... See more
I've been with them since the inception of the service and can't fault them, I completely recommend them to anyone who is searching for a Brit TV provider. The service is top notch and the support sys... See more
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Company details
Written by the company
The British TV Club is a private, members only club where people can watch British free-to-air TV online, anywhere in the world.
Contact info
United Kingdom
- britishtv.club
4.3
Excellent
45 reviews
No recent history of asking for reviews
This company hasn't invited customers recently, so reviews may not be representative
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Great service that is very reliable
Great service that is very reliable and great value for money. I travel the World and it works everywhere I go without a VPN. Remember it is a club so please show respect to the people running it and to other users.
I am currently an annual Gold member and I recommend this service 100% as I have never ever suffered a problem or a loss of service in the 2 years since i joined.
It does not offer Catchup services (but it does offer many +1 channels) but you can access the Catchup channels you require through a UK VPN. Details are on the club site of how to get a UK VPN if you need it.
If I could give 6 stars I would.
April 7, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from British TV Club
Thank you for your positive review. We hope to offer easier access to catch up TV in the near future. Regards
Exceptional value for money
The product offered for the price charged is exceptional. When the weather is very bad in the UK there maybe a problem with reception, however, this happens so infrequently it's really not a issue. I have used this service for a couple of years now (in Greece) and would recommend it to anyone. The service is evolving and improving all the time, those that moan should just be realistic and reassess just what they want, if they want a Sky type service then pay for it. My internet speed NEVER reaches 4Mps (normally about 3 Mps) yet is more than adequate to receive the service
rolybak
February 16, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from British TV Club
Thanks a lot for the feedback and positive review. Much appreciated.
The service started degrading severely…
The service started degrading with severe buffering every evening & weekend. Like others here, when I contacted the support I was told it was my ISP. It wasn't, I've worked in the Internet industry since 1992 and know what I'm talking about. I received a number of rude replies to my reports until my account was closed with no warning. Other times I've contacted the person running this site I also received nastily phrased replies. He seems to be only in it for the money.
Beware and steer clear !
February 15, 2020
Unprompted review
Reply from British TV Club
Our terms and conditions state not to be rude in support tickets.
We are a small organisation run by a few people, we are not a million dollar business employing hundreds of support staff who are paid to take bad attitudes while remaining nice about it.
It is not acceptable behaviour to me and I would not stand for any staff to be spoke down to in the manner you did.
On average approximately one to two people per year are rude, 3 of only 4 people to have ever been banned have left negative reviews here. (Lago, Janet Harvey and TV Watcher).
Typically it goes like this: User has problems such as buffering, doesn't read the support articles, doesn't do adequate (or any) troubleshooting and presumes the issue is at our end. They open a support ticket (or many, in the case of 2 of the users mentioned, then don't follow up on them despite our requests for further information) and often make snide remarks.
So we either, 1: cancel their membership without question (if they are being consistently or overly rude) and refund any remaining monies. Or 2: try to assist them, ask them not to be rude, but if they persist in being rude then we go to #1
If they work with us through the troubleshooting steps then we find the cause of the problem.
This can be things the member hasn't even considered, faulty router, bad ISP (internet provider) routing and peering (as in the case of this review), packet loss etc. Things that do not show up on the average user troubleshooting.
Yes Netflix or Youtube can work fine as they have a server in every town and city on earth with direct internet peering with most major ISPs, we do not. Even with a very faulty internet line, a user could watch video easily if it is coming from a nearby town. Our streams might be coming hundreds or thousands of miles away - which is fine on a fully working internet line with a reliable provider. Streams can be watched from the other side of the world even in HD, if all is working correctly with the viewer's line and their ISP.
We compare against results from other users and our own tests and prove to the member that everything is working 100% at our end. Unfortunately in this case the user did not work with us, persisted in being rude so we cancelled their membership, hence they have come here and left a bad review, they are disgruntled.
Below is the ticket from the ex-member, who seems to think he has superior knowledge of the internet, despite that he doesn't understand that being in France with a ping of 150 to a server in France (which is nothing to do with us), is a sign of a problem between his ISP and their peering / routing.
I.e., after hop #6 below, his ISP is routing via core-backbone.com and this is where the problem starts, yet blaming us. Having such a high ping to the server in question "ae3-1.fra20.core-backbone.com" is very bad. Our server is at hop #11, absolutely nothing to do with core-backbone.com.
We did a traceroute to the same server and our results were well under 50ms, including all of the hops between. We showed the user our results, said that this is an issue which should be reported to his ISP but the user persisted in being rude and thus had his membership cancelled.
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User traceroute results below. His ISP (internet provider) is called "SFR". As you can see below, once SFR route their connection via core-backbone.com, the problem starts.
The user's test results, note the very high pings from hop #7 (147ms, 144ms, 147ms)
6 54 ms 53 ms 55 ms 253.10.136.77.rev.sfr.net
7 147 ms 144 ms 147 ms ae3-1.fra20.core-backbone.com
8 154 ms 161 ms 150 ms core-backbone.hetzner.com
9 151 ms 158 ms 158 ms core12.fsn1.hetzner.com
10 155 ms 155 ms 161 ms exkx.dc1.hetzner.com
11 * 155 ms 157 ms
Here the user was saying the problem is not with his ISP, while it isn't directly, but is with the company the ISP are peering with (core-backbone.com) and the route being used to communicate with our server in Germany.
Below are our results to the very same server. Our ISP does not route through core-backbone.com.
5 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms host-78-144-14-184.as13285.net
6 12 ms 13 ms 14 ms host-78-144-3-169.as13285.net
7 21 ms 21 ms 22 ms core6.hetzner.com
8 33 ms 33 ms 33 ms core112.hetzner.com
9 35 ms 35 ms 35 ms core12.fsn1.hetzner.com
10 36 ms 37 ms 38 ms exkx.dc1.hetzner.com
11 36 ms 36 ms 35 ms
it is possible that core-backbone.com are throttling bandwidth / data throughput to his ISP but since the user would not work with us to resolve this, we will never know.
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The disgruntled and rude person claims we are only in it for the money. Other TV websites charge a flat £15 a month. We added a membership level for people on a very low income starting at £1.25 per month.
Was a very good service until recently
Was a very good service until recently. Tested my internet and it was fine but when I asked for help they replied that I had been sarcastic and did not care if I renewed my membership. I lost a months memebrship after they disconected me
November 18, 2019
Unprompted review
Reply from British TV Club
The service is working better than ever.
If you haven't bothered to open a support ticket asking for assistance but only send messages such as "Poor service" and "I am not enjoying your service" then you will not get very far in resolving the issues.
You never followed up on support tickets when we have asked you for further information.
The service is working great and if there is an issue somewhere between your device and our servers then tests need to be run and you must provide further information, but without working with us to diagnose and troubleshoot the issue then you will get nowhere.
You presume the problem is at our end despite there are dozens of possible causes, then send abrupt messages to the support desk insinuating that our service is performing badly, despite it is the very opposite. Our streams have over 99.8% uptime and a recent poll on our website showed that only a few percent of users experience buffering, and most of them live in the same country as yourself, Spain! There are internet congestion issues and problems caused by old phone lines using out dated technology (very slow ADSL connections) in problem areas such as rural Spain (Bulgaria can be similar). If you follow through on the support ticket, we will find the problem (often packet loss) and you can forward this information to your ISP so they can fix the fault.
The one time you followed up on a support ticket was 2 weeks after you first opened it and only because after opening 3 tickets and never following up on any to that point, we mentioned this and said we would not be able to help you. It's no good doing a speedtest 2 weeks later, we need to know your speedtest results at the time when you are having difficulties.
Also, a speedtest does not show packet loss or congestion between yourself and our video servers. It is only the first step out of many that are needed to diagnose the fault. You need to follow up on support tickets and take the required troubleshooting tests so we can find the cause of the problem.
Also what is this about losing a months membership? Your membership expires on December 27th and your last login was yesterday!
Excellent when travelling or working abroad
Excellent. Went skiing to Austria and was able to watch all my favourite programs like I was back at home, no buffering like most sites. And this was over the mobile network, (got 40GB with Vodafone for £24 a month and free roaming in the EU!) can't be too shabby! Highly recommended :)
June 22, 2019
Unprompted review
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