How to Beat the Entertainment Pass Price Rise

[Andy]

The entertainment pass will be going up in price by £1 to £7.99 on August (Combo customers aren't immediately affected and those currently on an offer will see the price increase when their offer ends). More details here

https://help.nowtv.com/article/now-tv-entertainment-month-pass-update

One of the best ways to reduce the price of the entertainment pass is to use gift cards and vouchers instead of rolling over each month and paying on your card. Current offers will allow you to lock in for around £5 a month.

Buying a NOW TV box with passes included

Many retailers sell a new NOW TV box that comes with a code for either 3 or 6 months of entertainment included. Whilst you may not need a new box, you can buy these mainly for the code and keep the box for spares, pass onto a friend or recycle.

Current best prices seem to be around £14.99 for 3 months of entertainment. This is available at places like

Argos catalogue number 414/6678
Amazon
Currys
Tesco Direct

Remember to keep your receipt in case there is any problem with the code when you come to apply it.

Buying a gift card

If you don't need or don't like the sound of buying lots of NOW TV boxes you can also buy gift cards that contain a code for 3 or 5 months of entertainment for £15 and £25 respectively. You can buy these from places such as
Argos catalogue number 549/8033
Currys / PC world
Game (on their website or in-store)
Amazon

More info here https://help.nowtv.com/article/gift-cards

If you buy them in store make sure they are activated at the till and keep the receipt.

How to use the codes that come with a box or gift card

For details on how to use the code see here https://help.nowtv.com/article/how-to-apply-or-enter-voucher-code

Any downside to using the codes?

Don't go buying too many of these promotional boxes or gift cards - the codes that come with them are only guaranteed to work for 12 months from date of purchase (codes bought online at Game may have a different expiry date provided so buy one at a time). You might be lucky and get cards with an expiry date of longer than a year when bought with a NOW TV box but if you buy too many and they expire before you use them then you could be out of luck (remember you can only apply one at a time and can't apply a new one until you are in the last month of your current offer).

Also if you are the kind of person who just dips into NOW TV now and then to mainly watch boxset it may still be cheaper to just buy a monthly pass as and when you need it - the problem with buying a 3 month code is it is for 3 consecutive months, if you don't watch enough content each month to justify £5 then it might not be best value for you.

Other Things You Can Do

As well as using codes to get discounted passes you could keep an eye on the NOW TV offers page here http://www.nowtv.com/offers
Most of the offers are for new customers only but some may be available for existing customers so check the small print.

Offers available when cancelling - sometimes when you go to cancel your pass you will be offered a discounted rate for the next few months if you decide to stay, so if you are currently paying monthly, try cancelling your pass now (you don't lose any days by cancelling early) and see if you are offered anything. You can always stop the cancellation process if you change your mind or don't get offered anything.

Check the forum and sites such as HotUKDeals to see if anybody has spotted any other offers available. Always check the small print though as some offers might not be available to everyone.

Opt-in to receive marketing emails from NOW TV as you will sometimes be sent promotional offers from time to time. You can make sure you are opted-in on your My Account > Account Details page https://account.nowtv.com/account-details

Although nobody likes a price rise there's still lots of great entertainment available on NOW TV, with more boxsets being added all the time and SyFy channel joining the line up sometime soon. Keep an eye on the NOW TV blog for news on new boxsets and shows coming up.

https://watch.nowtv.com/blog

And if you see any other offers or have any other tips feel free to reply and let us all know.

[Andy]

If you are an Amazon Prime member it might be worth keeping an eye out for any better offers appearing in tomorrow's Prime Day (11th July).

[schnapps]

Thank you @Andy for spending the time & effort posting this helpful and informative alternatives on how to save money on your NowTV monthly subscription costs.

I am sure NowTV members who read your post will find it extremely useful and will no doubt save them money if they follow your "Money Saving" advice.

Much appreciated.

[Andy]

Thanks @schnapps i appreciate your comment. Wonder if we can expect another pound on the price next year? Always thought it was interesting when they launched the ROI service that the entertainment and movies passes were both the same price, and wondered if that's where they'd like to try and head with the UK. Another pound next year to £8.99 and they've just about equalised them.

[schnapps]

---

@Andy wrote:

Wonder if we can expect another pound on the price next year? Always thought it was interesting when they launched the ROI service that the entertainment and movies passes were both the same price, and wondered if that's where they'd like to try and head with the UK. Another pound next year to £8.99 and they've just about equalised them.

---

@Andy

If that is the possible direction NowTV are going using the ROI model price template in the UK, then IMO they will be "steering the ship into rocky waters" and i think a lot of sailors will be jumping ship.

Lets hope this doesn't happen and us voucher users can still find ways of keeping the subscription costs down to a minimum  

[Geluk]

Thanks for post; it's very noticeable on E Bay, how much 6 mth Entertainment Passes have shot up; I've bought several in past for £18/19.

There are many on sale now in £40/50 range.

It doesn't seem environmentally friendly to buy passes with a NOWTV box (if you've already got several) but Argos, in past,  have had these at times as low as £19.99 for 6 month pass.

[Andy]

@Geluk

Yeah I agree about the environmental aspect of buying up loads of boxes, it would be better if the occasional discounts could be given to the gift cards instead. 

For any forum readers not aware, NOW TV do provide a free recycling service for unwanted equipment, details here

https://help.nowtv.com/article/can-i-return-my-old-now-tv-equipment

When I contacted them recently to return a load of boxes they simply provided me with a free post address to send them back, nice and easy.

[Anonymous User]

Should we have had an email informing us of this price rise?

[schnapps]

@Anonymous User

I have just received an official NowTV email this morning about the £1 price hike to their Entertainment subscription service.

[commanda6]

Apologies @Andy , if you've mentioned this already, but I didn't see at first glance

Can I just mention the passes that are delivered electronically by game.co.uk (delivered by email)

The passes work out at 5 pounds per month for an entertainment pass and £7.50 a month for a sky Cinema pass

• three month entertainment pass £15
• five month entertainment pass £25
• two months sky Cinema pass £15
• three months sky Cinema pass £25

if you buy the two-month sky Cinema passes it works out cheaper per year than buying the three month cinema passes passes 6*£15 equals £90 per year. Whereas you would need for three month cinema passes overall to have years worth of sky Cinema, this would cost £100 

If you use the passes delivered electronically from game, you won't have to buy now TV boxes and you will still save money

The prices above were correct at the time of posting. But of course could be subject to change at any time

NowTV passes at game