Plenty of homes around Durham are paying Sky or Virgin Media prices out of habit rather than choice. Before changing anything, spend a day testing the alternative on the screen you already own. No card at any point, nothing to cancel, and Durham County Cricket Club in county cricket, plus the Champions League and the rest of the European nights to judge it by.
Local viewing guide
Durham is a cricket city more than a football one. Durham County Cricket Club play at the Riverside in Chester-le-Street, which has hosted international cricket, and the county game gives the area a summer calendar quite unlike most English cities. Football attention here goes largely to Newcastle and Sunderland a short distance north. Durham University gives the city a large, international and highly transient student population, with the short tenancies and dish restrictions that come with it. Between county and international cricket, which conventional packages cover unevenly, and a population that moves annually, the appeal of something with no installation and no contract is more obvious here than in most places.
Durham's historic centre is tightly conservation-controlled around the cathedral and castle, and a great deal of the housing within it cannot take an external installation. Beyond that, out towards Chester-le-Street and the wider county, the housing is more conventional and coverage is reasonable, though rural County Durham is more variable. The university dominates the city, with an exceptionally high student share and correspondingly short tenancies. Between the conservation constraints and the annual turnover, installing anything is impractical for a large proportion of households. Beyond that, the useful check is the cricket, which conventional packages cover unevenly.
County Durham viewing tends to revolve around Durham County Cricket Club in county cricket, so those are the channels to open before anything else. A service can look flawless on a quiet Tuesday and fall apart at kick-off, which is exactly when you should be watching. It will never be the Riverside on a cricket day, though on a good line it comes closer than you would think.
Connection check
On connection: reasonable city coverage. You want roughly 10 Mbps for HD and 25 Mbps for 4K. Sky Sports carries county and international cricket. If you are not sure what you are on, run a speed test while someone else in the house is streaming, because that is the number that matters.
Setup
If you are already with Sky or Virgin Media in Durham, do not cancel a thing yet. Run the trial alongside what you have, compare the two on the same match, and only decide once you have watched Durham County Cricket Club on both. That is precisely why we do not take a card.
Send your name and WhatsApp number. No card, no account to create.
We send your login back on WhatsApp, usually within a few minutes.
A real person walks you through the setup on whatever telly or box you already own.
You watch for 24 hours and decide. Nothing renews, because there is nothing on file.
No card, at any stage. Durham customers start the same way as everyone else: a name, a WhatsApp number, and a login back within minutes. If you do not continue, there is nothing to cancel and nothing to refund.
No engineer and no hardware. The setup happens on WhatsApp, usually in under ten minutes, using the device you already own. Plenty of Durham customers do it themselves while we talk them through it.
The library includes county cricket coverage, so if a Durham County Cricket Club game falls inside your 24 hours you can check it on your own telly. Rights and fixtures move around between seasons, so testing it on a real match night is the only honest way to know.
About 10 Mbps for HD and 25 Mbps for 4K. Reasonable city coverage. Test during the evening peak rather than the middle of the day, because that is when the line is under load.
The login simply stops working. Nothing renews, because we hold no payment details for Durham customers or anyone else. To continue, The Taster costs £85 once and covers 10 months, or The Owner costs £255 once for lifetime access on one device. Both carry a 90-day money-back promise.
The same free trial applies wherever you are. If one of these is closer, start there.
See every city
No card. Nothing to cancel.
Twenty-four hours, no card, and a real person on WhatsApp if you get stuck. If it does not hold up on your line in Durham, you have lost nothing.
Channel and event availability changes over time, so nothing here guarantees any given match. Use the trial to check your own must-have channels before paying. If you continue, The Taster is £85 once for 10 months and The Owner is £255 once for lifetime access, both with a 90-day money-back promise.
