It’s been a good few years since I’ve paid for a TV service, but a combination of MotoGP moving to BT Sport and BT TV not being terribly expensive convinced me to dip my toe back in those waters. I wasn’t sure what to expect, so I thought I’d share my experiences. It’s a bit long winded, I grant you, but in short: it’s all pretty good.

The package

BT’s packages are not very well advertised on their website. There are innumerable combinations of broadband and TV, all with different introductory and on-going prices, all badly laid out. It’s a minefield.

Broadband first. I was nervous about going with BT, given their reputation for reliability, but actually so far my fibre broadband connection has been solid – just one stutter that I’ve noticed, which lasted a minute if that. And though it’s by no means the cheapest option, it’s not hideously overpriced: for Unlimited BT Infinity 1, after it stops being free for six months, I will be paying £23 a month for unlimited usage at up to 38Mb – which is ample.

BT Sport is free with BT Broadband, which is all good and well if you’re willing to just stream it on your PC, phone or tablet, or have Sky TV. But I wanted it on my TV.

So I’ve also gone with the BT TV Entertainment package – which requires BT Infinity. That gets you a YouView box and beams the BT Sport channels and a bundle of others magically over the internet to your telly. Most of that bundle is pretty unremarkable to my eyes, but nestled in there are Eurosport and Eurosport 2. Which is all that matters. Given that a YouView box is about £300, an extra £7 a month isn’t bad.

Not to forget that there’s cashback to be had if you’re a new customer, which is always worth having.

The hardware

The YouView box is pretty good: it has all the usual pause, rewind and record functions of a PVR; you can set programmes to record via mobile devices; and the major catch-up services being integrated into the programme guide is nifty. I’ve had a couple of issues with recording, but overall I’m quite satisfied.

One downside of BT TV is that all the non-Freeview channels – including BT Sport and Eurosport – are delivered via the internet. That means it needs a solidly reliable wired connection to your router.

A direct ethernet connection is recommended, though I currently have it wired up via powerline. For the uninitiated: you plug an adapter into a mains power socket near the router, and connect them via ethernet cable; plug another adapter into a socket near the YouView box, and connect them via ethernet cable; the adapters then complete the connection by communicating over the mains power circuits. Magic! (Technology.)

Specifically, I’ve used Devolo dLAN 500 duo powerline adapters. Performance depends on any number of factors – distance, the quality of the electrical wiring, whether everything’s on one circuit. I’m not using them over a very great distance, but in a house with fairly old wiring, and speed tests show no difference to a direct ethernet connection. Which is good.

Performance has dropped once, which I fixed by updating the firmware – which was simple via the surprisingly straightforward Devolo Cockpit PC software, which can connect to the powerline network via WiFi.

The units are whiney little buggers though, emitting a high pitched tone most of the time. I’ll run an ethernet cable when I get around to it; a nice 10m cable is supplied with the YouView box.

The motorsport

On BT Sport itself, the headline is MotoGP, which as I’ve said at greater length elsewhere on the site is pretty good – and all things considered, an improvement on the BBC’s coverage.

The ‘exclusive’ World Rally Championship coverage isn’t very exclusive. It’s purely the world feed material, and most of it is broadcast elsewhere: the daily highlights on Motors TV, the hour-long review show on ITV4. The only thing that’s exclusive is the live coverage, which is unpredictably scheduled – not BT Sport’s fault, admittedly, but it makes it harder to find.

Also flapping around the BT Sport schedule are various bits of V8 Supercars, DTM, NASCAR, IndyCar – all nice to have, if you can keep up with where and when they’re on.

Then there’s the very considerable bonus of the Eurosport channels. Albeit a bonus you’re paying for. Entire days dedicated to World Superbikes and British Superbikes, full WTCC coverage, European Rally Championship – and plenty more besides.

Though I had forgotten how difficult it is to record Eurosport, due to everything overrunning all the time and programming being shifted as a result. Ho hum. They repeat everything endlessly, so it’s not hard to try again.

But not…

I was a bit excited when I saw that Motors TV was going free-to-air on Freeview HD, albeit via the internet. Alas YouView is not the same as Freeview, and does not adhere to the Freeview HD technical requirements, and does not support the particular internet streaming over which Motors TV is broadcast. So: no Motors TV. At the moment, anyway.

It might change, but there’s a part of me that hopes it doesn’t, because I’m already struggling to keep up with the motorsport that BT Sport, Eurosport, ITV4 and the BBC are throwing at my telly box.

Which brings me to F1, and of course Sky Sports F1 is not part of BT TV. You can pay for the Sky Sports Day Pass on Now TV though – which is available through YouView. That’s £9.99 per day, but you can get a good chunk of cashback the first time you use it.