A trial that shows the product, not the trailer
Plenty of television trials are twenty channels and a payment form with a countdown. Ours is the whole playlist for a day, with no payment details at any point. Here is why that makes commercial sense, and what it costs us to run.
Three reasons a cardless trial is better for both sides
It tests the real thing
Peak-time stability only appears during a live match. You cannot demonstrate that with a curated sample, which is why demos prove nothing at all.
No card, no argument
Nothing to cancel, nothing to dispute, no "you should have read the terms" email in six weeks. The absence of a payment form is the feature.
We only want convinced viewers
People who arrive after a good trial stay for years. People who arrive through a card trap email support for months. One of those is a business worth running.
How "free trials" normally work swipe →
| Reflect on Film | The usual "free trial" | £1 trial | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Channels included | All 40,000+ | 10–30 samples | Usually full |
| Card required | No | Yes | Yes |
| Renews automatically | Never | Often | Almost always |
| 4K feeds | Included | Rarely | Sometimes |
| Duration | 24 hours | 24–48 hours | 24 hours |
| Actual purpose | Let you judge the product | Collect payment details | Collect payment details |
If a provider needs your card before showing you the product, the product is the subscription.
The awkward arithmetic of giving a screen away
A cardless trial is not free for the person running it. Twenty-four hours of full access consumes capacity we have already paid for, occupies a support rota that could be answering paying customers, and produces no revenue if the viewer walks away. On paper, a card-first trial converts better and costs less.
We do it anyway for a selfish reason: the alternative is a business built on people who did not understand what they were buying. That business needs refund processes, chargeback arguments and a support queue full of resentment — all of which cost more than the bandwidth. Six years of writing about films taught us the same lesson in a different register: an audience that trusts the method is worth more than an audience that was persuaded by the poster.
So the trial is cardless, and the honest consequence is that some people take twenty-four hours and leave. We would rather have that than a subscriber who feels tricked by month two and tells everyone.
A twenty-four hour plan that settles the question
Setup, ten minutes
Install the app, let the guide fill, save three favourites. If setup alone takes an hour, that is information too.
One live match
Loaded ten minutes early, watched to the end. Note freezes over two seconds and whether they recovered alone.
One quick switch
Change channel straight afterwards and time it. Under three seconds is healthy; five seconds of spinner is a badly built list.
Decide, deliberately
If it held, the 24-month pass is £3.60 a month. If not, tell us why — we read every reply.
An honest limit: one day cannot prove how a service behaves in February when half the country streams at once. It can prove picture quality, guide accuracy, zapping speed and whether capacity holds on an ordinary busy evening — which is where most providers fail.
What happens when the twenty-four hours end
Nothing, by default
Access stops. No invoice, no charge, no phone call. You are not subscribed to anything.
If you want to stay
Pick a term on the passes page. The 24-month option is £86.40 once.
Your setup carries over
Same playlist, same favourites, same app. Nothing to relearn or reinstall.
Problems later
WhatsApp support in UK hours, usually minutes. Included on every term, never sold as a premium tier.
Trial questions
Where is the catch with a cardless trial?
There is no catch beyond the clock: it lasts 24 hours and does not convert into anything. No card is collected, so there is nothing to charge and nothing to cancel. If you want a paid term afterwards you have to ask for it deliberately.
Why not just show a demo of twenty channels?
Because a demo cannot answer the only question that matters — whether the picture holds at peak time. Full-list trials are expensive because of how sports rights work, which is precisely why most providers avoid them.
Can I have a second trial later?
One per household in practice. We would rather spend capacity on new viewers than repeat trials from the same address, and if the first one failed, a second will not fix it.
What should I check first?
Live sport at peak time, on the device you will actually use. That one evening tells you more than a week of quiet-afternoon testing.
Twenty-four hours, no card, nothing to cancel
Send a name and a WhatsApp number and the whole screen is yours for a day. Judge it on a live match, then decide.
Take the free 24-hour pass