I have used Helix for the past couple of years. During that time I did what many advise and tried some back up subs. They were a mixed bag but always handy for whenever Helix had problems (which it often could!) but the customer service was usually there and my back up would keep me safe. My back ups came and went, often disappearing (not too much of an issue as I generally stick to 1 month subs.) and, as this continued I found the price of Helix to increase and the service to become poorer as time went on. I gradually found the issues to become more frequent (missing epgs, extreme buffering issues, channels down, channels up but no audio, wrong channel playing when listed as another etc etc.) Now I know no service is perfect and for the most part Helixs support was great, they'd keep you in the loop and they would move to fix issues quickly, but yeah, whilst I still do think it is genuinely a good value service, it genuinely feels less great than it once was when it was at a better price point with seemingly much better support ticket repliers. This recently led to me trying out another new back up, this is how I got to Phoenix IPTV.
I recall another service from past called Phoenix and an app called Phoenix reborn, but neither of those are affiliated with the service I am currently with and reviewing today. So I came across this service on reddit whilst looking for trials, I was given an email to write to, requested a trial and promptly received the M3U link I had requested. I checked out the groups and channels over the weekend and instantly found the quality to be excellent right across the board. I found the channels to load up instantly and there was no buffering at all to my surprise! I have an average WiFi connection and use a firestick so whilst I'm not on the greatest of hardware, I was really quite surprised how well the product seemed to run. I actually tested the service over the weekend so one of the biggest winning points of the trial for me was game time. As most of you will have no doubt found in the UK, buffering issues often seem to be at their worst when you're watching 3pm EPL matches as there's such a high volume of viewers I guess, but again to my surprise, Phoenix's streams where absolutely faultless, something I really wasn't used to!
After a good weekend of binging on the content available I decided I'd take a sub on the service. Again correspondence was via email and through this I was told the service didn't actually have a website, not something I was used to with providers! But anyway, I was given a very attractive pricing list of £6 for a month, £15 for 3 months, £25 for 6 months or £35 for a full year. The pricing was almost too good and against better judgement I decided what the heck, I'll go for 3 months (I usually only go month at a time especially with unfamiliar providers.) I was given 2 options, bank transfer or PayPal. No bitcoin option currently as far as I can see and that may be a deal breaker for some but not for me. Payment was made and again, I promptly received my M3U URL.
And now to the present, I am now 4 months in and have renewed again as the service throughout has been excellent, in 4 months there has been absolute minimal downtime, only ever due to server reboots and I've been kept to date throughout on an app called telegram which the provider has a group on for user support. The quality of streams and lack of buffering has been fantastic during this time and it has become my primary sub. I decided a while ago not to renew Helix, again, I appreciate Helix has had many good points during my time with them but Phoenix just offers exactly the content I want, at a better price point and most importantly, it runs better especially at those most important times of PPV and sporting events. Helix does actually offer more content, there's the catch up feature (when it works) VOD, and a wider variety of channels over there. But having more content ultimately hasn't won me over for a couple of reasons, firstly it's only good if you're actually using it and a lot of it I wasn't, and secondly it's not much good when it's not working as expected. So yeah Phoenix IPTV for me from now on, I hope it lasts!
TLDR: Phoenix IPTV, a fantastic provider that has now become my primary sub. Offering all UK channels, US/International sports are on there, PPV and a selection of 24/hr channels. The streams are high quality, start up fast and don't buffer for me, literally, at all. Prices are £6pm/£15 for 3months/£25 for 6months/£35 for the year. They don't have a website. Payment options are bank transfer/PayPal. All support is via the Telegram app.
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