Selling television plans and add-ons

Overview

You can sell television (TV) plans and TV add-ons in checkout and the client portal. In checkout, you can sell them on their own or as part of a bundle. Bundles aren't available in the client portal, so customers can only buy TV plans and add-ons there individually. Once a customer buys TV, they can view and manage their TV plan and add-ons in the client portal.

In this article, we'll be covering where TV appears in checkout and the client portal, how to set up TV plans and add-ons in the product catalog, and how to display channel counts, channel lineups, and features on each plan.

Where TV appears in checkout

You can advertise TV in two places in checkout:

• The Bundles screen, which you can configure to appear at the top of checkout. Bundle tiles can include a TV plan alongside internet, routers, mobile, and residential phone plans. To set up bundle tiles, see Configuring featured bundles.

  

• A dedicated TV step, which appears after the internet and router steps and before the residential phone and mobile steps.

The TV step

The top of the TV step lists the base TV plans from your product catalog. Each plan tile can show:

• The plan name and price.
• A channel count, for example "118+ channels".
• A short description and a list of features.
• A View lineup link that opens a side panel listing every channel in the plan. Customers can search this list to check whether a specific channel is included.

After a customer selects a base plan, the TV add-ons appear below it on the same screen. TV add-ons can be:

• Channel packages, such as premium movie or sports channels. These tiles can show their own channel count and lineup. The add-on lineup panel has no search bar, since these lists are shorter.
• Other TV products, such as set-top boxes, streaming sticks, or additional streams.

You can make channel add-ons depend on a base plan. This prevents customers from buying an add-on, such as sports or premium movies, without also selecting a base TV plan. For details about setting this up, see Creating product dependencies.

Creating TV categories in the product catalog

Before you create any TV products, create a category for TV plans and a category for TV add-ons. The category type matters. Only products in a TV plan or TV add-on category type can display a channel count and channel lineup. Products in another category type, such as internet, don't have these options.

1. Go to Product Catalog > Settings.
2. Create a new category and give it a name, for example "TV base plans".
3. Set the category type to TV plan.
4. Click Submit.
5. Repeat these steps to create a category for TV add-ons but select TV add-on as the category type.

Creating a TV plan or add-on

Create each TV plan and TV add-on as a product in your product catalog.

1. Go to Products > New Product and enter the plan's name and price.

2. To sell the plan only to customers who also buy internet, go to Additional Settings and select Require the account to have at least one of the specified products.

   In Requires one of these products, select every internet plan the customer can combine with this TV plan. For details, see Creating product dependencies.

3. Assign a coverage area to the plan. The coverage area controls where the plan is available.
4. Select the TV plan category you created earlier.
5. Click Confirm.

If you require an internet plan on every TV plan in your catalog, the TV step only appears in checkout after the customer selects one of those internet plans.

Enabling TV plans in checkout and the client portal

TV plans don't appear in checkout or the client portal until you activate the television section and choose which plan categories to show.

1. Go to Settings > Checkout > Plans.
2. Scroll to the Television section and click Activate.
3. In Select product categories for your television plans, select the TV plan categories you want to advertise.

All plans in the selected categories appear in checkout and the client portal, as long as they're available at the customer's service address.

Enabling TV add-ons in checkout and the client portal

TV add-ons appear in checkout and the client portal through add-on groups. First create a group for your TV add-ons, then attach it to the television steps in checkout and the client portal.

1. Go to Settings > Checkout > Add-ons and create an add-on group for your TV add-ons. For details, see Add-on Groups in the Checkout.
2. Go to Settings > Checkout > Plans and scroll to the Television section.
3. Under General information > Selection settings, select Show add-on groups on television plan page.
4. Select the add-on groups you want to show on the television plan screen.

All add-ons in the selected groups appear in checkout and the client portal, as long as they're available at the customer's service address.

Adding channel counts, lineups, and features

You set the channel count, channel lineup, and feature bullets for each TV plan or add-on through its translations. Each field maps to a translation key on the product. These are nested under the Translations tab on each product's page.

Scroll right to view the whole table on smaller screens.

Add a channel count

1. Open the product's translations.
2. Find the subtitle key and click Edit.
3. Enter the channel count, for example "118+ channels".

Add a channel lineup

1. Open the product's translations.
2. Find the additionalInformation key and click Edit.
3. Enter each channel on its own line, starting with a hyphen, for example "- ABC". The hyphen adds a divider between channels in the side panel.

Add feature bullets

1. Open the product's translations.
2. Find the features key and click Edit.
3. Separate each feature with a vertical bar (|). Each item becomes its own bullet on the tile.

These fields are optional. If you leave subtitle empty, the tile shows no channel count. If you leave additionalInformation empty, the View lineup link doesn't appear.

Managing TV in the client portal

Once a customer has TV, it appears in the client portal alongside their other services:

• The Services section of the Overview screen shows a TV Plan card with the plan name, channel count, and a View lineup link. Customers without TV see an Add plan button instead.
• The Plans screen shows the customer's TV plan.
• The Add-ons screen lists TV add-ons, such as premium movie channels.

Customers can buy, upgrade, or remove TV plans and add-ons from the client portal using the Modify and Add plan buttons. The View lineup side panel uses the same additionalInformation translation you set up for checkout.

Customers can't change a TV plan or add-on that is part of a bundle from the client portal. The portal tells them to contact support instead.