Sky says the average price rise will be less than 5%, but there are big differences depending on which product you have.
Sky Mobile customers will also see the return of roaming charges this spring, with a daily cost cap of £2 being introduced.
The individual impact of the price rises varies thanks to all the different variations in packages and bundles available to customers, let alone special promotional deals and retention offers. Sky says it will be writing or emailing to customers in the next few weeks to let them know how the price rises will affect them personally.
TV and broadband changes occur on 1st April. Landline changes follow on 1st May.
TV
Sky’s HD customers will see the biggest rises – with a 14% increase as the monthly HD charge increases from £7 to £8 a month. That’s in addition to increases to the actual TV packages – Sky Signature increases by a £1 a month to £27. They’ll also be £1 a month increases to Sky Cinema and BT Sport packages.
Broadband
Sky Essential customers will see a 10% rise from 1st April, with the price going up to £27.50. Superfast increases 9% to £30.50.
Phone
Landline and mobile changes will happen in May. Sky Mobile will reintroduce roaming charges on 3rd May 2022. For landline (Sky Talk) users, the cost of making a landline or mobile call outside of a call package will increase 10% from 20 to 22p a minute. But call packages will remain at their current prices (e.g. £12 for Anytime Extra).
What’s the contractual position?
Sky has built-in price rises into its contracts. Advertising confirms that ‘prices may rise during this period’ when signing up for 12, 18 or 24 month deals. But if the rises work out as over 10%, you may have grounds to leave without penalty.
Sky price rises versus with other companies…
| Company | Rate increase formula (current contracts) | Effective |
| Sky | Average rise of around 5%. Sky does not explicitly link rises to an inflation-based formula. | 1st April (TV/internet) 1st May (Landline) |
| BT, EE | CPI announced in January (5.4%) plus 3.9% | 31st March |
| O2, Virgin Mobile | RPI announced in February (7.8%), plus 3.9% | 1st April |
| Plusnet | CPI announced in January (5.4%) plus 3.9% | 1st March |
| TalkTalk | CPI announced in January (5.4%), plus 3.7% | 1st April |
| Three | 4.5% increase (not linked to CPI/RPI) | 1st April |
| Vodafone, Talkmobile | CPI announced in January (5.4%) plus 3.9% | 1st April |
| Virgin Media | Average increase of £56 a year. It does not have a specific inflationary formula for price rises. (Not to be confused with Virgin Mobile, which does) | 1st March |
Any ways around this?
Evaluate which services you use and need.
With Sky, you often receive more channels than you actually watch, or are forced to subscribe to a package that contains channels you’re not interested in, just so you can access the few you do want to watch. Most of the UK’s biggest channels are available through Freesat. Freesat is built in to a selection of Samsung and LG smart TVs.
For premium services, NOW offers all of Sky’s branded channels – with the option to select just Entertainment, Sport or Cinema channels. The arrival of Discovery+, Disney+ and soon Paramount+ is great news for viewers who perhaps only subscribed to Sky for certain programmes – they can now cherry pick by provider.
Streaming services offer the option to pause subscriptions after a month, so you only pay for the months you want to watch. You’re not tied into an 12-24 month contract. If you’re saving money, subscribe to one service one month, binge the programme library, and move on to the next streaming service next month.
Once you’ve evaluated what you watch, you can unbundle the rest of the services you use: for example you may be able to find cheaper standalone broadband/landline packages. Before you do this, note what speeds you get on your current package and then visit a comparison site armed with the knowledge – you may be able to get faster speeds for the same price. Or the same speeds for a lower price.