Broadband, phone and TV customers of Virgin Media O2 will be asked to pay on average an extra 13.8% for their services. It’s also built in a new annual price rise mechanism into its contracts.
Depending on bundle/package, customers will see their prices rise in April or May. Customers that Virgin Media has identified as vulnerable will not see any price change this year.
If you’re a Virgin Media O2 customer, you’ll receive an email or letter outlining what’s changing based on the services you take. 13.8% is an average figure, so some customers will see larger increases.
But customers who stay with Virgin Media O2 face automatic above-inflation price rises from next year.
That’s because from April 2024, Virgin Media O2 is linking price rises to the Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of inflation as published at the beginning of the year. VMO2 will add 3.9% on top.
Based on current rates of inflation, that would mount up to 17.3% (13.4% RPI + 3.9%). However, inflation is expected to fall rapidly in the next year, as a result of recent price rises falling out of the 12 month measuring period.
Virgin Media O2 has however made recent changes to make its TV service more competitive. On Tuesday, it made dozens of TV channels HD by default. Additionally, it has launched new social broadband tariffs for eligible customers.
However earlier today, Ofcom revealed Virgin Media was the most complained about pay TV provider.
Iain Hatton