Sky’s broadband and pay TV customers will face an average 6.7% rise in the cost of their subscription from April.
- Unlike other providers, Sky hasn’t fixed its annual price rise to a CPI+3.9% formula.
- 6.7% rise is lower than those announced by its rivals so far
- Chief Operating Officer admits it’s not “welcome news”.
- Price of social tariff frozen.
The average cost of a Sky broadband or pay TV subscription is to rise by 6.7%, although the devil will be in the detail, depending on the exact package you have.
Customers will receive personalised confirmation of their individual price rise within 30 days of the price rise coming into effect. Sky hasn’t yet published a public list of price changes.
In a blog post, Sky’s Chief Operating Officer, Devesh Raj admitted price rises were “never welcome news”. Defending the company’s impending price rise, he said that because Sky didn’t pin its annual rise to CPI or RPI measures of inflation, average increases at Sky were much lower than at its competitors.
Above inflation price rise, but better than rivals
The most recent CPI inflation figures released in January stood at 4%, meaning Sky’s average 6.7% rise is significantly above inflation.
But BT/EE, TalkTalk and Vodafone are among Sky’s rivals that will increase prices by between 7.7 and 7.9% this spring. Virgin Media O2 will reveal the extent of its price rise next week, when January’s RPI inflation figure is released. Virgin is the only main provider to fix its prices to the higher RPI measure of inflation.
Raj confirmed that the price of Sky’s broadband and mobile social tariff will be frozen again this year.
He said the increased costs were due to Sky making investments to manage increased demand of online services, increasing broadband network capacity by 24% since 2022 while reducing faults by 55%.
Other cost rises were linked to delivering ‘better entertainment’, with Sky securing access to a range of content on its satellite and streaming platforms. Raj also blamed additional external costs, including increased energy and wholesale prices.
Sky’s broadband customers can also leave penalty free within 30 days of being notified of a price increase. This doesn’t apply to other Sky contracts, so customers who have bundled multiple services need to watch out.
Marc Thornham