ISP Sky Broadband and Sky TV Reveal UK Price Hikes Policy for 2026 UPDATE
New customers of Sky UK’s (Sky Broadband, Comcast etc.) internet, phone and TV products are being informed about the provider’s latest round of annual price hikes, which will be introduced from 1st April 2026. For example, broadband customers will now see a flat hike of £3 to their monthly bills, which is the same as or lower than most of their largest rivals.
As for Sky’s Pay TV services, Cinema will be subject to a £1 increase per month when taken with a TV product, and Triple Play packages will see a £3 increase per month (as per the Broadband price rise). Just for comparison, Sky expressed last year’s price rise as an ‘average’ annual price increase of 6.2%. But for now this is only impacting new customers, not existing customers (we expect Sky to follow a similar policy for existing users, but this is not yet confirmed).
Fixed price increases tend to hit those on cheaper packages the hardest. But the good news, if you can call it that, is Sky will give their broadband and talk (phone) customers who are unwilling to accept such a hike some 31 days from the point of being notified to terminate their contract early without penalty (not applicable to their TV customers, unless bundled with broadband).
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Consumer who are hit by mid-contract hikes like this could alternatively try haggling for a lower price when the notification drops (Retentions – Tips for Cutting Your Broadband Bill), which Sky does usually entertain. Meanwhile, those on benefits (Universal Credit etc.) also have the option of taking a cheaper Social Tariff – see our Quick Guide to UK Social Tariffs (Sky have these too and they’re not impacted by today’s hike).
However, it’s worth remembering that broadband, phone and TV providers are NOT immune to cost increases. Providers, much like consumers, are also suffering under the burden of rising supplier (e.g. wholesale) and lease costs, high inflation, high energy prices, the cost of adding all sorts of new services (e.g. FTTP) and catering for new regulations etc.
UPDATE 8:55am
Tweaked the second paragraph to correct a mistake with last year’s price increase comparison.
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I voted with my feet and moved to a cheaper supplier with no silly mid contract rises when this last happened to me. No regrets
“However, it’s worth remembering that broadband, phone and TV providers are NOT immune to cost increases. ”
My problem with this argument is that they then do 24 month contracts, even for those re-contracting when you can’t argue about setup costs.
Consumer who are hit by mid-contract hikes like this could alternatively try haggling for a lower price.
What they should do is when the contract ends, drop them like a stone.
But people won’t. I understand prices go up, energy and other costs have increased, but it is getting ridicules now and sadly people will still pay these high costs and don’t look for somewhere cheaper.
Sky have a lot of people over a barrel when it comes to TV because of sport, need to stop, the government needs to step in and people should have more choice where to watch that silly game with men or women running around a field kicking a bal.
I remember the last time the government stepped in. They said Sky was not allowed to have all the Premier League games to itself. You know what happened? To get the same content you got before you now had to pay two subscriptions instead of one. And then the big money piled in with ESPN/BT and started bidding up the rights at auction inevitably causing subscriptions to sky rocket as well. We’d be better off if the government had stayed out of it.
Anyway I recommend NOW TV for Sky Sports. I’ve never paid more than £19.99 and currently on a 6 month deal at £17.99 which I find to be a fair price. Just have to keep cancelling, which is easy on the web site, most of the time you will get a good offer right there and then. If not let it cancel and you’ll get an email with an offer a day or so later.
Usually with major providers if you change any pricing you will be placed into a new contract, usually you won’t be able to drop price unless you are either in the last couple of months or if they you have a one touch switch request in place.
There are alternatives like Now TV if you want Sky Sports. Last autumn I separated all my services when I moved from BT to Plusnet. It was a bit of a ballsache at the time but next time it will only a case of changing the broadband.
Person I live with demands Sky Q.
Now TV also lacks some of the channels they watch like Movies24.
If left alone they would be paying a ridiculous amount (£80 vs the £50 I got it down by just putting in a notice of cancellation and contacting them a week later).
And before talks about dodgy IPTV, that’s also a hard no, besides I like not having to worry about the internet going down taking their TV viewing with it.
I left Sky completely. I pay Squirrel Internet £49 a month and I pay AA about £2 a month for the landline phone as we use it so little. NEITHER are ties to any contract length, I can leave at any time. No price increases. I just use Now TV for any Sky content I want, easy to manage, again NO contract and it’s easy to get discounts too. Plus on my Apple TV I can pause and rewind live shows or films with ease, works great.
Rule of Thumb if mid contract price hikes are not also on their new subscriber prices for the same package. Its a con by the provider and you should go elsewhere. In the old days I used to think Altnets would provider inferior service to the big players. I was so wrong, the altnets the service you get off them is so much better. Go to a smaller provider for your internet.
It’s already added to my account from April, £3 increase for TV
Same, just waiting for that email to arrive and going to switch away. Going to £27 a month for 150meg 🙁