The United Kingdom’s national cable operator, Virgin Media (Liberty Global), has today followed other ISPs by announcing a series of annual price hikes for their broadband, phone and / or TV bundles, which will see the price existing customers pay rising by around +4.7% per month.
As reported yesterday, Virgin Media has already refreshed their bundles and product prices for new customers. In addition, there is no longer an upfront ‘Virgin TV V6’ box cost for existing customers on a Mix bundle and above (£20 activation fee still applies). On top of that customers who take the Sky Sports bundle will be able to enjoy all of the newly branded Sky Sports channels in one combined package etc.
The Price Changes
· Prices for the majority of customers will increase between £1.99 and £3.99. This means that, on average, customers’ prices will rise by 4.7% from November 2017.
· The changes will take effect from November 2017 and some customers will start to see changes in their bills from October 2017.
· We’ll be writing to our customers to explain these changes and will continue to make sure they can experience even more from Virgin Media.
The reasons for such increases tends to vary, although it’s usually a combination of inflation, rapidly rising data usage by end-users and the fact that ISPs have to adopt a lot of new measures as part of changing regulation (e.g. automatic compensation for broadband faults, warning emails for Internet piracy, new TV content / services and Internet snooping laws).
A Virgin Media spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:
“We do everything we can to balance keeping our prices competitive while investing to meet the ever-increasing appetite for broadband and content.
Online usage increased by more than 35% in the last year and streaming now accounts for nearly 60% of the total traffic on Virgin Media’s network.
We’re investing more in our ultrafast network to continue offering the UK’s fastest widely-available speeds. This all comes on top of must-see TV programming – from Virgin TV Exclusives to the only place where you can watch all of the live football action from both Sky and BT Sport in a single package.”
Most of the major ISPs tend to follow a similar trend and Ofcom even has a rule for tackling mid-contract price hikes, which might allow some customers to exit their contract penalty free (you must do this within 30 days of the notification). However if you don’t wish to swap ISP then annual hikes are also a good time to call up the provider’s retentions department and use it to negotiate a new deal (see our tips).
Broadband speeds
Tier | Speeds (download/upload) |
VIVID 50 | 50Mbps/3Mbps |
VIVID 100 | 100Mbps/6Mbps |
VIVID 200 | 200Mbps/12Mbps |
VIVID 300 | 300Mbps/20Mbps |
Bundles
Tier | Price (per month inc LR) 12 month contract (exc introductory discounts) | 12 month offer |
VIVID 50 solus | £33.00 | £33.00 |
VIVID 50 with home phone | £40.00 | £27.00 |
Player bundle with VIVID 100 | £48.00 | £33.00 |
Mix bundle with VIVID 100 and V6 | £55.00 | £45.00 |
Full House bundle with VIVID 100 and V6 | £70.00 | £55.00 |
Full House bundle with VIVID 200 and V6 | £75.00 | £59.00 |
Full House bundle with VIVID 100 and V6 and Sky Sports | £95.00 | £71.00 |
Full House bundle with VIVID 200, V6 and Sky Sports | £100.00 | £75.00 |
VIP bundle with VIVID 300, 2x V6, Sky Sports HD and Sky Cinema | £125.00 | £90.00 |
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