Sky UK Preps Annual Broadband and TV Price Rises for April Fools UPDATE

Customers of UK ISP Sky Broadband and Sky TV should be on the lookout for an announcement about the operator’s latest round of annual price increases next week, which we’ve just been informed will be officially introduced from the 1st April 2019 (same as last year).

On the broadband and phone side of things we generally tend to expect an average rise of around +£1 to +£1.50 per month on the standard rental charge (usually reflecting a rise of c.3-5%), although the exact details won’t be known until next week. Customers of Sky’s TV packages can also expect increases. As usual such price rises may initially be mitigated by discounts for new customers.

Prices tend to rise because operators are adding new services or content, developing new systems and consumers are also gobbling significantly more data every year. Providers are also under pressure to adopt all sorts of new rules, such as having to cater for the automatic compensation system (here) and end-of-contract notification letters (here). Suffice to say that service changes like these cost money and inevitably the customer will end up paying.

However Ofcom does have a rule against mid-contract price hikes, which means that existing customers are often able to exit their contract penalty free when they hit (you need to do this within 30 days of receiving Sky’s formal notification). Just remember that other major ISPs will also be increasing their prices in the same way.

Alternatively customers could try contacting the operator directly and trying to haggle for a lower price (Retentions – Tips for Cutting Your Broadband Bill). We should have more details next week (the new price list is expected to surface by 19th Feb).

UPDATE 19th Feb 2019

The price changes have been published here.