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UK ISP Sky Broadband and TV Confirms Price Increases for 2025 UPDATE3

Tuesday, Feb 4th, 2025 (5:08 pm) - Score 5,080
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Customers of Sky UK’s (Sky Broadband, Comcast etc.) internet, phone and TV products have today been told to brace for an average annual price increase of 6.2% (down from 6.7% last year), which will be introduced from April 2025. But broadband and phone customers who are unhappy about this will be able to exit their contracts penalty free.

Sky has traditionally shunned the old inflationary (CPI + X%) linked price hike policies of their rivals, which in recent years has resulted in their annual rises being a fair bit milder, although things have since changed a bit.  The provider’s announcement claims that this year’s price increase is “either in line with or lower than other providers” (we assume they mean ‘major’ providers) and that, over the last four years, their prices have “broadly increased in line with inflation, reflecting our ongoing commitment to fair and transparent pricing“.

However, it’s worth noting that the current CPI rate of consumer price inflation is only 2.5%, which is obviously a fair bit lower than the 6.2% increase that Sky are pledging to introduce. But the move has raised a question mark over whether Sky’s current approach to mid-contract rises is fully compatible with Ofcom’s new pricing policy, which effectively banned mid-contract price hikes that are linked to confusing inflation and percentage-based changes (here).

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Just to be clear. Ofcom’s change is NOT designed to stop mid-contract hikes completely, and is more about making future pricing clearer and simpler. But it does require providers to tell customers precisely what any future price increases will be when they sign up (“in pounds and pence“). This rules out changes to ‘core subscription’ prices that are linked to unknown future inflation values or percentages.

Despite this, Sky state that Ofcom’s new policy doesn’t apply to them and, when the price notification hits, they’ll allow you to exit your contract penalty free. This is very much in keeping with how they’ve done things in past years (i.e. the more traditional approach to mid-contract hikes).

Devesh Raj, Sky’s Chief Operating Officer, said:

“I also want to provide our customers with clarity on Sky’s approach to price rises, against wider changes in our industry.

Last month, new Ofcom regulations came into force that apply to providers who include future, inflation-linked price rises in their broadband, talk or mobile contracts. Going forwards, they’ll have to publish any increases in pounds and pence.

This ruling does not apply to Sky because we don’t apply increases in this way.

Unlike many other major providers, our prices across broadband and talk are variable, which means customers who are in a minimum term on these products can cancel their package after being notified of a price increase, without paying early termination fees.

This is why we send out detailed notifications about any changes to our prices and outline your rights to cancel. We’ll confirm if and how these terms apply to you when we contact you.

I hope this explains some of the decision making and context behind this year’s price changes.

We understand price changes can be unwelcome, but they are necessary to sustain the quality and reliability of the services you value. Our promise remains steadfast: to deliver the best in entertainment, sports, and broadband while ensuring we offer exceptional value.”

We’re currently asking for Ofcom’s viewpoint on this (expect an update tomorrow), although it’s worth noting that all of the broadband packages on Sky’s website are now being promoted as having their “Price locked for 24 months“. So presumably new customers who take out one of those packages today won’t have to worry about mid-contract hikes next year, which would indeed negate the regulator’s policy.

However, it’s worth remembering that broadband 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, surging inflation, high energy prices, the cost of adding all sorts of new services (e.g. FTTP) and catering for new regulations etc.

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Devesh Raj added: “I’m proud to say we’ve invested heavily over the last twelve months, so our customers now have access to more than ever before. This continued investment to deliver the best and most reliable products, along with increased supplier costs, means most of our TV and broadband customers will see a change in their price this year. But we’ve made every effort to minimise the financial impact to you.”

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), although your mileage may vary. 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).

Speaking of which, Sky said that the cost of their broadband and mobile social tariff will be frozen once again, “protecting our most vulnerable customers and ensuring they continue to have access to essential services“. We should add the Sky’s price hikes may well also end up filtering down to their NOW TV (NOW Broadband) sibling too.

Finally, Sky added that they’ve invested to grow their broadband network capacity by 27% since 2021 and, over the past few years, have also worked hard to reduce broadband faults by 26%.

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UPDATE 5th Feb 2025 @ 7am

Just to clarify. The ability to exit existing contracts penalty free will only apply to Sky’s broadband and phone customers – those in their minimum term on Sky TV won’t be able to exit penalty free. In addition, the Essential TV package is not included in this price increase and will see no change in April.

However, if a customer purchased a broadband product at the same time as a TV package, they will be able to leave their minimum term contract for both products penalty free, within 30 days of being notified of a price increase.

A spokesperson for Ofcom told ISPreview:

“We’ve always been clear that our new rules apply to contracts that include specified price rises from the start. The issue we were addressing was customers not having sufficient certainty about what they would pay if they were tied into price rises linked to future inflation, because it can be volatile and difficult to predict.

We have had strict rules in place for years that mean if providers don’t specify price rises in customers’ contracts from the start, but instead make ad hoc announcements, they must give customers 30 days’ notice and the right to exit penalty-free. So consumers can avoid these price rises if they want.”

UPDATE 5th Feb 2025 @ 9:14am

Some readers have noted a few oddities with Sky’s approach. Firstly, Sky’s website is currently promoting their broadband packages as “price locked for 24 months“, but if you check availability and go into the order system this changes to “prices may change during 24 months contract” – this is very contradictory messaging, and we’re seeking clarification from Sky.

Secondly, over at NOW Broadband, packages are being listed differently. Both their 75Mbps and 100Mbps full fibre tiers stated that the “Price will increase by £3 a month from 1 April 2025. Price may change during 24-month contract“), while their top 300Mbps does the same but only notifies of a 50p price rise. This seems rather unfair for those on NOW’s slower/cheaper plans.

UPDATE 6th Feb 2025 @ 11:09am

Sky has confirmed to ISPreview that any customer who signs-up to them under the new price lock wording will not see their broadband price change during the minimum term specified. The reason why this wording changes during the order journey is because their standard terms do still mention that prices may vary. But the provider did agree that this was confusing and has now updated their website.

The outcome is that their broadband product pages now simply state “Price may change during 24 month contract“, rather than “price locked for 24 months” – but there are still offers in place across relevant packages. We don’t think that’s much of an improvement.

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Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
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 .
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32 Responses

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  1. Avatar photo dave says:

    Great! I’ve been looking for an excuse to get out of my Sky Stream contract. I simply don’t use it enough and find some features to be quite fiddly.

    They’re also bloody cheeky in that with the new ad skipping feature (as in, the proper ad skipping feature, not the previous one where you could fast forward through), they skip all but the very last few frames of the ad, meaning you basically still see what the product is and therefore are basically still seeing an advert for the product!

    1. Avatar photo tech3475 says:

      Unfortunately, I believe the ability to leave for free only applies to broadband, not TV.

  2. Avatar photo V says:

    …and it’s the endless rises that made me say ‘nah thanks’ and binned off Sky this year. SEEE YAAAAAA.

    1. Avatar photo Ad47uk says:

      A shame more people don’t, but you will still get those who will pay silly prices to Sky, just to watch a few men kicking a ball around. If enough people scrapped sky, then things may change.

      I do wonder how some people can afford it, certainly the ones who don’t work?

  3. Avatar photo Kris says:

    On the face of it I think Sky are correct.

    The issue was that when signing up with a provider it was in the terms that they could raise prices by CPI + X% at a planned date in the future. So the price rise formula was known but the amount wasn’t and that’s what offom tried to fix (badly).

    Sky don’t have in contract price rises in the contract, they simply raise them as they want whenever but allow you to leave if you feel it is detrimental.

    No one likes price rises but I prefer Sky’s approach.

  4. Avatar photo Rich Branston says:

    “it’s worth noting that all of the broadband packages on Sky’s website are now being promoted as having their ‘Price locked for 24 months’”

    This is only showing for Full Fibre 300 and lower deals (Price locked for 24 months. New Sky Broadband customers only.)
    Full Fibre 500 and Full Fibre Gigafast say (Price may change during 24 month contract)

    1. Avatar photo binary says:

      I’m not seeing the ‘Price locked for 24 months’ message on *any* of the packages offered, and I’ve just checked four different addresses that I know are served by Openreach FTTP. Strange.

    2. Avatar photo binary says:

      Aha… just read Kenneth’s comment below (posted at 8:39am)

      The Sky.com ‘landing page’ for broadband products does show the message:
      “Price locked for 24 months. New Sky Broadband customers only.”
      …with the exception of the Full Fibre 500 and Full Fibre Gigafast packages.

      Meanwhile the ordering page (after you put in an address) still currently shows the message:
      “Prices may change during 24 month contract” (for all packages)

      An unhelpful inconsistency – presumably the latter message on the ordering page is pending being updated.

  5. Avatar photo Gman says:

    Mid contract price rises should be banned. Sign up at a price, have to pay that price for the duration. Not like customers can make any changes or leave mid contract for free. Why is the lock in solely on the customer

    1. Avatar photo James™ says:

      I totally agree, the price rise factor should be spread across the contract for the duration.
      But that’s not going to happen, so let people leave penalty free!

  6. Avatar photo tech3475 says:

    Oh boy, time to start looking at alternatives….including Virgin Media if only because I want faster upload speeds where I live.

    Seriously, I wish more ISPs would wholesale Nexfibre or another alt-net comes, otherwise it’s better than nothing I suppose.

  7. Avatar photo Spurple says:

    Price rises arent fun, but their customers get a fair chance to shop around for better deals. Reasonable terms.

    1. Avatar photo Ad47uk says:

      For broadband yes, but sadly not for sport if that is what they are into, because Sky has the monopoly. What is crazy is that people have to pay for the entertainment part even if they just want sport.

      Another large company that does what it wants.

    2. Avatar photo binary says:

      @Ad47uk

      Sky does not have “the monopoly” on sports coverage.

      Also for those who just want sport without the entertainment ‘base package’, they can consider NOW TV.

      Given the sports broadcasting contract costs, it’s not especially surprising that it’s large companies that are in this business – not sure the Hereford Community Broadcasting Collective (for example) would really be able to compete for said sports rights…

    3. Avatar photo john says:

      @Ad47uk Sky Sports don’t have a monopoly and ironically that’s one reason it is so expensive. I remember when they did have a monopoly and the regulators were not happy about it – consumer choice, price blah blah. So they forced the rights to go to auction and Sky were not allowed to buy every package of games.

      So from day 1 you had to pay 50% more for two services instead of one or just accept less for the same price. But the worst thing was once there was a foot in the door in came the big money. Every 3 years or so there is huge bidding war between TV services which has raised billions upon billions for football clubs and their star employees but that money has to be recouped from subscribers and so prices have risen rapidly. As so often the regulator’s answer to a monopoly situation made it worse. They should’ve restricted exclusivity rights instead of forcing exclusive rights to be divided up. That would’ve kept prices competitive.

      That said with Now TV you can get Sports without Entertainment and there is always a deep discount available (at least 50%) compared to the main TV service. How long that will last time will tell.

    4. Avatar photo Big Dave says:

      I get Sky Sports via Now TV and I can’t remember the last time I paid full price, go to cancel and they usually offer you a discount for 6 months then when you’re in the last month go to cancel again. Sometimes they chance their arm and just let you cancel but usually they come back with an offer just before the service stops.

  8. Avatar photo GDS says:

    I literally renewed my Sky TV contract 6 days ago.
    I checked my account yesterday, and its gone up £7.50 from April.
    How is it allowed that I can sign up for a contract at one price, and for them to jack up the cost less than a week later.

    1. Avatar photo Ad47uk says:

      Blame Ofcom and the government for allowing i. Like the other so-called regulators, they are all for the companies and are a total and compleat waste of space, time and money

    2. Avatar photo Matt says:

      Your new contract will be covered by a 14 day cooling off period under distance selling regulations; even if it is a renewal. Give sky a call and threaten to leave.

    3. Avatar photo CJ says:

      With Sky TV, the salesperson may not mention it but the actual contract you sign up for says they can increase the standard price at any time after the first 60 days by up to 10% or RPI or CPI, whichever is the highest. They can repeat this every year.

      They also structure most of their new customer and renewal/retention offers as a higher standard price with a discount applied. This allows them to increase the price you actually pay by more than 10% (or RPI or CPI) because the cap only applies to the standard price and the discounts don’t increase.

      I got caught out by this trick last year. I agreed a discounted price for 18 months on the phone, but after 3 months they increased it by 15%. Since the undiscounted price was just within the cap, the contract allowed them to do this.

      It’s a disgraceful way to treat customers and I won’t forget in a hurry. However I am lucky that Virgin Media (Nexfibre) has since become available in my street so at the end of my current contract I will cancel Sky and get sky sports via Virgin flex TV instead. Sky’s short-sighted greed will cost them a customer of 15 years.

      Sky has been going through the courts arguing that their pay TV service is not an “electronic communications service” so certain Ofcom rules (specifically end of contract notifications) don’t apply to it. The final appeal was decided by the Competition Appeals Tribunal, in September they ruled unanimously to uphold Ofcom’s decision.

    4. Avatar photo Spurple says:

      Take advantage of the cooling off period.

  9. Avatar photo Rollers says:

    There are a number of providers out there that offer no mid contract rises. I for one will be ditching Virgin for one. My new years resolution was no more mid contract rises. Broadband is my last one

  10. Avatar photo Kenneth says:

    Just looked online and sky’s website says locked for contract ,yet when you try and place an order is says prices may rise during contract ,looks like sky cannot even get there website correct, was thinking about going to sky but now I have doubts about signing up

  11. Avatar photo binary says:

    On the NOW Broadband landing page, it now shows this text under ‘NOW Full Fibre 75’ and ‘NOW Full Fibre 100’:
    “Price will increase by £3 a month from 1 April 2025.”

    By contrast under ‘NOW Full Fibre 300’ it shows:
    “Price will increase by £0.50 a month from 1 April 2025.”

    It’s worth noting that it only refers to a price increase on 1 April 2025 (i.e. this year), so this still isn’t an annual price rise spelled out in pounds and pence (i.e. what might happen in 2026 is not stated).

  12. Avatar photo Anonymous says:

    I don’t know if anyone else has pointed out – but Sky have an ad going right now that says “prices may change within 24 months” at the end of the ad.

  13. Avatar photo RogerB says:

    I signed up 6 months ago to Now Broadband @£23 per month and being hiked up to £26. Then to £29 in 2026. That’s a price like of 13%. I can’t say I am blown away by the reliability of it so good excuse to jump ship

    1. Avatar photo binary says:

      Hi @RogerB

      I don’t think NOW Broadband have announced what price rise they might implement in 2026 – for new customers all that is currently stated is a £3 increase “from 1 April 2025”, I don’t think this will be different for existing customers.

      Re reliability – ‘under the hood’, NOW Broadband is basically Sky Broadband, which is generally regarded as pretty reliable. Are you connected via FTTC? If so, it may be more likely that there’s an issue somewhere with your line somewhere.

  14. Avatar photo binary says:

    Re UPDATE 3 to this article (dated 6th Feb 2025 @ 11:09am)

    Sky’s update to the broadband product page to remove the “price locked for 24 months” wording seems kinda bonkers *if* the price lock remains part of the offer (for new customers) – because now, there is nothing I can see that refers to this 24 month price lock, so how is a potential customer supposed to know the ‘price lock’ even exists?! This is pretty basic stuff…

    1. Mark-Jackson Mark Jackson says:

      My reading of what Sky told us is that they’ll honour the claim for those who signed-up already under that fixed price wording, but it’s not clear if they’ll do the same for those who sign-up today. Needless to say, Sky’s approach to communicating all this has been confusing.

  15. Avatar photo binary says:

    @Mark Jackson (at 5:09pm) – what a mess they’ve managed to make of this!

    Perhaps the ‘price lock’ will make a reappearance if Sky can also update the order journey pages.

    From a sales point of view, a price lock for new customers signing up in February and March makes sense as otherwise potential customers who are clued up to annual price rises in April (especially now Sky have announced their price rises) are liable to defer signing up until after the rise in April.

  16. Avatar photo Jay Gee says:

    The core days of cable tv has gone now. Consumers are getting fed up of Sky obviously doing a great value £40 a month basic plus boardband new introductory offer when 50 year old Sharon who has no idea about renewing a contract or any knowledge of a price rise is currently paying £80 for the same package. Then guys like Netflix and Prime came then comsumers were “cord cutting” just to find another reason to get fed up of those services as Netflix triple their prices in a few years and includes ads in packages whilst blocks password sharing. Then the dodgy boxes came in only charging £60 a year for all the channels and shows which is every consumers dream but probably not for very long. As col is at an all time high, consumers are now moaning about the fact of having to pay TV license in the first place and basically boycotting TV or just watch them completely illegally.

  17. Avatar photo L8Again says:

    I binned Sky TV 9 months ago as I was fed up with the tiresome process of trying to negotiate a better deal at contract renewal. I miss the simplicity of Sky but the monthly saving has been significant. By making use of free trials and dipping in and out of monthly streaming contracts I am now paying less than £10 a month for good quality entertainment.

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