Millions of Sky customers are set to be hit with higher bills after the company announced widespread price rises from April 1.
The TV and broadband provider said that bills will go up by 5.1% for the average Sky customer. This translates to a £3.50 monthly rise, or £42 a year. Price rises are common at this time of year and were widely expected, with Sky claiming they are necessary to provide customers with quality and improving content.
“We try to keep costs down and provide greater choice for our customers to pick the package that best suits them,” said a spokesperson for Sky. “We know price increases are never welcome, but we hope customers can see that our innovation, great content and our industry leading customer service provide good value.”
Sky Broadband and TV customers will see the price rises come into effect on April 1, while Sky Talk customers will also be affected by hikes, but not until May 1. However, some customers will face higher rises than others as it depends what packages they subscribe to.
The Sky Entertainment package will increase by £2, up to £22 a month, while Sky Cinema will be £1 more expensive than before at £11 a month. Customers who have the multiroom package, Sky Q Multiscreen, will see bills rise by a further £1 to £13 a month.
Sky Broadband customers will see prices rise by £1 across all packages, while Sky Fibre Broadband packages will increase by £2 each. For customers who use their home phone, Sky Talk Anytime will increase to £10 up from £8, while the Sky Talk Evening and Weekends package will rise by £1, up to £5 a month.
However, the Sky Sports and Sky Kids TV packages will not be hit with any price rises in April. Any bills for Sky Go, Sky Box Sets, Sky HD, Sky Voicemail and Sky Talk International will not go up either. Sky have said they will notify all their customers of exactly how much more they will have to pay individually on February 21.
Sky Broadband customers are free to cancel their contract and switch to another provider if they’re not within their minimum term and will not be charged any exit fees for doing so. Sky TV customers can also cancel their contract if they’re not in their minimum term but must give at least 31 days’ notice. If they’re still in their minimum term however, then they will be charged an exit fee to cancel their contract early.
Although competitors Virgin Media and EE have also announced price rises recently, customers have been urged to find a better deal by comparing other broadband and TV providers and switching to a new package.
