HUNDREDS of thousands of Sky customers will be hit with broadband and TV price hikes of up to £72 from August, the telecoms giant has confirmed.
Sky says this latest increase only applies to a small number of customers who didn’t see bills rise when it last upped prices on April 1.
This set of customers have different contracts, which means their increase was delayed to August, although the price changes will be exactly the same.
Sky’s Entertainment TV package is rising by £2 a month (£24 a year) from £22 a month to £24 a month.
While those with Sky’s Essentials broadband package will also see prices rise by £2 a month (£24 a year) from £20 a month to £22 a month.
Customers who have Sky’s multi-screen option will see bills go up £1 a month (£12 a year), from £13 a month to £14 a month.
HERE'S how to save money on your broadband and TV bills:
Audit your subscriptions
If you’ve got multiple subscriptions to various on-demand services, such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Sky consider whether you need them all.
Could you even just get by with Freeview, which couldn’t cost you anything extra each month for TV.
Also make sure you’re not paying for Netflix twice via Sky and directly.
Haggle for a discount
If you want to stay with your provider, check prices elsewhere to set a benchmark and then call its customer services and threaten to leave unless it price matches or lowers your bill.
Switch and save
If you don’t want to stay with your current provider check if you can cancel your contract penalty free and switch to a cheaper provider.
A comparison site, such as BroadbandChoices or Uswitch, will help you find the best deal for free.
While those with HD TV will pay an extra £1 a month (£12 a year), with bills rising from £5 a month to £6 a month.
As in April, exactly what price you’ll pay in total depends on your package.
The largest possible increase is £6 a month or £72 a year, but Sky says the average hike is much less at £3 a month or £36 a year.
It wouldn’t tell us how many customers are affected, but even 1 per cent of the 13million-strong UK customer base it had in 2018 (the latest figures available) would mean 130,000 impacted.
Increases will take force on your August bill, although Sky says the price changes won’t affect any offers you already have.
Sky Cinema, Sky Kids, and Sky Sports TV packages are unaffected, as are superfast broadband prices.
Home phone users are also unaffected although the price of certain calls rose on May 1.
Sky’s call connection fee, for example, rose from 23p to 25p, while non-inclusive calls to UK landlines increased from 15.5p per minute to 16p per minute.
Whether you can leave Sky penalty-free or not as a result of these hikes depends on the product and on your contract.
If you’re a Sky customer outside of the minimum term of your contract and on a monthly rolling deal then you can leave penalty free at any time anyway, regardless of the increases.
For those still within their minimum contract term, you can’t cancel penalty free unless you’re an Essential broadband customer.
Here, you can cancel the broadband element of your package only as long as you notify Sky’s customer services within 30 days of receiving notification of the hike.
A Sky spokesperson said: “This is not an additional price increase – a small number of our customers did not receive notification of their price increase earlier this year and they are now being notified.
“We know price increases are never welcome, so we try to keep prices down while continuing to bring customers the best entertainment all in one place, leading customer service and even more flexibility to choose the package that best suits them.”
Last year, Sky upped prices by up to £42 a year. While in 2018 it increased costs by £30 a year.
But NOW TV, which is owned by Sky bucked the trend and cut the price of its out of contract broadband deals by up to £9 a month in February.
