Millions of Sky broadband and TV customers will see their bills rise from April – but if you're affected, you may be able to leave penalty-free or haggle down your bill.
I've had an email, as will have the vast majority of SKY TV customers and some broadband customers, to confirm that as of April 2022, SKY will be increasing the cost of several of its services.
The following packages will go up in price from Friday 1 April (what isn't going up in April.)
Sky Signature TV will increase by £1 a month from £26 a month to £27 a month.
Sky Cinema will increase by £1 a month from £11 a month to £12 a month.
BT Sport will increase by £1 a month from £27 a month to £28 a month.
Sky Broadband Essential will increase by £2.50 a month from £25 a month to £27.50 a month.
Sky Broadband Superfast will increase by £2.50 a month from £28 a month to £30.50 a month.
Sky HD will increase by £1 a month from £7 a month to £8 a month.
Out-of-bundle Sky Talk call rates from Sky landlines and mobiles to UK landlines and mobiles will increase by 2p a minute from 20p a minute to 22p a minute.
If you're out of contract, the price increase will be the same in terms of pounds, but it may be higher than the initial price increases.
Customers with multiple packages may well see multiple rises, but SKY says the average impacted customer will see a rise of around £3 a month.
Mid-contract? You MAY be able to leave penalty-free.
If you're not happy with the price hike, you may be able to exit your contract with SKY penalty-free. But there's no point just leaving if your current deal is still the cheapest out there – so check rival providers' prices first and remember other providers also increase costs from time to time.
If you do decide to quit your SKY contract, it's important to note:
If you're affected by the Broadband Essential price increase, you CAN cancel your contract without paying an early termination charge. Remember that you'll only be able to do so once you've received official notification of the price increase from SKY. Once you have received this, you must call SKY within 30 days if you want to ask to leave penalty-free. Unfortunately, if you're affected by a TV deal price rise, you cannot exit it penalty-free due to these price changes, as TV contracts have different T&Cs that allow for these rises. But it may still be worth haggling with Sky if you're unhappy about the change. It's also worth looking to remove any monthly add-ons to reduce your costs if the rise causes you financial issues. At the very least, make sure you use the price rise as extra haggling ammunition when you come to the end of your contract. Remember, if you're out of contract, you can always leave penalty-free, or at the very least call them and tell them you intend to leave. They don't like to lose subscribers, and having been in this situation at the end of 2019; I managed to haggle several hundred pounds worth of discounts by combining my threat to leave with taking up one of the Black Friday deals being offered!
My Sky contract is now up, so I'm going to be on the phone to see what they can do for me, and I'm also going to look at NOW TV as well, as even though Sky owns them, the lack of a contract might make pricing better for me. However, I am aware that the more packages you take on with them, the less likely they will be cheaper than Sky!
Current Now TV prices are:
Your NOW membership gives you access to live TV channels (Cinema, Entertainment and Sports). and on-demand content (Cinema, Entertainment, Sports and hayu).
NOW Entertainment Membership - £9.99 a month
NOW Cinema Membership - £9.99 a month
NOW hayu Membership - £4.99 a month
NOW Sports Membership - £33.99 a month
NOW Sports Day Membership - £11.99 for 24 hours
What Other Options Are There To Sky? You can tell them you are leaving or look to switch at any time once you have finished your existing contract. Taking a new offer will most likely, result in a new contract being agreed, tying you into a minimum 18 months contract, so make sure you do look around at other suppliers as well, as the chances are that rivals such as Virgin will have special offers on the go, (which may not be advertised), to try and grab some of SKY's annoyed of the increase, customers!
Either way, expect to spend more on your home entertainment in 2022, but SKY isn't the only TV channel supplier to increase pricing, with Netflix announcing a price hike for new and existing members in the UK and Ireland. In the UK, the primary and standard plans will both increase by £1 a month to £6.99 and £10.99 respectively, while the premium tier will go up by £2 to £15.99. Amazon Prime Movies have announced a price increase in the USA, and an increase is looking pretty likely for the UK too.
Disney Plus hasn't announced price increases for 2022; however, in 2021, The cost of Disney Plus in the UK increased from £5.99 a month to £7.99 a month. If you calculate this annually, this results in a £20 increase, from £59.99 a year to £79.90 a year. Many annual subscribers, who paid back in 2021 for a year's service, are only now getting hot with the price increase as they renew for another year!
Virgin has also announced price rises for 2022. The total increase will vary from household to household, depending on what services they are using. However, the average price increase is expected to be around £56 per year. Virgin Media offers automated discounts to cable customers who call up seeking a price cut. Still, it's worth calling the cancellation and retentions department directly on 0800 952 2277 and see if you can haggle for a better deal!
With all the price increases hitting us in April 2022, it may be good to look at what you are paying for. If you can haggle your pricing, then great, but if not, as other channe you may well be able to cancel part of your contract, such as add on channels, to see if you can save some money; I know I'm going to make better use of my Amazon Prime Video service, as it's included in my Prime account benefits, and also has additional channels that you can now subscribe to, for additional content, many offering free or very cheap trials allowing you to watch lots of films at TV programmes at little to no cost, or with adverts, which keep the movies free to watch, with no extra subscription required..