Devesh Raj, Chief Operating Officer, Sky:

“It’s never welcome news that the cost of products and services are increasing, especially at a time when many households continue to face tightened budgets. As we announce some changes to our prices today, I want to be transparent about why these increases are needed and what they mean.

“We’re always listening to our customers, so we know that delivering the best Sky experience, whether that’s the technology we create, the content we deliver, or the customer service we provide, is what matters most to them.

“To continue to do this, from April 1, most of our TV and broadband customers will see a monthly increase to the cost of their package, with the average increase across our products being 6.7%. We have worked hard to keep our prices as low as possible.

“We’ve also done what we can to support our customers who are most vulnerable by freezing the price of our broadband and mobile social tariff again this year, ensuring those who need more support will continue to receive it.

What customers can expect

“We differ from our competitors as we don’t pin our increases to CPI or RPI – this means our customers have seen a much lower increase over the past three years – around 14% less than other TV and broadband providers. This percentage difference means that if a customer had a contract that cost £35 a month in early 2022, competitors who follow a CPI model will, from April, charge nearly £60 more a year*. Because we don’t use inflation pinned increases in our contracts, we also enable our broadband customers to leave penalty free within 30 days of being notified of a price increase.

“We’ll be contacting every customer that is impacted by this year’s changes soon, providing full clarity on how their products and services will be affected.

Managing increased demand

“Millions of people count on our network and products in their everyday lives, which means it’s important we continually work on making them even better.

“We know that reliability is really important, so we’ve invested heavily in our broadband network capacity, growing it by 24% since 2022 while reducing faults by 55%. We’re also the only broadband provider that offers a wall-to-wall WiFi guarantee as standard. This means we’re providing much better value and a more reliable service today.

“It’s not just about continually improving our customer’s day to day experience, but also providing them with even more choice and even better technology. This is why in 2023 we launched WiFi Max, giving customers our most advanced hub yet and fastest WiFi guarantee alongside a smarter, safer connection.

Delivering better entertainment

“Sky is known and loved for its history of innovation in entertainment. Developments in technology mean customers have more choice than ever over what they watch, and when and how they watch it – but the average person still spends 100 hours of their life searching for content.

“Sky has invested in solving this problem. Our platforms bring together over 100,000 hours of the best content from top entertainment apps – including the BBC, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime and Disney+.

“We offer content from Sky, HBO and Netflix from less than £1 per day, and are always looking at how we can deliver even more value – such as bringing Discovery+ at no extra cost to Sky TV subscribers last year, saving £6.99 a month.

“Customers can also look forward to some of the best content coming exclusively to Sky this year, with House of the Dragon 2, The Sympathizer and The Regime. As well as Sky Originals including Mary & George, and the Sky and Peacock adaptation of the global bestselling novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz. This is on top of access to the shows we know our customers love, including Succession, The Last of Us, Gangs of London, Brassic, And Just Like That…, The Lazarus Project, Rob and Romesh vs…, A League of Their Own, and many more.

“Sky also remains the undisputed home for sport fans in the UK. In 2023 alone, we broadcast 70,000 hours of elite sports coverage and in 2024 customers can expect 8,000 extra hours of sport, including football, tennis, and rugby league. We have many of our sports rights locked in until the end of the decade bringing an unrivalled volume of domestic football, Formula 1, cricket, golf, rugby league, tennis and plenty more for customers to look forward to.

“On top of all this, we know that delivering the best experience is underpinned by outstanding customer service, so we work hard to ensure ours is best in class. Sky is the least complained about provider according to Ofcom’s latest complaints data across broadband, talk and mobile. And for pay-TV we’ve held this position for nearly 12 years.

Industry changes

“Alongside our investments, these pricing changes are reflective of the increasing external costs Sky, and the entire industry, continues to face – whether that’s the energy we are using to power our data centres, investments in the technology we need to develop our products, or the amount we pay wholesalers for our connectivity infrastructure.

“Ultimately though, our promise to customers is that whether it’s providing faster, more reliable, and award-winning broadband, unmissable entertainment, or the latest innovative technology, we’ll continue to provide better products, better services, and better value.”

*This is based on a provider that implements an increase of CPI + 3.9%, which would be 9.3% in 2022, 14.4% in 2023 and 7.9% in 2024.