Hundreds of thousands of broadband and TV customers will see their bills increase from April.
Although the official rate of inflation has fallen dramatically in recent months, prices for households still continue to creep higher.
Whether it's health insurance, bins, or car insurance, every other week another utility provider seems to be upping its prices.
And this time it's the turn of Sky, whose latest price increase will affect hundreds of thousands of its broadband and TV customers.
Sky price hike
Sky is hiking the price of many of its broadband and TV packages for its existing customers from 1st April.
It says the average price increase will be 4.5% or about €4.90 a month.
This will be the third April in a row that Sky has hiked its prices. Last year it was by an average of 4.1% and the year before it was by an average of 5.1%. This means prices have gone up by almost 15% in total since 2023.
Not all Sky customers will pay more though – the price hike doesn't affect those with 1Gbps fibre-to-the-home broadband. And customers who are still availing of an introductory, discounted promotional offer won't pay more for now.
Of course, Sky isn’t the only telecoms provider that’s been upping its prices of late…
Price hikes across the broadband and TV sector
Since 2021 many of the main telecommunications providers have ‘mysteriously’ started copying each other.
In 2021 Three announced that it would increase the monthly charge on its bill pay plans by 4.5% every year, in April, for new customers and those upgrading or signing new contracts. And in 2022 both Vodafone and Eir announced that they will increase their plans by the rate of inflation PLUS an additional 3% every year, taking effect every April too. This means automatic price hikes of around 5% are due to be implemented by both providers in a few weeks' time on the back of price hikes of an even bigger magnitude last April.
Sky, in fairness to it, hasn't introduced these inflation-busting price hikes. For now at least. Though it seems to be upping its prices every April now too - just by a slightly lower amount.
Speaking about the news, a Sky spokesperson had this to say:
These price changes are reflective of the investment we’ve made to improve our products and services, as well as the increasing costs we continue to face across the board. We know price increases are never welcome and have tried to keep this increase as low as possible by absorbing costs where we can, while still providing our customers with as much value as possible for the services and content they know and love.
What are my options?
You could always try haggling with Sky or perhaps accept the price hike but negotiate an upgrade for accepting it.
Sky is definitely one of the better companies for treating its existing customers well, so you may be able to come to some type of agreement.
However, the best thing is to switch and save!
Switch to the best broadband and TV deal on the market
The prices that the main broadband and TV providers offer new customers have remained relatively steady over the past few years. This is in stark contrast to the prices for existing customers which have increased by more. So there really is a lot of value to be had by switching.
Head over to our broadband comparison page to discover the best deals on the market for you.
Simply enter your address or Eircode and we'll show you all the deals available in your area, which you can sort by price or speed.
And remember on bonkers.ie we also offer a range of services that will help you cut the cost of your energy bills, banking fees, mortgage payments and insurance costs.
Find out more
If you're thinking of switching broadband or TV provider, check out our guide that highlights the most important things to keep in mind when changing.
Also, Sky recently launched a great new service called Sky Stream, which you can read about here.
And before that it introduced Sky Glass. Check out our review of the service here.
