Sky customers will see their bills increase from 1st April 2026. Most broadband customers, even those still under contract, will have £3 added to their existing monthly price, while TV customers will be charged an extra £1- £3 a month, depending on their package. Most other major broadband providers will also be increasing their prices by a similar amount this Spring.
As Sky does not include annual price hikes in its broadband customers' contracts, anyone affected will be able to leave for free within 30 days under Ofcom rules, as the increase is considered 'unexpected'. Unfortunately, these rules do not apply to TV deals. If you have a Sky TV and broadband 'bundle', you may not be able to cancel the TV element without paying an early termination fee.
Sky's social broadband tariff will not increase this year.
Why are Sky prices going up?
Sky is implementing mid-contract price hikes across its broadband and TV packages for existing customers. This is not unusual - in fact, most providers do it every year. There could be new business costs that Sky is looking to make up, though it would be difficult to justify what will be, for some customers on cheaper deals, a 12.5% increase, 9.5% above inflation.
Fundamentally, providers introduce surprise price hikes for in-contract customers because they can. It would be reasonable to assume that once a contract is signed, the agreed monthly payment is fixed, but that is not the case with UK broadband, mobile, and TV deals. Under current Ofcom rules, providers can raise mobile or broadband prices at any point within a fixed term, with many including in customer contracts when bills will change and by how much.
The only positive for Sky broadband customers is that it is not in your contract that the price will go up, so you can exit your plan without paying an early termination fee.
What are mid-contract price hikes?
A mid-contract price rise is an increase to your bill while you are still in the initial term of your contract. When you sign up with a TV, mobile or broadband provider, you will usually agree to an initial period of 6, 12, 18 or 24 months, though some providers do offer 30-day deals.
During this time, you can only cancel your broadband or move to a new provider for free if you are within a cooling-off period, if you are not getting the service you were promised or if your bill goes up unexpectedly. Most major providers include mid-contract price rises in their terms and conditions, so you are technically agreeing to them when you sign up, and they would not be considered 'unexpected'. A Sky broadband price hike is considered 'unexpected' because Sky does not specify that there will be an annual increase when you sign up.
If you leave for a different reason, you will have to pay an early termination fee.
Will Ofcom ban mid-contract price hikes?
Ofcom's latest alteration to broadband regulations was the 'Telecoms Consumer Charter', signed earlier this year, which did very little to change how providers can alter prices for existing customers. The latest major changes were the 'pounds and pence' restrictions launched in January 2025. These rules prevented phone and broadband providers from including inflation-linked price rises in customer contracts. Instead, providers had to list any planned increases in 'pounds and pence'.
The 'pounds and pence' system was seen by many as a win for consumers, but it did not ban in-contract hikes or surprise increases. It also left some customers paying significantly more than they would have under an inflation-linked calculation, as a flat increase can work out to be far greater than an inflation-linked one. For example, a Sky broadband customer currently paying £24 will pay £27 from 1st April. This is a 12.5% hike and 9% above inflation. The old system would have seen an increase of around 7% (CPI + 4%), the equivalent of an extra £1.68 on a £24 a month bill.
What's more, the rules still allow providers to hike prices beyond what customers agreed to when they signed up, as O2 did in November last year.
Ofcom - or the government - could yet decide to make surprise price hikes impossible, rather than continue the tweaking of recent years. Until that point, consumers will have to be wary that their bills could go up at any time, by any amount, regardless of what their contract states.
How to cancel your Sky contract
Under Ofcom’s rules on in-contract price hikes, Sky must let you cancel your contract penalty-free within 30 days of being notified of an unexpected price increase. As most customers were notified on 18th February 2026, they will have until 20th March to switch or cancel.
It is easy to compare the different broadband options available and switch to a new provider to cancel your Sky deal. You may even end up paying less than you did before the price hike, as Sky rarely ranks among the cheapest providers.
Sky does not have its own broadband infrastructure, so the only difference you should see in switching provider would be a different router, unless you move to Virgin Media - which has its own cable broadband network - or a mobile broadband provider.
If you want to stay with Sky, you could use the fact that you are free to leave your contract without paying an early termination fee as leverage to get a better deal. Sky is well known for having one set of headline prices and another set for anyone willing to leave. A calm and polite chat with customer services over the phone or online chat could see you paying less without the hassle of switching. The tips in our article 'How to haggle to get a better broadband deal' are a great place to start.
What to do to avoid future broadband mid-contract price rises
The only way to avoid an annual broadband price rise is to sign up with a provider that commits to not implementing mid-contract price rises. These providers do exist, but the list does not include any of the UK’s big names and it may work out cheaper to accept the variability.
It is important to remember that unless you switch to a provider with no mid-contract price rises, your new price will still go up. For example, if you sign up with BT for £30 in February 2026, your March 2026 bill will be £34 and your March 2027 bill at least £38. This is because the price rises apply to in-contract customers whether they originally signed up six months ago or six days ago.
Even if you sign up with a company that is committed to not introducing mid-contract price rises, it is possible that your new provider could row back this commitment, though you would then be able to leave for free again.
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