Sky to put up their prices

So what else do you do during a douple dip recession? That's right, you put up your prices. We've seen it with fuel which has had a knock on effect on fuel prices, cost of goods, cost of delivery, cost of raw materials. Well, Sky's at it too.

Sky, the UK’s biggest pay TV operator, has introduced a range of price increases across its TV offerings that will immediately affect most of its 10,000,000+ customers.

It represents the largest restructuring of Sky’s pricing since the launch of the Entertainment and Entertainment Extra packs on 1 September 2012 which replaced the long-standing previous packs.

The cost of Sky’s cheapest bundle, the Value Pack, has increased from £20 to £21.50, a rise of 7.5%. The cost of the Entertainment Extra bundle has risen from £25 to £26.50, an increase of 6%.

50p has been added to the cost of individual Sky Sports packs, and £1 added to the cost of ESPN across all subscription options. The only channels to remain unchanged are the two Sky Movies channels packs which still cost £8 each per month.

Under the terms of Sky’s TV contract, new customers are protected from all price increases for a period of 60 days from their activation date, and from increases of 10% or more for the entirety of their 12-month minimum term.

Sky has also announced that its popular Sky Talk Freetime inclusive evening and weekend calls package will no longer be offered to new customers from 1 September 2012.

Existing Talk Freetime customers will be allowed to keep the service while new customers will instead be offered the new Sky Talk Weekends as standard, and have option to upgrade to anytime calls for an extra £5 per month.

Paul France of Cable.co.uk, an Ofcom approved TV, broadband and phone comparison site, said: "It’s nothing new for a TV providers to raise prices each year, especially given the rising production costs of imported comedies and dramas."

"Consumers need to pay particular attention to the Sky Talk changes. In order to get evening and weekend calls instead of just weekend calls they need to order before midnight on 31 August this year, and order online to get the best deals."