Sky hits back at BT with half price and free broadband deals

The battle is on as Sky launches a challenge to BT’s free sports TV deal. We look at how the offers stack up.

Sky has launched a series of half-price and free broadband offers in a bid to challenge rival BT.

The move comes after BT announced it would offer sport content via its BT Sport channels for free to all BT Broadband customers. Find out more in The best broadband freebies and incentives.

Now Sky has chosen to respond by waging war on broadband prices, rather than meeting BT head on with the cost of its Sky Sports package.

Sky broadband offers

The most direct challenge to the free BT Sport deal with BT broadband is a mirror image offer of free Sky Broadband deals available to Sky Sports customers.

New and existing customers that take out or have Sky Sports can get 12 months free Unlimited Broadband (monthly line rental £14.50) or get six months free superfast Unlimited Fibre Broadband (£20 a month thereafter and monthly line rental £14.50) when they switch service provider or upgrade.

Sky TV customers without Sky Sports can get Unlimited Broadband half-price for a year at £3.75 a month or pay £10 a month for six months for superfast Unlimited Fibre Broadband.

Meanwhile non-Sky TV customers can pay £5 a month for 12 months to get Unlimited Broadband or £10 a month for six months for Unlimited Fibre Broadband.

How they compare

Sky says its new deals can save BT Broadband customers money.

It claims BT customers that want a bundle of broadband, line rental and call minutes by itself will get a cheaper price with Sky on Unlimited and Unlimited Fibre deals.

Comparatively speaking that’s true. The first year cost for a Sky Unlimited Broadband deal for example comes to £234 while an equivalent deal with BT Unlimited Broadband costs £281.40 in the first year (£16 a month with six months for free, plus £15.45 monthly line rental).

For those with Sky TV but a BT Broadband connection Sky calculates customers can save £156 a year by switching broadband provider, or £201 if Sky Sports is taken out too.

But this calculation only works out if you ignore the price of Sky TV and Sky Sports. Sky TV costs £21.50 for its basic Entertainment package or £42.50 with the Sports pack which adds another £258 to £510 to the bill!

Here’s what the costs really look like for two comparable sports content and unlimited broadband deals:

As you can see Sky’s deal is nearly £400 more expensive.

So in terms of making a stand on the price of its sports content Sky hasn’t really made much progress. Plus with prices on its TV packages to go up by 10% in September, it is likely to become even more expensive.

BT customers on its most basic internet deal of £10 a month plus £15.45 for line rental and a £6.95 postage cost will be able to get BT Sport for free online and via an app.  To watch the content offline you will need to sign up for BT TV which costs £49 upfront, £15.45 a month for line rental, £5 a month for six months then £21 thereafter plus a £6.95 up-front cost which amounts to around £400 - which is still cheaper than Sky.

To see which broadband, phone and TV deals are available in your area, check out broadbandchoices.co.uk.

Game changer or compromise?

Sky is tackling BT on broadband prices rather than getting down to the real issue of the price of its sports package.

BT brushed off Sky’s clear attempt to poach customers by positioning itself as a game changer offering a low-cost alternative for sport fans. A spokesperson said:  “BT Sport is the real game changer as Sky is still overcharging fans. While it is good that Sky have finally recognised how uncompetitive their prices are, it is still cheaper for sports fans to go with BT.”

But Sky warned customers shouldn’t have to compromise. Stephen van Rooyen, MD of Sky’s Sales and Marketing Group, said: “For sports fans, there is no need to compromise on your TV service. Sky Sports comes not only with an unrivalled range of live action, including more Barclays Premier League than ever, but the best deal for totally unlimited broadband as well.”

Sky Sports TV consists of six channels including Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2, Sky Sports 3, Sky Sports 4, Sky Sports News and a dedicated Sky Sports F1 channel. While the new BT Sport package consists of three channels: BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN.

The BT channels will show 38 Barclays Premier League football matches with 18 top picks, all 69 Aviva Premiership rugby matches as well as MotoGP races and live WTA tennis matches. But compared to Sky Sports the content is limited, Sky Sports for example will show all 116 Barclays Premier League matches.

So BT Sport won’t be able to please all sport mad fans, but it is the first time the content has been offered for free, which might matter more to people who have avoided Sky Sports because of the cost.

Where will you be heading for your sports fix? Let us know in the Comment box below.

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