From June 2024 Sky subscribers will have to deal with a increase in costs for the Sports and Football packages.
The news, communicated in recent hours by pay TV to its customers via email, is causing quite a bit of controversy among users and sports fans.
But what are the reasons behind this move and how will it change the offer of sports content on the platform? Let’s analyze in detail what awaits us.
Sky Sports and Sky Football: increases based on the type of subscription
Price changes, effective from June 1, 2024, will depend on the type of subscription subscribed to. For customers with the old price list, activated until 3 February 2021, Sky Calcio will go from 5 to 7.99 euros per month (+2.99 euros), while Sky Sport will suffer a more significant increase in price, going from 15.20 to 23.19 euros monthly (+7.99 euros).
Those who have signed up to the Sky Smart offer will instead see an increase of 3 euros per month for Sky Calcio (from 5 to 8 euros) and of 6.90 euros for Sky Sport (from 16 to 22.90 euros); finally, for Sky Open subscribers the Football package will cost 3 euros more (from 5 to 8 euros), while the Sports package will go from 20 to 26.90 euros (therefore an increase of 6.90 euros per month).
The reasons behind the increase: a renewed content offering
Sky justifies these increases with the adaptation to the new offer coming soon, which will include more Champions League matches thanks to the new format of 36 teams in a single group.
In total, 185 out of 203 matches will be broadcast, from August to May. Furthermore, in addition to the matches of the most important football competition in the world, the pay TV will exclusively broadcast all 343 matches of Europa League And Conference League until 2027.
As for Serie A, Sky will hold 114 matches per season in the slots on Saturday evening, Monday at 8.45pm and Sunday at 6.00pm (which is new). There Premier League will remain exclusive until 2028, while the European Championships 2024 will see the airing of all 51 matches.
Obviously there will be no shortage of other sports, including tennis (with the main ATP and WTA tournaments), engines (24 Formula 1 GPs and 21 MotoGP) and the Paris Olympicswith full coverage on Eurosport.
Right of withdrawal and promotions to “sweeten the pill”
Given the contractual change, customers will be able to exercise the right of withdrawal free of charge, without penalties, by deactivating Sky Calcio and Sky Sport through the official channels (telephone, website, points of sale, PEC).
For further information on the procedures to follow to exercise the right of withdrawal, please refer to the dedicated page available on the official Sky website at this address.
To try to make it the price increase is less bitterSky has decided to propose some promotionssuch as 6 free months of Sky Mobile by Fastweb (for those who switch by 30 June), a discount on Sky WiFi (at 22.90 euros for 12 months with free activation), 50% discount on Sky Glass until the end June, Sky Q Black with activation for 0 euros (instead of 99 euros), 3 free films on Primafila and 3 months of Plus entertainment with Netflix Premium 4K.
The increase in prices for Sky Sport and Sky Calcio has understandably raised discontent among subscribers, who are increasingly struggling with generalized increaseshowever, it is undeniable that the offer of sports content proposed by pay TV has significantly expanded, with long-term exclusives and increasingly widespread coverage of the main sporting events.
It will now be up to customers to evaluate whether the quality-price ratio is still convenient or whether it is appropriate to opt for alternative solutions, perhaps more flexible and less expensive. Not an easy choice, in an increasingly fragmented television landscape, where finding the right balance between quality content and accessible costs becomes an increasingly difficult challenge.
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