Sky review: the bundle question

Sky sits in a strange spot. It is not the cheapest provider on the Openreach network and it knows it. What it offers instead is a consistently strong service record, a sensible spread of speeds and the only mainstream TV platform that arrives over your broadband line with no dish bolted to the wall. If you want broadband and television from one company, Sky is the obvious answer. If you want broadband alone, it is a good answer that is usually beaten on price by somebody less famous.

Most Sky customers are on Openreach, the same wires under the pavement that carry BT, Plusnet and most of the country. Full fibre tiers run from 75Mbps through 100, 150, 300 and 500 to Gigafast at around 900Mbps, with older copper-based FTTC packages where full fibre hasn't been built yet.

Then there is the newer bit. Sky started selling broadband over CityFibre's network in May 2025, then added the multi-gig tiers that July: Full Fibre 2.5 and a 5Gbps Gigafast+ tier with a wifi 7 hub, which made Sky the fastest major provider in the UK at launch. The catch is the usual one. Your address decides which network serves you and therefore which menu you order from. No amount of wanting the 5Gbps tier will make it appear in a street CityFibre hasn't dug up yet, so run a postcode check before you fall in love. If you're not sure how much speed your household actually needs, What broadband speed do I actually need? will talk you down from the multi-gig ledge.

BT, Virgin Media, Plusnet and most of the market now write a fixed pounds-and-pence annual rise into the contract you sign, as Ofcom's rules require it to be stated up front. Sky does it differently. It doesn't bake a rise into its terms at all. It announces one each year instead. Because that rise isn't contractual, affected customers get 30 days to leave penalty-free.

For 2026 that meant a £3 a month rise on broadband from April, Sky's first flat pounds-and-pence increase after a 6.2% rise in 2025, confirmed in February 2026. Since 4 February 2026 the expected April rise has also been spelled out at the point of sale.

Is this better or worse than a fixed contractual rise? Both, frankly. Worse, because you sign without total certainty about year two. Better, because the moment Sky announces a rise you dislike you can simply walk away, which is a door BT and Virgin customers do not get to use. On balance we'd rather have the exit than the certainty.

In Ofcom's complaints figures for Q4 2025, published May 2026, Plusnet and Virgin Media shared the fewest broadband complaints at roughly 5 per 100,000 customers. Sky came next. It has sat at or near the top of that table for years and it is the most underrated thing about the company. Trustpilot tells a grumpier story at around 2.7, although that still beats BT and Virgin comfortably, broadband Trustpilot scores being graded on a curve that starts somewhere below sea level.

The router depends on your tier. Lower tiers get the standard Sky Broadband Hub, which is wifi 5 and showing its age. The 500 and Gigafast tiers get the Sky Max Hub on wifi 6. The CityFibre multi-gig tiers get the Gigafast+ Hub, a wifi 7 unit with two 10Gb ports. Sky's WiFi Max add-on backs the lot with a whole-home signal guarantee.

The real standout is the television. Sky Stream is a small puck that delivers the full Sky TV service over your broadband connection. Sky Glass builds the same thing into the TV itself. Either way there is no dish, no drilling and no man on a ladder. No other major broadband provider has anything like it, which is precisely why the bundle question matters so much.

Broadband-only Sky is a slightly odd purchase. You pay a brand premium for the same Openreach line Plusnet sells for less, partly funding a TV empire you've chosen not to watch. Add the telly and the logic flips. One bill, one provider, strong service stats and a TV platform that needs nothing on the roof.

Two honest cautions before you sign. A bundle ties more of your household to one renewal decision, so a price rise or a service wobble now touches everything at once. And leaving means untangling each product rather than making one clean break, so check the contract length and end date on every part of the bundle before you commit, not after. The Broadband and TV Deals market is worth comparing against Broadband Only Deals prices so you can see exactly what the telly half costs you.

One thing Sky deserves more noise about: it runs a proper social tariff. Sky Broadband Basics costs £20 a month for people on Universal Credit, Pension Credit, Income Support or income-based ESA and JSA. Speed depends on what your line supports, roughly 11Mbps, 35Mbps or 150Mbps by connection type. There are no exit fees and the price has been frozen for several years.

Sky suits households that want broadband and TV from one place, anyone who rates service record over headline price and anyone in a CityFibre area eyeing the multi-gig tiers. The 30-day exit on announced rises is a genuine point in its favour.

Look elsewhere if you're chasing pure value, because Plusnet and TalkTalk sell the same Openreach speeds for less. Look elsewhere if you want a modern router on a cheap tier, because wifi 5 in 2026 is a vintage choice. And if Sky isn't the answer at your address, the Full Fibre Broadband Deals market is deep enough that something will be. Whatever ends up on your shortlist, run it through How we rank deals and where our data comes from before you sign. It is the same test Sky has just sat.