Sky announces prices for forthcoming football season

Sky has announced its latest prices for the new season - which it says are its fairest yet.

But many licensees are still unhappy, claiming excessively high charges are forcing them to pull Sky from their pubs.

The new prices are currently being sent out to Sky subscribers, so were not available to thePublican.com as this article was posted, but a spokesman for Sky explained the band system had changed.

"Because the rates changed last year, and we model our price list on rates, we had to change," he said. "We have extended the bands from A-Q to A-W."

The change means the variance in rateable value on which pubs are banded is now not so large, which the spokesman said was a good thing.

"We're trying to make a fairer system," he said. "This change means that more than 7,000 pubs see no price change at all and some prices will go down."

"I'm very pleased that we have managed to hold the price increases down to about 10 per cent on average, when our costs have actually increased by 40 per cent because of the higher costs involved in the Premiership."

Sky is showing an additional six Premiership matches this year on top of the 60 it screened last season, which the spokesman said was worth the 10 per cent average price increase.

An extra 40 matches, which will also be screened by ITV Digital, are also available from Sky for a one-off payment of £75.

But some licensees say they have had enough of Sky's continued price rises.

Licensee Michael Noding of the King William IV in Canterbury, Kent, said he was seriously considering taking Sky out of his pub following the rise.

"I got a letter from Sky saying my charges are going up by £35 a month," he said. "My pub is tiny and that takes the fees to about £250 which I don't think I can justify."