Telly addicts fearing Sky-high prices after £30bn takeover

THEY are already paying as much as £59 a month for their TV package – but Sky viewers are bracing themselves for price rises following its £30billion takeover.

US giant Comcast agreed the deal on Saturday, paying £8billion more than it first offered after a bidding war with Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox.

But it has raised speculation that some of the costs will be passed on to Sky’s 23million subscribers across Europe. Russ Mould, investment director at broker AJ Bell, said: ‘Comcast is spending billions on acquiring Sky and one way they can recoup that money is by raising prices.

‘Comcast clearly want to be careful – they want to add customers rather than lose them, so they don’t want to come steaming in and hit everyone with a price increase.

‘What I think they might do is try and charge more for more – offer technological enhancement so it won’t just be gouging customers. But at the same time they don’t want to push it too much or they risk pushing customers away.’ Martyn John, of comparison website GoCompare, said: ‘Someone has to foot the bill and, in the past, this tends to be consumers.’

Sky subscribers were quick to express their fears of price rises. Keith Winn wrote on Facebook: ‘Well I will vote with my feet. I am off if they put up prices.’ Andrew Duncan tweeted: ‘ We’ll have to stream instead and save a few bob!’

Comcast and 21st Century Fox wanted control of Sky to compete with online streaming upstarts such as Netflix and Amazon, and due to its grip on rights to broadcast Premier League football.

The takeover by Comcast, which owns Universal Studios, brings to a close one of the longest-running takeover battles in years.

It also ends Mr Murdoch’s long association with Sky, which he founded in 1989 introducing paidfor TV to the UK.

Mr Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox already owns 39 per cent of the business but launched a bid for the other 61 per cent in December 2016. Comcast gate-crashed the deal earlier this year, with the takeover panel forced to hold a blind auction on Saturday after neither company would declare its final offer.

Brian Roberts, chief executive of Comcast, told the Financial Times that Sky will be allowed to run itself ‘as an independent company’, with chief executive Jeremy Darroch expected to continue at the helm.

‘Someone has to foot the bill’