Virgin Media has announced a major overhaul of its pricing and bundles – bringing both welcome additions and unwelcome cost increases for customers.
The company has bumped annual price rises from £3.50 to £4 per month, while simultaneously adding Netflix to more packages and finally upgrading Sky channels to HD at no extra cost.
The changes, which affect new and re-contracting customers from today, paint a complicated picture. While some headline prices remain unchanged and certain bundles now include valuable extras, other packages have become noticeably more expensive.
Entry-level broadband has jumped by £2-£3 per month with nothing new to show for it, and that higher annual increase means bills will climb faster year after year.
The most notable aspect of these (and other recent) changes is what they reveal about Virgin Media’s direction. This is a company leaning heavily into streaming, bundling Netflix across its range and making its recording-free Stream box the default TV hardware
Whether that’s progress or a step backwards depends entirely on how you watch TV.
The Background: Ofcom’s Pricing Revolution
To understand what’s happening here, it’s worth stepping back to look at the bigger picture of how TV and broadband pricing changed over the past year.
For years, providers used inflation-based price rises that were, frankly, confusing. Virgin Media’s contracts included clauses about “RPI plus 3.9%” increases – sounds complicated because it is.
RPI (Retail Price Index) measures inflation, and the problem was that you never knew what that number would be until it was announced.
Two years ago, when RPI hit 10%, Virgin Media customers saw their bills shoot up by 13.9%. If you were paying £60 for a TV and broadband bundle, that was an extra £8.34 every month.
There was nothing most people could do about it either, because they were locked into contracts.
Ofcom finally said enough was enough. From January 17, 2025, providers have had to tell customers exactly how much their bills will increase – in pounds and pence – and display this information clearly before you sign up.
Sadly, the regulator did not ban mid-contract price rises, but at least now you know what’s coming.
Virgin Media switched to fixed annual increases of £3.50 per month last November, following these new rules. BT and EE made similar moves, charging £3 for broadband and £2 for TV.
Now, just 11 months after announcing that £3.50 figure, Virgin Media has bumped it to £4 – so a £4/month increase every April while you’re under contract.
That’s 13p per day, as the company points out – but it compounds quickly, and the total impact depends on when you sign up. If you sign up in February, for example, your bill goes up by £4 that April, then another £4 the following April, until your 24-month contract is complete.
Whether this fixed £4 is better or worse than the old inflation-based system entirely depends on what happens with inflation each year.
When inflation is high, the fixed increase saves you money. When it’s low, you might end up paying more than you would have under the old formula. It’s more predictable, certainly, but not necessarily cheaper.
The New Pricing Breakdown
Starting today (October 2), new customers will see some pricing changes (just remember – this doesn’t affect existing customers, until they have to renew their contract).
Also, remember that these are the new “base” prices – but prices often change with rotating deals and offers, or even if you haggle.
Broadband only packages (check your postcode) have seen mixed changes. M125 now costs £25.99/month (up £2 from £23.99), while M350 sits at £28.99/month (up £3 from £25.99). There’s no added value here – you’re just paying more for the same speeds.
But M500 and Gig1 are more interesting. They’ve stayed at £33.99 and £38.99 respectively, but now include Netflix Standard with Ads.
Since Netflix costs £5.99/month on its own, you’re essentially getting it for free if you were planning to subscribe anyway.
It’s an unusual move – while many TV providers these days bundle Netflix in some of their plans, bundling Netflix with broadband-only packages is a genuinely useful addition for customers who want straightforward broadband but also planned to get Netflix separately.
There’s also a new Gig2 tier at £54.99/month (including Netflix), though this is only available in Nexfibre areas where Virgin Media has deployed its newest infrastructure.
TV bundles (check your postcode) have mostly stayed at the same prices as before. Entertainment remains £36.99/month, Cinema £46.99/month, Sport £66.99/month, and Sport + Cinema £74.99/month.
However, all now come with Netflix Standard with Ads included – previously this would have cost extra.
The Sport bundles also benefit from Sky Sports HD being included at no extra cost.
Virgin Media used to charge an additional £7/month for HD, which was frankly ridiculous in 2025. It’s about time this changed, even if it highlights how outdated the previous setup was.
For context, Sky itself still charges extra for HD on Sky Q, and on its NOW streaming service (you need the Boost add-on for Full HD), so it’s good to see Virgin Media moving ahead here.
All TV bundles now come with a minimum M250 broadband as standard (264Mbps), up from lower speeds previously. Whether you actually need that extra speed is debatable, but more is always better than less.
Volt bundles (check your postcode) – which combine broadband, TV, and an O2 SIM – are now priced as follows: Entertainment Volt at £44.99/month, Cinema Volt at £54.99/month, Sport Volt at £74.99/month, and Sport + Cinema Volt at £82.99/month.
You do get boosted broadband speeds with Volt packages – Entertainment, Cinema, and Sport Volt customers get M350 boosted to M500, while Sport + Cinema Volt gets M500 boosted to Gig1.
The Max Volt bundle – the top-tier package with everything included plus an unlimited O2 SIM – stays at £84.99/month. This includes Gig1 broadband, all Sky channels in HD, Netflix, and unlimited mobile data across 75 countries.
Home phone pricing has been tweaked as well. New customers can now add Talk Anytime (unlimited calls to UK landlines and mobiles) for £8/month, down from £15 previously. That’s a genuine saving if you still use a landline regularly.
What Virgin Media Says
A Virgin Media spokesperson told Cord Busters: “Customers taking one of our latest packages, which offer fantastic value including Netflix as standard on all TV bundles and Sky Sports in HD at no extra cost, will see their prices rise by £4 a month each April.
“No prices are changing now and no changes are being made to existing customer contracts.
“This 13p a day rise represents excellent value for connectivity customers use more than ever and is greatly outweighed by the £5m we invest every single day into our networks and services to ensure we continue to provide the fast, reliable connectivity our customers expect and rely on.”
The Stream Box Reality
All of Virgin Media’s TV bundles come with the Stream box by default – the streaming-only device that replaced TV 360 as the standard option back in July.
The Stream box doesn’t record anything. It’s purely for live viewing and on-demand content, which means you can’t skip through adverts by recording programmes and watching them later.
For households that have spent years building up libraries of recorded content and watching TV on their own schedule, this is a big change.
You can still get a TV 360 box if you want recording functionality, but you need to specifically ask for it – and be prepared to potentially pay extra for installation.
In some full fibre areas, TV 360 isn’t available at all, so the Stream box becomes your only option.
Virgin Media’s push towards streaming makes sense given they’re now bundling Netflix as standard, but it’s worth understanding what you’re getting before you sign up.
If recording is important to you, make sure you explicitly request a TV 360 box and check it’s available in your area.
Winners and Losers
The value proposition here really depends on what you were planning to buy anyway.
If you’re looking at M500 or Gig1 broadband and were already planning to subscribe to Netflix, you’re getting a nice bonus. The broadband prices haven’t changed, but Netflix is now included – effectively a £5.99/month saving compared to buying them separately.
TV bundle customers benefit similarly. Entertainment, Cinema, and Sport packages cost the same as before, but Netflix is now thrown in. And if you wanted Sky Sports, getting it in HD rather than SD at no extra cost is a welcome upgrade.
But if you don’t want Netflix and just need straightforward broadband, the M125 and M350 price increases offer nothing in return. You’re paying more for exactly the same service.
And regardless of which package you choose, that £4 annual increase will compound over time.
Also, remember that these are headline prices. Virgin Media is known for offering discounts if you’re willing to haggle, so don’t always assume the advertised price is the best available.
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