Hyperoptic takes mid-contract price rise campaign to TV

Hyperoptic has stepped up its ongoing campaign against broadband mid-contract price rises with a new TV ad, launching today. The ad will air using addressable TV, segmented by geography to target Hyperoptic’s network footprint of 64 places around the UK, supported by a full suite of digital and Out of Home assets.

The new ad, produced in partnership with full-service agency CHS, calls out the experience that around 15 million households face this spring: discovering their broadband price is going up, despite being in the middle of a contract. And in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

“Surely they can’t do that,” protests one character in the ad. “Look,” her housemate responds, “they’ve stuck it in the small print – apparently they can!”

Last week, Ofcom opened an investigation into the use of mid-contract price rises. Broadband prices are set to rise in April by as much as 14.4% for customers with BT, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk and Vodafone, with no chance to escape the contract without a substantial penalty. Virgin Media customers face a 13.8% increase, but will have 30 days from when they receive their notification to let them know they want to leave.

Hyperoptic’s Chief Customer Officer Lutfu Kitapci said: “We’ve spent the last year raising awareness and lobbying for change on broadband’s mid-contract price rises. Around 15 million households are going to be affected, and we know that 60% don’t know the increase is coming. This TV ad will let more people know to look out for increases, and be aware before they sign a new contract.

Hyperoptic has never hiked prices mid-contract.  We believe it’s misleading to let customers sign up to a contract price, only to increase that price months later without any transparency – especially in this cost-of-living crisis.”

Research from Hyperoptic finds that 60% of people are unaware that their monthly charge for their broadband contract will change; 80% don’t know that CPI relates to price; and less than a quarter can work out the pounds and pence impact of a price rise when given the numbers. 

Broadband providers are hiking their charges by the rate of inflation plus 3.9 per cent on top in the middle of contracts, without giving the customer the right to exit the contract. This April, with the Consumer Price Index rate of inflation at 10.5% per cent, this will take bills up by a massive 14.4 per cent. Broadband customers are set to add around £1.7 billion to the coffers of the UK’s major broadband providers as a result of price rises in April, in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis.

With more than 250,000 customers and more than one million homes passed, Hyperoptic has become a leader in the full fibre broadband market.

In 2019, leading global investment firm KKR acquired a majority stake in Hyperoptic.

Hyperoptic is on a mission to reach 500,000 customers and two million homes passed, maintaining market-leading penetration and excellent customer experience as the company scales.