article_snippet: Sky said upon the announcement of the record Premier League deal that Sky would try to make sure Sky customers would not have to foot the bill.
article_snippet: Sky will no longer have rights to broadcast Premier League games from next season .
article_snippet: Sky will work hard to minimise the impact of higher rights costs on customers, with the majority of the funding coming through substantial additional savings to be delivered by efficiency plans,’ a Sky spokesman said upon the announcement of the rights in February.
article_snippet: Analysts said the lower price rise for sports channels might reflect a concern within Sky that viewers could defect to BT, which won the right to show 42 games a season and has also beaten Sky to show Premier League matches from later this year.
article_snippet: Analysts at Citi said Citi was prudent as the previous timetable would have resulted in Sky trying to increase prices just as the Premier League matches disappeared from Sky channels.
article_snippet: Sky suggested Sky customers would not have to foot the bill for the record Premier League TV deal .
article_snippet: THE PACKAGES SKY WON .
article_snippet: THE PACKAGES SKY WON .
article_snippet: Sky may also have been encouraged to move ahead with price rises now after recent quarterly results showed the number of people leaving the platform had reduced. '
article_snippet: The experience of Canal+ in France suggests losing rights does not impact subscriber volumes, but does impair pricing power,' Citi said.
article_snippet: Shares in Sky, which has recently expanded into Germany, Italy and Austria, were up 1.4 percent, outperforming the FTSE 100 Index which was up 0.4 percent.