Sky Q customers can cut TV costs by up to £270

Sky Q customers can slash their annual TV costs by up to £270 per year with one simple switch.

Savings experts at say switching from a to NOW TV instead - which offers a similar range of channels for under £10 per month - can result in hundreds of pounds worth of savings. is a streaming box which provides access to live , on-demand content, catch-up services and third-party apps all in one place. Packages start from around £31 per month with a 24-month contract, but prices can be higher depending on the channels and add-ons you choose.

If you got the cheapest current rate at £31, over a year you'd be paying £372 - or £744 for the full 24-month contract. There is also the option to add things like Sky Sports, Sky Cinema and Sky Kids, which can increase your monthly costs, plus there may also be a set-up fee which can be up to £49, making your outgoings even higher.

By comparison, a NOW TV membership starts from just £6.99 per month for a six-month minimum Entertainment contract. After six months, the fee increases slightly to £9.99 per month.

So if you took out this contract, you'd pay £41.94 for the first six months, and then £59.94 for the following six months, making your total costs for a year £101.88 - a whopping £270.12 less than if you had the Sky Q package. Over 24 months the NOW TV membership would cost you £221.76, giving you £522.24 worth of savings compared to Sky Q.

NOW TV is a subscription-based streaming service that is owned by Sky Group, so if you make the switch you're not leaving Sky completely, you're just moving to one of it's cheaper services.

Customers of NOW TV can still access a huge range of Sky channels, with the cheapest Entertainment package including Sky Max, Sky Atlantic, Sky Showcase, Sky Crime, Sky Kids and Sky Comedy, among others.

Many of these channels are the same as those that are available on Sky Q, yet you can watch them for a much cheaper monthly cost with NOW TV.

Rebecca Bebbington, Savings Expert at , says making the switch from Sky Q to NOW TV can help UK households to make significant savings, which is particularly prudent after a swathe of bill hikes kick in this month, including energy, water, mobile, broadband, Council Tax and Car Tax.

She said: "While Sky packages range from £28 to £46 per month, NOW TV provides similar channels without a contract for under £10.

"Not only does NOW TV provide an excellent cost saving, the entertainment service also allows you to cancel at any time, preventing you from getting locked into a long-term contract."