The average first-time buyer home stands at £205,170 with a typical monthly mortgage payment of £925 (based on 10% deposit, 25-year term and 3.5% interest), while the average pay-TV customer pays £44 a month for their contract.

If a TV subscriber quit their contract and used the £44 to overpay on their monthly mortgage repayments, they would clear the debt a year and nine months earlier.

The analysis by digital TV service Freesat revealed the extra contributions would amount to £12,276 over the shortened mortgage term, and would save an extra £7,255 on interest repayments – totalling £19,531.

Freesat said this is a huge saving considering pay-TV customers only tend to watch a small amount of the content they pay for, with 99% of the shows most watched by Sky TV customers available on free-to-air channels.

Many sports fans also make little use of costly TV packages, with a quarter (24%) of sports channel subscribers admitting they watch just one hour or less of sports content a week.

Of the 2,000 TV subscribers surveyed, almost half (42%) said they were unhappy with their contract, while a third (32%) said they were thinking about quitting.

Many subscribers (42%) said they feel taken advantage of by regular price hikes; recently Sky and BT announced higher costs for customers.

Jennifer Elworthy of Freesat, said: “Paying for a TV subscription may not seem like a significant outgoing when you consider the cost on a month-by-month basis. But over the course of 25 years, TV customers will spend £13,000 on their contract. While obviously we don’t expect everyone will consistently overpay on their mortgage, our calculation illustrates how a moderate monthly saving can add up to a life-changing amount of money.”