Comcast tees up 3.8% across-the-board fee increase

Comcast is the latest pay-TV operator to confirm across-the-board customer fee increases for 2017, telling TV Predictions that customers will pay, on average, 3.8% more to the MSO next year.

"We continue to make investments in our network and technology to give customers more for their money—like faster Internet service and more WiFi hotspots, more video across viewing screens, better technology like X1 and a better customer experience," Comcast said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the costs we are charged to carry popular networks continue to increase significantly, especially broadcast television and sports programming, which are the largest drivers of increases in price adjustments.”

The 3.8% increase, Comcast said, is less than half than its projected cost increase for program licensing. 

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The “Broadcast TV Fee,” which covers the MSO’s retrans costs, will go from $5 to $7 a month, while the fee that covers regional sports networks will shoot up from $3 to $5 a month. 

TV Predictions, however, describes the fee increases as being dictated on a market-by-market basis, with some regions seeing price bumps on Jan. 1 and others notified at a later date. 

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Customers in Lake Township, Michigan, for example, have already been told that the Digital Starter and Digital Preferred video tiers will each go up $1 a month. But other areas will not see the prices for those services rise. 

Earlier this month, AT&T confirmed that it has raised prices on eight of its nine DirecTV video tiers, with increases ranging from $2 to $6 a month.