AT&T has told DirecTV customers that it will raise prices of eight of its nine base packages by $2 to $6.
“Due to higher costs of programming, an adjustment in the price of our programming packages is necessary. New rates will be in effect on January 22, 2017,” AT&T said in a memo originally reported on by TV Predictions.
AT&T announced similar DirecTV monthly fee increases ranging from $2 to $8 at this time last year. AT&T, which during the run-up to its $49 billion DirecTV purchase touted to investors its ability to leverage better licensing deals with programmers through improved scale and leverage, also attributed last year’s price increase to rising program costs.
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The “Select” package, which includes over 145 channels and is promotionally priced at $50 a month for one year, will see its regular price spike by $2. The “Choice” package, which bundles over 175 channels, will go up by $4 a month.
Meanwhile, the top-level “Preferred Xtra,” “Xtra,” “Ultimate” and Premier will each go up by $6 a month.
DirecTV will also raise its regional sports network fee to as much as $2.56 a month in select markets.
All of these fees will become effective once promotional sign-up rates expire, meaning customers will have more sticker shock and be more likely to ditch their service.