Both Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR) are being assailed across various media and Internet sites for their latest annual rate increases. Comcast's rolling increases so far have started popping up in the Western U.S. and the Mountain States, where the Colorado Daily reported that prices for TV and Internet would go up 4.6 percent effective Jan. 1--adding $2-$3 a month to the MSO's most poplar packages.
"Comcast attributed the rate changes to the higher licensing fees it has to pay to programmers for their content," the story reported.
Charter, which already tacked on a fee for those higher licensing fees, is taken to task in DSL Reports for "illustrating what they think about cord cutters and those struggling financially by sending out notices saying they'll be hiking the price of, well, everything."
The website noted that cable rate increases and even efforts such as Time Warner Cable's (NYSE: TWC-WI) conditional entry level tiers indicate "the cable industry just doesn't care because they feel these consumers are little more than a statistical blip."
For more:
- see this story
- and this blog
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