TWC to institute $2.75 sports surcharge, other price increases

Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) will implement broad-reaching price increases across its video and Internet services starting Jan. 1, starting with a $2.75-per-month surcharge for sports programming.

Other increases will include a spike in the recently implemented broadcast TV surcharge from $2.25 to $2.75 a month, while modem lease prices will go from $5.99 a month to $8.00.

Speaking to the Charlotte Observer, TWC spokesman Scott Pryzwansky said subscribers can buy their own modems if they're unhappy with the lease charge. The entire TWC subscriber base, however, is stuck with the sports surcharge, which the rep insists is a purely a function of spiraling sports costs.

He said TWC's costs for carrying sports programming have gone up 91 percent since 2008. The surcharge, he added, only covers "a fraction of what we actually pay for broadcast and sports content."

Part of that price increase, of course, can be attributed to TWC's decision to pay the Los Angeles Dodgers $8.35 billion to launch a new regional sports network.

For more:
- read this Charlotte Observer story

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