Charter has become the fifth major pay TV operator to announce it will raise prices on some video plans and fees in 2018.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that Charter has alerted the city government of Lexington, Kentucky that monthly subscriber prices will increase in January 2018. (Charter offers video, Internet and phone service in Lexington as well as many other markets in the United States.)
Click Amazon: New Fire TV w/4K & HDR: $54.99
It’s unclear if other Charter markets will see the same price increases as Lexington, but traditionally, cable operators apply the same or similar price adjustments in all markets they serve, although sometimes the increases will be implemented at different times.
Click Amazon: Gifts Will Still Arrive Before Christmas!
DIRECTV, Dish, Comcast and Cox previously revealed that it will increase prices in 2018 although video subscriber defections for all four (and Charter) have recently increased, and rising monthly bills is considered a major cause.
The Charter 2018 price hikes described to Lexington include a 33 percent increase in the Limited Basic TV Service plan (from $15 a month to $20 a month); a 16 percent increase in the receiver fee (from $5.99 a month to $6.99 a month); a 18 percent increase in the Broadcast Fee (from $7.50 a month to $8.85 a month); a 20 percent increase in Charter’s Sports Pass package (from $10 a month to $12 a month); a 20 percent increase in the Movie Pass add-on plan (from $10 a month to $12 a month) and a 20 percent increase in the Digital Adapter fee (from $4 a month to $4.99 a month.).
Charter has told the city of Lexington that subscriber Good Triple Play Premium plans will also rise from $129.99 to $139.99; the Better Triple Play Plus or Triple Play Plus will increase from $149.99 to $159.99, and the Best Triple Play Plus will rise from $169.99 to $179.99.
It’s unclear from the Herald-Leader article if the price of other video packages will rise as well.
The cable operator told the city that it will lower the cost of the Expanded Basic TV Service plan from $54.99 to $49.99, according to the newspaper.
The Lexington Herald-Leader also writes that Lexington Major Jim Gray is outraged over this new price increase. The cable operator increased some video prices in early 2017 when it took control over cable service in the area following its merger with Time Warner.
“I’m outraged,” Gray told the Herald-Leader. “This is the second rate hike for Spectrum’s cable subscribers in a single year. And considering Spectrum’s record of poor customer service, it just confirms my decision to bring competition and more options to Lexington for cable TV services along with high-speed internet.”
The city of Lexington has been sharply critical of Charter’s performance since it replaced Time Warner as the city’s cable operator.
Click Amazon: Gifts Will Still Arrive Before Christmas!
— Phillip Swann
It’s getting closer and closer to the day when the majority of tv subscribers will have to turn off the service out of necessity. Then the providers can all enjoy playing with all that useless equipment that no one can afford to pay for anymore and every one will be happy. Then they’ll finally come up with a plan to drastically reduce prices. Then I woke up….
Some households MAY “Cut the Cord” out of necessity, but most of them will cancel their subscriptions because cheaper options are available for pennies on the dollar. I switched over to home video 11 years ago because of high prices and lower quality (The glut of advertising and what was being advertised, along with shoddy “Reality” shows). It’s cheaper to acquire programming on home video than it is to subscribe to cable TV.
These companies are on another planet. Suicide mission.
All of these package names listed in the article are Legacy Time Warner Cable packages (and DTA’s are only available on Legacy Time WRner Cable paclages) so looks like they’re trying to get people to migrate over to their Spectrum Pricing and Packaging. I have SPP, and have not heard of any rate changes for those service packages.