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Charter’s hidden “Broadcast TV” fee now adds $197 a year to cable bills:
Charter Communications is raising the "Broadcast TV" fee it imposes on cable plans from $13.50 to $16.45 a month starting in August, Stop the Cap reported.
Charter says the Broadcast TV fee covers the amount it pays broadcast television stations (e.g. affiliates of CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox) for the right to carry their channels. But for consumers, it is essentially a hidden fee because Charter's advertised TV prices don't include it.
Charter has raised the fee repeatedly—it stood at $9.95 in early 2019 before a series of price increases. At $16.45 a month, the fee will cost customers an additional $197.40 per year. Charter sells TV, broadband, and phone service under its Spectrum brand name and is the second largest cable company in the US after Comcast.
Charter imposes a smaller Broadcast TV fee on its streaming TV plans, but is raising that charge from $6 to $8.95 a month, Stop the Cap wrote. Charter is also raising the base price of its TV service. "Spectrum's most popular TV Select package is expected to increase $1.50/month to $73.99/month," Stop the Cap wrote. "Customers on a promotional pricing plan will not see this rate increase until their promotional pricing expires."
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2020, @09:49AM
Keep in mind that this fee isn't optional. I can't tell Charter that I don't want to receive those channels via cable and then just use an antenna. It's a mandatory hidden surcharge. Just to be clear, when Charter bought up Time Warner Cable, they promised not to engage in antics like this.
Also, I live in Lincoln, NE. That's 50 miles from Omaha, NE, which is a separate market with its own TV stations. But we're close enough to receive some Omaha stations. Reception could be tricky, though, particularly on the western side of the city, or for people who aren't able to set up a good outdoor antenna. The Omaha stations used to be available on cable in Lincoln. One by one, they've been removed, starting with KMTV (CBS), then WOWT (NBC), and most recently KETV (ABC). We get KPTM (Fox) but that is only available on cable in SD, not HD. Yes, the actual station does broadcast in HD.
Cable actually was useful in the past to get Omaha stations that would be difficult to receive over the air. Those stations have been removed, reducing the quality of the service provided, while this surcharge has significantly increased. Part of Charter's decision to purchase Time Warner Cable was so they could negotiate cheaper subscriber fees with channels and keep their costs down. At the same time, they took on a tremendous amount of debt, which customers are now paying for.
So, yes, we do get ATSC. But there are still advantages to cable when it's difficult to receive those stations. And Charter is screwing its customers over by degrading the quality of its service while raising fees that are supposed to pay for that specific part of the service.