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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: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 16 2020, @03:54PM
That number came from as reliable a place as any regarding cable fees - thin air.
Much as we are traditionally shown a breakdown of every fee and tax on a bill, I think we should also be shown a breakdown of what is actually paid for content, infrastructure, customer service, and corporate profits on every bill - including offsetting income to the corporation from investments, tax breaks, etc. Not likely to happen, but when we're stuck with virtual monopolies we should at least be given accurate information about what we've agreed (via government) to subject ourselves to.
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