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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, Interesting) by anubi on Thursday July 16 2020, @10:19PM
You nailed it.
You see exactly what's going on.
No wonder the Ota transmitter guys are pissed. I would be too, as would be my sponsors.
And I don't blame the Ota guys for fighting it. I would too. If the cable is going to echo my content, they should echo it as I transmitted it.
You guys on here know how much I detest copyright crap. This kind of crap is wrong. Just plain wrong. Even I can see it. If you retransmit someone else's work, do not change it. It is up to the end user what he does with it. Not an intermediary.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]