Charter will be raising rates on Spectrum TV, internet services in November

John Boyle | The Citizen-Times

If you're a Spectrum TV customer, brace yourself for higher rates.

"We’ve notified customers and franchise officials that beginning in November, the rates for some Spectrum services and equipment are being adjusted," said Patti Michel, a spokeswoman with Charter Communications, which operates the Spectrum brand. "The new rates will affect all markets."

That adjustment will be an increase. For a customer with a full suite of Spectrum services, it could total an additional $7.61 a month.

What are the new rates?

Michel said the new rates and charges will be as follows.

• Broadcast TV surcharge will increase from $8.85 to $9.95/month, Charter said, "This reflects costs incurred from local broadcast TV stations."

• Spectrum receivers will increase from $6.99 to $7.50/month.

• An increase from $54.99 to $59.99/month for Spectrum Internet for current customers who subscribe to Spectrum TV.

• An increase from $64.99 to $65.99/month for Spectrum Internet for current customers who do not subscribe to Spectrum TV.

Michel said Charter typically does not release statistics on numbers of customers in a particular market, such as the Asheville area.

As far as what is driving the increases, Michel said the reasons vary but noted that the broadcast surcharge "reflects costs incurred from local broadcast TV stations.

"The price of Spectrum Internet reflects the dramatically faster speeds and investments we’ve made in reliability and quality," Michel said. "Earlier this year, we doubled the starting download speed of Spectrum Internet from 100 to 200 megabits per second. Lastly, our receivers are still comparable or lower in price than our major competitors'."



