Cable Rates Have Risen at Double Inflation Rate for 20 Years Cable TV price increases have jumped at more than twice the rate of inflation for more than twenty straight years. Average US inflation since 1995 has been steady at around 2.2%. But during that same period, cable TV prices have increased by 5.8% per year on average. The data comes from an FCC report on cable TV Pricing (pdf, hat tip cordcutting.com) released last month, and notes that back in 1995, cable cost an average of just $22.35 a month. That has since ballooned to an average of $69.03, or a 208.9% jump.

Obviously these constant hikes -- which often come twice or more a year for some cable customers -- have played a starring role in driving consumers to alternative streaming options. And this annoyance has only grown as fights between cable broadcasters and cable companies have only accelerated. In fact, the FCC also recently found that retrans fees charged by broadcasters jumped as much as 63% in one year. In other words, not only are cable and broadcasters not really even trying to keep their pricing competitive, they're intent on pushing their luck as an unprecedented number of subscribers flee this downward cycle. In fact the cable industry's biggest response to the trend hasn't really been to offer more flexibility and lower prices (though they do pay a lot of lip service to the concept), but to focus on implementing usage caps in order to punish broadband customers that do try to cut the cord, allowing them to seek out their pound of flesh thanks to the industry's In fact the cable industry's biggest response to the trend hasn't really been to offer more flexibility and lower prices (though they do pay a lot of lip service to the concept), but to focus on implementing usage caps in order to punish broadband customers that do try to cut the cord, allowing them to seek out their pound of flesh thanks to the industry's growing monopoly over the broadband last mile.







News Jump WISPs Get CBRS Range As Great As Six Miles At 100 Mbps Speeds; Windstream Officially Exits Bankruptcy; + more news Charter Relaunches Free 60-day Internet And Wi-Fi Offer; NCTA: FCC Should Stick With 25/3 Speed Threshold; + more news Comcast Shuts Off Internet for Subs Who Were Sold Service Illegally; AT&T, Verizon Team To Stop T-Mobile 5G; + more news California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 36 comments

elefante72

join:2010-12-03

East Amherst, NY 23 recommendations elefante72 Member Sports



»www.therichest.com/sport ··· vs-2014/ Cost rise = bloated sports contracts. Full stop. Artakamoose

join:2015-08-25

Oakland, CA 15 recommendations Artakamoose Member Commercial load

»time.com/96303/tv-commer ··· reasing/



It's even worse on cable since cable companies and networks are speeding up shows to fit more commercials in.

»www.wsj.com/articles/cab ··· 24301320 Even worse, we're getting bombarded with more commercials too. Total commercial time per hour is up across the board.It's even worse on cable since cable companies and networks are speeding up shows to fit more commercials in.

DaveDude

No Fear

join:1999-09-01

New Jersey 11 recommendations DaveDude Member There needs to be a day each year There needs to be a day like in the beginning of Summer,where everyone calls Comcast , and drops or lowers service as a form of protest. They always treat you better as a new customer anyway. I might just drop cable for the summer anyway.

Anon29ccb

@comcast.net 6 recommendations Anon29ccb Anon Let's Designate June 1, 2017 as National Cut the Cord Day! On June 1, 2017 we will join as consumers and frustrated citizens to protest the continued abuse of power by monopolistic/duopolistic companies such as "Comcast", AT&T, "Verizon" etc. We will remove or downgrade services to price points that we deem affordable and we will share this protest with the nation. I am asking all who have services that contently go up in price, or have non-reliable service etc. We need to urge the FCC, and other consumer protection organizations to limit this abusive behavior and set these companies on notice that we had enough.



Please share this date with fellow citizens and encourage your family and friends to join in on cutting this constant price hikes and lack of competition in a industry that lacks quality customer service.

telcodad

MVM

join:2011-09-16

Lincroft, NJ 5 recommendations telcodad MVM Broadcaster retrans fees are out of hand now (and will only get worse)

The Fastest-Growing Cost for Cable Companies

Broadcasters keep asking for more for their networks.

By Adam Levy, The Motley Fool - October 25, 2016

»www.fool.com/investing/2 ··· ies.aspx quote: ... A brand-new revenue stream for broadcasters



Most broadcasters have only started ramping up their retransmission fees in the last decade or so. For example, when Comcast took over the broadcaster in 2009, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said it had practically $0 in retransmission revenue. It's since grown it into an $800 million revenue stream.



CBS grew retransmission and reverse-compensation fees from its affiliate broadcaster 44% this year, and it expects to bring in over $1 billion. ABC is growing its revenue faster than Disney's strong catalog of cable networks. And Fox increased retransmission revenue 20% through the first nine months of fiscal 2016.



Broadcasters are still in the relatively early days of growing revenue from retransmission consent fees, so the growth is still strong. Total retransmission fees are expected to hit $7.7 billion this year, according to SNL Kagan analysts.

:

CBS expects to grow its retransmission revenue about 150% by 2020, to $2.5 billion. Fox CFO John Nallen told anlaysts at the MoffetNathanson Media & Communications Summit earlier this year, "We've got great confidence in retrans continuing to rise." NBCU CEO Steve Burke had similar sentiments at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications, and Entertainment Conference.



Overall, SNL Kagan expects retransmission fees to climb 38% by 2020 to $10.6 billion. That's up from its original 2020 expectation of $9.3 billion, which it forecast in 2014. And with high expectations for growth from all the major broadcasters, that number may need to be revised yet again. ... I guess the good ole "must-carry" days are long gone now, when the broadcasters just made their money from commercial time (which still keeps increasing steadily, reducing actual program time). From:By Adam Levy, The Motley Fool - October 25, 2016I guess the good ole "must-carry" days are long gone now, when the broadcasters just made their money from commercial time (which still keeps increasing steadily, reducing actual program time).

Elector

join:2000-05-25

Albany, NY 5 recommendations Elector Member And this should surprise anyone? Yet the prices increase over and over and over.

People leave or down grade services. So with the losses the companies then highly inflate prices and monthly rates to compensate for the loss of customers.



However eventually the subscriber numbers are so low that the remaining suckers cannot make the company profitable. ( I know it's wishful thinking) chgo_man99

join:2010-01-01

San Jose, CA 360.8 10.3

·Comcast XFINITY

2 recommendations chgo_man99 Member If you think that's bad Take a look at rent increase in San Francisco Bay Area. Its nuts. You rent usually increase 10% each year. Some ghettolords raise as much as 20 . I had problem with Equity Residential when renting 2 bedroom apartment with a roomate proposed increase from $2300 to $2700 in Sunnyvale. And this was old building from 1980.

Nobody retires here. You just get your experience at wonderful tech capital of the world and get out from there.

GlennLouEarl

3 brothers, 1 gone

Premium Member

join:2002-11-17

Richmond, VA 2 recommendations GlennLouEarl Premium Member Decreasing value, increasing prices.



Typical.

woody7

Premium Member

join:2000-10-13

Torrance, CA 2 recommendations woody7 Premium Member hmm .............. cue the "what about the investors" sob sob sniff sniff............................../