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AT&T, Dish, Comcast All Raising Cable TV Rates To Counter Cord-Cutting (dallasnews.com)
AT&T's DirecTV, Dish, and Comcast are all planning to raise their rates again in the new year, "a move that could boost revenue but risks alienating subscribers who have been ditching their traditional TV subscriptions in record numbers," reports Dallas News. From the report: Cable and satellite providers are hoping to squeeze more money from consumers who remain loyal to their packages with hundreds of channels, Philip Cusick, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst, said in a note this week, even though "this strategy could accelerate video sub declines." The latest price increases come as cord-cutting accelerates. In the third quarter, the TV industry saw its largest ever rate of decline, with subscribers shrinking by 3.7 percent, according to MoffettNathanson LLC. Consumers are dropping traditional TV for lower-cost online options like Netflix Inc. and slimmer TV options from Hulu and YouTube.
DirecTV is raising rates on all English-language video packages by $3 to $8 a month while hiking fees for regional sports networks by $1 to $1.90 in most markets. Dish said it's increasing prices for English-language video packages by $3 to $5 a month. Altice USA, the fourth-largest cable operator, recently raised rates by 3 percent on Optimum subscribers. Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company, is raising its fee for regional sports networks by $1.50 on average and its fee for broadcast channels by $2 a month, according to Cusick. Charter Communications Inc., the second-largest U.S. cable provider, recently boosted its monthly fee for a set-top box by about 50 cents and its broadcast channel fee by about $1. Charter operates as Spectrum in Dallas-Fort Worth.
DirecTV is raising rates on all English-language video packages by $3 to $8 a month while hiking fees for regional sports networks by $1 to $1.90 in most markets. Dish said it's increasing prices for English-language video packages by $3 to $5 a month. Altice USA, the fourth-largest cable operator, recently raised rates by 3 percent on Optimum subscribers. Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company, is raising its fee for regional sports networks by $1.50 on average and its fee for broadcast channels by $2 a month, according to Cusick. Charter Communications Inc., the second-largest U.S. cable provider, recently boosted its monthly fee for a set-top box by about 50 cents and its broadcast channel fee by about $1. Charter operates as Spectrum in Dallas-Fort Worth.
You can buy a nice antenna.
If you want more content, you can get the slingtv app for way less than probably basic cable in your area.
You can toss in Netfltx and Hulu, and Amazon Prime.
The break even point is about 2 months of cable for all of the above.
I shudder to think what the last person on cable tv will be getting charged to mae up for all the cord-cutters.
Local news is the only fact-based news left.
Um, you might want to think about that a bit more.
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Hippie Logger Jock
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If companies like Comcast were smart, they'd do two things:
1. Allow customers to use their own antenna for OTA and get a $12-15/month discount. In other words, for each customer who puts up their own antenna, Comcast would save having to pay the local carriage fees for that customer, so it would be revenue-neutral for Comcast & would allow customers who are likely to bolt to rationalize staying around a little longer. This is EXACTLY what DirecTV used to do about 15 years ago... you connected your OTA antenna to the STB/DVR, and it seamlessly inserted the local channels into the lineup and treated them exactly as if they were from the satellite.
2. Allow customers who don't care about Disney and/or sports to trade one or both for channels like HBO, Showtime, and/or Starz.
We don't need literal "a-la-carte" pricing. Most of the channels on the mid-tier lineup only cost a few cents per month anyway. What we NEED is the ability to prune away the most expensive low-hanging fruit. ESPN, the RSNs, and Disney cost more per month per customer than HBO and Showtime. SlingTV has already proven that there's a market for people who'll happily sacrifice sports & Disney for other channels (Sling "Orange" allows one stream & includes ESPN and Disney, Sling "Blue" allows multiple streams, has more channels, and DOESN'T include ESPN or Disney).