Comcast & Spectrum Are Raising Their TV Prices & Fees

Comcast & Spectrum Are Raising Their TV Prices & Fees

By Luke Bouma on November 30, 2019 at 6:36 am CDT

Although there has been a lot of talk about Hulu raising the price of live TV, there has been little coverage about the cost of cable TV increasing. Both Comcast and Spectrum recently announced price hikes on TV customers.

Comcast customers will start seeing a price hike starting on December 18, 2019, and becoming nationwide in January 2020 with the fee on Broadcast TV to go up from $10 a month to $14.95 a month. The Basic TV package will be increasing from $30 a month to $35 a month, and Internet will be increasing on most plans $3 a month. (The one exception is Gigabit Pro, which will remain $299.95 a month.)

Comcast Internet customers will also be seeing a price hike. Starting on December 18, Internet customers will see the cost of modem and voice equipment increase by $1 a month to $14 a month. The good news is you can buy your own modem and not pay Comcast $14 a month (or $168 a year) for the privilege of renting their equipment. Other fees are also increasing. The Returned Payment Fee will be increasing by $10 a month to $30.

Comcast employees have also that the free DVR offer will be going away with Comcast. Now there will be a new fee for your main TV. To help offset that Comcast is eliminating the HD Technology fee.

The bad news for Comcast cable TV subscribers is your TV and Internet bill are going up by as much as $13.99 a month. This adds up to $167.88 a year in extra costs to your Comcast TV plus Internet package.

Spectrum customers recently saw their prices go up in October. Spectrum TV customers will now pay $13.50 a month for broadcast TV fees, up from the current $11.99 a month. This will add up to $162 a year to your bill just to watch free over-the-air TV you could get with an antenna. (Spectrum’s streaming services TV Stream and TV Choice will see the Broadcast TV “Surcharge” increase from $5 a month to $6 a month.)

This is the third price hike for Spectrum’s Broadcast TV Surcharge in the last 12 months. In November 2018 Spectrum raised the Broadcast TV Surcharge from $8.85 a month to $9.95 a month. In March 2019, it went from $9.95 to $11.99. Now it is increasing to $13.99 a month. Even if you have a price lock, your fees will still go up.

Here are some other price hikes that reportedly started in October (Note: The date is subject to change at the last minute):

• Spectrum Digital Adapters: $7.99 a month (was $7.50 a month)
• Spectrum TV Select: $72.49 a month (was $64.99 a month)
• Spectrum TV Silver: $92.49 (was $84.99)
• Spectrum TV Gold: $112.49 (was $104.99)

So next time you hear about how cable TV is cheaper than cord cutting remember that cable TV is continuing to raise its prices too—usually more often than cord cutting services do.

Source – https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/comcast-spectrum-are-raising-their-tv-prices-fees/