Cable rates are rising, but don't blame your provider - entirely
By Johnny Diaz Globe Staff / June 5, 2011
Cable subscribers in Boston are fuming about rising bills, and many blame what they see as Comcast Corp.'s virtual monopoly in the city.
The renewed focus on cable prices has come as Mayor Thomas M. Menino, outraged by a recent 19 percent jump in the charge for basic cable, or the lowest service tier, petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to give the city the power to determine basic cable rates, now $15.80. That's about double the cost in communities that already set those rates.
But since few households settle for basic cable, essentially limited to local broadcast stations and community access channels, the authority to set these rates would have little effect on the vast majority of subscribers, who purchase more extensive packages of cable and premium channels. In Boston, only 15,000 of the city's
170,000 customers have basic service: The average cable bill in Boston is $65 a month, up from $62 last year, and $58 in 2009, according to the city.For most subscribers, the biggest driver of these rising cable bills is the increased cost of programming - the result, ironically, of competition with satellite companies, Internet TV, movie rental providers, and Verizon Corp.'s FiOS network, analysts said. As these services bid for programming, sports, entertainment, and local channels demand - and receive - higher fees from cable companies, which ultimately get passed on to consumers.
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Comcrap is the most arrogant, intractable, intransigent, and incompetent telephone service provider in the world: I know, because I had the misfortune of paying them for telephone service years ago.
Having said that, I'll also say that cable TV viewers who don't cancel overpriced or substandard television offerings get little sympathy from me: it's an entertainment service, not a food or fuel monopoly, so nobody is forced to put up with prices they find inconvenient.
Just tell Mayor Menino that he's a pretentious blow-hard, and organize a boycott of Comcast: they'll get the message. Better yet, turn it off, get a library card, and read a book.
Bill Horne Moderator