The announced increases include the following:
- The Broadcast TV surcharge will increase from $8.85 to $9.95 per month.
- Settop box fees will increase from $6.99 to $7.50 per month.
- Broadband prices for customers who are bundled with cable TV will increase from $54.99 to $59.99 per month.
- Broadband prices for standalone broadband (no cable TV) will increase from $64.99 to $65.99 per month.
The cable TV increases follow the pattern we’ve seen among the big cable companies in that they are raising ancillary fees instead of the basic prices for cable packages. The Broadcast TV surcharge, which is paid by every TV subscriber, covers the costs of retransmission fees that Charter pays to over-the-air networks like ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. Most customers probably think this is included in the cost of basic cable service, but by shifting this to a separate fee the cable companies can continue to advertise a low price for basic cable. I know what a lot of my clients pay for retransmission fees, and none of them are yet paying $9.95 per month, so it looks like Charter is padding this number with some profits.
I’m surprised that the Federal Trade Commission hasn’t slapped one of the cable companies for this billing practice. They have created ancillary fees like the Charter’s Broadcast TV surcharge along with other fees such as a ‘sports fee’ in order to be able to advertise prices that are lower than what customers pay. When a new customer subscribes to cable they often end up paying $15 – $20 more than the advertised price.
The settop box fee is another place where cable companies make a lot of money. Charter probably pays no more than $100 for a settop box, so their new increased fee of $7.50 per month pays back the cost of the box in only 13 months. The box fee is the most profitable part of the cable business since customers tend to keep settop boxes for an average of 5 years or more. At least Charter’s settop box rate is lower than the $9.95 currently charged by Comcast.
The real headline is the increase in broadband rates. I was just talking to a client yesterday who mentioned that they hadn’t changed broadband prices in over fifteen years. We have now entered an era where cable companies are likely to raise broadband prices every year. They are losing cable customers and telephone customers every year. While broadband customers are still increasing, the growth is now due to continued poaching of DSL customers since the overall pool of broadband customers is no longer growing rapidly. This means that the only way Charter and other cable companies will be able to meet Wall Street earnings expectations in the long-run is by raising broadband rates.
The $5 rate increase for bundled broadband is the largest broadband rate increase I’ve ever seen. Charter doesn’t disclose the number of customers that buy bundles. My firm, CCG conducts surveys for customers and we typically see around 70% of households buying a bundle of services. If 70% of Charter’s 24 million broadband customers are in bundles this equates to $1 billion in new annual revenues and bottom line for the company. Charter won’t realize the whole $1 billion since some customers are going to be under term contracts, but this is still by far the largest increase in broadband prices I’ve ever seen.
Interestingly, Charter just made it easier for customers to cut the cord. Before the rate increase there was a $10 per month differential between the price of bundled and unbundled broadband – meaning that somebody that dropped Charter cable would have seen a $10 rate increase. That penalty is now lowered to $5 per month. However, Charter just made up for that with the big rate increase.
Charter has recently increased broadband speeds across-the-board. They advertise that the minimum speed for their basic product has been increased from 100 Mbps to 200 Mbps (although in my markets speeds have increased from 60 Mbps to 135 Mbps). I’m guessing that Charter is hoping the speed increases will help to justify the $5 broadband rate increase that a lot of their customers are going to see.