Charter’s nationwide price hike could cost you another $91 a year
Charter Communications is raising prices throughout its 41-state cable territory in November, the company confirmed.
“For a customer with a full suite of [Charter] Spectrum services, [the price increases] could total an additional $7.61 a month,” or $91.32 a year, the Asheville Citizen Times reported yesterday.
Charter confirmed the price increases when contacted by Ars today, saying that the change “takes effect in November throughout our service area.”
Charter doesn’t face much competition, making it easy to raise prices without risking the loss of customers. Charter is the only high-speed home broadband choice for 38 million Americans, a recent study found.
Price hike affects broadband and TV
“The price of Spectrum Internet reflects the dramatically faster speeds and investments we’ve made in reliability and quality,” Charter told Ars. “Spectrum Internet starting speeds are up from 30 or 60Mbps last year to 100Mbps (and even 200Mbps in some markets).”
Despite raising speeds, Charter isn’t necessarily spending more on infrastructure. Charter said earlier this year that it is preparing for a “meaningful decline” in capital spending.
Charter said today that there will be “no change in the package price of Spectrum TV or Voice services.” But TV prices are going up anyway, because Charter is raising device rental prices and a broadcast TV surcharge.
Here’s a list of the price increases:
- The broadcast TV surcharge will go up from $8.85 to $9.95 a month.
- Spectrum Receivers (i.e. cable boxes) will go from $6.99 to $7.50 a month.
- The standard Internet price will increase from $54.99 to $59.99 a month for broadband customers who also subscribe to Charter’s TV service.
- The standard Internet price for broadband-only customers will increase from $64.99 to $65.99 a month.
- The digital adapter price is increasing from $4.99 to $5.99 a month.
- An à la carte Latino TV channel package is increasing from $7.99 to $8.99 a month.
Charter told the Asheville Citizen Times that the broadcast TV surcharge is going up to reflect the prices that Charter pays to carry broadcast TV stations.
Charter defended the cable box price increase, telling Ars that the new price “remains lower than both the legacy TWC ($11.75) and legacy Bright House Networks ($8) price, and is comparable or lower than our competitors.”
Internet price changes won’t immediately affect customers who have contracts with promotional pricing, but those customers will have to pay the new prices after their promotions end, Charter said.
Unlike Comcast, Charter does not enforce data caps or overage fees.
26 million customers in 41 states
Charter became the nation’s second-biggest cable company besides Comcast when it purchased Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in May 2016. Charter says it has more than 26 million customers in 41 states.
Despite Charter’s boast that it raised Internet speeds, New York government officials say Charter has failed to meet merger commitments that required expanding broadband service to more customers. The New York State Public Service Commission voted to revoke its approval of the Charter/TWC merger, which would force Charter to sell the former Time Warner Cable system in New York. But Charter is negotiating with New York officials in an attempt to stay in the state.
Disclosure: The Advance/Newhouse Partnership, which owns 13 percent of Charter, is part of Advance Publications. Advance Publications owns Condé Nast, which owns Ars Technica.
