Comcast has confirmed it’s going to be giving itself an early Christmas present. How, you might ask? Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: By raising prices yet again, with TV and internet bills due for an increase that will go into effect in three weeks.
Comcast’s price hikes are coming on December 18. According to Cord Cutters News, the broadcast TV fee will increase from $10/month to almost $15/month. Basic TV will now cost $35/month instead of $30/month, and bills for most internet packages will go up by $3/month except for Gigabit Pro, which is staying at $299.95/month.
Other fees are also going up, unfortunately. Also kicking in on December 18 for Comcast internet customers is a $1 increase in the cost of modem and voice equipment (which will now be $14/month). Comcast is also bumping up the returned payment fee to $30 from $10. The telecom gave the following statement to MediaPost about the price hikes, blaming the usual suspects:
“Rising programming costs — most notably for broadcast TV and sports — continue to be the biggest factors driving price increases for all content distributors and their customers,” the statement reads. “While we absorb some of the increased programming costs, they have a significant impact on the cost of our services.”
This news is likely to be greeted with typical frustration from customers, who have more choices than ever thanks to streaming services like Disney+ which allow them to cut the cord for good and free themselves from all the headaches associated with Big Cable. However, lest we make cord-cutting seem like the ultimate panacea, stories like this one — specifically, Comcast’s Internet-related price increases — offer a reminder that if they don’t get you one way, they’ll find another way to separate you from your money. Whether it’s by hiking the Internet service you need to stream content from Netflix and the like, or by providers like Hulu raising the price of its live TV option, which we saw a few days ago.
