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Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Customers Accuse Comcast Of Using “Broadcast TV” & “Regional Sports” Fees To Illegally Hike Rates

As we showed in our recent line-by-line breakdowns of charges on your cable bills, many pay-TV providers charge fees that have the effect of raising the customers’ monthly bill but without affecting the base rate the cable company advertises. Now, Comcast subscribers in seven different states are claiming that these fees are “illegal and deceptive” that have netted the cable giant billions of dollars.

The complaint [PDF], filed Oct. 15 in a federal court in California, involves two specific fees charged by Comcast: The “Broadcast TV Fee” and the “Regional Sports Fee.”

Land Of The Fee

Comcast first announced the Broadcast TV Fee in 2013, as a way to recover some of what the cable provider pays to carry the over-the-air networks. That presumably includes NBC, which is owned by Comcast.

[Ed. Note: After obtaining and then reading through this complaint, we noticed that our 2013 story on this fee is actually quoted in the lawsuit. Small world, huh.]

This fee started out at $1.50 but in our 2015 review of cable bills, it had already jumped up to $5.00. With some 20 million pay-TV customers nationwide, that’s around $100 million per month that Comcast is bringing in from this one fee alone.

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5 comments:

  1. I got rid to cable tv completely a couple years ago, because I got tired of the constant raising of fees and costs. I refuse to pay 100 dollars per month for cable tv when most of the channels are trash!!! I now have just internet, and I get what I want from streaming services like roku. I'm still with comcast, but if I find a another alternative to high speed internet, i am ditching them as well because just the internet is 68 dollars per month!!!
    A total ripoff! In Cambridge they have both Comcast and Baycountry. Easton has two choices of Easton Utilities, and Comcast. Their prices are lower because of the competition. Salisbury needs better than this!!!
    Comcast is a monopoly. They know it, and can charge what they want. At least I don't have to settle for cable TV anymore!!!

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  2. A few years ago, when Comcast was negotiating with Howard County about how much to give to the county's public access TV funding, as required by law, when asked by a board member what Comcast's net profits were in the county, the response was "That's proprietary information that will not be shared!" Of course, the amount that Comcast gives is supposed to be tied to its countywide profits, so that Comcast rep was talking baloney.

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  3. when will this county let another cable company in the area? I am sick of Comcast. (map)

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  4. I would rather get screwed by Comcast than have this sh@ty mediacom.

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  5. Salisbury, Bloosurf, $40.

    'nuff said.

    ReplyDelete

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