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The Stamford Advocate, Conn., Angela Carella column: Angela Carella - Cable TV rate hikes have viewers channeling anger
Nov 13, 2009 (The Stamford Advocate - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
People love their television, so it's understandable if they hate this time of year.
It's when Cablevision raises rates.
The latest hike is an average 3.7 percent. Last year it was 3.5 percent. The year before, it was 4.7 percent.
"TV was free when I was growing up," said Kevin Keegan, of Stamford. "This is crazy. In this economy, the way things are, they're raising prices?"
It was more difficult to understand because, five days after Cablevision announced the rate increases on Oct. 30, it announced that its third-quarter profits had tripled.
"People get rid of their cable in this economy," Keegan said. "How'd they make a profit?"
Something else happened in late October that got Keegan fired up about
his cable TV provider. While he was watching the World Series, starring his beloved New York Yankees, his TV went out.
"That night I was really getting into the game and boom, it's dead. And it wasn't just me; it was the whole neighborhood," Keegan said of his home in Belltown. "It went out for a couple of innings. I was very, very disgusted."
The Yankees are one of the reasons that Hope Einstein, of Stamford, dropped Cablevision. In a dispute about seven years ago, Cablevision wouldn't carry the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network. Cablevision subscribers could not watch Yankees games for a year.
"After that, I couldn't wait to make a change," Einstein said. "Over the years they've taken away channels or bundled
them into packages. You have to buy a sports package just to watch one or two teams. That antagonized me."
YES Network joined Cablevision, but Einstein departed. Two years ago she found out ATandT's U-verse TV had come to her Newfield neighborhood, and Einstein signed up.
Jeffrey Weisel said he wishes U-verse would come to his street just north of the Merritt Parkway. Cablevision's other competitors, Dish Network and DirecTV satellite services, are not options for him, Weisel said.
"In the woods of Connecticut, those don't work," Weisel said of the services, which require clear exposure to the southwest sky.
Cablevision says it has competition but, because the other services aren't available to a lot of people, it still is largely a monopoly, Weisel said.
"I think it's completely outrageous. The Dolans have enough money in their pockets," Weisel said of the Dolan family of Long Island, N.Y., owners of Cablevision. "They shouldn't be taking more out of ours, especially in this economy."
Connecticut lawmakers such as U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, who is up for re-election next year and is in trouble in the polls, should take up the cause for their constituents, Weisel said.
"This is an issue that would get people's attention. Our politicians should be our voice. Because of the lack of voice, we are forced to pay the Dolans or have no TV," Weisel said. "Dodd would do a lot better in next year's election if he focused on local issues."
Why so much anger over Cablevision?
"They are taking advantage of the fact that people need TVs in their homes. And no one is stopping them," Weisel said.
"Cablevision will nickel and dime you. They're sneaky about adding a few cents here or there. Item by item, your bill keeps adding up," Einstein said.
"I would love, just love, to be able to pick the channels I want, instead of buying these packages," Keegan said. "And if you're going to promote HBO, don't give me movies from 15 years ago, and play them over and over."
Cablevision spokesman Jim Maiella said the prices of phone and Internet services have not increased in seven years, and TV prices "are competitive with anything else out there. There is enormous value in our services, which is why customers buy them."
The Area Nine Cable Council, a state-mandated panel representing customers in 10 towns in lower Fairfield County, posted an analysis of the rate hikes on its Web site that explains that the 3.7 percent is an average over Cablevision's entire market -- Connecticut, New York and New Jersey -- and may not reflect prices here.
According to the analysis, the price of Broadcast Basic stays the same at $16.72 a month. But the price of the Family package goes from $52.95 to $55.95, a 5.7 percent hike, and the iOSilver package goes from $75.95 to $79.95, a 5.3 percent hike.
The biggest hike, 25.1 percent, is for new orders of digital HBO, which was $11.95 a month and will go up to $14.95. The next-largest hike, 20.2 percent, is for a la carte channels, which were $4.95 each and will be $5.95 each.
TV prices increase because costs, including programming, increase, Maiella said. Cablevision packages channels because "it's the way TV programming is provided to all cable, satellite and phone companies," he said, and the same is true of charging for cable boxes.
"It's the model the entire industry uses," he said.
Unlike its competitors, Cablevision does "not lock customers in with contracts, or have termination fees," Maiella said. "There is no barrier to leaving if we are not delivering the value a customer expects."
Cablevision's market share of Internet and phone services is growing, and its share of the television market, at 65 percent, has been consistent, Maiella said.
That number sounds low for Connecticut, said Hal Levy, a member of the Area Nine Cable Council since 1995.
"There was a time, maybe five years ago, when they were near 90 percent penetration," Levy said. "I couldn't imagine how they would have lost that much since then."
Whether Cablevision has 65 percent of the market, 90 percent or something in between, it's a large share. And competition from ATandT has been slow in coming.
U-verse is "committed to an aggressive build through 2010," said Adam Cormier, a spokesman for ATandT. "We are in most of the towns in Fairfield County -- Stamford, Norwalk and Bridgeport more so than the others. The last number we had is that the network serves 370,000 homes in Connecticut, with most in Fairfield County, some in Hartford County and a few in eastern Connecticut."
U-verse entered the market three years ago and Connecticut "has been a very strong performer" for the company, which offers services in 21 states, Cormier said.
U-verse costs $94 a month for 230 channels, Internet with Wi-Fi, local and long distance phone service, and no contract, Cormier said.
Most people don't understand that cable television prices are not regulated, said Jim Cameron, one of the volunteers on the Area Nine Cable Council. The Federal Communications Commission deregulated the industry years ago because competitors entered the market, Cameron said.
"When people ask me, I tell them to consider the alternatives, and if none of those is an option, call Cablevision and tell them you're considering switching and see if they'll make you a deal," Cameron said.
That might work. Einstein said that, since the summer, Cablevision representatives have knocked on her door twice.
"They're trying to get me to come back," Einstein said. "They had the game to themselves all those years, and now there's some competition."
Angela Carella can be reached at 203-964-2296 or angela.carella@scni.com. Her column runs Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
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