Programming costs drive up Hargray cable bills
Hargray cable subscribers will see heftier bills for the second time this year as the company adjusts prices to account for climbing programming costs.
Customers will see their cable bills increase $7 a month at the end of March, a hike Hargray attributes to continued "unreasonable demands" from sports and other cable programmers industry wide.
The announcement Thursday came a month after the company increased its "broadcast TV surcharge" to its 35,000 Beaufort County customers by $2.86 a month. That surcharge, which now totals $6.25 a month, covers the cost of retransmitting stations that are free for those without cable.
On Thursday, Hargray also announced it would increase its price for Internet service by $2 per month due to improvements to its network to handle more data and faster speeds. Premium cable subscribers will also pay an additional $1 per month, but will soon receive Epix and Showtime, sales and marketing vice president Gerrit Albert said.
He hopes to add both networks to the premium lineup by April 1.
The cable and surcharge hikes, however, won't leave Hargray with extra cash. Albert says the company's programming costs have increased more than 58 percent in the past four years, while its prices have only gone up 25 percent.
"It's certainly not something we revel in," he said of the price jump. "We're doing what we can to minimize these rate increases."
About $3 of the monthly spike is related to the higher cost of providing sports programming alone, Albert said, and all cable companies are feeling similar pressure.
At Time Warner Cable, sports programming costs have increased 91 percent since 2008, spokesman Scott Pryzwansky said. That company introduced a sports programming surcharge in January, charging its 500,000 South Carolina customers an additional $2.75 per month.
Time Warner Cable also increased its broadcast TV surcharge $.50 in January, to a total of $2.75 per month, he said.
"We're all fighting to control these dramatically rising costs," Pryzwansky said.
The cost of a standard cable package from Time Warner is $71.24.
That basic service costs $78.26 from Hargray.
Last year, Hargray increased its broadcast surcharge by about $1. Its programming fee increased $5.
Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.
Related content:
- Hargray: Cable bill increase is because of "Broadcast TV" fee, January 23, 2015
- Hargray raising cable, Internet prices; more fee hikes likely, March 7, 2014
- Hargray, Viacom strike temporary deal to keep channels on air, April 1, 2014
This story was originally published February 26, 2015 at 12:03 PM.