|
TELEVISION TOWN MEETING
Comcast Cable is cutting back on the number of channels included in some of its cable packages. The nation’s biggest cable company won’t, however, cut the price. “I think that's wrong,” Sanders said of the channel switch. “It's a hidden price increase.” Meanwhile, amid the confusion over the digital transition planned for broadcast television (i.e. via “bunny ears”), Comcast has said they will charge customers for Comcast’s own, unrelated, digital changeover on their cable system: they plan to charge customers to use boxes – which Comcast will mandate - in order for customers to simply watch the same channels they watch now. Another hidden rate increase?
To view video of the town meeting in Rutland click here.
FCC to probe pricing of cable, Verizon (The Associated Press) - 11/05/2008
PHILADELPHIA — The Federal Communications Commission has opened an investigation into the pricing policies of major cable operators and Verizon Communications Inc.
The FCC wrote on Oct. 30 to cable operators including Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., Cox Communications Inc., Charter Communications Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp., Bright House Networks, Suddenlink Communications, Bend Cable Communications, GCI Company, Harron Entertainment and RCN Corp. Verizon, which offers pay-TV services with FiOS, also was included in the probe. READ MORE
Confused about cable? (Consumer Reports) - 10/09/2008
We've been getting complaints from across the country as cable providers shift channels to the digital-only realm. It seems that cable companies are using confusion about the forthcoming digital TV transition—which applies only to TVs with antennas, not to TVs with cable—as a chance to boost the bills of cable customers. The cable companies say the changes are needed to free up bandwidth, but we believe that when consumers pay more for the same channels, it's a rate hike. Customers must rent a digital cable box for each TV set to see channels that used to be available without one. At up to $10 per box per month, the increase isn't minor.
Since 2005, when Congress mandated a switch to all-digital broadcasts as of February 2009, it's been clear that millions of households with TVs that receive news and information through an antenna will have to upgrade their equipment. Consumers Union has long insisted that customers not bear the cost of the transition, and we're pleased that government funding offsets at least some of the expense. Meanwhile, the cable industry has been assuring cable customers that they won't be affected by the transition. Apparently that's not the case.
The timing of the industry's rate hike is deceptive. The government must push cable providers to treat subscribers fairly. We support proposals like that of Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., who wants the cable provider in his state to cut rates when it cuts channels and to offer free installation of set-top boxes for those who now need them to watch channels they used to receive. READ MORE
Changing Channels (Valley News) - 08/22/2008
Comcastic Behavior
For a company that prides itself as "the nation's leading provider of entertainment, information and communications products and services," Comcast isn't very good at communicating with customers. When it reduced the number of analog channels earlier this summer, effectively forcing consumers to purchase a more expensive digital service if they wanted to keep their subscriber package, lots of viewers in Vermont and New Hampshire were caught by surprise. Instructions on the TV screen said to call customer service, which is really a disservice in much of corporate America. Many couldn't get through on the phone; those who did manage to reach a human learned they'd have to pay the same for less (to hold on to their analog service) or pay more for the same (if they switched to digital).
All in all, not a pricing plan any company would want to advertise too loudly. No wonder a lot of analog customers missed the fine print explaining the migration to digital.
So many Vermonters in particular complained about the changes to their Comcast cable service that Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent with a good instinct for monopolistic bad behavior, intervened. READ MORE
FCC: High Cable Prices Consumers' Biggest Problem (ABC News) - 08/22/2008
Some Want a La Carte Rates for Cable Channels
By ELISABETH LEAMY and VANESSA WEBER
The single biggest problem facing consumers in the world of technology is the high cost of cable television, according to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
Cable TV pricing has risen a staggering 77 percent since 1996, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's double the rate of inflation, and it comes at a time when other technology prices are decreasing.
"The average family has very little choice as to what channels are included, yet they're having to pay more and more for those same channels," said FCC chairman Kevin Martin. READ MORE
Sanders: Free Comcast box doesn't cut it (Rutland Herald) - 08/15/2008
By Stephanie M. Peters. Herald Staff
Analog Comcast customers who recently lost channels from their service will be given a free digital box for a year — not the price discount demanded by many who gathered Thursday night at Rutland City Hall for a town meeting hosted by Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt.
About 100 people packed a second-floor meeting room to hear the cable giant's response to Sanders and add their voices to the 300 e-mails and phone calls Sanders estimates he's received in the last month.
Few appeared satisfied with the explanation given by Dan Blakeman, Comcast's area vice president for Vermont. In addition to the free digital box for basic cable customers, Comcast will credit the account of anyone who paid for box installation in the wake of the channel changes.
After a meeting that lasted 2-1/2 hours, Sanders said he was disappointed Comcast made "virtually no concessions."
"We are going to need Congressional action to make sure that people can get reasonably priced cable television," he said. "Left alone, prices will continue to rise and families are going to be priced out of cable television."
Sanders said after much thinking on the issue, he plans to introduce the topic in the Senate soon. READ MORE
Sanders Op-Ed: Comcastic? - 08/14/2008
They say the only things that are certain in life are death and taxes, but if you are a customer of one of the cable TV giants you can add constantly rising rates and bad service. Many Vermont subscribers to Comcast — the nation's largest cable company and the service provider for 83 percent of Vermonters who have cable — are seeing that truism played out once again.
Comcast has decided to remove up to 13 channels from its analog cable packages without any reduction in the price customers pay. In a meeting in my office, a Comcast executive held to the view that this is not a price increase. That type of executive math may explain the corporate world's seemingly ceaseless accounting problems, but in Vermont we all know that when you get less for the same price, it is a price increase.
Comcast has offered to help people who want to keep all of their channels make the transition to digital cable, but digital cable subscribers need to lease a box (from Comcast, of course) at a rate of $3.95 a month for now. Comcast is offering to waive that fee for a year, after which subscribers will pay the full price for each box they rent for every TV in their home. That means you will end up paying more to keep what you used to have. In Vermont, that's a price increase, too.
The right thing for Comcast to do would be to lower the cost of analog packages if they are going to provide fewer channels. Likewise, if people choose to switch to digital to retain all their channels, Comcast should hold those people harmless — meaning they should get the use of a digital box at no charge and keep the same pricing plans. READ MORE
Sanders challenges Comcast on costs (Burlington Free Press) - 08/14/2008
By Dan McLean
Thousands of Vermonters who subscribe to Comcast's cable television service are paying higher bills but getting fewer channels than last year.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has called on the cable giant to remedy the situation through price reductions or free converter boxes. At 7 p.m. today, Sanders will hold a town hall meeting at City Hall in Rutland, where many complaints to his office originated. A Comcast official will attend.
Comcast's cheapest analog package, "basic cable," now has 14 channels for Burlington customers, or three fewer than at the end of last year, Comcast spokesman Marc Goodman said. Subscribers to "standard cable" have 55 channels, or nine fewer than in December, he said. No channels have been reduced from any Comcast digital packages.
The channel reduction comes after Comcast increased prices in February, Goodman said. READ MORE
Taking a Whack Against Comcast (Washington Post) - 08/06/2008
Mona Shaw Reached Her Breaking Point, Then for Her Hammer
By Neely Tucker
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Sometimes truly American virtues arise in outlaws who -- by dint of heroic but questionable endeavors -- display the mettle of the national character.
For instance: The Dillinger Gang, robbing banks (and destroying mortgages) when banks were foreclosing on the poor. Stephanie St. Clair, matron of the numbers racket during the Harlem Renaissance, striking a (dubious) blow for both gender and racial equality. Junior Johnson bootlegging liquor during Prohibition (the benefits of which were self-evident).
Fear not, fellow Americans! In these dark days of war, pestilence and Paris Hilton, a new hero has arisen. She is none other than 75-year-old Mona "The Hammer" Shaw, who took the aforementioned implement to her local Comcast office in Manassas to settle a score, and boy, did she!
This was after the company had scheduled installation of its much ballyhooed "Triple Play" service, which combines phone, cable and Internet services, in Shaw's brick home in nearby Bristow. But Shaw said they failed to show up on the appointed day, Monday, Aug. 13. They came two days later but left with the job half done. On Friday morning, they cut off all service. READ MORE
|
|
