Ten days after thorny contract negotiations between Cox Communications and WAFB-TV parent company Raycom Media concluded, Cox has raised rates on Louisiana customers.
“The price adjustment is not a direct result of negotiations with Raycom Media,” says Cox Southeast Public Affairs Manager Sharon Bethea. “The increasing cost of doing business has made the increases necessary. Programming costs for national cable networks continue to rise every year. We continue to fight on behalf of our customers to keep costs reasonable, as we did in the Raycom negotiations. But Raycom is just one of many programmers we work with and pay to include their programming in our lineup.”
Cox isn’t alone raising rates on regional customers. The company’s top regional competitors—DirecTV, DISH, and AT&T—all announced price increases effective early 2013. DirecTV rates will increase by 4.5% on Feb. 7, DISH rates will increase between 7% and 20% this month, and AT&T will introduce higher pricing for its U-verse customers beginning Jan. 27.
Like Cox, the companies blame higher programming costs passed on by broadcast companies such as Raycom, which wanted to charge Cox the equivalent of two cents more per household per day.
Neither Cox nor Raycom would reveal details about the agreement reached on Jan. 4, after a four-day blackout of CBS-affiliated programming for local Cox customers. The Cox price increase went into effect Jan. 15; the actual increase for each customer varies depending on the services and products they subscribe to.
“The average increase for residential customers in Louisiana will be less than $6 a month,” Bethea says. “Cox absorbs much of the programming increases, but we ultimately have to pass a portion of this on to our customers.”
