Charter Communications will implement a price adjustment next month that will see some long-time Spectrum Internet and Spectrum TV customers paying more for their services.
The price increases were first made public in a post on the social media website Reddit, and later confirmed by a source at Charter, who largely affirmed the information posted online was correct.
Starting in July, Spectrum Internet subscribers will see the price of their service increase by $3, with the cost of retired plans going up by $4 for customers who were grandfathered in to those service tiers.
The rate adjustments will impact Spectrum TV customers the most, with the cost of Spectrum TV Select going up by as much as $3 in some areas. A Charter spokesperson said the price increase will impact fewer than 1 percent of current Spectrum TV Select subscribers, and the adjustment brings the cost of older Spectrum TV Select plans in line with the price of the current offering.
The price of HBO, Max and MGM Plus will also increase by $1, while the cost of Acorn TV is going up by $1.01 — those prices are being adjusted to bring them in line with how much they cost on other platforms. Warner Bros Discovery, the parent company of HBO and Max, will raise the base price of both services to $17 per month next month. Amazon raised the price of MGM Plus to $7 per month in February.
Customers who rent set-top boxes for Spectrum TV service will be charged $1 more per box, while those who still use CableCARDs will see the lease cost associated with that equipment increase by $4. CableCARDs are commonly rented by customers who prefer to use TiVo DVR boxes over set-top boxes offered by cable companies. The Federal Communications Commission stopped requiring cable companies to offer CableCARDs to customers four years ago, though some — including Charter — continue to make them available to rent.
In a statement, a spokesperson noted Spectrum “has a track record of continuous investment in our customers’ broadband experience, delivering faster speeds and the best value in a competitive marketplace — and we do it with no modem fees, no data caps and no contracts,” and the company continues “to expand and improve our offerings to ensure all customers have products and packages that best meet their needs.”
“While our services have been impacted by rising costs, we strive to keep prices as low as possible,” the spokesperson affirmed. “In addition, Spectrum has worked with programming providers to create a new business model that provides our video customers with more choices to fit their needs and a better value for the products they purchase.”
Addressing the price adjustments on Spectrum TV Select and some premium add-on services, the spokesperson said that, despite their ongoing efforts to push for additional video programming choices on behalf of customers, “some programmers continually raise fees for their content, which are passed through as increased fees to viewers and drive higher costs across the entire industry.”
Charter is one of the largest providers of broadband Internet, pay TV and other telecommunications services in the country, counting more than 32 million residential and enterprise customers across 41 states.
