Cablevision raises rates an average 3.2% for next year
Posted on: Monday, 24 November 2003, 06:00 CST
In what has become an annual rite of late November, Cablevision Systems Corp. announced its price "adjustment" for next year on Friday, and it means customers will be paying, on average, 3.2 percent more next year.
That works out to an average of $1.59 more per month, effective in January or February, depending on customers' billing cycles.
The increases are lower than in recent years, with rates for expanded basic "family" service - one of the most popular packages - going up $1.51 or 3.5 percent, spokesman Jim Maiella said. Rates for the company's premium iO digital silver and gold services will each be $2 a month higher.
Two years ago Cablevision announced a 4.7 percent increase, but that amounted to 7.3 percent or more for customers who subscribed to the expanded basic "family" service.
Last year Cablevision announced that rates would rise 5.26 percent, but family package customers in the former Oakland-based TCI system saw their bills go up by 8.2 percent to $45.80 a month. Those in Cablevision's original systems in North Jersey got a 5.3 percent increase to $46.65.
Since then, rates have been adjusted to reflect changes in the cable operator's sports programming.
Cablevision, the biggest cable company in the New York area, blames its latest increase on a 13 percent rise in costs to obtain programming, and "increased investments in customer service and network improvements."
Even as cable rates go up, prices for Cablevision's high-speed Optimum Online Internet and phone services will remain the same next year, the Bethpage, N.Y.-based company said in a statement.
Cablevision is the metropolitan area's largest cable provider with about 3 million customers in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.
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E-mail: demarrais@northjersey.com
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