The number of U.S. consumers subscribing to pay TV and watching broadcast TV continues to decline, but that isn't keeping the No. 1 American cable operator from once again jacking up its broadcast TV surcharge.

Comcast last week began giving its remaining 16.6 million video customers a heads-up that the fee they pay to receive local broadcast channels via their Xfinity TV subscription is going up as much as $7 a month.

Also read: Cord-Cutting Alarm Sounds Anew as Comcast's Q3 Video Losses Exceed the 10% YoY Mark For the First Time

As blogger Phil Swann noted, users in Taunton, Massachusetts, will see their broadcast TV surcharge spike from $18.65 to $26 a month, effective December 20. (Yup, 26 bucks a month for content you can get for free over the airwaves.)

Comcast, of course, is blaming the increase on ever-climbing broadcast retransmission fees it has to pay to local stations. The cable operator said that, on average, its customers will experience broadcast fee increases in the 3.8% range. (These fees vary from region to region.)

"TV networks and other video programmers continue to raise their prices, with broadcast television and sports being the biggest drivers of increases in customers’ bills," Comcast said in a statement. 

Surcharges for regional sports networks are also going up for Comcast pay TV customers (by less than a dollar a month in most cases). And lease fees for set-tops are also increasing by about $1.50 a month. 

Notably, these fees aren't included in the advertised price for pay TV service. So a customer agreeing to pay $60 a month for Comcast's 125+ channel "Popular TV" tier will end up shelling out well over $100 a month, once surcharges, CPE fees and taxes are factored in the bill. 

Comcast already announced earlier that its broadband service tiers will increase in prices anywhere from $2 to $7 a month. 

Comcast lost 562,000 pay TV customers in the third quarter, with its year-over-year cord-cutting pacing at 10.6%. ■

Comcast will raise its rates for TV and internet service by about 3% in 2022, the company said Monday, in line with increases in previous years. 

News of the price increases, most of which will take effect on Jan. 1, was first reported by TVAnswerman.com.

According to Comcast, the average Broadcast TV Fee, the surcharge levied to help cover the costs of retransmission consent payments the operator makes to TV stations, and its Regional Sports Fee, a separate charge to cover its costs for regional sports networks, will not rise by more than $7 per month combined. 

Charges for wireline voice service will not be affected, the company said.

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Not every market will see the same increases. For example, in parts of New Jersey and Connecticut that lost access to regional sports channel MSG Networks in October, customers won’t see an increase in their regional sports surcharge, a Comcast spokesperson said. 

In a statement, MSG Networks said Comcast should go further and refund customers the $10 per month they were paying for the channels they are no longer receiving. 

 “Comcast said they won’t increase their RSN fee for customers who no longer receive MSG Networks. Then how do they explain keeping their customers’ money for the last two months," MSG Networks said in the statement. "It’s simple: they charged more than $10 for MSG Networks, and rebated $3, which leaves more than $7 that they continue to pocket every month. Don’t be fooled: that’s a rate increase.”

According to a Reddit.com post by a Chicago Comcast customer, Broadcast TV Fees will rise by about 21% ($3.50 per month) to $19.75; while the Regional Sports Fee will increase about 20% to $17.30 from $14.45 per month in that city.  Other areas will see bigger and smaller increases. For example, in Sandown, New Hampshire, the Broadcast TV Fee will rise by about 28% ($5) to $24.95 per month from $19.45, and the Regional Sports Fee will increase 10% ($1.10) to $11.85 from $10.75 per month. 

Internet-only customers will see the prices for various speed packages rise by about $3 per month. Some bundled internet customers won’t see as much of an increase for that service, but overall charges for bundled packages will be about 3% higher, a Comcast spokesperson said. 

“Content providers continue to increase the costs they charge us to carry their content, with broadcast TV and sports being the biggest drivers of price increases,” a Comcast spokesperson said in an email message to Multichannel News. “We’re continuing to work hard to manage these costs for our customers while investing in our network to provide the best, most reliable broadband service in the country. Customers also have  the flexibility to choose our industry-leading video platform with X1 or the highest quality streaming product with Flex, the only free streaming TV device with voice remote that’s included with broadband service.”

Comcast’s decision comes on the heels of a $5 per month price hike from Dish Network that became effective to the satellite TV company’s customers in mid-November, and a similar increase for customers of Hulu Plus Live TV that takes effect on Dec. 21 and includes Disney Plus and ESPN Plus. ■

A class action suit has been filed against Comcast over its break-out of retrans fees on customer bills.

Cable operators have been increasingly including a broadcast TV line item on bills so customers can see how much MVPDs are paying in retransmission-consent fees for those signals.

Cable operators and broadcasters have been in a pitched battle over the fees, with broadcasters saying they are just trying to recover the true value of their content after years of it being undervalued, while cable operators say broadcasters are using a government thumb on the scale to jack up prices that ultimately are passed on to consumers--hence breaking out the fee.

In the suit, filed in a California district court, a handful of Comcast subs argue that the broadcast (and regional sports channel fees also broken out) are a way to raise the price while continuing to advertise a lower price.

The suit is filled with assertions that Comcast is lying to cutomers about the price by referring to the charges as government fees or taxes--retransmission payments were created by Congress, with negotiations subject to FCC rules on good faith negotiations.

The plaintiffs say Comcast's representation of the fees is "fraudlent, unfair and intended to mislead."

“We have been working to make it easier for customers to understand what they’re paying for, which is why we list the Broadcast TV and Regional Sports fee separately on the bill and include disclaimers about them in our advertising," said Comcast in a statement on the suit. "It’s also worth noting that the complaint itself demonstrates that these fees are disclosed and that they’re not part of promotional pricing.”

Comcast in 2013 separated out the broadcast fee as an itemized charge, joining Charter,AT&T's U-Verse, and others.