As has become an annual end-of-year custom in the telecom industry, Comcast has confirmed across-the-board price increases on its Xfinity-branded broadband, TV and phone services. 

Rate increases vary, as always, by region. But Bloomberg is reporting a broad 3% spike for both internet and video products. 

The majority of customers who subscribe to only internet will see a $3 increase, while customers in some markets will see a $4 increase, a Comcast rep told Next TV. 

Comcast blames the latest price bump on the $20 billion "10G" investment its made in its broadband network over the past five years, as well as rising programming costs for TV services. 

“Rising programming costs continue to drive the highest increase in customers’ bills. We’re working hard to manage these costs for our customers while investing in our broadband network to provide the best, most reliable Internet service in the country and to give our customers more low-cost choices in video and connectivity so they can find a package that fits their lifestyle and budget," Comcast told us.

Comcast has set up an FAQ to explain the price bumps, which it said will take effect in January. 

Included in the increases will be enhanced “broadcast TV” and “regional sports networks” sub fees — upped at a time when both ecosystems are eroding and providing pay TV subscribers with less quality programming.

Comcast lost 32,000 high-speed internet users through the first nine months of this year, and it's expected to be losing more in the ongoing fourth quarter. 

But Comcast shares are up over 13% year-to-date, and that has a lot to do with the fact that average revenue per user keeps rising, as the MoffettNathanson graphic below reveals. 

Cable rates are on the rise again, with pricing for video and broadband service at the largest operators across the country increasing modestly as operators focus more on beefing up special charges to offset rising sports and retransmission consent costs.

Cable operators have tried to maintain increases for monthly service in the 3% to 5% range for the past few years, forced to offset skyrocketing retransmission consent and sports fees with special charges. Several operators have initiated separate fees for broadcast TV and regional sports networks over the past few years to ease the pain of those costs.

DirecTV was one of the first MVPDs to debut an RSN charge -- back in 2012 -- and this year those fees are going to rise again. According to DirecTV parent AT&T, RSN fees will rise, depending on the Tier selected, by $1.80 to $1.90 per month for customers.

Video packages from Basic to Premier will also rise between $1 and $8 per month at DirecTV. For its wireline service AT&T Uverse, customer of its U-family, U200 and U400 video packages will see increases of between $3 and $7 per month. The Broadcast Surcharge for the service also rises by $2 per month.

Rival satellite player Dish Network is raising rates for its video packages by $3 to $5 per month.

Altice USA said its customers’ average bill will rise by about 3% in 2019.

At Comcast, the focus has been on increasing fees to help offset rising costs. The biggest hike is in its broadcast TV fee -- a charge implemented to help ease the pain of retransmission consent costs -- up 25% to $10 from $8 per month. Comcast’s regional sports network fee -- based on the number of RSNs carried in a given market -- rose about 20% ($1.50) per month from $6.50-to-$6.75 per month to $8-to-$8.25 per month. The country’s largest operator also increased its router/home gateway rental fee by $2 (from $11 to $13 per month) and its digital adapter fee by $1 (from $5.99 to $4.99 per month)

“We continue to make investments in our network and technology to give customers more for their money – like faster Internet service and better WiFi, more video across viewing screens, better technology like X1 and xFi, and a better customer experience,” Comcast said in a statement. “While we try to hold costs down, price changes are necessary for a number of reasons, including the continually increasing costs associated with carrying the programming our customers demand, especially broadcast television and sports programming, which are the largest drivers of price increases.”

According to industry website TVAnswerman.com, Comcast has increased charges for broadcast and RSN fees by 288% since 2015. 

At Charter Communications, the emphasis too was on increasing specific fees. Charter began notifying customers of its plans to increase certain fees for 2019 in October -- they went into effect in November -- including its Broadcast Fee by $1.10 per month to $9.95; and its set-top box rental by 50 cents from $6.99 to $7.50 per month. Charter’s Spectrum broadband service also was the subject of increases with Spectrum Internet that already subscribe to Spectrum TV seeing their rates rise from $54.99 to $59.99 per month. Non-Spectrum TV customers saw broadband rates rise from $64.99 to $65.99 per month.

Despite rising affiliate fees, pay TV operators are managing to keep expanded basic video rate increases below 5% for the coming year, although the hikes are much stiffer for broadcast and regional sports network fees.

Related:Fans Rate RSNs as Key Channels in Bundle

Pay TV operators are increasingly parsing out their biggest cost increases – for retransmission consent for broadcast stations and for high sports rights fees – through separate charges on customer bills.

While overall basic video rate hikes are under 5% for many of the top operators across the country – Charter Communications, the second largest cable operator in the country did not respond to requests for information – charges under the heading of “broadcast fees” and “sports surcharges” have soared, in some cases by as much as 66%.

At the country’s largest cable operator, Comcast, with about 22 million basic video customers, monthly rates for video service are scheduled to increase 3.8% on average beginning in Jan. 1. In addition, Comcast said its broadcast fee – a charge to help offset rising retransmission consent charges – will increase 40% to $7 per month from $5 per month and regional sports network fees will rise 66% to $5 per month from $3 per month.

“We continue to make investments in our network and technology to give customers more for their money – like faster Internet service and more WiFi hotspots, more video across viewing screens, better technology like X1 and a better customer experience,” Comcast said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the costs we are charged to carry popular networks continue to increase significantly - especially broadcast television and sports programming, which are the largest drivers of increases in price adjustments.  On average, nationally, the customer bill will increase by 3.8% in 2017, less than half the projected increase in our programing costs.”

Dish Network, which has managed to avoid imposing broadcast and RSN surcharges in the past, couldn’t hold out any longer as retrans fees continue to soar.

“The largest cost for Dish is the amount we pay programmers,” Dish said in a statement. “The fastest growing programming costs relate to local channels. We work hard for fair deals that keep channel costs as low as possible. Unfortunately, Dish and all other TV providers have had to accept some significant price increases from programmers. Dish is absorbing some of these costs rather than passing everything on to our customers.”

Beginning in January, Dish is separating out the charges for local channels from its core programming package, to show customers the impact of rising charges.

“To offset this change, we have reduced core programming package charges by $5 per month,” Dish said in an email message. “However, the combined impact of these changes will result in a $5 increase to the monthly bill.”

Dish customers that receive the two-year price guarantee won’t see any change to their bill for that period, and neither will customers currently in a promotional pricing period. Hall added that customers of Dish’s Flex Pack, Welcome Pack or DishLATINO Basico also will not see increases.

Cox Communications has begun notifying customers of increases that will take place in the first quarter of next year. Spokesman Todd Smith said broadcast fees will increase from $3 to $4 and RSN fees will range from $2.60 to $6, depending on the market.

Driving the increases are higher sports costs, retransmission consent charges and overall adjustments to the cost of content.

Increased costs are also behind Mediacom Communications’ decision to raise expanded basic video rates by about $2 per month, according to vice president of government affairs Tom Larsen. He added that Mediacom’s average broadcast surcharge is rising by about $1.75 per month in January, and the average sports surcharge is rising by 46 cents.

DirecTV was one of the first pay TV companies to impose an RSN fee back in 2012.  http://www.multichannel.com/news/content/directv-adds-sports-surcharge/359667 Earlier this month DirecTV  parent AT&T confirmed that it will raise prices in nine of the satellite TV company’s video tiers ranging from $2 to $6 per month.

“We are making modest price adjustments to our offerings that reflect increased content costs,” AT&T said in a statement. “We continue to add new features and content that add value and make the experience even better for our customers.”

At Altice USA, the average customer bill is expected to rise by about 3.4% in 2017, mainly related to certain video services, equipment fees and programming surcharges. They are in line with those of their largest competitors and reflect the rising cost of programming, particularly from sports programmers and broadcasters.

“We provide our customers with superior products and services at a great value, continually introducing faster internet speeds and with plans to roll out an enhanced video experience,” Altice said in a statement. “Our pricing remains extremely competitive in the face of rapidly rising programming costs.”

Some longtime cable rate critics will get another chance to publicly criticize cable rates.

Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), chair and ranking member, respectively, of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, confirmed they will hold a hearing June 23 at 10 a.m. on the state of the pay TV industry, signaling their displeasure with it.

“Consumers in every corner of the country share common experiences about fending for themselves against customer service and billing practices by TV providers that are at best confusing, and at worst deceptive,” they said in a joint statement. “For more than a year, we have conducted a bipartisan investigation of the largest cable and satellite TV companies. We believe our hearing will be a big step forward for consumers, allowing them to understand how their TV providers really work and make informed decisions about their video service.”

McCaskill, who formerly chaired the Senate Commerce Committee's Consumer Protection subcommittee, has been hammering the cable industry on rates and customer service for years; her actons have included trying to amend STELAR, the satellite reauthorization bill, to include provisions to put cable's feet to the fire. Another veteran cable rate critic, Republican John McCain (R-ARiz.) is also on the subcommittee. 

McCaskill's office said the hearing will focus on billing, fees, refunds and customer service issues and is part of a general inquiry, which will extend into the fall, into potential barriers to competition .

No witnesses were identified, but they are said to represent more than 70 million subscribers and more than 70% of pay TV households.

The senators cited the recent American Customer Satisfaction Index survey, which found pay TV near the bottom of those industries surveyed, following the previous year's finding that pay TV was tied for the lowest score.

Rising programing costs again are the culprit for cable rate increases, according to Evercore ISI Group media analysts David Joyce and Vijay Jayant, with the cable charges on average rising 3% to 4% in 2016 while programming costs have risen between 8% and 10% annually over the past four years.

Three of the four top cable operators have announced their 2016 rate increases – Charter Communications is the only holdout so far – with Cablevision Systems the only top operator that has not increased video rates.

According to the analysts, almost all of Comcast’s double play packages increased by $3 –to-$4 per month (2%-5%) and triple play packages rose by $1.50 per month (1%).  Limited basic video packages increased by about $1 per month while  expanded basic video decreased by $1 per month. Some of the increases took the form of installation and service fees. Retransmission consent fees forced the largest cable operator in the country to nearly double the broadcast fee from $3  to $5 per month. Comcast said its average bill will rise by 3.9% in 2016.

At Time Warner Cable, which hopes to complete its merger with Charter by the end of the first quarter, monthly charges for its Starter TV and Standard TV rose by $4 (20%) and $2 (2%), respectively. The second largest cable operator also announced new broadband pricing packages and has increased most of its equipment and service fees, in addition to raising rates for  premium channels Cinemax and Starz.

Cablevision Systems, which is expecting to complete its $17.7 billion merger with Altice in the first half of this year, said it will not incrase pricing for its base products, but is raising set-top box rental charges and DVR fees by $1  per month each for residential and commercial customers. All commercial customers will now be paying $9.99 per month for modem rental fees. Cablevision has said that the average customer bill will increase by 2.9%.

Satellite TV and telco TV operators also have announced increases, with DirecTV (now part of AT&T) announcing price increases for its video packages ranging from $1 to $9 per month, according to the analysts. Dis Network has announced increases between $2 and $8 per month for all its packages effective Jan. 14.

On the telco TV side, AT&T announced increases  of between $2 and $4 per month for  all its video packages, effective Jan.28. The analysts wrote that they haven’t seen any official announcements from Verizon’s FiOS TV but their own channel checks indicate that all premium channels saw a $2 monthly price  increase , while its Showtime Starz Entertainment Package was increased by $4/month.