FCC Wants to Force Cable Companies to Disclose Upfront What You'll Actually Pay
The FCC is considering a new rule(Opens in a new window) that would force cable and satellite TV providers to tell potential customers just how much they’ll pay for service.
The proposal (PDF(Opens in a new window)), from FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, takes aim at pay TV’s longstanding failure to do that by advertising a lower base rate while hiding mandatory fees for such things as broadcast local channels and regional sports networks in fine print.
Those surcharges constitute a non-trivial chunk of the total bill and often increase every year. In December, for example, Comcast socked subscribers(Opens in a new window) with broadcast hikes of nearly 50% in some markets, bringing the cost of local stations (which remain free to watch over the air) to as much as $27.25 a month(Opens in a new window).
Rosenworcel’s proposal would make cable and satellite firms “state the total cost of video programming service clearly and prominently, including broadcast retransmission consent, regional sports programming, and other programming-related fees, as a prominent single line item on subscribers’ bills and in promotional materials.”
“Consumers deserve to know what exactly they are paying for when they sign up for a cable or broadcast satellite subscription,” Rosenworcel said in the FCC proposal, which compares this plan to the commission’s pending regulation requiring broadband providers to break down their rates and policies in a simple pricing label. “No one likes surprises on their bill, especially families on tight budgets.”
The rule doesn’t mention such other pay-TV pricing tricks as rental fees for set-top boxes(Opens in a new window) (a problem that the FCC tried to address in 2016 by banning cable operators from
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