Comcast’s Bullshit ‘Broadcast TV Fee’ Surges To $27 A Month

Back in 2014, Comcast introduced a new $1.50 per month surcharge on cable bills it called its Broadcast TV Fee." Said fee was really just a portion of the cost of doing business for Comcast (programming costs), busted out of the full bill and hidden below the line - designed specifically to let the company falsely advertise a lower price.

Fast forward to 2022 and the fee has jumped to $27 a month, with recent hikes as high as $7.35 a month in some areas:

Comcast's advertised prices do not include the Broadcast TV or the Regional Sports Network fees even though these fees account for a large portion of customers' actual monthly bills. On Comcast's ordering website, the base prices are listed along with a message stating that Broadcast TV and Regional Sports fees are extra" and that the price is subject to change." The Broadcast TV and Regional Sports fees also aren't included in how Comcast calculates promotional pricing and thus can be raised even when a customer's promotional rate hasn't expired.

This is something that cable giants have been doing for decades. It's effectively false advertising, and allows them to pretend that they aren't consistently raising rates. And, as the quote above notes, it even allows them to raise prices on you if you've agreed to a promotional rate.

A 2019 Consumer Reports study found that about 24% of consumer cable bills are comprised of bullshit fees, generating cable giants $28 billion in additional revenue annually. The problem is just as bad over among phone companies selling broadband (see Centurylink's utterly nonsensical Internet Cost Recovery" fee).

Occasionally, a state AG will dole out a brief wrist slap for the practice that only costs Comcast (or Charter, or Centurylink) a tiny fraction of the money they made off the misleading fees. Federal regulators, regardless of party, have generally given their tacit approval to the practice, much as they have in the banking, airline, and other industries. Ripping people off creatively is innovative, apparently.

The Biden FCC's big solution to this and other nickel-and-diming efforts has been to demand a voluntary nutrition label, letting you more clearly see how you're getting ripped off. Actually stopping big telecom monopolies from ripping you off (or even acknowledging that it's happening using pointed language) is unfortunately just a bridge too far.