COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Coldwater Board of Public Utilities cable customers can expect their monthly bills to go up between 5 and 6 dollars per month if proposed rate hikes are approved by City Council at its regular meeting Monday night.
The expanded basic monthly rate would increase from $55.85 per month to $61.80, while digital basic service would increase from $71.80 to $78.50 per month. Increased programming costs from cable networks are to blame. As an example, ESPN’s carriage fee, or how much a cable company has to pay for the right to carry the channel, has increased from $4.55 per customer in 2011 to $6.61 this year.
As a nod to the ongoing trend of “cord-cutting,” CBPU Telecom will also offer its cable modem service for $44.95 per month, a $5 increase over its regular monthly rate, for customers who don’t want the added cost of cable TV.
