Cablevision Systems’ Video Pricing to Rise in 2008

High-Speed-Internet, Digital-Phone Prices to Remain Unchanged

By Jon Hemingway -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/26/2007 5:08:00 PM

Cablevision Systems will raise the price of its cable-television service in 2008 but not its high-speed-Internet or digital-phone service.

The cable operator is raising the average price of its television service 4.7% due to double-digit increases in fees charged by networks Cablevision carries, as well as increased operating costs. According to the company, its programming costs rose 13% in the past year.

Cablevision customers can expect the new pricing for the television service to kick in around December or January, depending on location and billing cycle.

For the fifth straight year the company will not implement a price increase of its business and residential Optimum Online high-speed-Internet and Optimum Voice digital-phone products.

“Cablevision’s television, voice and Internet services are popular with consumers because we deliver the best quality and greatest value in the market,” senior vice president of product management John Trierweiler said in a statement, “Our voice service has already attracted nearly one-third of local phone customers, our high-speed-Internet service is used in nearly one-half of the homes passed by our fiber-optic network and our iO TV digital-cable product has been embraced by more than 80% of our cable-television customers, the highest digital penetration in the country.”

Cablevision is the country’s fifth-largest cable operator, with more than 3.1 million customers in the New York metropolitan area. The company also has 2.1 million high-speed-data customers and 1.4 million voice customers.