Cable Rate Changes

I'm sure as you'll notice, your HTC Digital Cable may cost a little bit more this month. Believe you me, it was not an easy decision to increase the cost of your monthly bill, especially in such difficult financial times.

As in past years, television programming fees make up the majority of the expense involved with offering you the best in cable services.

Each channel in our lineup has an associated expense that HTC must pay for each customer per month. Many of these fees have increased this year. In addition to typical cable network programming fees, we are also dealing with retransmission consent. This is the process in which a cable operator must now negotiate with local network affiliates to get permission to carry their programming. Up until now, HTC has been able to operate under agreements that did not require cash compensation to local stations. As a result of this combination of fee increases, our Basic and Plus rates will be adjusted to help offset the cost of increased programming fees.

On the bright side, the rates on our Digital Passport service and set-top boxes remain the same as in 2008.

Moving forward in 2009, HTC Digital Cable wants to continue to make sure you get the best value for your services and has created many new bundle packages that can save you money across all of our products.

Until next time, feel free to let me know your thoughts on what's happening at HTC.

Best, Tom