Cablevision Raises Rates

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source

http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsArticle.jhtml?duid=mtfh54326_2005-11-18_21-00-29_n18124308_newsml

Cablevision to raise 2006 TV rates by 2.3 pct
Fri Nov 18, 2005 04:00 PM ET
NEW YORK, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Cablevision Systems Corp (CVC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Friday said the average monthly bill for video services will rise by $1.45 per month, or 2.3 percent.
Standard rates for its high speed Internet and digital phone service will remain unchanged for the third year in a row. Cablevision boosted TV rates by 2.8 percent last year.

The company said the TV bill increase trails the U.S. inflation rate of 4.3 percent from a year ago.

The Bethpage-based cable operator, which also owns the Madison Square Garden sports arena and the New York Knicks basketball team, said the TV rate hike was tied to higher programming costs and investments.

Programming costs, or what it pays to cable networks, rose about 12 percent this year, the company said in a statement.

Cablevision said it plans to boost downloading speeds for its high speed Internet service speed by 50 percent to 15 megabits per second for all customers by mid 2006.

Cable rates have come under fire as programmers and cable operators renegotiate carriage fees, with some cable operators such as Cox Communications having pushed lawmakers to let it offer cable programming on an a la carte basis to let viewers pay only for the channels they want.

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...to pay attorney fees needed to try and keep out Verizon FiOS TV.

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...to pay attorney fees needed to try and keep out Verizon FiOS TV.

so sad but yet so true