US cable-television operator Time Warner Cable is set to introduce a new subscription fee for sports programming, according to the Charlotte Observer.
Effective January 1, the newspaper said the company – which has a major Charlotte administrative office – will charge subscribers a $2.75 (€2.2) monthly fee for sports programming. TWC is said to serve 15 million customers in the US and the sports fee is amongst a host of other new charges.
Customers only with Time Warner’s internet services will not have to pay the broadcasting television or sports programming fees, and vice versa for customers only with television services. However, for television customers there is no opting out of the sports programming fee.
Time Warner Cable spokesman Scott Pryzwansky said the sports fee and increased broadcasting television surcharge are the results of rising costs in how much local and sports channels charge cable providers.
The cost to Time Warner for carrying sports networks has gone up by 91 per cent since 2008, and the fees the provider pays to show local channels have increased by 60 per cent over the past two years.
Pryzwansky added that the higher surcharges are only “a fraction of what we actually pay for broadcast TV and sports content.”