Comcast is jacking up its prices again thanks to NBC's Peacock streaming service

[Cal Jeffrey]

A hot potato: Annual rate increases for cable providers are nothing new, but sometimes the excuses the companies provide for the hikes create more animosity than they alleviate. It is especially frustrating when the increases are to compensate for a perk advertised as "free." Comcast is notoriously bad at explaining away fees, and the latest involving its new streaming service is no exception.

Comcast customers should see a rise in their bills once the Peacock streaming service goes live, if they haven't already. The internet TV channel enters early access on April 15, along with a rate hike.

The extra costs will not be readily evident to new customers as the rate increases mostly appear as hidden fees. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports, the broadcast television fee added to monthly bills on top of subscription rates will go up by $4.45. Internet rates and modem rental fees will also be increased by $3 and $1, respectively.

For some customers, these price hikes have already taken effect as the company began the gradual squeeze in December. All totaled, subscriptions should increase by about 3.6 percent for most subscribers, whether they use Peacock or not.

“We needed to pivot the whole company to the streaming world, and I think what’s exciting is how well our cable company has done that,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts told CNBC. “Peacock will go right back for the advertisers and get you in a growing market, taking advantage of streaming with a free product as well. Cable customers will get it for free, whether you are video or broadband.”

“Free product” indeed, if you do not include the rate hike. The cable giant justifies the increases claiming that programmers are to blame and that it bears most of the burden bringing customers these services.

“Comcast is fighting as hard as we can to protect our customers from unrelenting demands for higher fees from programmers,” a spokesperson said in a statement last December regarding the bump. “While we absorb some of the increased programming costs, they have a significant impact on the cost of our services.”

The excuse falls somewhat flat since NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast. So it would seem that the company is "unrelenting" in demanding higher fees from itself, at least in this case.

Some customers may see the hike as a slap in the face since the “free” version of Peacock will be supported by ads, and the “Premium” tier will come with a $5 subscription cost.

The premium Peacock service will still have ads but will have about double the content as the free package. A third ad-free tier will cost subscribers $10 per month.

Masthead credit: Joshua Rainey Photography via Shutterstock

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https://www.techspot.com/news/83693-comcast-jacking-up-prices-again-thanks-nbc-peacock.html

 

[TomSEA]

Not surprised at this, Comcast has been awful with "managing" their fees since the day they started.

But on a side note, anyone who rents a modem from Comcast needs their head examined. You can buy a compatible one for $30 - which amounts to two months of their monthly modem "rental." Buy one and you're done with that unnecessary fee, permanently.

 

[toooooot]

Not surprised at this, Comcast has been awful with "managing" their fees since the day they started.

But on a side note, anyone who rents a modem from Comcast needs their head examined. You can buy a compatible one for $30 - which amounts to two months of their monthly modem "rental." Buy one and you're done with that unnecessary fee, permanently.

I remember when I bought my own modem but since I had my payment on auto, I kept paying 5$ for another year until I noticed the modem fee .

 

[SG736F6]

Court-cutting? Freudian slip maybe?

 

[Lew Zealand]

I love computer gaming.

Because it reduced my TV viewing to zero. It was already on it's way out when I set up a local streaming server in the house but between that and gaming, no TV viewing needed. I just hope I've spent less on games than monthly cable fees but at least most of that has gone to GOG with newer game $ to Steam.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

"So, how's your court-cutting going?"

Ahem....

It's going great, because I never had cable to begin with, and the last thing I would do, if I was cutting the cored, would be to tie myself into monthly payments with the very media companies that I just stopped paying. There is so much media available on blu ray from the local library, why on earth would I ever pay for streaming?

 

[MasterMace]

Comcast raised their Internet rate by $2 for my area

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Man the choices in the US really suck, so many of the major players are corporate scumbags, which is just how Dipshit Pai wants it.

 

[Dimitrios]

My grandma past away a few years ago. She was charged a modem fee and she don't got a computer or modem!

 

[Dimitrios]

Everyone is going up on price be it Comcast, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix etc....

You know why? The economy is doing damn well. Admit it numbers don't lie and I see a trend that when the economy booms companies get cocky.

 

[GeforcerFX]

OTA TV and the occasional free streaming service coupled with my DVDs and my dvd's I have ripped to my local network drive give me all the entertainment I could want. I am pretty lucky internet wise, I could prob actually live off cellular internet for most of what I want to do anymore, but I have spectrum at a decent price and decent speeds. I would never pay for a streaming service anymore, the free ones do a great job now adays, youtube usually has a decent amount of movies you can watch with ads, Tubi and Pluto tv usually have a great selection and the way Tubi does ads a lot of cable networks could learn from. I feel like there is 2-4 good free services added every year, plex just joined and there selection and service was decent in my testing.

 

[crunchy2k]

I am happy with Comcast(aka comcrap.) I had to move from Sillycon Valley where I had several choices of ISPs. Some non-English speaking Chinese woman wanted my house so bad as to pay me 5x it worth. I turned around and bought in the central valley, you get ATT or Comcast. Comcast is a no brainer with its network speed. I did replace the modem after making sure things on their end were stable. It was a simple process replacing the modem. I visited a local Comcast store to return the equipment and make sure I wasn't going to get kicked off like I was for moving their equipment 3 miles to a new home. You also get access to their wifi hotspots.

No, I do not do pay for TV other that Prime. My shipment costs equaled prime up to the recent $30 rise in price. I am having to seriously re-rationalize Prime. I like their original features. Over the air tv still works like in the 1950s, as does internet file sharing among groups of friends.

My experience was nothing like I encountered returning my parent's tv box back in the 1980s. I still remember the ugly look on the female clerk's face.

 

[kira setsu]

Not surprised at this, Comcast has been awful with "managing" their fees since the day they started.

But on a side note, anyone who rents a modem from Comcast needs their head examined. You can buy a compatible one for $30 - which amounts to two months of their monthly modem "rental." Buy one and you're done with that unnecessary fee, permanently.

the average person isnt a techhead and the average person has no clue on this and honestly probably doesnt even care or notice it, once the service is installed and working fine they're good just so long as it works.

 

[ckm88]

At the rate these prices are being increased, it'll be back to warez for me in the near future.

 

[wiyosaya]

How's my cord cutting going? Considering that within a few months, I will have an independent local fiber provider for my ISP with 500 Mbps D and 50 Mbps Up for $50/mo., great!

"So, how's your court-cutting going?"

Ahem....

It's going great, because I never had cable to begin with, and the last thing I would do, if I was cutting the cored, would be to tie myself into monthly payments with the very media companies that I just stopped paying. There is so much media available on blu ray from the local library, why on earth would I ever pay for streaming?

My local library is an excellent source, too, especially for things that are not on the streaming services I have - Netflix and base Hulu.

 

[toooooot]

I love computer gaming.

Because it reduced my TV viewing to zero. It was already on it's way out when I set up a local streaming server in the house but between that and gaming, no TV viewing needed. I just hope I've spent less on games than monthly cable fees but at least most of that has gone to GOG with newer game $ to Steam.

I watch youtube when I play games. A lot of people do something else while watching. And therefore the content quality doesn't make as much sense. After all, on youtube there are millions of suckers trying to become famous. On the other hand, most of tv content creators are obligated to a serious salary and bonuses. And that transfers into serious monthly payments, unlike youtube...
The choice is easy, connect one of your favorite ad free streaming service, and for other needs use youtube.
I dream about low price all sports subscription though. Anything I know of now is ridiculously expensive. Well, go on then. See how younger people trying to save on things they don't need trying to pay crazy high renting fees forget how sports look like. Maybe then you will realize that you actually lose an audience that will never come back because this audience never seen whats good about it using youtube and other sport like content creators.
10 bucks. 10 bucks for a specific sport with 20 games of your choice per month. They could hook 9/10 of men audience to pay that monthly. instead there is that shitty offer where you have to buy women's football wasting at least half the bill on sports you would never watch unless it is free.

 

[drjekelmrhyde]

This sounds like their normal year to year January price bump