MCTV President Bob Gessner Tells Consumers How Programmers Cause Sharp Rate Hikes

Disney, ESPN, FOX Sports, Viacom, and other Networks are Forcing Operators to Increase Retail Prices for Consumers Everywhere. Competition is failing to keeping programming costs from rising at dramatic rates.

Independent Cable Companies Unify Against Cable TV Programmer Rate Increases

"For the first time in the history of the cable industry, cable TV companies are dropping networks owned by a large content company. More than two dozen cable companies representing almost a million TV homes recently stopped carrying all of the networks from Viacom, the owner of Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, Spike and a dozen other channels.

Viacom demanded such a large increase in monthly fees that the cable companies decided to stop carrying those channels. That is a big deal because it has never happened before," explained Gessner.

MCTV Mid-Year Rate Increase 2014

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Read more from Phillip Dampier, Editor-in-Chief of Stop the Cap!

Subscribers of more than 900 independent cable companies may face an unwelcome surprise this summer in the form of a mid-year rate increase.