Due to burgeoning sports programming costs, Cable One has added a monthly sports surcharge of $2.94 across its footprint.
The surcharge, which will take effect in the next billing cycle, impacts all residential standard cable tier subscribers.
“Despite our best efforts to control increasingly expensive sports programming fees, Cable One, like other cable and satellite companies, can no longer continue to absorb these increased costs,” Cable One wrote in a statement. “Sports programming costs now make up more than one third of our programming fees, so we’re forced to pass on a very small portion of these costs to our customers.”
In a letter to customers, Cable One said increasing programming costs from ESPN, NBC Sports, and the NFL Network, as well as on general entertainment networks such as TNT, TBS, USA Network, and regional sports nets, led to the sports surcharge. The sports surcharge covers a small percentage of those programming increases, Cable One said.
On a Cable One FAQ, the cable operator said the increase was not related to the recent deal with SEC Networks. Cable One also wrote in the FAQ that other video service providers, such as DirecTV, have had sports surcharges in place for years.
Cable One, which is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company and the nation’s 10th-largest cable operator, offers its triple play services to 720,000 customers in 19 states.
