Cable company will increase rates

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Get ready to pay more to watch your favorite shows if you have Time Warner Cable. Many customers will see their rates go up starting next month, and cable customers are not alone.

Bill Conrad watches every dollar when he does his grocery shopping. He plans to do the same thing now that he knows Time Warner Cable will increase its rates February first.

Conrad said, "I'm looking into Verizon, I'm upset with it of course, everything's kind of going up."

But Verizon FiOS and the Dish Network have increased their prices too.

Dish Network subscriber Bryan Edwards said, "It's noticeable, a noticeable change. I actually split the bill with my roommate and have obviously noticed that the bill has gone up."

He used to pay 118 dollars a month for his package through the Dish Network. Now he pays 130. In the case of Time Warner Cable, customers who subscribe to standard basic service will be charged $61.14, an additional $3.45. Digital Basic will go up four dollars to 63.95.

Robin Wolfgang, a spokesperson for Time Warner Cable, tells us the company has no choice.

Wolfgang said, "The biggest increase we have constantly fighting is the programmers. The programmers, we are wholesaler distributors of them, we have to purchase their product, biggest expense."

Cheryl Bridges hasn't seen a rate increase from DIRECTV, but if she does...
"In this day and age with everything going up wouldn't be surprised about rate increase, wouldn't be happy with it but if I want to watch TV would have to pay higher rates or shop around and find something else."

Dish Network subscriber Thomas Pinzone said, "I'm losing track of everything that's going up. I guess I just have to go with the flow I guess, doesn't make sense what's going on."

Time Warner Cable tells News 4, it has to spend a lot of money to broadcast some of the most popular channels. Those channels include ESPN, CNN and the Movie Channel.