Cox raising prices, services

• By CHAD CALDER
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Nov 6, 2009 - Page: 1B

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Cox Communications is raising prices on its television and Internet offerings effective Dec. 8, while adding nine channels and increasing Internet speeds, the local cable provider said Thursday.

Customers in Baton Rouge and Lafayette who subscribe to basic cable only will see prices rise by $2.58 per month and those who subscribe to expanded basic will pay another $3 per month.

Certain premium channels, such as HBO, Showtime, Stars and Cinemax, will increase $1 per service, Cox said.

Cox said it has seen a 78 percent increase in retransmission fees for basic and expanded basic service and a 10 percent increase in programmer fees to companies including Disney, ESPN, Fox and NBC Universal.

“We really do try to absorb as much cost as we can but across all levels … our costs have gone up,” spokesman Ann Ruble said, noting also that costs are projected to go up again next year.

“At some point we had to look at doing somewhat of an increase, and we tried to make it as small as possible,” she said.

Cox said most video customers will see a rate increase of under 6 percent.

Ruble said Cox ran the numbers for the 17-parish area and found about 2 percent of video customers — the ones with the most premium channels — would see an increase of 7 percent.

Residential Internet customers subscribing to starter, value, preferred or premier service can expect a price increase between $2 and $3, depending on the level of service subscribed to.

Internet speeds on those tiers will increase. Ruble said the biggest gains will be in the two most-popular packages. The speed of the essential package would double and the preferred package will increase by about 20 percent.

The price on Cox’s ultimate tier will not increase and there will be no increase for business customers.

Cox will launch six new high-definition channels, bringing the Baton Rouge market total to 74. The new channels are: ESPNews HD (channel 738); Investigation Discovery HD (channel 749); msnbc HD (channel 764); Tennis Channel HD (channel 784); Disney XD HD (channel 786); and BBC America HD (channel 787).

Lafayette will get nine high-definition channels, picking up the six debuting in Baton Rouge, plus three that are already available in Baton Rouge — The Movie Channel; a Cinemax channel called More Max; and the music video channel Fuse.