EPB boasts the best-rated cable TV service in the country, but subscribers may be asked to pay more for the service next year.
Chattanooga’s municipal power utility adopted a budget plan Friday that may require cable TV rates to go up in January. EPB managed to put off plans for a rate increase for its cable TV service earlier this year. But EPB CEO Harold DePriest told utility directors on Friday that he expects video rates will have to increase in 2017 to cover the higher program expenses charged to cable TV systems.
“We had actually planned to have a 3 percent rate increase (for video services) last year, but we were able to shift enough costs by changing where we bought the content to avoid that increase and we’ll try to do the same thing next year,” DePriest said. “But we’re running out of channels to switch and we will have to look at some rate increase for our video services.”
At this point, DePriest said EPB is looking at a 3 to 5 percent increase in its video rates in January. EPB directors must still review the budget later this year before deciding on any change in charges.
Although most cable TV providers raise their rates most years, EPB has had only two rate increases in its cable TV charges since the power utility expanded into telecommunications services in 2009.