EPB will raise its rates for video services by 2.9% in April, adding an average of $4.26 a month to the typical bill for those subscribing to EPB Fi TV packages.
Effective April 1, the monthly charge will increase by $2 for Bronze Channels, $4 for Silver Channels and $5 for Gold Channels. EPB directors on Friday approved the higher rates, which will come a year after EPB made a similar rate increase.
EPB Chief Financial Officer Greg Eaves said content providers have increased their rates charged to EPB and other cable TV and internet service providers by an average of 8% a year over the past decade, including increases of more than 20% over the past decade from the four local television stations and broadcast networks for the Broadcast TV Surcharges to retransmit their station signals.
"We're simply passing along our higher content costs," Eaves told the EPB board.
Eaves said the increase does not impact pricing for EPB Fi-Speed Internet or any other services. EPB, which provides either internet, phone or video services to more than 124,000 customers in the Chattanooga area, has not changed its internet service fees since it launched its telecommunications service in 2009.
Pricing also remains the same for premium channels, equipment rentals and Fi Phone, and bundle discounts for taking two or more fiber optic services still apply, EPB Vice President J. Ed Marston said.
"As always, EPB pricing is simple by design with no contracts, hidden fees, data limits or speed throttling," Marston said in an announcement of the increase.
EPB's rate increase is similar to a 3% average increase for TV and internet charges imposed in Chattanooga on Dec. 18 by Comcast, the nation's biggest cable TV provider. A number of streaming services also are boosting their charges this year.
"This [EPB rate increase] is not that big compared with what we're seeing from a lot of other providers," said EPB Director Jon Kinsey, a former Chattanooga mayor.
EPB President David Wade said the new video rate schedule "is just enough to cover the additional costs we must pass along.
"Like traditional TV providers and some of the streaming services that have recently announced price increases, we've seen charges from TV content providers skyrocket each year for more than a decade," Wade told the EPB board Friday.
Such increases and new video streaming services have led an increasing share of households to "cut the cord" with conventional cable TV or EPB Fi TV and use their internet connections instead to link up with video streaming services targeted at individual viewing habits.
"When we first started our internet service, nearly 100% of our customers signed up for video," Wade said.
But today, only about 30% of EPB's fiber optic subscribers are still on one of EPB's video plans. Wade said the number of households dropping their video service has nearly doubled this year and the number of video subscribers to EPB Fi TV continues to shrink as a growing number of consumers opt for internet TV rather than cable or wired TV services.
Marston said EPB customers can often find substantial savings by using EPB MyBundle, a free service that helps them cut the cord and find the content they love using TV streaming services that give people more control and flexibility to subscribe to TV content they want and stop paying for unwanted channels.
Since launching EPB MyBundle, which allows customers to comparison shop streaming services and find their best value, EPB has helped some customers save more than $1,000 annually, Marston said.
Many EPB TV customers also can eliminate monthly set top box rental fees while keeping their same channels by switching to the latest EPB Fi TV, which offers advanced features like Restart, Replay, On Demand and Unlimited DVR. The latest EPB Fi TV service works with popular streaming devices like Amazon Fire Stick and Apple TV that many customers already own, Marston said.
Customers interested in learning more about how EPB can help them find the content they want at the best value may contact EPB's customer service department at (423) 648-1372 or online at epb.com/mybundle.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.