Comcast cable TV costs called into question in Eagan (Minnesota)

Objecting to Comcast’s decision to start charging for the digital receivers it handed out for free two years ago, a few Eagan residents last week accepted an invitation to vent about the cable giant before the City Council.

Residents began contacting the city after receiving a Comcast letter informing them they will have to pay $2 a month per TV for the adaptors that Comcast gave them at no cost two years ago. Anyone who wants to continue the digital channels they have sampled for free will pay $25 a year for one adaptor and $50 a year for two. Some worry that Comcast will pull the same kind of switch again with basic cable subscribers who will be required in mid-March to bring free adaptors into their homes to continue basic service. Up to now they have not needed special equipment for basic channels. But Comcast’s conversion to all-digital signals requires all subscribers to have an adaptor of some kind.

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Until 2011, Eagan had the authority to regulate cable television rates because Comcast was the only cable franchise operator in the city. In 2007, Comcast petitioned the FCC to take away Eagan’s regulatory authority, arguing that it had “effective competition” from Dish Network and Direct TV because about 16 percent of Eagan residents subscribed to those services.

If at least 15 percent of a market has competitors, the FCC prefers to allow the competitive marketplace to set rate levels so, although Eagan and Burnsville opposed Comcast’s petition, the FCC ended Eagan’s authority over rates in 2011. That ruling gives Comcast the right to set its own rates for service, converters, remotes, installation and service charges. Comcast raised prices in general in January and followed with notices about the adaptor boxes.

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