US Telco Support > Verizon > Verizon FIOS TV > FiOS TV Premiere increasing to $47.99 on 1/19/2008

FiOS TV Premiere increasing to $47.99 on 1/19/2008

                     New Rates    Rates for Existing Customers**
FiOS TV Premiere       $47.99              $42.99
La Conexion            $37.99              $32.99
Sports Package         $ 7.99              $ 7.99
Movie Package          $14.99              $12.99
HBO                    $15.99              $15.99
Cinemax                $15.99              $15.99
Playboy                $16.99              $15.99
 
CableCards              $3.99               $2.99
Standard Definition STB $5.99               $4.99
High Definition DVR    $15.99              $15.99
 
** Until January 2009
 

So they're on the twice a year price increase plan? That's nice to know.

Ugh, just noticed the CableCard price increase.

reply to KenAF
Yeah, but locking in your contract doesn't get you a pass from all the other items rate increases, does it? So while one could keep the TV premier rate level, it's fair to say almost all other prices go up, even if by pennies, so there isn't that much of an incentive to do a yearly contract. Based on what I have, price goes up 8.20 or 12.20. Not sure $60 per year is such a big savings.

reply to KenAF
12% is no small increase. Glad it'll be 20 months before I see it.

I attached a scan of the letter to the first post.

reply to KenAF
We had to know the inevitable price increase was coming. I don't mind necessarily paying more for adding good features but a handful of channels added in 2007 does not justify the price increase. I won't even get into the IMG issues. How about more and better on demand and maybe some free movies like comcast. If you are going to price like cable companies then you should at least match them in features. Just further reinforces the need to go to some sort of a la carte program. I would personally prefer to have some type of genre based programming packages.

reply to KenAF
Why does this not surprise me? We just got FIOS installed in our neighborhood and it's available now. They're advertising all these lower prices which beat the incumbent (Charter) by a pretty good margin. With these increases, that margin is shrinking. Despite the fact that Charter is horrible.

Bait and switch comes to mind.

Guess I better make a decision and lock in these lower rates ASAP. Or just go DTV for video and FIOS for data. hmmm....

reply to KenAF
Hey, I got one of those letters today. What really is pissing me off is the increase in the equipment cost.

They are going to raise the rental rate on my used STB to the new rate and I don't get an option to buy it somewhere else. I'm pretty sure that I've probably covered the cost for them with the rent I've already paid.

In that respect they are equal to the cable companies.
--
Team Discovery

reply to KenAF
Wow I just noticed the new $80 charge for a "service repair visit" and "equipment add/retrieval. That is really something. If there is a problem with THEIR service, you have to pay them $80 to fix it. Man it didn't take them long to adapt the cable mentality. Does Comcast charge a fee like that? I still don't know how the local townships let them get away with not having dropoff locations.

I was about to say the same thing. So, if a DVR goes bad and they have to come out to confirm it and swap it out I get an $80 charge?

reply to KenAF
I'd like to get more details on what that in-house visit is all about. I wonder if it's going to be set up more like phone service - if it's a problem outside your house, then there's no charge, but if it's inside your house you would get hit with that charge. I'm guessing that they'll offer a home protection plan too. That's really the only increase that has me upset. The other increases are to be expected. Not that I'm thrilled with them, but with all the new channels, expansion of VOD, and the like, it's going to raise the price of cable. It's not just here... Comcast just did a double-digit percent increase of their service around here... DirecTV is going to charge an extra $5/month for HD channels with no corresponding SD channel (e.g. HDNet). All that extra stuff costs money. To expect that cable rates wouldn't jump over the next couple of years is just not realistic. I'll bet that rates continue to outpace inflation over the next couple of years.

One thing that I noticed on that list that was the silver lining - they are going to have an option for a self-install upgrade.

reply to KenAF
Well, I'm new to this forum and usually just surf it but wanted to throw my two cents in. While we are all expecting this competition to lower rates from the telcos and cable companies we also need to look at the programmers. I know their rates are rising every year also. I bet this is a close guess, Comcast has about 21 million customers and I heard ESPN charges the provider over $2.00 per subscriber per month. Wow, do the math and that is just from one provider. It's time the programmers feel some heat. Just my opinion.

reply to KenAF
It's not really the program increases that bother me, although if they're going to continue to do 2 per year then that's going to get old really fast. It's the equipment increases and service increases that drive me crazy. It's the same DVR that I've had for a year and half, that I've probably already paid for that they want to charge me more for?

Thanks to JPL for pointing out that they might have a self install option. I'd have to wonder about CableCards though. There is no way that it would be far to charge $80 for a service that they won't allow you to do yourself. Just mail me the damn cards.

reply to KenAF
They better cough up Mcard Cable cards. Ill be damned if they're going to ding me 8 dollars a month for having my Tivo.
--
Mac Chatter
»www.macchatter.net

reply to KenAF
I was thinking about getting 2 Tivos, but at $16/mo for cablecard costs... no thanks.

Keep in mind that's $16 2009 dollars.

reply to KenAF
So much for competition lowering prices...

reply to NOCMan

reply to eric87m
I agree!