Understanding taxes and fees

• Broadcast TV Surcharge is applied to all digital TV packages to help offset the costs of programming content and delivery of the local and regional broadcast television signals to our customers.
• Sports Surcharge is applied to those video customers who have Signature TV, Premiere or Sports Tiers to help offset the delivery and cost of programming associated with professional, collegiate and amateur games and other sports content.
• Entertainment Networks Surcharge is applied to all video customers with Signature TV and above. This helps offset the costs associated with the programming and delivery of entertainment networks such as Discovery/Scripps, Comcast/NBC Universal, Turner, ABC/Disney/ESPN/Fox and others.
• Network Access and Maintenance Fee helps defray costs associated with building and maintaining Astound Broadband’s fiber rich broadband network, as well as the costs of expanding network capacity to support the continued increase in customers’ average broadband consumption.
• The Municipal Construction Surcharge (New York and Chicago) is applied to all cable and Internet customers, whether a la carte or in a bundle. Phone only customers are not included and will not see this surcharge. This surcharge is designed to recover a portion of the expenses Astound Broadband incurs from government mandated relocation of its facilities that are in the public rights-of-way to prevent interference with street repairs, public construction projects or other activities required for public health, safety or convenience.
• A Regulatory Administration Fee of 2% applies to recover the cost of complying with certain federal, state, and/or local impositions related to voice service. It is a monthly charge to defray a portion of the fees paid to support government programs such as Telecommunications Relay Service and Local Number Portability, along with other charges assessed by the FCC, and additional indirect costs associated with administering and complying with government programs.
• Periodically, franchise, utility, PEG fees and other government mandated fees and taxes are also adjusted in keeping with regulatory requirements. These fees and taxes are government mandated and we are required to comply.
• For a complete listing of Taxes, Surcharges, and Fees in your area, please refer to your monthly invoice or click here.

While we pledge to hold prices as low as possible, annual adjustments are necessary because of the rising cost of TV programming – specific to broadcast, sports and entertainment networks.

In recent years, broadcasters and network owners have become very aggressive, demanding increasingly larger payments for carriage of their “must see” network shows and their family of networks when historically most channels were available at much lower costs to consumers and the cable TV provider.

• Carrying individual channels instead of a network owner’s entire “family of networks” is not an option offered to cable TV providers like Astound Broadband. We are forced to carry ALL networks from a given network owner.
• Most carriage agreements require cable TV providers to pay large programming rate hikes or forgo carriage of all networks — with no in between option.
• Network owners have also forced cable TV providers to carry channels on specific tiers as part of the agreement, which drives costs higher.
• Networks are also forcing higher fees on cable TV providers for TV Everywhere and On Demand carriage as part of carriage agreements.
• Cable TV providers are required to pay a fee for every household who receives that channel, regardless of whether anyone in that household even watches the channel.

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Unlike cable TV networks, broadcast TV stations distribute their signals over the air, using free spectrum granted to them by the federal government. In effect, taxpayers subsidize the distribution of broadcast TV signals. These same broadcast TV stations are then allowed by the government to charge cable and satellite distributors for their signals — and if we don’t agree to pay, broadcasters can force us to drop their channels. It’s all part of a process known as “retransmission consent negotiations.”

Without the written consent of the local broadcast station ownership, cable and satellite companies are not allowed by law to carry those signals.

Twenty years later, the competitive environment for cable TV providers has changed dramatically. Companies that own the local broadcast TV stations are increasingly demanding huge demands for cash that drive up a cable, satellite, or telephone company’s costs of doing business, and this pricing ultimately affects customers. Cable TV providers cannot absorb these rapidly escalating fees paid to networks and sports channels, plus retransmission fees from local broadcasters. These fees comprise the largest costs in our business and are growing the fastest.