US Cable Support > Comcast Cable TV > [Price] Cable Card Pricing!!

[Price] Cable Card Pricing!!

I think I read somewhere that they are going to charge an additional outlet charge for cable cards now. The additional outlet charge is indeed $10 per month. I guess this would make having a cable card pointless.

outlet charge $10??????

Now they may be braking the law it the cost to rent a cable box is the same as cable card + outlet.

WOW directv its only $6 and that is for any box.

ALSO HD AND DVR is a flat fee so you have like 4 dvr and pay the same as 1 dvr + 3 boxes.

reply to kmand
All CC systems were supposed to start charging cablecards as a A/O fee, BUT then you're supposed to get a "customer owned equipment" credit, which varies by market. You can find this credit out here:

»www.comcast.com/equipmentpolicy/···ect=true

In your market it appears to be $2.50 (same as my area)

It sounds like you were NOT being charged the A/O like most others were all along - so you are now being billed the way you should have all along.
Actually, it really sounds like they were charging your CC's at the rate they charge for a 2nd CC in the SAME device. (some older Tivo's required a 2nd CC)

»customer.comcast.com/help-and-su···ablecard

If you have a CC on your primary outlet, then you'd still get a credit on it as well.

reply to kmand
Using a CC in »www.silicondust.com/products/hdh···n/prime/ brings 3 tuners/channels to the devices I choose anywhere on the LAN/WiFi in my home. Using »MythTV.org software leverages the CC to provide the recording, playback, PIP, streaming for free - so no DVR charges. I consider $10 per month to be a bargain to enable these functions.

Some of the channel bundles seem a little overpriced however...

JDB

Depends on if they charge $10 per card like they do each box.

reply to kmand

reply to mikedz4
not really pointless, it just means you can own your own equipment so you don't have to return the equipment. I still want Comcast to allow users to purchase their own cable cards instead of rent them each month.

yes But you have to pay the same now whether you own your own equipment or rent it.

reply to kmand
Per my Comcast Bill of 5/19/11 and it appears on some other folks bills as well.

CableCARD (first card in device) old rate $0.00 new rate $0.00
CableCARD (second card in same device) old rate $1.50 new rate $1.10
Customer-Owned Video Equipment Credit old rate $2.50 new rate $2.50

Digital Additional Outlet Service (Includes Equipment) 2 @ $8.75 since I have 2 CableCards. There is no CC fee on my statement.

The key above is the word DEVICE, not tuners, streams, nor channels.
And also notice it makes no mention of the word TIVO. And the additional outlet fee INCLUDES Comcast owned equipment.

The outlet fee and credit are not standardized across Comcast, so YMMV on the $.

So if you have ONE M-CARD in a device there should not be a fee for the card.

If you have 2 S-CARDS in a device then the CC fee does apply.

The fun part is trying to get a CSR to understand the above.
I tried for several years to get this fixed.... and finally gave up. And for $2.20 a month I have far more expensive battles elsewhere to fight.
Couple of months ago, I was talking to a support CSR and SHE changed the billing.

Check your bills and see if you can find the above wording if you want to pursue this.

reply to mikedz4
So they charge $10 per card (I wonder why they call it an outlet). Each card can decode up to 6 channels for that cost. My situation is only using 3 tuners on the one card. Fortunately I do not have a charge for any other connections in the house (free decoder boxes) but if they start charging for each outlet/box, then I could drop one of the free boxes in preference to the SiliconDust box with the CC to keep the price the same.

Your mileage may vary.

reply to mikedz4
True though its usually cheaper.

reply to kmand
I guess we should be thankful then that Comcast does not sell pet food, according to this article on the Multichannel News site today :

Cost Of Dog Food Rising Faster Than Pay TV: Analyst
By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News - October 5, 2012
»www.multichannel.com/news-articl···t/139629

EDIT: A similar article on the Los Angeles Times site:
»www.latimes.com/entertainment/en···77.story

reply to kmand
Comcast card billing is all over the map and entirely depends on your area, the local CSR you get, and whether you escalate to corporate or regional reps. You may get charged for cards, may not, and you may or may not get a credit for each card. Or you get hit with A/O fees. Or the bogus HD tech fee even if you don't have their boxes. They are in violation of the new FCC card regs because of inconsistent billing, but the FCC doesn't care (and complaints have been filed).

It's entirely YMMV, and it's wrong.

reply to jdbalogh

reply to kmand

There is a law on the books that says Comcast can't artificially lower the rent on dct(set top box) and pump up the cost with service fees. (cross-subsidizing)

Integrated Cable Act: Communications Act of 1934
Sec. 629. [47 U.S.C. 549] Competitive availability of Navigation Devices
»www.calcable.org/files/File/TOC_···ions.pdf page 232

"629 gives the Commission broad power to adopt regulations to assure the commercial availability of navigation devices and states that multichannel video programming distributors may lease their own devices, as long as “the system operator’s charges to consumers for such devices and equipment are separately stated and not subsidized by charges” for multichannel video programming service."
Federal Communications Commission FCC 10-181 p13

Customers Owned Equipment credit = $2.50 is "equal to an amount not less than the monthly rental fee reasonably allocable to the lease of the operator-supplied navigation device "
FCC Rule 76.1205(b)(5) »www.hallikainen.com/FccRules/2012/76/1205/
dct equipment fee = $2.50

The cablecards is free but you have to pay for the outlet. (outlet [A/O] = dct in billing terms)
»customer.comcast.com/help-and-su···rds/#cc9
Therefore, the cablecards inside a dct equipment fee = $0.00

Total equipment fee $2.50
A/O fee = $8.95

the total service fee
$8.95 - $2.50 = $6.45

n% of $8.95 is $6.45
72% service or 75% if A/O fee = $9.95

These are clearly way too high, not to be cross-subsidizing.
Comcast can legally say the rent for dct equipment is $2.50 but than the total charge or A/O fee can only be a maximum of $4.95, which amount to 49.49% service. Any higher % service, I think would definitely be cross-subsidizing.(subsidizing the costs of leased set-top boxes with service fees)

About 6 months ago Comcast changed my CC cost from $1.50/each per month to $1.15/each per month, AO fee $0. This is in the Hartford CT area. The above posts is of some concern to me as i have 4 CCs

reply to audee
The basic rate for an additional cable card has been $2.50 for a while so the CC cost is pretty well established.
As audee points out, the fcc does not want the box rate subsidized. If the extra outlet rate is $10 then the minimum charge to add a full box on an account would be $12.50 if the actual box itself is valued a $0.
The FCC regulations on the box value are very well defined (cost of box amortized over x number of months.) I suspect that comcast is buying so few actual non-DVR boxes that they are hoping to declare that the actual cost of the bulk of the old set top boxes is now pretty much paid off. The $20 DVR free and any non-dvr fee above $12.50 leaves plenty of wiggle room to declare a $10 A/O fee acceptable.
All this is probably something that can be slipped past the nose of the bureaucratic and well lobbied FCC. But it is totally despicable behavior to try and nickle and dime the consumer with the endless fees and charges to help support the elite entertainment content provider class. But as long as we keep buying it, I guess we deserve what we get.
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