Directly on the heels of AT&T raising prices for AT&T U-Verse customers, now AT&T-owned DirecTV is not-coincidentally rolling out some new price hikes of its own. Several DirecTV users this week wrote in to say they've been receiving e-mails from DirecTV directing them to this memo and pricing detail sheet (pdf) posted to the DirecTV website. The website and e-mail note that most base packages, channel bundles, and premium channels will be seeing price hikes ranging from $2 to $8 per month.
The company says it's also raising its "TV fee," which the DirecTV website states "allows us to keep our monthly fees low." Users will also be seeing a slight bump in their regional sports network fees.
"Exceeding your expectations is at the core of everything we do," DirecTV (AT&T) tells its customers. "And we understand that getting maximum value is a top priority, which is why we work diligently to keep costs under control. However, due to higher costs of programming, an adjustment in the price of our programming packages is necessary."
You may recall that AT&T justified their $69 billion acquisition of DirecTV by claiming their combined market power would result in more leverage in programming negotiations and lower costs. Cost savings that pretty clearly won't be getting passed on to consumers. Rate hikes for both AT&T U-Verse and DirecTV customers will take effect January 28.
Again, you can find the full breakdown of all DirecTV rate hikes here (pdf).
quote:The company says it's also raising its "TV fee," which the DirecTV website states "allow us to keep our monthly fees low."
Do they actually think their customers will read that and say "oh, well that makes complete sense then, this monthly charge is low because you raised THIS monthly charge".
DirecTV used to be better than cable in all ways, and I was a customer for a long time. But forced leasing and contracts made it the Comcast of the sky.
I'm waiting for customers to see a "Merger Recovery Fee" tacked on to their bill... Really AT&T? You just acquired hundreds of thousands/millions of subscribers, and the 1st thing you do is raise the price on them? Yeah cause all that new income isn't enough.... That makes total sense..... Fucking retards, they need to be broken up again, period....
