Cable television isn't like food or gasoline -- a basic necessity -- but that's the way it feels when the price goes up.

Subscribers are hooked on it for news, weather, sports, movies and occupying their children. Ask them if it's a luxury, and they'll grudgingly admit it is, but one they can't seem to live without.

"I believe I pay an obscene amount for cable," said Brandon Bensley, a worker at the Greensboro Public Library who craves her fix of the Bravo channel on Time Warner's standard cable package. "I do enjoy my TV, but I have to suck it up and pay."

Time Warner Cable increased the price of its standard service in December by about 5.5 percent. It increased the cost of its minimum, or basic service, by about 3.5 percent. The annual rate of inflation is just under 4 percent.

The increase marks the sixth year in a row that Time Warner cable charges have risen more than 3 percent.
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