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.

"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.