First the bad news.
It appears the country’s largest cable television company, Comcast, will be raising its rates by an average of 5.4 percent in the coming year.
Investment company Bernstein Research got that figure by adding up the rate increases announced by Comcast in its markets for analog cable television service to date.
Now the only slightly less bad news.
That is a little less than the 6.5 percent increase in cable rates by all companies that took place this year, according to Bernstein. And its less than the 7.6 percent increase Verizon has told it customers to expect for it FiOS cable television service at the beginning of the year.
While none of this is good news for consumers, Bernstein says it is great for investors in Comcast.
Bernstein called the planned increases “sizable,” noting it had only been projecting Comcast would raise its rates 3.7 percent. It was also affirmation that “competitive intensity in the pay TV market remains restrained,” according to Bernstein.
Indeed.