Bell TV raising rates in New Year
Beginning this month, Bell TV began notifying customers on its website that it would be increasing the amount they pay for television programming beginning January 1, 2010.
The price increases appear to range from $2 to $4 per month for English language subscribers and are a flat $2 per month for French language customers.
The increases apply to all Bell customers, even those with 12 or 24 months contracts.
The following is a list of price increases per month announced by Bell TV by subscription package.
English
- Digital Basic – $2
- Digital Essentials – $2
- Digital Extra – $4
- Digital Max – $4
- HD Essentials – $2
- HD Extra – $4
- HD Max – $4
French
- HD Personnalisé – $2
- HD Essentiel – $2
- HD Essentiel Plus – $2
- HD Extra – $2
- Base Numérique – $2
- Numérique Essentiel – $2
- Numérique Essentiel Plus – $2
- Numérique Extra – $2.
Currently Bell has almost 1.9 million video customers who spend around $70 per month for television. A $2 to $4 increase could conceivably net the company an additional $50 to $75 million annually, however, that assumes that subscribers don’t make changes to their programming packages in 2009.
Previously Bell TV raised package prices on January 1, 2009 by $2 to $5 per package and then introduced a 1.5% fee in September 2009 to offset new taxes introduced by the CRTC this past summer.
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