Am I getting any new channels as a result of this rate increase?

Sports programming has become one of the biggest drivers of programming cost increases for cable and satellite providers, and now represents a significant amount of Sparklight Business’s programming costs. Despite our best efforts to control these sports programming fees, Sparklight Business, like other cable and satellite companies, can no longer continue to absorb these increased costs. As a result, we must pass a portion of these costs on to our customers. This surcharge covers a small portion of our costs to carry increasingly expensive sports programming that is carried by networks in every level of our channel lineup, including dedicated sports channels such as ESPN, NBC Sports, and the NFL Network, as well as on general entertainment networks such as TNT, TBS, USA Network, and your Regional Sports Networks.

At Sparklight Business, we are committed to providing our customers with quality TV programming at a competitive price and we make every effort to minimize costs. In our contract negotiations with cable networks and broadcasters, we work hard to ensure our customers don’t suffer unfair price increases as a result of unreasonable rate demands. Over the past several years, however, cable networks and broadcasters have increased their fees at an alarming rate. For example, over the past 3 years, broadcasters have increased their fees more than 82 percent. Despite our best efforts to control these dramatically increasing costs, Sparklight Business, like other cable and satellite companies, must pass a portion of these costs on to our customers. 

We placed notices of the recent rate increase in your January and February bill statements. We apologize if you missed those notifications.

Sparklight Business’s pricing and services are highly competitive with other cable and satellite companies. We offer a variety of bundles for cable, internet, and phone service that can help you save money each month. Sparklight Business also offers a variety of value-added benefits such as 24/7 customer support, a 30-day money back satisfaction guarantee, and the most reliable phone and internet service in your area. We understand that billing increases are never easy, which is why we do our best to minimize costs while still providing our customers with the best TV programming at a reasonable price

The Broadcast TV Surcharge reflects a portion of the rapidly escalating charges levied by the owners of your local broadcast TV stations, including NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox and others. The retransmission consent fees that local broadcast TV stations charge Sparklight Business to carry their channels have increased dramatically over the past several years and we expect them to increase substantially again in 2018. This is despite the fact that broadcast TV stations use spectrum granted to them for free by the federal government, and customers can pick these signals up for free with an antenna. Despite our best efforts to control these dramatically increasing retransmission consent fees, Sparklight Business, like other cable and satellite companies, can no longer continue to absorb these increased costs, and must pass a portion along to our customers.

A: We are currently negotiating in good faith with Turner for the right to continue carrying their channels. It is simply an FCC requirement for service providers to give customers this type of notice.

Sparklight Business Channels: CNN, CNN Espanol (not available in Bisbee), HLN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, TCM, TruTV, and Boomerang. *(Not all channels available in all)

Q: What’s going to happen if you don’t renew your contract?

A: As always, our goal is to come to a fair resolution for both sides, and it is our hope to come to an agreement with Turner as well.

Q: Why don’t you just pay Turner so that I can watch my shows?

A: We know that price is important to our customers, so we negotiate hard on your behalf for a reasonable outcome. The price we charge our customers is directly affected by what we pay programmers such as Turner to carry their channels. We negotiate numerous contracts every year - if we agreed to large rate increases on every channel we carry, that would mean substantially higher rates for our customers.

Q: Why does it seem like you’re always in the middle of negotiation issues?

A. We negotiate numerous contracts every year, and the majority of these agreements are resolved with no issues. We are hopeful that this will be the case with Turner as well.

Q: If I am willing to pay more for these channels, can I keep them?

A: In order to be able to offer these channels to our customers, we must have an agreement with Turner.