AT&T to raise U-verse IPTV rates, cites growing programming costs

AT&T is going to raise its U-verse IPTV rates again in 2017 on a number of its programming packages, a move that will likely rankle existing customers.

Set to take place on Jan. 22, 2017, AT&T’s increases will range from $2 a month to $8 a month. 

U-Family and U-Family All In customers will see a $2 a month increase while U-100 will rise $3 a month. Customers that subscribe to AT&T’s U-200 and U200 as well as its U-200 Latino & U200 Latino All In will see service prices increase by $5 a month.

The service provider is also increasing the rates of its U-300 and U-400 series services by $5 and $8 a month.

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Rising program costs

AT&T justified the rate increases on its support page by telling customers they are “due to higher costs of programming.”

Additionally, the Broadcast TV Surcharge, which is now $4.99 a month, will increase by $1 a month in all U-verse markets except Montgomery, Alabama, where the price will remain unchanged.

In other markets such as Detroit, Biloxi and Wilmington, North Carolina, AT&T will implement a $1.15 a month increase. Finally, in Los Angeles, Raleigh-Durham, and Jackson, Mississippi, U-verse prices will increase 61 cents a month.

This is not the first time AT&T has implemented rate hikes on its U-verse customer base.

In January, the service provider raised rates on its popular U-verse TV and voice service packages. As a result, the prices of almost all of its TV packages rose from $2 to $4 a month.

IPTV transition

These rate changes come at a time when AT&T is pushing more of its customer base to its DirecTV satellite TV platform.

During the third quarter, AT&T reported it added 323,000 new DirecTV customers while losing 3,000 total video customers. The telco said the video losses were due to the company’s focus on attracting profitable customers and transitioning more customers to the DirecTV platform.

More than 1.2 million new satellite customers have been added since AT&T purchased DirecTV. AT&T said that it transitioned about 70% of its customers from its IPTV-based U-verse platform to DirecTV.