Broadcast Surcharges

Broadcast surcharges cause you to pay more to watch TV content that should be free.

In 1992, the Federal government gave local television stations the unilateral decision to grant or deny permission for carriage of their television signal by service providers. Broadcasters had the option of requiring operators like HTC to carry their stations for no monthly fee or negotiate a charge for doing so. A recent trend is that local stations are charging ever increasing rates to service providers for retransmitting their signals, despite the fact that their signals are being sent over the air, using free spectrum granted to them by the Federal government. As a result, service operators have no choice but to pass these fees called Broadcast Surcharges on to the customer through their bills, increasing their overall monthly charges.

While this situation has resulted in the surcharge on customer bills, we pledge not to profit from that surcharge. We will make sure we do not collect more from the surcharge than we pay to the owners of broadcast TV stations.

As a voter, you can help change this by contacting your Congressman. If you take a moment to complete the form below, HTC will send a letter to your representatives in Congress on your behalf to inform them that you would like to see broadcast carriage rules reformed.

To view sample letters please click on the following link:

Broadcast Surcharge Letters to Washington

To learn more about the rising cost of cable TV service please visit www.tvonmyside.com.