Cable TV: King of misleading come-ons

Bob Sullivan Technology correspondent • Profile • E-mail

Television, from the start, has always been addictive. And there’s nothing easier than stealing from an addict.

To the cable industry, you are not a customer. You are an ARPU. Understand that, and you will understand why this group of companies does everything it can to sign you up for the most basic service and get that coaxial cable churning. Then, it’s all about squeezing more and more out of your wallet, enrolling you in more services, and about making you a bigger and better ARPU — average revenue per user. 

To that end, cable is king … of misleading come-ons. For example, I challenge any reader who picks up an ad for a cable service bundle to find the real price.  Take Comcast’s Triple Play, an attractive bundling of TV, Net access and telephone service rolled up with a tidy $99 price tag.  But how big were buyers’ monthly checks to pay their bills?  And how much was the price six or 12 months later? Here’s a typical consumer experience:

“I have a Comcast service plan for cable/internet/phone package that totals $120.93/month. I received a call from a Comcast representative indicating that my promotional period has ended for the bundled package and my rate will go up to nearly $148/month.  First, when I decided to go with the bundle package of service Comcast did not tell me this was a promotional rate. I specifically asked the sales representative if the prices would go up on the bundle as it had with cable and the representative said it would not. But here now a year later it is going up 23 percent and there's no alternative broadband cable available in Attleboro to contact for a competitive service.”

That $99 come-on didn’t last long. In fact, it doesn’t make it to the first bill, which turned out to be 20 percent higher than the ad, thanks to taxes and fees. Worse yet, the base $99 price was a teaser rate. It was advertised even lower in some areas, such as Seattle, where the rate customers could sign up for was as low as $85 each month.

But on mailers sent to Seattle-area residents, the introductory period was not defined. When did it end? Whenever Comcast called. And despite the abundant small print on post cards sent to Seattle-area TV watchers — which numbered 300 words or more — the real price of the service (ultimately about $150 a month) never appeared once.

There’s only one term for this: Legal false advertising. And if you think small print on cable advertisements is bad, advertisements targeting Hispanics can be even worse. There are full-page cable advertisements in Hispanic publications where the large print is in Spanish, but small print is in English. Of course, I can read English and the Comcast small print didn’t make much sense to me, so maybe the language barrier is the least of our worries.

The bottom line: Their bottom line. If you’re wondering how your average cable bill (their ARPU) soared from around $22 a decade ago to $60 in 2006, look no further than legal false advertising and small print. 

Don’t just take my word for it. Here’s how the Massachusetts state attorney general described Comcast’s advertisements in a 2006 out-of-court settlement between the company and the agency.

“Comcast, and its predecessor, AT&T Broadband, engaged in a series of unfair practices in the advertising and sale of its cable television services, including advertising limited time offers of free or reduced rate digital cable packages without adequately disclosing to consumers what the actual price of those services would be during and after the promotional period.”

The attorney general also accused Comcast of “hiding material terms and conditions from consumers in difficult to read fine print, in violation of the Attorney General's advertising regulations.”

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