Total Choice Plus what am i losing in Feb.

trh said:

You're comparing apples to oranges. Example: If programming is only 10% of their TOTAL operating costs, then their cost to operate only went up 1%. So until you calculate programming increase against the total operating cost and subscription rates with total revenue, you can't really compare these two against each other. (Note: in 2010, DirecTV's programming costs were about 52% of their total costs).

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So, using your numbers of programming costs of approximately 50% of total costs, we can calculate that the 10% increase in programming costs is increasing their total costs approximately 5%. Certainly, they are rough calculations, but are close enough to show that a 4% increase in prices is reasonable.

Obviously, these calculations don't take into account other sources of income, such as advertising sold. It also doesn't take into account other expense increases, such as personnel costs, which are likely rising as well.

However, it still boils down to whether they provide a benefit that is equal to the price they will be charging. For some it will be yes, and they will continue as customers. For some, this answer will be no, and they will go elsewhere.

For some, it will be no, but they won't find another provider that provides what they want at a price they feel is equal to the benefit. They will have the hard choices to make, and likely won't be happy with whatever they decide.