Comcast cable prices in the Pittsburgh region are increasing for the second time this year.
The Philadelphia-based company, the dominant cable TV provider in the Pittsburgh region, said Tuesday it will raise prices by an average 3.7 percent starting Dec. 1.
While it has worked to control costs, the company said it must charge more because of increased gasoline and employee health-care costs, plus higher charges for programming, technology and service improvements.
Comcast last raised its prices on Feb. 1, by an average 4.5 percent. Standard cable TV service with 72 channels rose at that time from $51.51 a month to $54.48.
Spokeswoman Jody W. Doherty said quoting an example of a typical price increase is increasingly difficult, because many customers have bundled services with Internet and phone. Comcast's digital voice and high speed Internet rates remain the same, as long as the customer has at least one other service, and most do, she said.
Also, Doherty said, customers who have promotional bundles -- which cost $99 or $129 a month for all three services, generally for one year -- won't pay more.
"The company spends about $6 billion a year on programming to give our customers the best content and the most video choices," she said. Customers will be notified soon about the change.
Comcast has about 850,000 customers in its Three Rivers region, which includes Southwest Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland. The company announced a price increase this week in the Philadelphia area.
Comcast has faced tougher competition in recent years, but cable TV remains dominant in Western Pennsylvania and parts of nearby states, according to The Nielsen Co.
Figures for this month show wired cable holds 72.5 percent of the market, down almost 1 percent from early 2008, satellite has grown slightly to 19.4 percent and other services such as Verizon's FiOS TV represent 0.3 percent.
FiOS debuted here a year ago and is available in 70 Pittsburgh-area communities, although Verizon holds 89 local TV franchises and is negotiating with Pittsburgh and other local governments.
The company doesn't release customer figures, although spokesman Lee Gierczynski said yesterday that FiOS TV is available in areas that include 210,000 households. Verizon is continuing to build its local fiber-optic network.
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