First cable companies insisted that people canceling TV service weren’t real. Then, as companies began noticing the last two quarters that people were actually canceling TV service due to cost, they began insisting those consumers really don’t matter all that much (which is only true when looking at the relatively massive size of some companies). The reality is that you can’t continue to impose rate hikes twice a year and not see some consumer response; the cable industry just doesn’t care because they feel these consumers are little more than a statistical blip.

The seriousness with which cable companies take consumer concerns about high prices is reflected in the way they continue to gleefully impose rate hikes on not only cable TV but DVR rentals and other services. When they do try their hand at the unfamiliar idea of lowering prices, the end result is often somewhat insulting, like Time Warner Cable’s new entry level cable tiers that offer no consumer value and are loaded with restrictions like the inability to bundle it with additional services, or even use a DVR.

Following in Time Warner Cable’s footsteps, Charter is illustrating what they think about cord cutters and those struggling financially, by sending out notices saying they’ll be hiking the price of, well, everything:

effective with your January Statement pricing will be adjusted for TV Install fees: New Primary Outlet Installation and Reconnection will be adjusted from $29.99 to $39.00; Change of Service Special Trip from $23.62 to $30.00; Additional Outlet with Initial Install from $9.87 to $9.99; Additional Outlet with Special Trip from $29.86 to $39.00; Labor Charge (formerly Hourly Service Charge) from $34.85 to $39.00; Inside Wire Service Call from $35.00 to $45.00; Ancillary Equipment Install with Initial Install from $5.99 to $9.99 and Ancillary Equipment Install with Special Trip from $27.15 to $35.00.

Public Access Fee will change from $0.52 to $0.55, Franchise Fee will change from $1. 13 to $1.17. Basic Service Tier from $12. 85 to $16.21 an increase of $3.36; Expanded Service Tier from $48.14 to $44.78 a decrease of (-$3.36). Customers in a promotion will not see this immediate price change; however, new pricing will apply at the end of your promotional period.

While Charter jacked up the price of essentially everything, they did reduce the price of their “Expanded Service” tier from $48.14 to $44.78. However, they actually increased the price of their entry-level “Basic” service tier $12.85 to $16.21. Why? As Charter customers in our forums correctly note, Charter was seeing more customers downgrading to their cheapest TV tier due to the economy, so they raised the price and lowered the price of the next level tier in the hopes they’d upgrade. Cable’s borderline disdain for cash-strapped customers couldn’t be any more clear, and it will be a historical cornerstone when the story of the inevitable (but glacial) Internet video (r)evolution is told.

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According to the latest J.D. Power and Associates Residential Television Service Satisfaction study, consumers are “notably less satisfied” with TV services than last year. That isn’t surprising given the relentless and often bi-annual rate hikes imposed by satellite, telcoTV and cable TV providers, which resulted in new and notable cord cutting last quarter. According to the study, Customer satisfaction with the cost of television service averaged 541 out of 1,000 in 2010, down 14 points from 555 in 2009.

The study measured satisfaction with TV services in four regions (East, West, North Central, South). AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FiOS ranked highest among TV providers, though the cable companies ironically rank higher on residential phone service.

Overall, customers continue to be annoyed with price hikes, which are courtesy of the endless dance of death between broadcasters (who continually hike programming costs) and TV operators (who pass these costs on to consumers along side hikes and new fees of their own). Consumer annoyance has been amplified by a sour economy, and mirroring recent concerns from the investment sector, JD Power notes that these hikes can’t continue indefinitely:

“It’s apparent…that TV providers must better communicate their price-value proposition, as customers are increasingly voicing irritation with the amount of their monthly bill. Seventy-four percent of customers who say they definitely or probably will change TV providers in the next year cite price as a major reason to switch.”

Consumers (for now) continue to pay for services despite these hikes, which is obviously good news for TV providers. But despite changing state laws to ease telcoTV entry into the sector (many times at the cost of consumer protections, local rights, and increased deployment), TV price reductions promised by lobbyists never arrived. Carriers instead engage in non-price competition, and focus on creating the illusion of value through added services that are often half-assed (see AT&T’s Hulu clone, for example).

The TV sector is begging for disruption and the entry of inexpensive, simple, a la carte Internet video options. There’s an endless flood of articles insisting that Internet video isn’t a threat, but that’s largely thanks to the fact that broadcasters are constricting TV streaming licensing for fear of cannibalizing TV revenues, resulting in limited alternatives for consumers. If these endless carriage disputes continue, cable operators may eventually balk, and broadcasters may open their eyes to alternative delivery opportunities.

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As noted the other day, Charter Communications has decided to add a new $1 “Broadcast TV Surcharge” to user bills, in order to offset the cost of network affiliates demanding higher carriage rates. Despite being simply the cost of doing business, the company is tacking the fee below the line to keep the advertised rate the same.

Worse perhaps, Charter tells Stop The Cap that “Charter Price Guarantee” and contract customers (who are supposed to have their rates locked) will also see the hike:

A Charter representative we contacted claimed the company will impose the fee on all customers, including those on contract, because of a clause in the terms and conditions which says, “The guaranteed price does not include the cost of installation and equipment, any applicable franchise fees, taxes or late fees, or costs for other ancillary services that you may order.”

Except one user e-mails us their latest bill with a notification of the new fee, and it claims contract customers and price guarantee customers won’t be impacted at least until their contract is up. We’ve reached out to Charter to clear this up but have a feeling Charter misspoke, given that promising customers a fixed rate then imposing a rate hike disguised as a below the line fee would be valuable fodder for class action attorneys.

Burying the cost of business in below the line fees so they can jack up consumer bills (but leave advertised rates the same) is bad enough.

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In March of 2009 Charter Communications filed for bankruptcy and emerged from Chapter 11 in November of last year minus about $8 billion of Charter’s then $21 billion debt load. Things continue to normalize for the troubled company, Charter announcing they’ve been relisted on NASDAQ under the symbol “CCMM.”

“To resume trading on NASDAQ is an important and meaningful milestone for Charter,” said Mike Lovett, President and Chief Executive Officer in a statement. “Through the hard work and discipline of the entire Charter team, we’ve made significant strides to enhance our products and services, expand our commercial business, and continue to improve customer care.”

I’m personally a Charter customer, here’s to hoping they continue to improve their offerings and service.

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Netflix recently struck deals with several major Hollywood studios, agreeing to delay new DVD release availability to Netflix subscribers by 30 days in exchange for expanded access to streaming film titles. Now Netflix appears to have struck a deal with independent film producer Relativity Media that will allow them to enter a pay TV window traditionally dominated by HBO, Showtime and Starz. Under the terms of the deal, Netflix gets exclusive rights to distribute Relativity content (of which there isn’t much) instead of premium cable channels. While the companies call it “groundbreaking,” it’s a small win and seems to contribute to growing confusion by consumers as to how, when and where you’ll be able to get films.

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According to an FCC announcement (warning: pdf link), the FCC will officially unveil our first ever national broadband plan at an FCC meeting next Tuesday, March 16, at 10:30 EST. That’s one day earlier than the plan was supposed to be unveiled before Congress, though technically it’s about a month behind its originally-scheduled unveiling date.

The plan is expected to put a heavy emphasis on delivering more spectrum to incumbent wireless carriers, the construction of a national wireless emergency network and “digital literacy” efforts. However, early glimpses indicate the plan does little to shake up a stagnant U.S. duopoly market or to seriously tackle limited competition and high prices.

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Time Warner Cable was successfully spun off from Time Warner early in 2008 in order to give both companies “greater operational, financial and strategic flexibility,” according to Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes. Now an insider tells Dow Jones the company has launched “Project Mercury” – an effort to rename itself sometime during 2010.

Given the spinoff the rebranding is an obvious move, though it may also help distance the company from last year’s public relations implosion when the company attempted to impose low usage caps and unreasonably high overage fees on their customers.

Good luck with that, Time Warner Cable.

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TiVo’s future depends, in large part, on cable companies embedding the TV software into their set top devices. So it’s interesting to see TiVo file comments with the FCC blasting the cable industry for making life as an independent set top creator annoyingly difficult.

According to TiVo, cable operators discriminate against third-party box providers by imposing licenses and conditions that intentionally tie TiVo’s hands. TiVo also complains that the tru2way middleware necessary to embed advanced functionality is restricted by “costly and strict license agreements.” Of course if you ask the cable industry, they’ll say that the CableCARD died because consumers didn’t want it – not because they made life hard for device makers so they couldn’t erode lucrative set top rental fees.

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Earlier this month an analyst for the Yankee Group and one of the primary developer’s of Amsterdam’s fiber to the home (and houseboat) network argued that the bandwidth hog didn’t exist, and was instead simply a concept used to disguise poorly designed networks and justify anti-consumer behavior.

To prove their point, they offered to analyze anonymous data from any ISP willing to volunteer – as long as the ISP offered data that adhered to a specific dataset. According to a new post over at the blog, several ISPs have offered to participate (though there’s no names so far). They’ve also set forth the exact dataset (warning: pdf link ) they’re looking for, if any additional ISPs wish to participate.

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According to Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, the telco isn’t worried about the threat Hulu poses to their freshly created TV empire, because Hulu will probably be dead in a year or two from now. “This is in for the next eight to twelve months and in two years it won’t matter because the world will have moved on,” the CEO was recently quoted as saying. He might not be wrong — Hulu very well could be headed for also-ran status once Comcast acquires NBC Universal, and does its best to ensure that Hulu doesn’t rock the TV revenue boat or bump up against the cable industry’s TV Everywhere initiative. That said, “cable guys” tend to have a degree of hubris in thinking that Internet video will never really harm them, despite the fact that when/if Hulu dies, there will be a stream of competitors (including piracy) waiting in the wings.

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Comcast will leave decisions about commercial placement for its version in the hands of programmers, according to Matt Strauss, the operator’s senior vice president of new media. “I don’t know what the right model ultimately is going to be,” he said. “Our job is to provide the infrastructure to allow the programmer to decide” how to place ads.

Of course should Comcast’s deal with NBC go through, they will effectively be broadcasters, which means they should probably have an idea of what kind of ad model they’d like to see the broadband video service employ — right? The entire idea of TV Everywhere was to keep customers from cutting the cord. However, if TV Everywhere is a clunky, unskippable ad-laden mess with limited selection and bickering content and delivery partners — the initiative could have the opposite effect of the one intended.

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