Why you shouldn’t just blame your cable company for that $200 bill

Like the older sibling who seems to be blamed for everything, cable, satellite and telco TV providers caught scrutiny after research firm the NPD Group released a report forecasting that the average multi-channel subscription bill will spiral to around $200 by the end of the decade. Aren’t these guys smart enough to know that they’re forcing consumers to consider internet-based on-demand programming options?

Well, they’re not necessarily driving the bus in terms of spiraling subscription costs, the program suppliers are. According to a Nomura Equity Research, fees paid by cable, satellite and telco distributors to program suppliers increased 8.2 percent last year to around $33.5 billion. And they’re likely to increase around 8 percent for each of the next several years going forward, surpassing $39 billion by 2013.