are your local broadcast tv networks abc cbs fox and nbc worth an extra 20 a month that's a
question and today how to stop paying broadcast tv fees forever straight to the headline from
cord cutters news and spectrum's broadcast tv surcharge increases to 21 a month as of march
2022 another example at recording time xfinity's broadcast tv fee is more than 18 a month not far
behind spectrum of course you can watch broadcast tv networks free over the air with an antenna so
is this an example of paid tv operators just being greedy not exactly and i'm about to explain the
reasons why i'll begin on spectrum's website it refers to a 1992 federal law that allows broadcast
tv stations to negotiate with paid tv operators and despite falling ratings and the rise of cord
cutting the broadcasters are demanding more money in recent years and as a result spectrum
and other pay tv operators say they are forced to pass along those costs to consumers but don't
take spectrum's word for it or mine either look at this this is a chart from the pew research center
the broadcast stations will collect an estimated 12 billion dollars in fees from pay tv operators
in 2022 alone and you can see from this chart how those re-transmission fees have
really shot up since 2006. before broadcasters began charging paid tv operators these fees
they made money primarily from advertising but ads have not gone away now in addition to ads the
retransmission fees serve as an additional revenue stream now having said all this i am not letting
the cable and satellite providers off the hook one of the biggest complaints about those services
is the misleading pricing tactics the advertised price does not include the broadcast tv surcharge
or other fees too instead that information is buried in the fine print like here with spectrum
and this needs to change you do have other options for example live tv streaming services including
youtube tv do not charge a separate broadcast tv fee the price you see is the price you pay
but know this live tv services are still paying re-transmission fees to broadcasters so even
though there isn't a separate charge if your local broadcast stations are included in your live tv
bundle you're still paying for them one way or another and this is one reason why some cord
cutters are loyal to sling tv the live tv service is priced below some competitors and that's
largely because it offers very limited access to locals only fox and nbc in cities where there's an
owned and operated station so many sling tv users choose to set up an indoor or outdoor antenna
to receive all of their local stations and that way their locals are always free at this point you
may be wondering why broadcasters don't offer a free live stream of the same channels that you can
get with an antenna but then i'm going to refer you back to that chart that i showed a moment ago
an estimated 12 billion dollars in re-transmission fees will be collected by the broadcasters
in 2022 there is a lot of money at stake here the bottom line is that local broadcast networks
are required to offer their signals free over-the-air to antenna users it's federal law
but there is no such federal law for a free streaming option at this point maybe there
should be in the meantime if you don't want to pay a broadcast tv fee the best solution is to cancel
your cable or satellite tv subscription and hook up an antenna another option is to stream your
local station's newscasts online or check to see if they have an app for streaming to your tv set
you may also want to consider hulu basic to stream many prime time tv shows the next day but if that
doesn't work for you live tv streaming services like youtube tv are still far better than cable
and satellite providers there are no hidden fees and you can cancel at any time until next time