We often get questions about how we make decisions regarding cable TV programming. This is understandable, given the complexities of today's Television industry. To help clear things up, we answer several of your most common questions in this issue.

How do you choose the channels you carry?
We carry the most popular channels in the country as well as local network channels. Often, our contracts with content providers mandate certain channel locations in our lineup, the carriage of their affiliate channels, and packages in which we must provide the channels to our customers. These contracts make it difficult for us to change channel locations or remove/add channels.

Content providers often practice what's referred to as "tying" channels – this means they require us to take several of their affiliate channels in order to get the one channel, or HD channel we are interested in. They either don't offer the channel we are interested in by itself, or what is known as à la carte, or they make the à la carte rate so high we are basically forced to take the group of channels.

Will I ever be able to purchase only the channels I want to watch? Many consumers would like to be able to pick and choose their TV channels and purchase them à la carte. Due to the channel tying described above, à la carte TV is not currently possible via any cable or satellite provider, including Waitsfield Cable.

There's been a great deal of discussion in recent years with the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) about the programming tactics of the content providers. So far, the FCC has done little to regulate this aspect of the business and with some of the recent media consolidation, this aspect is only getting worse.

Why does it always seem like my cable bill keeps going up? Waitsfield Cable pays for more than 95 percent of the programming we carry. Only our local channel and a few others do not require monthly subscription fees to be paid on a per subscriber basis to carry these channels.

We buy our programming from various content providers and pay per subscriber rates each month for the programming we carry in our channel lineup. The vast majority of your monthly cable bill pays for this programming. It's important to note that the rates we are given in our rural communities are almost always higher than what is offered to larger companies in more populated areas even though we purchase the majority of programming through a buying cooperative. We have very little control in negotiating better rates as most contracts are a "take it or leave it" offer from the content providers.

A primary driver for rate adjustments is related to retransmission consent agreements, where we are required to pay for the local and regional channels that we carry including WCAX, WPTZ, WFFF, and WVNY. In addition, we are seeing significant annual increases from many of the other networks we carry with highest increases coming from the regional and national sports channels. The cost to produce the programming you love increases every year. Whether it’s an award-winning series like “Mad Men,” nonstop sports on ESPN, or guilty pleasures like “Jersey Shore,” there are significant costs associated with the shows

If you have questions about our TV programming and rates, please call us at 496-5800.