What Does My Cable Or Satellite Provider Pay For The Channels I Have ?

Below is a chart detailing the prices Dish Network, DirecTV, Charter Cable, Time Warner, and Comcast pay to the various networks to broadcast their stations via their service.

One common question is, "If these are the prices, how can they make the deals they do for the first six months or a year?" That's because of deals that are struck. When I worked with Charter, I discovered that the average station was a flat rate of 5¢ per channel for the first six months in cost to to them. This means that if they provided you 60 channels for $29.99 - their cost for the first six months was only $3. The next six months channel wholesale costs would move to half of their normal value. The second year, channels would cost similar to what you see below.


Via The Consumerist:



(CLICK ON CHART FOR LARGER VIEW)

One thing this chart really shows is that "a la carte pricing" where the consumer pays only for channels they want would be a much better deal. For example, ESPN, which I don't watch, would allow me to get 20+ channels in it's place.