Cable TV subscribers in St. Thomas and St. John will see an increase in their bills of $4 to $7 a month as of March 1, depending on the level of service received.
A letter to the company's 14,000 customers announcing the hike went out 30 days in advance, as required by law.
Andrea Martin, general manager of St. Thomas-St. John Cable TV, said the company could no longer afford to absorb the rising costs of programming and operations without the increase.
She said programming costs go up every January because contracts with carriers such as CNN have built-in increases. Overhead for equipment, engineering, construction and personnel also contributed to the need for increases, according to Martin.
The company's last rate increase was in 1995, Martin said, which programming costs have risen 35 percent since then.
Examples of the new rates:
— The 33-channel Expanded Service Package goes from $13.99 to $17.99.
— The 65-channel Maximum Value Package goes from $57.05 to $64.05.
The non-satellite Limited Service Package remains at $10.16 a month.
The Cable TV operation has been beset by problems since Hurricane Hugo in September 1989, when it was owned by Knight Communications.
Randy Knight sold the company to Sandler-Mezzanine Group just before Hurricane Marilyn hit in September 1995. As a result of damages from Marilyn, Sandler-Mezzanine filed for bankruptcy.
Bank of Nova Scotia wound up with the company and sold it in December 1997 to Jeffrey Prosser's Innovative Communications Corp., which nows owns it.