FiOS TV to add surcharge to bills for sports channels

ESPN, Fox, Comcast/NBC and other media companies have agreed to pay more than $80 billion for the national TV rights to college, amateur and professional sports games well into the next decade, most of which will be passed along to pay-TV customers through higher monthly bills.

Another significant part of pay-TV bills is regional sports networks.

Verizon spokesman Lee Gierczynski said on Friday that the $2.42-per-month surcharge reflected "skyrocketing incremental sports content costs" and that Verizon was "trying to strike a fine balance between absorbing costs and providing good value to our customers."

In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the surcharge will be applied to new FiOS TV customers, and month-to-month FiOS customers, on March 1. Eventually, the surcharge will apply to all FiOS customers through contract renewals, Gierczynski said. The company has 4.7 million FiOS TV customers.

DirecTV now levies a $3 surcharge for new customers and next month will add a $2 surcharge for existing customers in TV markets with more than one regional sports network.

The surcharges apply to about 20 percent of DirecTV customers, spokesman Robert Mercer said.

"This is a way of recovering some but not all of the skyrocketing costs for sports in some markets," Mercer said.

Comcast spokesman Peter Dobrow said the cable-TV distributor does not have a sports surcharge.

Contact Bob Fernandez at 215-854-5897 or bob.fernandez@phillynews.com or follow on Twitter @bobfernandez1.