Cable television rates going up again in the county

The county's two cable companies are again raising rates, blaming the climbing cost of programming and new innovations and services.

Comcast Corp., which has 110,000 county subscribers, plans to increase rates Jan. 1 on all of its packages, including a 9 percent hike for its most popular, the Full Standard deal. That option will go from $43.24 to $46.49 per month.

It's the 10th consecutive year that rates have gone up.

Meanwhile, Millennium Digital Media, which serves about 50,000 customers north of Route 50, increased rates in November, up 6 percent, to $47.65 for its Expanded Basic package.

In an October letter...