Local Time Warner Cable subscribers have been notified that their rates will go up effective next month.

The latest increase marks at least the ninth price hike since January of 2000, including each of the previous two years.

However, a Time Warner representative is blaming continuously higher costs imposed on the company from sports programmers and broadcast providers for the extra charges to consumers.

“We have to reach agreements with every broadcaster and sports programmer that we carry on our lineup,” explained Melissa Buscher, public affairs manager for Time Warner’s Carolina Region. “And as our contracts come up for renewal, they continue to raise the prices.”

Local Time Warner subscribers were notified about the new rates, to begin in January, through their latest billing statements mailed by the company in late November.

For example, the monthly charge for broadcast cable, the lowest-tier package that mainly includes area television stations, will go from $12 to $13.15.

The cost of the basic cable package, which combines the broadcast cable lineup and the cable programming tier for about 60 channels in all, is rising from $57.75 to $59.95. The cost of that package will now be around $65 per month when the state sales tax is added.

This same lineup cost $31.14 in January 2000, meaning the newest hike will nearly double that charge. The 10-year time frame involved includes service from Time Warner Cable and an earlier provider, Adelphia, which was acquired by Time Warner and another company, Comcast, in July 2006.

Increases also will occur next month with Road Runner, DVR and other services provided by Time Warner, which recently merged its Mount Airy and Dobson payment offices into a new facility in Forrest Oaks Shopping Center.

However, Buscher added Wednesday that not all local customers will be facing higher prices as a result of their taking advantage of special promotional offers or enrolling in a contracting plan introduced by the company in 2008. The latter allows any Time Warner Cable customer to lock into their rates for a two-year period. The company offers that savings incentives in an effort to maintain subscribers on a long-term basis.

“More than 60 percent of our customers will not have an increase at all, due to those guarantees and promotional offers,” Buscher said. “This (upcoming) increase will not be seen by every customer.”

While the Time Warner official mentioned the addition of HD (high definition) channels locally, she said no new channels will be seen this year among the basic cable or broadcast cable packages.

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.