Comcast wants you to know your bill for cable television is going to keep going up and up and up, even as the company spends more of your money on political lobbying and rebranding efforts.  As a result, more of you are pulling the plug on Comcast cable television subscriptions.

Speaking Sept. 15 at the Bank America Merrill Lynch media conference in Newport Beach, Calif., Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis warned that programming costs are continuing to increase, and the cable company is going to pass those increases on to its customers through rate hikes.

Angelakis admitted these costs represent one of Comcast’s toughest challenges, because the cable programming industry has become increasingly consolidated.  If Comcast won’t play ball over fees charged by a single network, a dozen or more other channels owned by that programmer could be withheld from the cable company.

The cable programming industry increasingly relies on “Three Musketeer”-package deals that renew carriage agreements for popular cable networks only if other co-owned channels come along for the ride.  Want USA, SyFy, and Bravo from NBC-Universal?  Then you better make room for the rest of their extended family like Sleuth, Chiller, and qubo.

Most years, these cable networks increase their wholesale prices, which shows up eventually on your Comcast bill in the form of a rate hike.

Subscribers have clamored for a-la-carte opportunities to pick and choose only channels actually watched, but that’s a scary proposition to companies like Comcast, who could see revenues plunge from a “pick your own channels” plan.  Instead, Angelakis told investors he’d rather pay less for networks that simply don’t attract many viewers.

“If programmers aren’t performing, we’d like to see rates go down,” he said.

The impact of those price increases is now more apparent than ever for the nation’s largest cable operator as subscribers reach a virtual ceiling in the price they’re willing to pay for cable television.

Comcast management reported adding 165,000 new customers after the digital television transition in the first half of 2009.  Many of those customers signed up for service with one year promotional deals that are now expiring, exposing customers to Comcast’s usual retail prices.  As a result, so far this year, 169,000 customers looking for basic cable service have canceled.

The cable industry is trying to reduce the revenue impact of subscriber losses by increasing prices for the customers that remain.  Comcast is no different, and Angelakis told investors the company’s financial performance can still be strong with increased average revenue per subscriber and cost-cutting.

One expense Comcast is not cutting: political lobbying.

In the second quarter of 2010 alone, Comcast spent $3.82 million dollars on lobbying activities — a 16 percent increase from the amount it spent at the same time last year, according to the U.S. House of Representatives clerk’s office.  Comcast made campaign contributions to elected officials, paid an army of lobbyists to promote its proposed Comcast-NBC merger, and made payments to fund front groups, astroturf projects, and say “thanks” to non-profit groups engaging in “dollar-a-holler” advocacy for the company’s political agenda.

Comcast also lobbied to stop broadband reforms like Net Neutrality, advocated roadblocks for potential competitors, added its two cents on how the government promotes broadband expansion, and sought to inhibit shareholder rights to influence executive pay.

Comcast’s biggest innovation this year is — changing its name.  The march towards rebranding the company’s cable TV, broadband, and phone products continues, with 63 percent of its cable systems now flying the Xfinity flag.  Comcast hopes customers will take a second look at Comcast’s product lineup once they see the new name.  Kevin Upton, a senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management says companies can use rebranding to suggest the introduction of new products and services.

Starting Monday, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., customers will find the Xfinity name plastered all over the place, and Upton noted Comcast’s rebranding effort worked on him.

When Upton got a flyer about Xfinity recently, he thought it would offer faster Internet service than Comcast.

“It called attention to itself, and it got me to pay attention to the stuff I’m already overpaying for anyway.”

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/CNBC Inside Comcasts Quarter 7-28-10.flv[/flv]

CNBC covered Comcast’s second quarter financial results back on July 28th in this report.  (3 minutes)