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Bloomberg TV investigates how much those sports channels are costing you as part of your monthly cable bill. The surprising answer: many times more than America’s most familiar basic cable networks.  (1 minute)

The largest share of your cable bill in 2013 will go to cover just one genre of television programming: sports.

Leo Hindery, Intermedia’s managing partner, claims $50 of your monthly cable bill will cover networks like ESPN, YES, NFL Network, and a wide range of national and regional sports networks, whether you watch them or not.

Appearing on Bloomberg TV’s “Bloomberg Surveillance,” Hindery says there is no end in sight for sports programming-related rate hikes. They have increased 16% in just the past two years.

Hindery noted in the beginning sports cable networks largely covered national, pro teams. But the newest wave of networks cover collegiate sports, at prices nearly as high as ESPN charges its cable affiliates. With just about every major sport now sporting its own cable network, the possibilities and the accompanying rate increases are endless.

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“Next year, we will pay directly or indirectly something on the average of $50 [a month] for sports which we didn’t ask for,” Hindery said. “It’s not a-la-carte, it is part of the bundle.”  (4 minutes)

Here today, gone tomorrow.

Cablevision West, formerly known as Bresnan Communications, has been up for sale for weeks, and at least three major cable operators have submitted bids to acquire its 300,000 customers in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah.

Cablevision bought Bresnan Communications in 2010 for $1.37 billion. The cable operator invested millions updating the cable properties in the mountain west, but ultimately decided the more rural cable systems were too far away from its hometown systems in densely populated suburban New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

Selling Cablevision West would improve Cablevision’s balance sheet and allow the company to concentrate on its highly competitive home territory in the northeast, where Verizon FiOS frequently competes.

Among the three vying for Cablevision West, Charter Communications seems to be the best positioned to win. Charter already operates cable systems in the central and western United States, mostly in smaller cities and rural areas. Former Cablevision CEO Thomas Rutledge was in charge when Cablevision bought Bresnan Communications, and in his new role as CEO of Charter, he told CNBC he still admires those western systems.

Suddenlink has attained deeper pockets after its acquisition earlier this year by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, European private equity firm BC Partners and the cable operator’s current management. With money to spend, Suddenlink Communications could find itself the highest bidder. Suddenlink currently serves over 1.4 million residential and commercial customers, primarily in Texas, West Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Time Warner Cable, the second-largest U.S. cable provider, is also among the stingiest of the three bidders. CEO Glenn Britt has consistently told investors the company will not engage in bidding wars or overpay for acquisition opportunities. The company has passed on several earlier opportunities for cable systems up for sale, although it did successfully acquire Insight Communications earlier this year.

The winner will likely be announced as early as January and then customers will have to prepare, once again, for another owner to take control.

Comcast is asking New Jersey regulators for permission to raise rates for its Limited Basic service, offering primarily local television channels, by 40% in 2013.

Comcast of Central New Jersey has filed a request with the Board of Public Utilities to adjust the rate for limited basic service from around $15 a month to more than $21.

The company blamed inflation, programming and “external” costs for the rate increase, which is just shy of the maximum amount permitted by law.

Federal law permits regulators to oversee cable rates for the broadcast basic tier, which provides customers primarily with local television service. All other tiers of service are unregulated.

New Jersey officials are asking state residents to comment on the proposed rate increase until Jan. 17. Comments may be sent in writing to:

Acting Director, Office of Cable Television
New Jersey Board of Public Utilities
44 South Clinton Avenue 9th Floor
P. O. Box 350
Trenton, NJ 08625-0350

Comcast has no intention of waiting for approval, however. It will begin charging the new, higher rate on Jan. 1. Should the board reject the rate increase, customers will be given a refund.

Time Warner Cable is introducing customers to shorter wait times in several midwestern cities, in some cases offering appointment windows of just one hour.

“Our customers have better things to do than sit around and wait for cable service and installation,” said Shannon Mullen, TWC’s regional vice president of operations.

Customers in some cities can now request 15-minute appointment windows that coincide with various times technicians begin their shifts. Offering the first service call of a technician’s workday makes it easy to assure a cable truck will be in a customer’s driveway on time. Offering one-hour time windows the rest of the day is possible with better coordination with technicians and years of experience tracking the average times service calls usually last. The company is now prepared to share that knowledge with customers — providing an estimate of how long in-home installation or repair work is likely to take.

Appointments will begin at 8am and scheduled as late as 7pm. Service calls are also available on Sunday and holidays in some areas.

The company began testing the shortened windows in the beginning of 2012 and has gradually expanded them to different regions. Maintaining good service has proved important, especially in areas where the operator faces competition from community-owned providers, Google Fiber, AT&T U-verse, or Verizon FiOS.