LOS ANGELES — For most Americans, BTS is widely associated with a mega-popular K-Pop recording act with a new album set for a March 2026 release. In the world of cable television, as written by Charter Communications, “BTS” stands for “Broadcast TV Surcharge.”
That has sparked the ire of a group of subscribers to Charter’s Spectrum MVPD, and they’ve filed a class action complaint with a U.S. District Court seeking a jury trial on the grounds that the company engaged in unfair competition, violation of the Consumer Legal Remedies Act, and fraud.
The 25-page complaint was filed on December 30 in California’s Central District on behalf of plaintiffs Barbara Barber, Antonio Duenas, Alfred Holguin, and Andrew Epstein. They are represented by attorney Alexander Winnick, based in Santa Monica, Calif.
As the four Spectrum customers see it, Charter is engaging in an “unfair, deceptive, and unlawful business practice of advertising artificially low monthly prices for cable television services while concealing and misrepresenting the true cost of service through an undisclosed and ever-increasing charge” known as the “BTS.”
This “hidden fee,” they say, is “imposed without adequate disclosure or contractual basis, functions as a deceptive price increase in violation of federal truth-in-billing requirements, state consumer protection statutes, and well-established principles of contract law.”
Additional fees are hardly a surprise to many subscribers of various services. However, the group of plaintiffs assert the “BTS” they are subject to is “currently as high as $28 per month” and is not advertised in any marketing materials, promotional offers, or standardized subscriber agreements. “Consumers first learn of the BTS only after they have committed to service and receive their initial bills,” the plaintiffs’ legal counsel says.
Winnick adds that this “BTS” is not a government-mandated fee. Indeed, it is a Comcast-invented device that appears to shield the company from having to deep into its coffers to pay broadcast TV station owners ever-increasing retransmission consent fees.
Carriage fee battles have been waged repeatedly over the last several years, with the MVPDs and broadcast TV station ownership groups increasingly hostile with one another when negotiations sour and lead to a “blackout” under federal law of a TV station. Regardless of which side is responsible for the rise, the “BTS” for Charter Spectrum subscribers started at just $1 per month in 2010. With a 2,700% rise in the surcharge since then, the plaintiffs assail Charter by saying the increased fees “bear no rational relationship to its actual expenses and instead operate as disguised rate increases.”
Spectrum offers an explanation of its own regarding the “BTS,” telling consumers that, “in recent years, [local broadcast TV] stations have dramatically increased rates to distribute their signals to Charter Communications customers. As a result, we’re forced to pass those charges on as a ‘Broadcast TV Surcharge.’ These signals were historically made available to us at low or no cost. However, the prices now demanded by local broadcast TV stations have necessitated that we pass these costs on to customers.”
On December 3, Charter’s Compensation and Benefits Committee approved an amended and restated employment agreement between the company and Chief Executive Officer Chris Winfrey, who earned $89 million in 2023, thanks to performance-based equity tied to stock growth. His annual base salary has been set at $2.5 million — and a target annual bonus opportunity of 300% of his annual base salary.
There’s more: Starting next year Winfrey will be granted annual stock option awards with a grant date fair value of at least $23 million, each of which grant will vest in full on the third anniversary of the grant date, subject to his continued employment or an earlier qualifying termination of service.
By the end of January, Winfrey is expected to be granted a “top-up” stock option award with a grant date fair value of $6 million, representing the difference between $23 million and Winfrey’s annual equity target grant date fair value, a SEC filing shows.
Winnick seeks actual and compensatory damages, statutory damages, and punitive damages as permitted by law. A response from Charter attorneys is forthcoming.
