D.C. Memo: Buckeye Broadband President Calls Out Newsmax on ‘Blatant Cash Grab’ and ‘Price Gouging’
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Dropped: Buckeye Broadband in the Toledo, Ohio, area has dropped Newsmax because the conservative cable network sought large sequential rate hikes at a time when Buckeye was trying to retain subscribers by shielding them from rising bills. “Newsmax demanded a 50% rate increase this year, and it wanted to lock Buckeye (and its customers) into additional rate increases mandated in the following two years totaling over 90%,” Buckeye Broadband President & General Manager Geoff Shook said in an email to Policyband yesterday. Buckeye has been doing its own belt tightening of late, which has caused the loss of some local jobs. Shook said he was disappointed programmers like Newsmax were not chipping in. “My personal view is that Newsmax is taking advantage of the current political environment to make a blatant cash grab, not just this year but for years to come. This seems the equivalent to the price gouging we saw during Covid for toilet paper and Lysol,” Shook said. (Continued after paywall.)