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There's almost nothing you can do about the money you spend on your cable box

Comcast Cable Box
Flickr/mr_t_in_dc

That ugly black box connected to your TV is costing you a lot of money.

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The average American household spends a whopping $231.86 per year on fees related to set top boxes, the-not-so-fancy pieces of equipment that gather dust under your TV or are hidden out of sight in a cabinet.

That's according to a recent report from Democratic senators Edward J. Markey and Richard Blumenthal, who last month called on pay TV providers like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, and Verizon to make it easier for consumers to use their own set top boxes so they didn't have to rent them from their cable companies.

“Consumers should have the same range of choices for their video set-top boxes as they have for their mobile phones,” Senator Markey said in a statement. "Consumers should not be forced to rent video boxes from their pay-TV provider in perpetuity."

The report came into focus on Monday because an editorial in the New York Times called on giving consumers the ability to use set top boxes from any company.

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"People should be able to buy cable boxes from any manufacturer and connect them to their cable line or satellite dish as long as they meet basic technical standards," members of The Times' editorial board wrote. "That could save Americans hundreds of dollars; it’s a one-time outlay, and the cost of the technology in set-top boxes, as with other electronics, is falling. Some companies sell them for less than $200."

Consumers do have the option to lease cards from their TV companies that allow them to use third-party boxes, but few people take advantage of it. Companies like Tivo make devices you can buy that are better than many cable boxes. But it's a tricky process, and not as convenient as simply leasing a box from your cable company.

And according to the senators, the pay TV companies won't be required to lease cards to their subscribers after this year, which gives them even less of an incentive to offer the option.

According to the senators' survey, 99% of subscribers rent their set top boxes from their TV provider.

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For example, only approximately 350,000 Comcast cable customers rent cable cards, according to a letter to the senators from David L. Cohen, a Comcast executive who replied to the senators' inquiry. That compares to 22 million customers who rent a total of 59 million set-top boxes from Comcast. 

The senators estimate that set top boxes bring TV providers nearly $20 billion per year in revenue. 

High fees, along with increasing streaming video options, are among the reasons an increasing number of people are choosing to ditch their TV subscriptions in favor of services like Netflix and Amazon.

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