I apologize for not advising stilltalkintv regulars that I was going to take a few days off to visit friends and relatives in the New York City area because I just hadn’t seen enough snow this winter.

I rarely worked the final week of the year when I was the regular Buffalo News TV columnist, largely on the theory few people read much of anything on holiday weeks.

I returned Wednesday in time to see Channel 4’s report on Time Warner Cable’s upcoming rate hikes.

The report was a little confusing to say the least, partly because the sound bite from TWC spokesman Matthew Tremblay made it difficult for me to know if my bill was going up.

After all, this story was all about me. I’m sure you felt the same way.

So I called Tremblay, who explained that people who have signed up for TWC promotional discounts or have contracts won’t see a price increase.

He also advised me to look at my most recent cable bill, which was something I planned to do anyway since it is due today and I always pay my bills on time (except when I don’t)

Sure enough, the bill outlined all the rate increases.

If I read it correctly, here’s what is happening to my bill, effective Jan. 15.

My All the Best package that bundles digital cable, phone and internet is going up from $144.95 a month to $153.99 or $9.04 a month.

My primary DVR service is going up $1 from $9.95 to $10.95 a month. My secondary DVR service (doesn’t everyone need two?) is going up $2 from $7.95 to $9.95 a month. My digital additional outlet charge is going down – yes, down – from $2 a month to $1 a month. So I’m up $2 a month for these services.

So doing the math my bill before taxes is going up $9.04 plus $2 or $11.04 a month. That’s about a 7.5 percent increase or 7.5 percent higher than the average salary increase this year for most Buffalonians.

TWC has said the increases are needed to cover new programming and new service costs.

Among the biggest deals made in 2010 was a summer deal with Disney for the ABC, Disney and ESPN channels. That deal enables digital subscribers to see ABC programming on Demand.

Earlier in 2010, TWC made a deal with Fox that enables it to carry Fox network programs even if it doesn’t have a deal with Fox affiliates like WUTV-Channel 29.

That deal will enable TWC to carry “Glee,” “American Idol” and NFL playoff games even if the cable company and Channel 29’s owner, Sinclair Broadcasting, fail to make a deal by midnight Friday.

As I’ve written before, TWC isn’t battling with Fox, it is battling with Sinclair.

And as I’ve also written before, Sinclair doesn’t appear to have many cards to play. Fox programs will be carried on TWC anyway and subscribers with HDTV sets can easily get WUTV with a rabbit ears antenna to see syndicated programs like “Seinfeld,” “Two and a Half Men” and Judge Judy that Sinclair carries on WUTV when Fox isn’t on the air.

These deals tend to be worked out at the last-minute so there is always hope that negotiations will continue and Sinclair won’t pull the plug on WUTV and its other channel, WNYO, at midnight Friday.

TWC subscribers probably should be rooting for the cable company “to win” since you know what will happen if it agrees to pay Sinclair a lot more money: You most likely will pay for it when TWC passes along the extra cost in the form of another rate hike at the end of 2011.

* Where’s Oprah? (see above) Contrary to what you may have read in the local newspaper, The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) will be carried by TWC on digital basic channel 105 on Jan. 1, where it replaces the defunct Discovery Health channel. Citing the OWN website, the paper had it on a different channel and said it was replacing a Spanish sports channel. Oprah’s publicists should at least be able to tell viewers where to find the network.

pergament@msn.com

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