Channel surfing is gong to get more expensive for Dan Sauer, a subscriber to Time Warner Cable.

“I’m not happy with it because there’s not too many other options you can go with,” he said.

The rate increase is spread across line items on your bill.

Time Warner says it’s because of its continued investment in performance and reliability and because it is paying more for programs.

But a consumer watchdog group says there’s another reason your rates are always going up.

“They go up because of bundling and strategies that force us to buy channels we don’t really want to buy,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog.

Time Warner isn’t the only one upping its rates.

DISH Network and DirecTV are, too..

DISH Network says it’s experiencing significant increases in programming costs.

The good news is, there are now some cheaper options.

“Many of the content providers, the HBOs, the CNNs, the Showtimes, are going direct to the consumer through the internet,” said Court.

So more and more customers are doing what Jay Hopkins did.

Some months back, he dropped cable television, kept the internet, and now watches his favorite channels online.

The impact on his bill?

“It went from about $140 for TV, internet, and I dropped it down to just the internet for $50. And then Netflix is what, $7,” said Hopkins.

He says that’s a much better option.