Cable, satellite and live streaming TV prices rose 0.7% in October, seasonally adjusted, BLS says

Prices for cable, satellite and live streaming television service rose 0.7% in October on a seasonally adjusted basis, after a 0.6% rise in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on November 10, 2026, in its Consumer Price Index report. Consumer prices overall rose 0.4%, and prices excluding food and energy rose 0.3% for a third straight month. The index for recreation rose 0.8% after 0.5% in September. Before seasonal adjustment, the cable index rose 0.3%, while the index for internet services and electronic information providers, which BLS does not seasonally adjust, fell 0.5%.

This month's report lacks the usual year-over-year comparisons for most items. BLS says it “did not collect survey data for October 2025 because of a lapse in appropriations” and, for most CPI series, “could not publish October 2025 indexes.” As a result, it “cannot publish 12-month percent changes for October 2026 for indexes where October 2025 data are unavailable.” To give the longer view, we compared the October 2026 index levels with October 2024 and October 2021, and the September 2026 levels with September 2025. None of those comparisons depends on the missing month. The release itself points readers to a BLS fact sheet on how it handles the missing data.

Entertainment prices over one month, one year, two and five

Recorded music and music subscriptions stand out. By our calculation, that index was 10.2% higher in October 2026 than two years earlier, against 6.9% for all items, and it rose 7.6% in the 12 months to September, about twice the overall rate of 3.7%. The longer record is flatter: the index slipped 2.4% between October 2016 and October 2021, so even after the recent climb its five-year rise of 20.1% is a little below the 22.0% for all items.

The cable, satellite and live streaming index rose 6.5% over two years and 16.7% over five, less than prices overall in both periods. Internet services and electronic information providers rose only 1.1% over two years and 7.3% over five. Admission to movies, theaters and concerts, which BLS calls a special index based on a substantially smaller sample, rose 6.0% over two years and 22.1% over five, close to the overall rate.

Small weights in the basket

These items carry little weight in the overall index. BLS's relative importance figures for September 2026 put internet services at 0.889% of the index, cable, satellite and live streaming television at 0.593% and recorded music and music subscriptions at 0.084%, so their moves barely register in the headline rate.

The cable, satellite and live streaming index has been bumpy this year. On a seasonally adjusted basis it fell 2.1% in February and rose 1.0% in April; October's 0.7% matched June's rise and was otherwise the largest since April (our calculations from BLS's seasonally adjusted index). Seasonally adjusted, the index rose 0.6% in September after no change in August, according to Table 2.

Elsewhere in the report, the index for televisions, the sets themselves, rose 3.3% in October, and subscription and rental of video and video games, another special index, fell 0.8% before seasonal adjustment. Related: our report on jobs in motion pictures and sound recording.