Time Warner Takeover

[recoveryone]

On the 1st of this mouth Time Warner took over for Adelphia and Comcast in Southern California. The funny part to me is on the day they took over my HD channels increase by 2 (TNT and Discovery). In the past I had asked Adelphia about when they were going to add more HD channels and I never could get a answer from them. But it made me think that cable companies may be holding back on their customers about availabe HD content in lieu of increasing fees for more programing. <---------cable company to its customers

[superpanavision70mm]

I still think the Comcast is purposely degrading the regular cable signal in quality so that people want to jump to HD.

[nightflier]

Just out of curiosity, are there any other cable options beside Time-Warner now? Wasn't there a law passed last year that said we would have more options not less?

[Woochifer]

Just out of curiosity, are there any other cable options beside Time-Warner now? Wasn't there a law passed last year that said we would have more options not less?

Depends on which town you live in. In general, cable franchises are awarded at the city level (much the same way that residential garbage pick up and other utility agreements are handled), and include agreements on public access channels and "lifeline" service (i.e. broadcast channel-only service).

I know that some cities operate municipal cable TV services that compete with the private cable TV operator. One community that I worked with setup a municipally owned cable TV system when they installed a citywide fiber grid to automate the electrical and water utility meters. Time Warner was the cable operator there and the City got into the cable TV business because of the huge number of complaints about the channel selection and picture quality. Needless to say, only then did Time Warner get its act together and upgrade the cable network and expand their channel selection. Other cities I know of have awarded more than one cable franchise and allowed operators to compete with one another, but those are very rare cases.

In SoCal, the Time Warner takeover gives them 80% of the regional market. There used to be a lot more providers, but with all these corporate consolidations and now TW and Comcast doing this gentlemen's agreement to carve up Adelphia's customer base and swap territories between them, it's become more of a regional monopoly rather than merely a local one.

The law you're thinking of I think has more to do with local phone companies being allowed to provide TV service and vice versa. I'm not sure what happened with it, or what the ramifications are if the law passed.

[recoveryone]

thanks Whoo for covering that.

[nightflier]

Wooch, thanks for the clarification. I don't always read past the headlines, anymore - just too much to do... Let's hope that Microsoft does not buy Time Warner....

[emorphien]

Apparently Time Warner just took over for another company or two in the Buffalo, NY area and decided to drop the NFL channel without notice. They had to bring it back because the FCC fussed at them for not giving their users some 30 days notice.

[superpanavision70mm]

It's too bad that one company just doesn't buy everything in the world. If everyone would just merge together so that Starbucks owns all the TV stations, radio stations, and cable programs. They also manufacturer all the TV's, DVD players, and are the source for electric, water, etc....life would be so easy...just make out one check each month for everything. Wow...monopolies are fun.

[nightflier]

It's too bad that one company just doesn't buy everything in the world. If everyone would just merge together so that Starbucks owns all the TV stations, radio stations, and cable programs. They also manufacturer all the TV's, DVD players, and are the source for electric, water, etc....life would be so easy...just make out one check each month for everything. Wow...monopolies are fun.

You are kidding, right?

[swicken]

It's too bad that one company just doesn't buy everything in the world. If everyone would just merge together so that Starbucks owns all the TV stations, radio stations, and cable programs. They also manufacturer all the TV's, DVD players, and are the source for electric, water, etc....life would be so easy...just make out one check each month for everything. Wow...monopolies are fun.

I prefer communism, personally. :P

[Woochifer]

Apparently Time Warner just took over for another company or two in the Buffalo, NY area and decided to drop the NFL channel without notice. They had to bring it back because the FCC fussed at them for not giving their users some 30 days notice.

Drop the NFL Network?! What kind of insanity is that? Especially this season, when the NFL Network starts broadcasting prime time games on Thursday and Saturday nights. If a cable company did that to me, I would have that Directv or Dish Network installer at my front door in no time! Talk about shooting themselves in the foot, but I guess it's better to screw the customers before the season starts than in late-November when the actual game telecasts begin.

Time Warner and Comcast are basically in bed with one another, and carving up the territories to minimize competition in as many metro areas as possible. Comcast has the majority of the cable market in the Bay Area, while Time Warner now has 80% of the L.A. metro market. In neither area do they directly compete with one another. Depending on the franchise agreement, cities have the option of renegotiating a cable TV franchise and by establishing these regional monopolies, TW and Comcast effectively lock out the competition.

Thank goodness for satellite, otherwise what incentive would these cable operators have to improve their service at all?

[emorphien]

Well particularly because Buffalo NY is pretty in to football what with the Bills and all.

My friend who told me about it switched to DirecTV pretty much right away after that all happened.s