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Time Warner Subscriptions Down by 129,000
Fri Jan 27, 2012 at 10:00 AM ETTags: Time Warner, Cable Providers, Industry Trends (all tags)
The numbers for Time Warner Cable are indicative of the cable business as a whole – except for Verizon of course.
Cable providers, in general, aren’t doing too well. Customers are cutting the cord in favor of streaming or over-the-air content and companies like Time Warner are starting to feel it.
Time Warner Cable (TWC) lost 129,000 video subscribers in the final quarter of 2012. Over the course of 2011, 453,000 customers dropped the service. That’s a significant part of their subscriber base, which almost certainly has Time Warner a bit worried.
Though subscribers were down, Time Warner is actually sitting at a happy place in terms of revenue. The company says that revenue stayed about the same in 2011 thanks to raised prices and more customers adding additional tiers of service.
Customers are subscribing to bigger bundles, but, interestingly enough, they’re dropping premium channels like HBO and Showtime.
Source: Home Media Magazine
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Text Comcast for TV Listings and More
Thu Sep 09, 2010 at 12:00 PM ETTags: Comcast, Cable Providers (all tags)
A new service from Comcast allows you to take care of a surprisingly large amount of business from your phone.
Sure, there's plenty you can do with a smartphone, a 3G connection, and a web browser. But Comcast is rolling out a new service that will let you take care of a good chunk of your service issues through simple texting.
Want to know what's on TV? Just text "NOW" to 266278 and you'll get a handy list of everything that's on. Want to reset your cable box? Just text the word "HIT." If you're wondering about service outages, "OUT" is the three letter text for you.
You'll need to sign up online and link your mobile number to your Comcast account before you use it, which makes sense even if it does take some of the convenience out of it. If you like, you can also set up mobile alerts like payment reminders while you're there.
Source: Comcast
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Cable Companies Considering Packages With Fewer Channels and Lower Prices
Tue Jul 13, 2010 at 10:00 AM ETTags: Cable Providers (all tags)
With alternatives like Netflix and Hulu on the rise, cable companies may be rethinking their strategies.
Until recently, there have really only been two options for watching channels outside the broadcast range. You could get satellite or you could get cable. Either way it's the same basic principle. You pay monthly for more channels than you could ever watch.
"It would be a good thing," said Glen Britt, CEO of Time Warner, "if we could all figure out a way to have one or more smaller packages that would be attractive to people who can't afford bigger ones." It's hard to disagree with that. Few people actually need or want all the channels that come with basic packages – packages that are scaling up to $80 a month in some places.
What he didn't talk about though, was "a la carte" programming, which was a hot issue a few years back, but hasn't gotten much talk recently. Giving customers the option to pick the channels that are important to them could be a great way to cut costs while maintaining viewership.
As far as the measures Britt mentioned though, he says that if it happens it won't be any time soon. "Talks are happening at some level," he said, "but not too seriously."
Source: Reuters
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More Homes Have a Greater Number of Game Consoles than Cable Boxes
Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 01:00 PM ETTags: Cable Providers, Industry Trends (all tags)
Got a PS3 but no cable? You’re not alone.
According to a recent survey from Yankee Group, sixty percent of homes have at least one videogame console. Only fifty-eight percent of homes have cable boxes. It’s not a huge divide but it could be an indicator of things to come.
Cable is becoming a much less important source for entertainment and the Yankee Group survey does a great job of illustrating that. Every one of those homes that’s equipped with a gaming system – assuming it’s one of the big three – has access to Netflix, among other online entertainment options.
Obviously, this is only one survey, and the gap between the two formats isn’t a large one. If the trend continues though, we may be closer to seeing game systems used as full media centers, rather than supplementary media centers. As Yankee Group’s Dmitriy Molchanev puts it, “as more TVs become connected, service providers will be forced to rethink their approach.”
Source: Home Media Magazine
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Loud Commercial Bill Passes House, on to Senate
Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 02:15 PM ETTags: Broadcast Television, Cable Providers (all tags)
The disparity between the audio output of television shows and commercials is soon to be cleared up, if the bill is able to pass through the US Senate.
Television commercials are an accepted nuisance. We pay for the cable, and then pay for the content by watching advertising. Advertisers are eager to grab and keep your attention though, and that means resorting to the usual bag of tricks: sexy people, huge crane shots, and by being louder than everything else.
While certainly there have been measures taken to limit the loudness of commercials, the problem really isn’t how loud the commercials are. The problem is that regardless of the limitations set up, commercials are often louder than the TV show they’re advertising on. Viewers have to turn down their volume, mute their set – as the FCC suggests – or simply skip commercials using a DVR.
The CALM bill, which has now passed the House of Representatives and is on to the Senate, aims to end the problem once and for all. "This problem has existed for more than 50 years, but no one has properly addressed it," said Carolina’s Representative Anna Eshoo. "Under the CALM Act, consumers will no longer have to dive for the mute button."
The bill was introduced into the Senate by Sheldon Whitehouse (with a name like Whitehouse, going into politics seems the only logical choice) on December 8th, and if passed, will allow advertisers a year to adjust to the new regulations.
Source: Anna Eshoo
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Loud Commercial Bill Passes House, on to Senate
Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 02:15 PM ETTags: Broadcast Television, Cable Providers (all tags)
The disparity between the audio output of television shows and commercials is soon to be cleared up, if the bill is able to pass through the US Senate.
Television commercials are an accepted nuisance. We pay for the cable, and then pay for the content by watching advertising. Advertisers are eager to grab and keep your attention though, and that means resorting to the usual bag of tricks: sexy people, huge crane shots, and by being louder than everything else.
While certainly there have been measures taken to limit the loudness of commercials, the problem really isn’t how loud the commercials are. The problem is that regardless of the limitations set up, commercials are often louder than the TV show they’re advertising on. Viewers have to turn down their volume, mute their set – as the FCC suggests – or simply skip commercials using a DVR.
The CALM bill, which has now passed the House of Representatives and is on to the Senate, aims to end the problem once and for all. "This problem has existed for more than 50 years, but no one has properly addressed it," said Carolina’s Representative Anna Eshoo. "Under the CALM Act, consumers will no longer have to dive for the mute button."
The bill was introduced into the Senate by Sheldon Whitehouse (with a name like Whitehouse, going into politics seems the only logical choice) on December 8th, and if passed, will allow advertisers a year to adjust to the new regulations.
Source: Anna Eshoo
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Cable Television Satisfaction Up Overall
Fri Oct 09, 2009 at 11:00 AM ETTags: Cable Providers (all tags)
According to the latest study from J.D. Power and Associates, overall satisfaction with television service providers is up over last year.
The industry as a whole got a score of 632 on the 1,000 point scale that J.D. Powers uses, an increase of 23 points over last year’s results. Based on responses from around 30,000 people surveyed, the J.D. Powers and Associates poll is the go to for information on customer satisfaction.
Topping the list for the second year in a row in both the West and South regions is AT&T U-verse. AT&T was quick to cite their recent free updates to the service including U-verse Multiview and regular additions to their HD lineup. Taking the North was WOW!, and in the East, Verizon FiOS reigned supreme.
Customers subscribing to premium channels and using Video On Demand services declined about three percent each over the year. “While there has been some belt-tightening regarding most additional services,” says Frank Perazzini, director of telecommunications for J.D. Power “DVR usage has risen 22 percentage points to 40 percent this year as more households utilize this tool to shift the view time for their preferred free programming.”
Source: JD Power and Associates
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High Definition Television – Are You Getting What You Pay For?
Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 04:00 PM ETTags: Cable Providers, Industry Trends (all tags)
Channels broadcast in HD are all the same right? Not necessarily.
According to Glen Dickenson of Broadcasting & Cable, the signal distributed by cable companies can definitely vary.
“That's because many multichannel operators have recompressed broadcasters' HD video to reduce the bandwidth needed to pass along the signal.” he writes. “For example, a cable operator might receive an 18 megabit-per-second HD stream and recompress it to 15 Mbps before passing it down the pipe.”
15 Mbps sounds like a lot, but with multicasting more and more prevalent, that space gets eaten up quickly. Stations commonly have had a main, high def feed, and substations in standard definition, but with more of these substations switching to HD, there’s less bitrate to go around. When bit rate goes down, picture suffers, and when picture suffers, consumers get mad. The difficulty is finding the acceptable point of picture quality for the average consumer.
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