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Time Warner Wins Ohio-Wide Cable Franchise
An anonymous reader writes "Time Warner Cable has received a state-wide franchise agreement in Ohio. Time Warner's agreement covers 260 communities in 60 of Ohio's 88 counties, for 10 years. AT&T was the first to earn a state-wide franchise contract, after a law was passed in September that allowed operators to negotiate a single state-wide agreement. In the past operators negotiated franchise agreements at the local level."
I for one love less choice!
I live in Columbus, and have never heard of this. I hate T/W, but they're the only cable option where I live. Can someone please explain in English what this means or provide a link to something more substantial? I RTFA (which is just a press release from the mouth pieces downtown) but don't understand what this is? It mentions "increased competition" - but does nothing to explain how that is achieved? AFAIK, I still don't have an option to switch to another cable provider, but I haven't called them in the last 4 weeks to see.
There is very little future in being right when your boss is wrong.
"Time-Warner Buys Ohio-Wide Cable Monopoly"
Why isn't somebody in jail over shit like this?
Time Warner Cable has received a state-wide franchise agreement in Ohio. Time Warner's agreement covers 260 communities in 60 of Ohio's 88 counties, for 10 years.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Rob
I cannot understand for the life of me why this is allowed, much less encouraged by the government. It's a state-sanctioned monopoly, pure and simple, and it's killing competition and forcing people to go with TW, which sucks shit. Just ask how well that Adelpia merger went and how well it's still going in their godawful email system. Seriously, what happened to the goddamned competition creating a more innovative market? Shit like this leads to stagnation, which is why cable internet still sucks ass when too many people are eating bandwidth. And the usual cable response to that? "We don't give a shit. Go pay double for half the speed on DSL." Ugh. Fuck this stupid bullshit.
Nothing Free market here....this is government intervention at its finest. I live in NE Ohio & have had Time Warner and a Local company (Armstrong Cable) - Armstrong is far superior in customer service and support. My friends and I joke that the only time we dont need to be home to a Time Warner service call is the 2 hour window they give us when they claim they will show up.
this is a SECOND choice for Ohio - so now it's a monopoly of two...?
from TFA:
The company became the second enterprise to receive the 10-year, state-issued authorization, which was established by Ohio's video-service law that went into effect September 24, 2007. AT&T Ohio was granted state video-service approval on November 7, 2007.
You're boned.
Welcome to less competition and more control over you the evil customer. I strongly suggest you voicing your outrage to your state government and getting others to also voice their outrage with promises to make sure they will not ge re-elected for what they did if they do not repeal it right away.
Franchise agreements are how cable companies make sure they can have a legal way to force out competition. It helps the state and localities as they are offered a kickback to their coffers in a form of a "franchise fee".
This crap was used in the 70's and 80's to drive community TV systems out of existance as they cut into the profits of cable companies.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The first positive point of this is that AT&T didn't get any sort of exclusivity rule. If you think TW Cable is bad, try dealing with Ameritech^H SBC^H AT&T. Secondly, many of us are already stuck with TW Cable, so it won't get any worse. Although it's too bad for those areas that were previously covered by Cox Cable, which has a much better consumer reputation.
Utility monopolies are the norm in the US. Get over it. What is definitely needed, though, is a utility commission that actually regulates the businesses they're supposed to be in charge of.
I am officially gone from
FTA:
The company became the second enterprise to receive the 10-year, state-issued authorization, which was established by Ohio's video-service law that went into effect September 24, 2007. AT&T Ohio was granted state video-service approval on November 7, 2007.
Unless ten years have passed since November 7, I don't think this means an 'exclusive' state-wide contract.
AT&T was the first to get a state-wide agreement in Ohio, so they could deploy their half-assed next-gen U-Verse. People in Lakewood are not happy.
I did a quick check of TFA and could not find the word "exclusive". So quit your whining about "monopoly" this and monopoly that.
If you're going to insist on anti-corporate whining, at least whine about the right reason. FTFA: "Previously, cable or wire video-service companies had to negotiate local franchises with each municipality or township." This merely prevents them from having to individually deal with every little rural hick town and arrogant bedroom community in the state, some of which may indeed have already negotiated exclusive "monopoly" deals with another provider.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
This is not an exclusive arrangement.
Before this law, cablecos & telcos who wanted to provide service would have to negotiate (and pay kickbacks) to each and every locality. Now, they can do it all at once.
This way, there's only one big authorization (and one big kickback!) and a competitor can start rolling out service in the entire state. No seperate deals required for Cleveland and Canton and--whoops, Cincinnati has signed an exclusive agreement with another provider, so we can't roll it out there...
Now, this doesn't change the fact that there are all sorts of other barriers to entry...but it does help with some of the red tape.
The US free market: two halves of a government-granted duopoly are free to set the market price.
There does not seem to be any exclusivity here, the press release notes that AT&T got the same authorization in November and eight other companies have applied for authorization.
Furthermore, "The Director does not have any authority, however, to regulate the rates, terms or conditions of a provider's service - including the networks or television stations that the video-service company decides to carry", so it is not clear if this "authorization" has much meaningful effect.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Is this a spillover from Reaganomics?
What in the world are you talking about?
Do you even know who Ronald Reagan was?
Some of you left-wing kooks are absolutely pathological in your addiction to political fantasies.
PS: If you want to know how "politics" really works, then watch Showtime's Brotherhood.
And no, it's not a show about the GOP.
I lived in Ohio for the last 4 years and I have to say, their cable sucks across the board. However after our cable company was bought out by Time Warner we saw improvements right away: We went from 4 HD channels to 20. Instead of waiting up to 4 weeks for a tech, they would come that day or at most 72 hours later. Our ondemand also gained lots of new free programming. I think Ohio could have done worse, I just hope that Time Warner continues to make changes to the basic infrastructure throughout Ohio even if the competition has been weeded out for them. But seriously, why would anyone want to live in Ohio anyway?
Since very few ./ readers actually work in the cable or satellite industries, I can understand the boo-hooing and the "welcome to the evil government-sponsored monopoly" comments that have been posted so far. Let me explain what has actually happened here, and how franchising agreements work.
Time Warner has merely been granted, or has renewed, permission to provide cable in these areas. In exchange, these localities will charge Time Warner a fee per subscriber for the privilege of serving these communities. Franchise agreements almost always contain language regarding quality of service, customer compensation in the event of a missed appointment, and other requirements.
A franchise agreement is not a monopoly in and of itself. A franchise agreement is neither inherently good nor evil; it is a business contract much like any other. Any other company is welcome to petition City Hall or the state government for a franchise for these same areas. It is up to the state and local governments to decide who can provide service, and who can not. You may have read about Verizon and AT&T getting their wrists slapped for installing their product in a few area where they did not have a franchise. The affected town governments were not upset at the increased competition; rather, they wanted Verizon and AT&T to pay their cut!
This law regarding statewide franchises will benefit local entities as well as TV providers. Negotiating franchise agreements with every little town in the county is often a long, drawn-out tedious affair. Some small town governments have refused to allow other companies to start providing a competing service. You can't blame the industry itself for monopolism in these cases. Now, a single agreement will provide access to these towns while TW, AT&T, the 2 major satellite companies, and any other companies with a franchise all compete. 4 major players, all providing ESPN, et al...I personally fail to see the monopoly.
khasim (12/9/06): In a blind taste test, more people preferred Coke over the Pepsi that I had previously pissed in.
...hate living in Ohio. So far this year, they've given my SSN away to crooks, gave the guy that lost it less than a slap on the wrist, then wasted taxpayer money on a 'fix' for it, and now this.
Fortunately, I'm lucky enough to be in a rural area with this excellent local phone company which has just started laying fiber all around town (which provides IPTV). Time Warner has sent a drone to my house three times trying to switch me to their shitty service. One of them actually claimed that I wouldn't be able to use their service because of the digital switchover!
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something like this happened to me once :(
No, Bushnomics. Reagonomics was about deregulation and lowering taxes. It had its shortcomings, but it had its benefit, too (tax code got simplified and loopholes got plugged up). Take all good out of reagonomics, hand over the key to the corporations, and you get Bushnomics.
However you want to justify it to yourself is OK with me. it still does not change the fact that the Franchise agreement was designed by the cable companies to drive out competition legally. They designed it back in the 70's to destroy the thousands of community TV systems that existed and they will use it for their own increased profits now. The damned Cable companies even stole the acronym of the Community Antenna Television System (CATV) while they gladly killed these great systems that were usually rolled into the association fees or was a monthly maintainers charge that amounted to less than 1$ a month, and everyone that paid had a say in how it was upgraded and maintained via voting.
By the way, Cable TV git it's way into the communities with even more lies... Atvertising free programming (yeah right) prices will drop, etc...
Any government official that accepts a franchise agreement is publicly stating that they are corrupt and for the corperations and against the residents. This is a stone cold solid fact. and is not suprising in today's atmosphere of ignored corruption by the masses.
Otherwise people would have no choice in where they bought their services. And they would have to queue for food.
Ain't capitalism great!
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
Choice?...sounds un-American to me! People demanding choice sound get a one-way trip down to Gitmo for some waterboarding and tazer treatment! Get your ass to the Diebold voting machine and vote for the only choice...Time Warner!
I like the fact Time Warner is now the only game in town, especially here in the Cleveland area. I surely do not want more channels, faster internet connection, or competitive pricing.
I am of course being sarcastic, but it could it worse...Comcast could have won the state wide agreement. I take dial up over those fuckers!
like the BS that is being passed by the Wisconsin legislature to make all contracts at the state level with pathetically watered down consumers bill-of-rights? I will bet you that AT&T was praying for exclusivity after buying the legislation in Ohio, even though T/W is now second fiddle and no better.
I have DirecTV. Will not use U-Verse or Time/Wasted. I have had zero transport problems with DirecTV since I have been with them. The only issue that I have had was when a new HD box shot craps. It was replaced in no time at all after getting by the script kiddie in Customer Service and to someone with a brain that I could talk to levelheaded. Real simple, box overheated and would shut down. Supervisor said after I was done explaining the situation - "What is your address so I can send you a replacement?"
There are options to AT&T and T/W. There always have been.
Does this mean that Time Warner is going FTTH? Hmm.
Somehow, Time Warner and penetration just go together.
A smart city would allow consumers at least 2 cable providers. That provides at least some competition.
Table-ized A.I.
Ohioans aren't satisfied with their cable, overall. It's expensive, buggy, the internet is SLOW (right now i'm on wireless and I can't upload any pictures to flickr because my brother is on his computer too. Wow, Totally worth 100$ a month. There is no other choice, though. there are no other providers! AT&T is i think who we tried to get with, but they don't have it in my area. And i'm in one of the biggest cities in ohio (outside the C's).
And where i understand wanting to get around having to pay local bribes, that also goes back down to the fact our governments are underfunded (and or corrupted well past financial efficiency) and they'll try to leach off anyone for some money. of course then they'd just go to solid gold toilet seats for their campaign funders...
So TW sucks, the government sucks, but my beef with them has nothing to do with them together.
But i must reiterate: when i watch the wiley coyote cartoons now, i yell "GET HIM! RIP HIM APART! HAVE YOUR ROAD RUNNER FEAST AND LET ME WATCH!" with an evil glint in my eye. And i'm a vegetarian..
Let be the first to say about being a Time Warner customer for 21 years. It sucks. The prices keep going up. The quality keeps going down. They continue to charge me 30 cents a month for a tuner box that doesn't have a remote. In fact, you rotate the knob by hand. (It is the least costly choice.) It also took 6 weeks for them to install service initially as they had their panties in a bunch about the people that used to live in this house were paying for service to 2 TVs and we were only going to be paying for 1. Obviously, there's the problem of having to pay for 60 channels of shit where there are only about 10 of them that are worth anything.
But... did anyone read the article? It's not an exclusive franchise. The local entities (towns, cities, townships) normally "negotiate" rates. That is... they tell TW how much they want them to collect for the local entity on top of their standard rates. Since it's rolled into the fees, it doesn't look like a tax, but that is exactly what it is. So a couple of things may happen. Either the local entities won't be allowed to collect the tax any longer so that the state can, the state will collect the tax on top of what is already collected, or there will be no change in the tax. Another thing that may come into play is that most local entities require that a certain amount of coverage is needed before the video services can move into an area. If the state overrides that, then TW can move into those areas where is profitable and ignore the farmers that are in areas that are sparse enough for cable to pay for itself.
My father lives outside a small town. TW services an area less than 3/4 of a mile from his house. He cannot get service. He organized enough people on his road to contact TW to let them know that there was an interest. TW wasn't interested. It's what is economically viable and it sucks. But that's just the way that it is. Additionally, my father can't get broadband access. (I don't count satellite for video or broadband for him. Their lowest package for either is far more than he needs.)
I would suspect that the video services has far less to do with anything than broadband services do. George W wants to make it look like we are blanketing the US in broadband. The US is too sparse to realistically do that. This is just a way to circumvent the desires of the local communities to make certain that their sparsely populated areas get covered and make it look like broadband covers more areas.
There is plenty to ride TW about, but this article isn't one of them. Nothing to see here. Please move along.
I'm so glad our States are working so hard to remove puzzling choices from our lives.
expandfairuse.org
You folks are looking into the past instead of opening your minds to the future. Here is a quote from the press release that will help: "In addition to AT&T Ohio and Time Warner Cable, eight other companies have applied for authorization. They are: ... Cincinnati Bell Extended Territories LLC ..."
If Cincinnati Bell gets approved, then they can offer cable services anywhere that they're running phone lines without getting permission from every piddly-ass city and township in the region. Some of you may have heard of AT&T which conceivably could offer wireless cable service.
In the past, the cable companies sent every channel to your house, regardless of whether you were even watching/recording or not. I'm thinking they will use a switched technology that uses IP to send only the channels to your house that you need.
This is a great step forward for cable service in Ohio. When we're sitting here in Cincinnati with three cable choices, satellite and digital local channels over the air, the rest of you will be jealous.
If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?
This is how the "free market" works, eh? You scratch my back I scratch yours? Is this a spillover from Reaganomics? Unfortunately that wasn't permitted if you were unionized.
If you were union, you were broken in any way possible.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Liquid plumer was named Alaska's sole internet provider.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
No, "Bushnomics" is based on contraband. Reagan (and the people that support him) sold the country's soul to the company store. Anyway, it appears Ohio has quite an eclectic population. They so readily sell themselves out like this, and yet they give us Kucinich, the only decent character on the campaign trail. There must be an oasis in that desert.
What?
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Because it's much more difficult into getting a statewide monopoly, and because both ATT and Time Warner now have state-wide right to provide the service.
Have you seen that many local authorities grant multiple licenses? No. Because it's easy (and probably fun) to talk over a group of local politicians into locking everyone in your town into exactly ONE provider "for your own good". You also pay for this wonderful right by dishing out extra 4 bucks for "franchise fee" and only get to have one cable company.
The more providers there are, the better.
Hyperom.com
Living in Ohio has just gotten worse apparently. I have Time Warner at two different residences and for some reason they charge me two different rates for Road Runner. Also, having decided I want to save money, I canceled cable at one residence so I would just be paying for Road Runner. Unfortunately, Road Runner was cheaper since I was getting some sort of package deal, which was then no longer in effect. So, my rate on Road Runner went up, thus saving me no money.
At my other residence, Road Runner quits working for several days every now and again. I keep calling tech support, they keep saying it's my fault. Other people with Road Runner in the same apartment complex have the same issue at the same time. So, no, it's not my fault. My cable modem did not just spontaneously decide to quit working.
If Verizon were any better at either location, I would switch. Until some good competition forms, I'm stuck with one of two evils.
Same problem where I live in Northern Virginia. I reside in the only county (Stafford) in NoVA that hasn't granted Verizon a franchise to provide service. Hicksville, just south of me and Ghettotown, just north of me have had it for the last year or two.
Oh my, opinion being pushed as fact again. It must really be true now.
Ok, first, this monopoly isn't a monopoly, it is permission to enter or exist a market. Second, it isn't a monopoly because these franchise deals don't exclude competition. Franchise has went from meaning controlled monopoly to "authorized". And it doesn't take the exclusivity any more. Or at least in this term.
Now, suppose you have a community that wants cable. Suppose no other cable company would come in without a tradition franchise agreement because it would cost too much money to lay the infrastructures and they wouldn't be able to profit if they weren't exclusive. So now you have a town that wants cable but cannot get it. Is the politician or government official that supports getting cable to the people really "for the corporations and against the residents."? And how stone cold does your opinion have to be in ordered to be considered a fact?
Bizarrely, everyone will find that they receive FoxNews with the clearest, best reception, and that all other channels seem to have more snow...
It's disturbing that Time Warner would block it's own news services while making sure everyone will get it's competitor FoxNew clear. Perhaps I should file a shareholder resolution to stop this and if that doesn't work file a lawsuit against the board of directors for not exercising fiducial responsibility.
FalconShould there be a Law?
For broadband, you bought (or rented from them) your cablemodem, so you had a choice to buy something decent and not get stuck with some used/broken POS. Good luck getting T/W to acknowledge you have a problem that isn't somehow your fault.
I had my ISP service through Time Warner, now ComCast, and once I started having trouble with my connection so I called TWC. I didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes to talk to a tech. He took me through some tests, which took a few more minutes, then he said the modem needed to be replaced. He arranged a new one to be dropped off the following day. When the tech delivering the modem came by he set it up and tested the setup. He noticed some problems with the cable and splitter being used so he replaced those. Ten minutes after arrival he was done, and I had a faster cable modem.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I have had time warner at my house for years, and RELATIVELY speaking, I'm lucky. I don't have AT&T, Comcast, or any of those other crooks that other people are forced to deal with. Time Warner, at least in -my- area of town, is reliable enough to only go down perhaps once or twice a year, which I can live with. Their speed is still good enough, and they don't pull that of that censorship business.... yet.
-- I am. Therefore, I think!
I will bet you that AT&T was praying for exclusivity after buying the legislation in Ohio
Can you show me anywhere where it says it's exclusive? Or did you just make it up?
I have DirecTV. Will not use U-Verse or Time/Wasted. I have had zero transport problems with DirecTV since I have been with them. The only issue that I have had was when a new HD box shot craps. It was replaced in no time at all
My service is delivered through TWC, well ComCast now, and the only problem I had was trouble with my connection twice. The first tyme less than 10 minutes on the phone the phone and Time Warner scheduled a tech to drop off a new cable modem the next day. Ten minutes after he arrived he left, after setting it up and replacing some cable and a splitter. The new modem was even faster than the old one. The second tyme again less than 10 minutes later a tech was scheduled to come by the next day. This tyme it turned out the cable from the pole to the house had to be replaced. Because he had to wait for another tech to help him string a new cable it took maybe an hour. I've only had good service from Time Warner!
FalconShould there be a Law?
I have Time Warner at two different residences and for some reason they charge me two different rates for Road Runner. Also, having decided I want to save money, I canceled cable at one residence so I would just be paying for Road Runner. Unfortunately, Road Runner was cheaper since I was getting some sort of package deal, which was then no longer in effect. So, my rate on Road Runner went up, thus saving me no money.
At my other residence, Road Runner quits working for several days every now and again. I keep calling tech support, they keep saying it's my fault. Other people with Road Runner in the same apartment complex have the same issue at the same time. So, no, it's not my fault. My cable modem did not just spontaneously decide to quit working. If Verizon were any better at either location, I would switch. Until some good competition forms, I'm stuck with one of two evils.
How is it worse now? Instead of only having 1 or 3 choices more companies can compeat to provide you services.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Ohio has quite an eclectic population. They so readily sell themselves out like this
Exactly what did Ohio sellout? About all I can see is they sold out monopolies. Now a bunch of potential service providers can apply to be authorized to sell services. Actually other than AT&T and Time Warner 8 other companies have applied. I wish I could chuse from a pool of 10 providers for broadband.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I live here. Oasis = Cleveland. It used to have more power and has always been more left. Now we're being murdered by the jackals down south.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o