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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 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.
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
Why isn't somebody in jail over shit like this? Because government fundamentally exists to facilitate commerce and the free market isn't so free.
How is a monopoly granted by the state any different than a monopoly put together one city at a time?
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
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; }
Yeah, I hate when socialist-leaning people talk about the failure of "the free market". What free market? Maybe "the free market" is as illusional as true communism as a goal, but I think working towards a free market is less harmful than working towards true communism.
-------
Incite and flee.
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!
Time Warner has a giant call center in Columbus.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
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?
How is a monopoly granted by the state any different than a monopoly put together one city at a time?
It isn't. I never said it was. Exclusive right to any part of a market, no matter how small, is wrong on a fundamental level, and actually goes against the idea of a free market. Where there is no competition, there IS no free market.
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.
They could take a lesson from Cox Communications then. Every time a tech has had to come to my apartment, they show up within the 2-hour window, sometimes early. Yesterday they called me and asked if they could come 3 hours early!
...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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No kidding. This reminds me of why I don't miss living in Ohio; the politics of that place suck. How anyone thinks instituting a monopoloy is a good idea is beyond me. It flies in this face of economic and common sense, hence, the Ohio government thinks it's A Good Thing.... idiots.
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?
You seem to be confusing Ronald Reagan with Jimmy Carter. You should see a history teacher about that... preferably one other than Howard Zinn.
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.
A smart city would allow consumers at least 2 cable providers. That provides at least some competition.
Table-ized A.I.
Your thinking too small. At a small level without patent protection this is true. in a world of patent protection and large seed investment for one company, then the free market moves toward monopoly. Microsoft would own nearly every single computer market if it was unregulated and did not have to at least pretend to be competitive.
Another example is energy, oil companies are so large that if someone enters the market that can produce the product as well, the oil company can simply buy out the new product, thus maintaining their monopoly.
It would be foolish for new company A to "fight" against say exonn mobile even if they could produce energy at 1 cent per 1 dollar (100 times cheaper) than Exonn Mobile if Exonn Mobile offered to buy them for the equivalent of 10 years of profit. then, having a monopoly Exonn mobile simply raises the price to 50 cents per dollar it costs them to currently make energy, and make back their costs for the company in 5 years and can actually do it faster if they have the resources to produce it faster. Company A could never get the seed money Exonn had to compete at the same level, but now the consumer which would have benefited from competitive growth (slower growth against multiple competitors for company A product as it would have been getting cheaper and cheaper) is now screwed out of 49 cents a dollar they could have saved otherwise.
Even large aircraft industry works like this, if it was not for government subsidy (non freemarket influences) we would still have the monopoly power of the major carriers since the cost of entry is so high.
There are a LOT of reasons for this, but as long as demand remains for a product and someone reaches some tipping point (IE nation wide like time warner) then they win.
What is not seen by the poster your replied to is the fact that in this case there was regulation, and this regulation removed the middleman allowing monopoly at an increased pace.
The Free Market creates kings, as someone eventually reaches the tipping point where they can use the excess to drive others from the market, and as long as something else with explosive growth and easy entry does not jump into the market to dominate it, or someone from a competing market that is worth more does not enter the market at high expense, they will stay king.
If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
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?
Well, it looks like somebody raised ol' boy from the dead to give you some props. Eh, figures. Perfect explanation for the decline. and why lying sociopaths continue to occupy the highest office of the land. Carry on. I'm off to the mountains for some shrooms. You all put on quite a good show. Maybe some day you'll get your facts right, but I'm not counting on it. If you need a history teacher to tell you about life under Reagan, then obviously you weren't there. I've seen it. I've lived it. And my mother is rotting in an old farts home because of it. And you know where you can put your mod points. Thank your lucky stars that in this life there is no justice.
What?
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.
(Score:-1, Troll) for three posts straight?
Number one rule about the King of Thailand...You don't insult the King of Thailand. This was actually a surprise to me also. I never expected so much love for the man here on Slashdot. Here I was, thinking that most in these parts actually knew better. That's life, I guess. All I can do is write them off as freaks, 'cause that's what they are. Selfish, little freaks. Mosquitoes that never travel more than a few yards from the swamp.
What?
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
Or maybe, just maybe, off-topic ranting based on an incorrect premise (you did notice the article pretty much refutes the summary, right?) isn't going to be popular. Who knows?
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
you did notice the article pretty much refutes the summary, right?
:-)
Say again? Did YOU notice that the summary was little more than direct quote from the article? What was being refuted? And, can a local company provide service to a local area, or will operating a local cable service require a state wide contract? If it does, that's a pretty slick way of cutting them out from serving a community that they can afford to serve, meaning it's more protection for big business, putting me right ON topic seeing that that's what that administration was all about. They are being given a free for all with little more than some minor QoS requirements. Where are the local access requirements? In fact from this: The law prohibits a provider from denying access to video service to any group of potential residential subscribers in the company's service area. (emphasis mine) What determines a "group"? To me a state wide contract would mean the whole state and everybody in it would be in the company's service area. I certainly do hope that those being denied raise holy hell. If they want a state wide franchise, they damn well better serve every single farmer, or anybody else in that state, and at a reasonable price. That should be part of the deal. But notice pricing isn't part of the deal. So it's still the same old same old. Except now our friendly lobbyists get the privilege of one stop shopping with the possibility of wiping out local providers, if they are allowed to exist under the new law. I proudly stand by everything said in my rants. I could give a damn whether it's popular or not. And I won't insist on taking you seriously
What?
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.
Lol.. do you actually believe that? or are you attempting to look cool? Ronald Reagan had little if anything to do with the States problems. The majority of them that you would be likely to complain about happened when he was out of office and because of the neglect of other leadership.
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!
But this is not a socialist breakdown of the free market, it's exactly what happens in free markets with no regulation - the move towards monopolies.
Many regulations create monopolies. When a regulation makes it hard if not impossible to enter a market then you have monopolies, duopolises, or otherwise are restricting competition and the market. One way to solve this is by having locals, whether they be a coop, city or county government, or nonprofit organization own the physical infrastructure and mandate they allow anyone to use it. A good example of this is in northeastern Utah where a group of communities got together to create a Broadband Utopia. Businesses can use the infrastructure to offer net access, phone service, and or cable tv to customers. It allows 30M bps net connections now but is capable of 100M bps.
FalconShould there be a Law?
No kidding. This reminds me of why I don't miss living in Ohio; the politics of that place suck. How anyone thinks instituting a monopoloy is a good idea is beyond me. It flies in this face of economic and common sense, hence, the Ohio government thinks it's A Good Thing.... idiots.
As it says nothing about granting an exclusive license it say nothing about being monopoly.
FalconShould there be a Law?
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?
Why dont you help her?
,you were there in '73 also, eh? Actually from my point of view, I found the whole thing kinda funny. It sure made the streets a hell of lot safer for us on bicycles. All those poor dumb fools in their cars never got a bit of sympathy from me. Riding on PCH up to Malibu was an absolute dream. It was most excellent. I'm hoping for more of the same someday. For now just count the number of bodies it takes to keep your three tanks full, and your two houses warm...or cool as the case may be.
Did and do where I can. Can't carry all the weight though.
My parents own their own business have 2 houses and 3 cars and pay for everything they need with cash.
"Rob Peter to pay Paul", as they say. Glad you all made out so well. Hope nobody pulls the rug out from under you. All that cash might not be worth the match it takes to light it someday.
Its not what you say its what you *DO*.
Yep, it's what you do to each other.
But apparently *YOU* liked the 3 mile long gas lines.
So
The 18% interest rates.
My advice is to burn the credit card. If you don't like the price, don't buy the product. No sympathy for those who can't control themselves.
The 15%+ inflation rates.
15% is hyperinflation??? ROFL! Didn't even notice. Look who's whining now. The things I bought weren't even close to that. Try living with 125% sometime, boy!
The current one is caused by hedge fund market manipulations.
They were ALL caused by Wall Street thugs. The very ones your boy propped up with those tax cuts and outright giveaways. Stop deluding yourself about the dems and republicans. They're all in on it. It's this infatuation with RR that I find so mysterious and fascinating. The only really successful thing he ever did was to get all of you to forget about Nixon. He aced that test.
ffffft...wanna toke? *cough*
Tryin' for the quintuple. Would've been better in sequence though
What?
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