Cutting the Cord? Time Warner Loses 184,000 TV Subscribers In One Quarter

Mr D from 63 (3395377) writes Time Warner Cable's results have been buoyed recently by higher subscriber numbers for broadband Internet service. In the latest period, however, Time Warner Cable lost 184,000 overall residential customer relationships [Note: non-paywalled coverage at Bloomberg and Reuters]. The addition of 92,000 residential high-speed data customers was offset by 184,000 fewer residential video customers in the quarter. Triple play customers fell by 24,000, while residential voice additions were 14,000.

Comments

They tried to raise prices 20% unnanounced

[i kan reed]

And I asked myself quite reasonably, "Why the fuck do I have cable TV?"

Re:They tried to raise prices 20% unnanounced

[Anonymous Coward]

I figure between watching MSNBC, FoxNews and CNN...I get some idea of the truth between them all.

Only if you want news biased to a conservative, American ego-centric sources.

If you think you're getting the truth by watching those three sources, you're sadly mistaken.

CNN hasn't been an objective source of news for over a decade now. Fox never was.

Add some international stuff to your news, because with only 3 US sources, you're pretty far from objective truth and balanced coverage.

Re:They tried to raise prices 20% unnanounced

[drinkypoo]

But really....I watch a swath of new channels from the right (Fox) to the far left (MSNBC) and the more moderate ones....and try to get my own sense of balance between all of them.

heh heh MSNBC far left HAHAHAHAHAHA

This is what you get when you depend on video for news, you can think that centrists are leftists

Re:They tried to raise prices 20% unnanounced

[Quirkz]

I actually feel like I gained something by the number of commercials I'm avoiding, far in excess of any entertainment possibly lost by cutting the cord. Occasionally if we travel or we're at someone's house and the TV is on, my three-year-old daughter asks me what's going on when there's a commercial and the show isn't playing. I think it's kind of awesome she's confused by them, rather than considering them part of life.

Occasionally I'll go over-air to catch a football game, but I've hit the point where after seeing the same commercials five times in fifteen minutes, I get bored and wander off, and then forget to come back for twenty minutes, invariably at another commercial break, and wander off again. It's a refreshing new way of life.

Re:They tried to raise prices 20% unnanounced

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, I"m not that interested frankly, in the news of the world for the most part...why would I?

Because understanding the difference between what get said inside the echo chamber that is America, and what gets said outside of America might actually help you understand that Americans only see the world through their own lens. And they're frequently clueless as a result.

.I watch a swath of new channels from the right (Fox) to the far left (MSNBC)

If you think Fox and MSNBC define the right and the left ... then you really are a clueless American. What passes for 'left' in America is pretty severely to the right in the rest of the world.

But what happens outside of the US, has very little impact on the average US citizens life....

Not true.

Know all those pesky little wars you've been getting into over the last few decades? The reaons, rationale, and historical context for all of those are pretty much entirely different inside and outside of the US.

Americans think "Oh, we went in and saved the world". The rest of the world think, "Oh, here come the naive fucking Americans who think they're saving the world, but really doing sound-bite foreign policy with no real understanding of the issues".

The next time your government tells you you're going to war for a reason, you might actually know if it's a lie.

Despite claims to the contrary, the US does not intervene on moral, humanitarian, or principled stances ... they intervene purely on the basis of strategic oil, and what plays well in the domestic market.

America isn't the champion of democracy and freedom they like to think they are, America actively undermines those things elsewhere in the world.

And then when they do, they often impose conservative, American, Christian values on their aid ... like allowing Monsanto corn to be given as aid, with the expectation starving people won't keep seeds ... or disallowing any form of access to birth control even if it would benefit poor women around the world ... or any number of reasons.

America isn't nearly as good or perfect as the people who live there like to think.

And part of the problem is you haven't got the slightest idea of what is happening in the world around you.

At a minimum, you might understand the reasons why people dislike you. And then you might actually be collectively aware enough to stop being such assholes.

Re:They tried to raise prices 20% unnanounced

[cayenne8]

If you think Fox and MSNBC define the right and the left ... then you really are a clueless American. What passes for 'left' in America is pretty severely to the right in the rest of the world.

And precisely why would I give a fuck what is "right" and "left" in other parts of the world?

If I wanted to live in a left leaning, more socialist part of the world, I would.

I prefer the US.

I will agree, the US and its polices aren't the "good guy" ones of the past, I blame that on corporate money takeover of our govt.

But I don't really care what the world thinks of us. I really don't, I have too much of my own life occupying my time and efforts. I don't have time to waste worrying if country X doesn't like me really, as long as they leave me alone and don't throw a weapon at me.

I do think if the US *did* pull fully out of world politics and wars...there'd be a lot of screaming that "the US doesn't do anything, they don't share, they don't help"...etc.

Hell, if we pulled fully out of all the bases and all in Europe, there would likely be a lot of pissed off people when they found they had to start pulling all that funding for free healthcare and 3 month vacations in order to pay for their own self defense in the big bad world. The US covers a lot of your countries' defense cost allowing you to spend your money on other things.

Re:They tried to raise prices 20% unnanounced

[mrchaotica]

Buy a new cable modem every year or two

Every year or two?! What are you talking about?

In the decade or so I've used cable Internet, I've only owned two cable modems, and I only had to get the second one recently because Comcast forced me to upgrade from DOCSIS 2 to DOCSIS 3. I expect my current modem to last at least another decade (or I would, if I didn't expect to switch to Google Fiber sooner).

There haven't been enough DOCSIS versions invented to necessitate you upgrading your modem anywhere close to yearly!

Re:They tried to raise prices 20% unnanounced

[drinkypoo]

Who gives a damn about what is right or left in the rest of the world, eh?

Yeah, what could we possibly learn from the rest of the world? We know everything!

That isn't germane to the conversation here.

You can't possibly believe that, can you? You must be trolling. Because if not, the alternative is that you are a gigantic idiot. Wait, I've seen your posting history. You may not be trolling. But if you aren't, your use of the word germane in this context may be the funniest thing I've seen all year.

The message is

[Anonymous Coward]

Keep fucking with us and we'll fuck you back. Can't wait for their downfall.

Re:No surprise here

[gstoddart]

Yes, but their "solution" seems to be lobby Congress to preserve their sixty year old business model, not actually innovate.

They didn't get where they are by innovating.

They got there by lobbying Congress in the first place.

Re:Internet alone is more expensive than Internet+

[i kan reed]

Which just makes me so glad that I don't sit on my ass watching other people exercise for entertainment.

Re:No cable, no problem

[ArcadeMan]

1. Netflix costs more than The Pirate Bay: true
2. Netflix has a lower selection than The Pirate Bay: true, including and especially the latest releases and obscure titles (if they're still seeded)
3. Netflix has less usability than The Pirate Bay: false*

* Netflix is just plain easier. I can sit down in front of the TV, start my AppleTV, navigate to something I want to watch, click play.

To do the same thing with The Pirate Bay, I'd have to sit at my computer, search their website, filter out all the weird containers like DivX and MKV, try to find a non-HD file that would take multiple hours to download, make sure the MP4 version I choose has subtitles and will play on my AppleTV, download the file, wait for at least 30 to 60 minutes for the download, add to my iTunes library and then finally watch the movie on my TV. That's nowhere near as convenient as Netflix.