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]

Exactly. Minimum basic cable price (if I don't want to sell my entire soul to the cableco) where I am is $39.48 + $3.99 for a converter box + 13% taxes + some other silly fees I've forgotten about (LPIF?), every month. Ends up about $54. As encouragement for me to never sign up again, they'll punish me with a $49.99 one time bonus fee.

Primewire, netflix and even sometimes the sites for the stations themselves gives me all the content I need (no hulu in my country). I'd actually pay $20 for what I watch on top of Netflix, but it has to be equally convenient and unlimited to what I get now, and typically anything I've seen isn't. Basic cable is a joke.

Cable TV can DIAF.

Re:They tried to raise prices 20% unnanounced

[TWX]

Yup. We got rid of cable TV something like five years ago. Keeping it was already in jeopardy when I realized I was coming home from work and watching four hours of CSI every evening on Spike, and starting to see reruns of episodes that I could have sworn were just shown, and the straw that broke the camel's back was the removal of Turner Classic Movies from our cable package. Since getting rid of cable we've found ourselves actually engaging in our hobbies again, as opposed to just passively staring at the screen.

A lady at work the other day didn't seem to know that one could still receive over-the-air broadcasts for television. I wonder how many people don't realize this and are paying for TV that they don't want or need.

Re:They tried to raise prices 20% unnanounced

[mrchaotica]

Minimum basic cable price (if I don't want to sell my entire soul to the cableco) where I am is $39.48 + $3.99 for a converter box

They blatantly lie and claim that the box is "necessary" "because digital", but it isn't. The real reason they want you to use the box is because of their unilateral insistence on encrypting even the signals that you'd otherwise be able to get unencrypted from an antenna anyway, so that they can charge you a rental fee. But even then, it still isn't necessary because you can get a CableCard instead.

When I had cable TV (only because the TV + internet bundle was cheaper than internet-only that year), I refused the box (and refused to be charged for the box) as a matter of principle.

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

[Adriax]

Local cable company recently swapped to a completely digital signal so everyone had to rent a new tuner box for every TV in their house (at something like $10 a month each). We stopped using cable but my dad kept with it.
One thing he noticed is his internet connection went to (even more) shit after the change. So he disconnected all the TVs yesterday and wired it so the cable signal just goes to the modem.
3x the download speeds and half the ping time, plus he loved not having to deal with constant commercials as he watched the news on his computer.

Cable companies are shooting themselves in the foot trying to squeeze a couple extra drops of revenue out of people.

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

[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

[RavenLrD20k]

When the government put out regulations where companies couldn't use lead-based solder in consumer electronics products anymore (it's still widely available for private purchase), all electronic devices began suffering significantly shorter operational life. The lead kept the solder from developing micro-fractures that eventually caused joints to arc, or disconnecting altogether. If you're handy with a soldering iron, you can often resurrect dead electronics by touching heat to the joints which has the effect of making the solder become molten again and thus eliminating the fractures. Under constant operating conditions it can take about 2-3 years for the fractures to progress to the point where a device will no longer work properly. It's one reason why you hear about Red-Rings-of-Death, Red lights of death, etc. from gaming systems released in the last 10-15 years while a good portion of classic systems from the Atari, to the Oddessy2, to the Sega Master System, to the N64 can still be found 20-30 years later still running as well as they did on day one. You always hear the phrase "They don't make 'em like they used to." It's because literally (in the very literal sense, not figuratively speaking type of literally), they don't.

Re:They tried to raise prices 20% unnanounced

[Obfuscant]

When the government put out regulations where companies couldn't use lead-based solder in consumer electronics products anymore (it's still widely available for private purchase), all electronic devices began suffering significantly shorter operational life.

We should note that the RoHS (pronounced "roe-hass") regulations do not apply in the US, but they're a major hassle in the EU. And yes, the lead-free solder is a real pain in the ass to use and leads to a lot of junction failures. A local community college even offers a special class on how to solder under RoHS.

On the upside, you can pick up a lot of "failed" commercial products and with a quick re-solder with real solder you can bring them back to life cheap.

Re:They tried to raise prices 20% unnanounced

[mrchaotica]

They are prohibited by FCC mandate from encrypting over the air channels

Nope.

Comcast is a better TV provider than Time Warner Cable, and that's saying something. Comcast uses the copy protect flag more sparingly, and offers more Clear QAM channels.

Also, nope. In my area, Comcast started encrypting everything, including over the air channels, over a year ago.

Time Warner Cable is objectively the worst cable provider

LOL, you poor, naive fool. You only think that because you haven't experienced the Hell that is Comcast "customer service." I've filed multiple BBB complaints. I once almost got arrested by the sheriff's deputy Comcast hires to guard their office from irate customers -- that's how bad they are!

Comcast is so bad that I've even resorted to lobbying local politicians to try to kick them out of my city.

If you see a violation of this you can report it to the FCC and they'll get in big trouble.

I tried. In my case, Comcast started encrypting (some of the) OTA channels weeks before sending the notice required by Title 47 Section 76.630 (a)(1)(v) (look it up!). I filed a complaint with the FCC, and heard nothing whatsofuckingever.

The FCC is in Comcast's pocket.

The Internet Has Better Porn

[Lilith's Heart-shape]

Which is reason enough to ditch cable TV.

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.

I welcome the Death Spiral

[Moof123]

I am rooting for a death spiral. There are so many cable channels that would die a very quick death in any sort of ala carte system where they actually had to compete. The system has been cable system has been setup to extract maximum dollars, while providing very low quality (maximizing profit). I'd much rather see an ala carte system with a few very good premium channels, along with some scrappy quirky channel, and let the invisible hand slap down the rest. I want to be able to get HBO without ESPN, QVC, TLC,CNN, Fox News, etc. Get it down to a handful of good channels that i pick out for $20 a month and I might sign back up.

For now I watch a few things on Hulu and Netflix, and buy dozen or so DVD's a year. I am pretty happy with what I get for the money, and I am very glad that ESPN doesn't get one red cent from me.

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.