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

[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

[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.

The Internet Has Better Porn

[Lilith's Heart-shape]

Which is reason enough to ditch cable TV.