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Comments on news posted 2014-03-17 14:21:45: Time Warner Cable has always had a somewhat contentious relationship with the city of Los Angeles and its residents, ever since the company's sloppy 2007 takeover of Adelphia's networks there. ..


wizardry
@ohio-state.edu

wizardry

Anon

A question

Am I correct in interpreting franchise fees as an indirect tax upon the residents of LA? Such that the city can avoid having to directly collect it from residents in yearly levies, and TWC has a quasi-justification for the numerous hidden administrative fees?
Tromper
Premium Member
join:2003-09-08
Seattle, WA

Tromper

Premium Member

Yup that's pretty accurate. It's just another tax by another name. Most municipalities sneak those in there, that & sometimes require the companies to do some kind of municipal improvement, unrelated to the cable infrastructure.
The money for that shows indirectly in the fees they charge you of course.
Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO

2 recommendations

Skippy25 to wizardry

Member

to wizardry
Would I be correct in stating that your question has an obvious answer to anyone that knows anything about business or economics?

No matter what the cost is be it people, resources, gathering of resources, taxes, penalties, research and development, etc they are ALL cost of delivering goods or services and thus are included in the price people pay.

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

n2jtx to wizardry

Member

to wizardry
said by wizardry :

Am I correct in interpreting franchise fees as an indirect tax upon the residents of LA? Such that the city can avoid having to directly collect it from residents in yearly levies, and TWC has a quasi-justification for the numerous hidden administrative fees?

Yes. Companies do not produce or consume anything themselves. They are legal entities. The humans employed at a company consume things and make product. Likewise, taxes, fees, etc. that a company pays come from people. If the city levies $10 million against TWC, TWC doesn't get a second job and earn more money to pay it. They fold the cost into their bills and the people who slog to work every day pay it.

The non-human entity that actually "makes" money is the U.S. Government by printing and coining it.
n2jtx

n2jtx to Skippy25

Member

to Skippy25
said by Skippy25:

Would I be correct in stating that your question has an obvious answer to anyone that knows anything about business or economics?

No matter what the cost is be it people, resources, gathering of resources, taxes, penalties, research and development, etc they are ALL cost of delivering goods or services and thus are included in the price people pay.


IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

1 recommendation

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Breach of agreement

I think if Time Warner isn't living up to its obligations of the franchising agreement, then Los Angles has every right to revoke the franchising agreement and their authority to operate in the city.

Without the authority to operate in the city, then Time Warner will have no option but to sell the system to another operator who is willing to comply with their franchising agreement.

mackey
Premium Member
join:2007-08-20

mackey to wizardry

Premium Member

to wizardry

Re: A question

said by wizardry :

Am I correct in interpreting franchise fees as an indirect tax upon the residents of LA?

No. Unlike a tax, you don't have to pay this fee. Simply use a provider who does not use city property to deliver their service such as DirecTV or Dish or OTA.

/M

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

1 edit

tshirt to IowaCowboy

Premium Member

to IowaCowboy

Re: Breach of agreement

said by IowaCowboy:

...

The city is doing the reasonable next step, since the 2 parties can't agree, send it to court.
pulling the franchise would be a extreme final option.
Just because the city says TWC is non compliant does not make it so.
elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA

elray

Member

Its always campaign season...

Egads.

Time Warner is doing a phenomenal job compared to Adelphia, and they tend to offer less costly options than Comcast

This is just the City Attorney grandstanding, as usual.

If the city wants to find an overbuilder to install fiber, that's fine, so long as we don't have to pay a tax for it.

Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium Member
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1

Anonymous_ to n2jtx

Premium Member

to n2jtx

Re: A question

said by n2jtx:

said by wizardry :

Am I correct in interpreting franchise fees as an indirect tax upon the residents of LA? Such that the city can avoid having to directly collect it from residents in yearly levies, and TWC has a quasi-justification for the numerous hidden administrative fees?

Yes. Companies do not produce or consume anything themselves. They are legal entities. The humans employed at a company consume things and make product. Likewise, taxes, fees, etc. that a company pays come from people. If the city levies $10 million against TWC, TWC doesn't get a second job and earn more money to pay it. They fold the cost into their bills and the people who slog to work every day pay it.

The non-human entity that actually "makes" money is the U.S. Government by printing and coining it.

bad for comcast if they do in fact take over.
since comcast will have to cough up the 10mill

plus SportsNet LA channel will have to be sold to someone else
since it will be anti competitive to have it (too much exclusive content)
Anonymous_

1 edit

Anonymous_ to elray

Premium Member

to elray

Re: Its always campaign season...

said by elray:

Egads.

Time Warner is doing a phenomenal job compared to Adelphia, and they tend to offer less costly options than Comcast

This is just the City Attorney grandstanding, as usual.

If the city wants to find an overbuilder to install fiber, that's fine, so long as we don't have to pay a tax for it.

TWC is doing a shitty job

when TWC took over they drop the upload & download speed and downgraded to docsis 1.x
took about 5-6 years to get the download and upload speed back to were it was

the area still only has 8x1 DOCSIS 3

with outages VERY OFTEN every time it rains and at lest once a week for 8 to 12 hours

my grandpas bill went from $25
to $90 for the same channels.. since TWC took that is over 350% increase .

they also NEED to pull the 100mbps ad since it's NOT available here. they should be able to override the ads at the local cable plaint that service this area
Anonymous_

Anonymous_ to n2jtx

Premium Member

to n2jtx

Re: A question

said by n2jtx:

said by wizardry :

Am I correct in interpreting franchise fees as an indirect tax upon the residents of LA? Such that the city can avoid having to directly collect it from residents in yearly levies, and TWC has a quasi-justification for the numerous hidden administrative fees?

Yes. Companies do not produce or consume anything themselves. They are legal entities. The humans employed at a company consume things and make product. Likewise, taxes, fees, etc. that a company pays come from people. If the city levies $10 million against TWC, TWC doesn't get a second job and earn more money to pay it. They fold the cost into their bills and the people who slog to work every day pay it.

The non-human entity that actually "makes" money is the U.S. Government by printing and coining it.

the fee is all ready on the bill .. maybe you need glasses?

so people are all ready being billed for it .

Caddyroger
Premium Member
join:2001-06-11
To the west

Caddyroger to IowaCowboy

Premium Member

to IowaCowboy

Re: Breach of agreement

TWC has one other option. Just turn off the power.