Time Warner: Crushing Internet Upstarts is Healthy Competition!

....gotta love it. I wonder how many Comcast lawyers did a face palm after Britt's comments.

Preventing competition is actually healthy for competition...and we do that.

Watch for a fast retirement and distancing from the company while they circle wagons.

Reminds me of the movie "Rising Sun" 1983 with Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes when the Japanese business back away from the "we don't want to be associated with you" in the conference room.

They're better than Comcast in my opinion.

Basis? I'm in an area where Comcast took over AT&T Broadband, then Time Warner took over Comcast.

When Comcast took over, they got right to work. They rolled HDTV out in a surprisingly timely manner. They were aggressive about rolling out newer technologies like the 6208 and 6412 DVRs. There were some early internet hiccups, but they seemed to take that seriously as well, and speed upgrades were a regular thing. We never felt like "customers in transition", we were Comcast customers.

Time Warner, by comparison, has been a complete joke, particularly on the TV side. The only good thing I can say about them is that their pricing is lower. Almost a DECADE later, they're still giving Comcast's 64xx DVRs to brand new customers, and are still using the iGuide in our area. We do have DOCSIS 3, but at 50/5. I have no doubt that if we were Comcast customers, we'd be at 105/20. We are still very much "Time Warner (Former Comcast)", despite the fact that Time Warner has been at the helm longer than Comcast at this point.

Sure, we don't have a cap on Time Warner yet, but that's only because they attempted to foist miserably low 10-20GB caps on Rochester, NY and it blew up so badly that even politicians got involved. Comcast did institute their 250GB cap earlier on, but theirs was set to a number that's far more reasonable. That seemed to be designed to curtail excessive use, not a cash grab like TWC's implementation.
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AT&T U-Hearse - RIP Unlimited Internet 1995-2011
Rethink Billable.

Bingo. As much heat Comcast gets around these parts, I consider them the only competent US cable provider. Why? Because they have an engineering culture and Brian Roberts is Director Emeritus at CableLabs.

Comcast from what I know is putting out cloud DVR, etc and it looks like TWC is stuck in the 80's. In my area we have Fios or TWC, and let me tell you it's not even CLOSE.

I use W7MC, so I really don't care where my TV comes from, however internet really matters. With FIOS that is not a problem.

However was visiting fam in the Utica are (ONLY TWC) and tried to figure out the TWC remote (OMG, sucks), and thought something was wrong because it would take like 5 seconds for anything to come up or be able to change channels. That was verified as normal. On top of that because TWC has no competition his 2 play is $140 for one box (not even DVR), where I pay $80 all in. While I dont have all the channels, $60 a month for an inferior service is a lot to fathom.

I attempted to switch to TWC, but man once you try to integrate the CC and this monster Cisco SDV box (sucking up 18W 24x7) I could not get myself to do it.

TWC does have Roku which is great, and Verizon on the app side (no different than wireless) is grade C at a maximum. Just last week they dropped support for a number of FIOS app devices, no doubt in an effort to ready the onslaught of their IPTV devices coming sometimes this decade (maybe this year ). Sadly I doubt they will price this according to hardware cost, so more $$$ in VZ pocket.

As to windows and blocking competition, well that is normal since the first shyster started distributing movies in the 20's. What is relatively cyclical is the level of keiretsu that is allowed to operate in this industry. At the epicenter of this is the massive level of sports contracts, and operators owning content creation and distribution legally. Now I am ambivalent about this because at the end of the day, the guy creating the content has the right to do as they wish. If that means kissing the ring and narrowing the focus to get it out there, than that is the way it is. There is nothing stopping these same folks from going direct OTT, but they cant make any money on it today. I know GBTV is successful and sooner or later the stranglehold will crack, it will just take time...A that is how capitalism is supposed to work.

You see Britt doesn't think anything of it, because that's the way things have been for almost 100 years. The internet is the magic genie, so they are trying to keep him in the bottle as long as possible.

I'm not a big fan of TWC's equipment (they mostly use the SA/Cisco junk), I think they have better customer service. When I call TWC from my Grandma's house in Biddeford (Maine), I get a call center in nearby Portland (Maine). And they have a local customer service number that is local direct dial 207 area code number. Comcast just gives you 1800Comcast and you get a random call center anywhere in the country or even worse, overseas. The advantage of local customer service is the CSRs that answer the phones are familiar with the local system, product offerings, provisioning, etc.

If you get a random call center, the call takes three times as long and the reps are clueless as each system is different. And they know nothing about product launches and cannot even answer a question whether a product has been launched in the local market.

Comcast, on the other hand like you say has better product offerings. But their support is substandard. They even had the guts to send me bot notifications in an attempt to sell me bot removal service and I know my computers are clean since I have their free Norton Internet Security on my computers.
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I've experienced ImOn (when they were McLeod USA), Mediacom, Comcast, and Time Warner and I currently have DirecTV. They are much better than broadcast TV.

I have not and will not cut the cord.

Comcast was a double edged sword in this end of Santa Clarita.
They were horribly expensive (made DSL + DirecTV and POTS seem cheap by comparison). Basic (cheapest) TV plan was $65 and Internet was $45 ... and that was the 'bundled' deal.

I wanted to go just for the 'basic 13' but Comcast wouldn't offer sell it here. Similarly, they would not offer phone service.

When TWC finally arrived, they gave a package of Internet/Phone/Digital TV for $89/month.

I will agree that TWC has much more reasonable pricing. But they did not deploy DOCSIS 3.0 in Maine until about 3 years after Comcast deployed D3 where I live in Mass. Comcast pretty much has most if not all of their footprint on D3.

Untrue. I had basic 2-13 in HD for $12.99 per month plus $5 for the HD box rental. They are required to offer it by their franchise agreement. Comcast even gave me free 12 months of HBO promo. I didn't even think that would work (HBO without a "cable package"), but it did!
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AT&T U-Hearse - RIP Unlimited Internet 1995-2011
Rethink Billable.

Just makes us want to pirate even more!

How stupid these companies are!!
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GOD BLESS THE U.S.A

Glenn Britt, how do you stand to look at yourself, when you know full well you entire company is based on hypocrisy?

Yes, lies and hypocrisy.

The so called revenue streams that flow into your company are truly ill-gotten gains.

And you call yourself a CEO? My, my, your hypocrisy knows no bounds!

Next!

A charge of collusion is almost impossible to prove. You have to document they actually got together, either physically or electronically, to determine together to take an illegal action. Taking the same or similar actions is NOT collusion.

It might be easier to prove that the actions they are taking independently is an anti-trust violation by each of the cable companies. But the US DOJ doesn't appear to be interested in pursuing anti-trust cases anymore. Can anyone dig up when the DOJ last undertook a Sherman anti-trust case?
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"If you want to anger a conservative lie to him.
If you want to anger a liberal tell him the truth."

Probably back when they started allowing companies to make political donations. He who pays the way gets the rights.

The Apple ebooks pricing case was just filed last year. The United States alleged that "These collective efforts to raise e-book prices and limit price competition violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act."

Collusion requires a "smoking gun." That's because tacit collusion is indistinguishable from a natural competitive response. In the Apple case, the government is using emails as evidence of collusion.

I'll bet the NSA has the evidence to prove collusion, if it exists.

Let me Google NSA that.

Content and transport should be disconnected, as this is the main source of the "collusion" behaviour that cannot be rectified by competition alone.

Monopolies are broken up because they become complacent and won't allow competition and innovation without their customers paying a high price. Blocking competition is what monopolies do. TWC is far from a monopoly, but stifling competition is what creates record profits, corruption and greed in the industry as a whole. Time for the FCC to lower the boom.

Sorry, Karl.

Intel, Google, Apple, Netflix and others wanting to stream content online does not constitute "innovation".

Google and Apple have the coin to buy the content, TWC, Cablevision, and a studio to boot.

They're just unwilling to outbid the current players.

Google really isn't that interested in purchasing the current model.
Its more profitable for them to create a new model and have users adopt it.

That's fine, but it will be absent the content that most of us are willing to pay for.

It took decades for the TV model to reach its height in the '90's and it will take decades for it to be rendered 'legacy'.

My date range? By 2020, nearly 15% of the US households will consume streaming/cached only video and traditional TV ad revenue will see a marked decline. As the global economy grinds along with no serious rise in income, more and more people will find $100+ ($200+ for families) monthly telecommunications bills unjustified and will become more aggressive in cost cutting.

Google and Amazon will respond by providing regional ISP and Data only wireless service paid for by ad revenue and/or Prime-like memberships and merchant partnerships. Large metro and suburban areas in the Mid-Atlantic and West coast areas will be some of the first real markets offering true TV competition to legacy incumbents.

by 2030, half of the country will have dropped traditional cable subs. Mobile tech now becomes the primary screen for anyone in the top 50% earners as even big TV makers transition from large screens to handheld and furniture based media consumption devices (think tabletop/countertop/wall panel media devices)

As people drop cable subs, Big Sports is really feeling it as ad revenue falls further. They find they are in competition with non-sports media consumption and a public more tech and single user entertainment focused. Teams are hurting for the money they used to enjoy from cable subs. The glamour of sports is fading...

Either TWC,Comcast or DirecTV will make a bid for Viacom in an attempt to corral content. While Netflix will have won several Emmy's and will release it's 5th motion picture production that will never play in a movie theater. Disney may make a play for a cable operator.

By 2050 there is no such thing as television as all free OTA broadcasting has been replaced by free Twitter like wireless streaming messages that any device can connect to. 2 of the major cable operators has merged. Either CBS, NBC, ABC, or Fox has filed for Chapter 11 with either a South American or Chinese media conglomerate interested in buying.

Media consumption now follows you as nearly every flat vertical surface is an interactive screen. Movie theaters have returned to a privileged only entertainment medium as very few can afford the $40 per ticket cost. Theaters take over abandoned sports stadiums turning them into massive entertainment complexes.

Just a thought....

Maybe just the rains, but TWC went out lot last week and now Tues-Thurs. Gave me credit for 2 days last week but just static today when finally called them. First they said no outage only to then say was one. Hours later a cell call to cay outage fixed. By then I was way behind. If only some option.
Guess a plot to keep Manhattan down to one main ISP so easier on the Birds in the Sky. Let's just make the damn thing hard on everybody so there's less bad stuff likely to happen.
Random fortune from 'politics'
It is difficult to legislate morality in the absence of moral legislators. (no source)

Comcast, Time Warner will have real competition from IPTV - Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and others. Netflix already passed Comcast in total subscribers. So whatver these guys are doing, Cable and Satelite will go the way of the newspaper and IPTV will dominate. How can they compete with the prices. Anyone can purchase a cheaper premium account and if you want to watch channels abroad Turbostreamtv.com and others provide hundreds of free and premium channels. So I agree with Time Warner, there is plenty of competition in this space.