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Charter to Retire Time Warner Cable Brand

Charter has unsurprisingly confirmed that the company will slowly but surely be phasing out the Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks brand after the deal closed this Wednesday. A company spokesman confirmed the news to Bloomberg, after the company cleared the final regulator hurdle: approval from California state regulators.

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“While Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks customers will not see any immediate change, the company will be called Charter and the products and services will be marketed under the ‘Spectrum’ brand,” said Charter spokesman Alex Dudley.

The news outlet posits that the Charter brand may fare better among consumers, but a representative for the American Consumer Satisfaction Index, which ranks consumer brand opinions, is quick to note that neither company ranks particularly well. Charter gets a 63 to Time Warner Cable's 51 for cable TV service, but is actually slightly worse (a 57 for Charter and a 58 for Time Warner Cable) when it comes to Internet service.

Bright House fares slightly better, but overall no cable provider has what you'd want to call a good ranking. In fact the very best ranked ISPs still rank far below other hated industries like airlines, banks, insurance companies, and even government agencies like the IRS. And the ACSI is quick to inform Bloomberg that a brand change won't really change this.

"Nobody in the cable industry performs particularly well,” a representative for the ACSI says. “One merger isn’t going to change structural issues with pricing, infrastructure and battles with content providers. When there’s not a great deal of competition in an industry, you’re not going to get great satisfaction scores.”

Having written about both companies for fifteen years -- Charter is sometimes slightly less tone deaf to consumer concerns (Time Warner Cable's ham-fisted handling of usage caps in 2009 quickly comes to mind). Charter has also been slightly quicker on speed upgrades, though Time Warner Cable has accelerated its own deployments in recent years. Still, Time Warner Cable customers expecting any kind of service revolution -- especially on the customer service and support end -- may not want to hold their breath.

Most recommended from 78 comments



C0deZer0
Oc'D To Rhythm And Police
Premium Member
join:2001-10-03
Tempe, AZ

13 recommendations

C0deZer0

Premium Member

From one crap brand to another

Yes, because charter has such a positive brand recognition for cable TV and Internet service.