It's fairly common practice for cable carriers to blame their often bi-annual TV rate increases on the high costs they incur from broadcasters. While content (especially sports programming) certainly is expensive, cable operators share responsibility for the continually increasing rates. Given many cable operators compete in duopoly markets, they have the luxury of engaging in non-price competition -- and passing on the majority of those rate hikes directly to the consumer. Cable's traditionally low consumer satisfaction scores aren't helped by blaming cable rates solely on broadcasters.

But consumer outrage about cable pricing can still be useful, apparently even if you're at least partially responsible for it. A few weeks ago, Time Warner Cable launched a new PR stunt designed to rile up the company's customers, so they'd complain to broadcasters about high programming costs. Dubbed "Roll Over Or Get Tough," the marketing campaign pretends to be about democratic process. It gives consumers the voting "choice" to "get tough" and have Time Warner Cable fight broadcaster hikes (possibly losing popular channels but saving money for Time Warner Cable) or "roll over" resulting in higher bills.

But the choice is a false one. For one thing no matter what Time Warner Cable does, they'll wind up passing higher costs on to the consumer. That's just how it works. Meanwhile, the voting website is geared entirely toward convincing consumers they should "get tough." Users who decided to vote to have Time Warner Cable suck it up are told they've made the wrong choice. As you might expect, options like "shut up and offer me a la carte pricing" or "help pay for it by cutting your CEO's salary" weren't available.

Given the campaign's presentation, it's not too surprising to see a Time Warner Cable press release today noting that 400,000 consumers visited the company's new website, and shockingly, these consumers "overwhelmingly supported Getting Tough on programmers." Judging from the user comments at the Time Warner Cable site, the company's done a pretty good job convincing the public the cable company itself has absolutely nothing to do with soaring cable TV rates.

"Our customers are letting us know that they want us to fight against rapidly increasing programming prices," says company CEO Glenn Britt. "We’ve heard them, and we intend to put as much pressure as possible on programmers with unreasonable demands to get our customers the best prices we can." The problem is, were Time Warner Cable to negotiate better broadcast rates they'd immediately pocket them. Anybody expecting otherwise is being taken for a ride.

This campaign is about two things, neither of which is about saving you money. One, it's about convincing the public that Time Warner Cable isn't at all responsible for higher TV rates. Two, it's about using the consumer angst Time Warner Cable is partially responsible for as a tactical weapon in their negotiations with broadcasters.