{"id":3091,"date":"2011-01-05T09:39:52","date_gmt":"2011-01-05T14:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/?p=3091"},"modified":"2011-01-05T09:45:28","modified_gmt":"2011-01-05T14:45:28","slug":"twc-demands-broadband-customers-subsidize-tv-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/2011\/01\/twc-demands-broadband-customers-subsidize-tv-business.html","title":{"rendered":"TWC demands broadband customers subsidize TV business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-3092\" href=\"http:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/2011\/01\/twc-demands-broadband-customers-subsidize-tv-business.html\/time-warner-logo\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3092\" title=\"Time-Warner-logo\" src=\"http:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Time-Warner-logo.jpg\" alt=\"Time-Warner-logo\" width=\"300\" height=\"240\" \/><\/a>Time Warner Cable <a href=\"http:\/\/www.democratandchronicle.com\/article\/20110105\/BUSINESS\/101050330\/Time-Warner-raising-rates&amp;referrer=NEWSFRONTCAROUSEL\" target=\"_blank\">announced<\/a> that its rates in the Rochester area will increase between 6% and 10% on Jan. 15th.\u00a0 The rate increases will happen across the board so the increased costs will be borne by digital phone and broadband subscribers in additions to cable television watchers.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the price increases are not reflective of changes in TWC&#8217;s cost to deliver each of those respective services.\u00a0 Cable TV profits are clearly down.\u00a0 Subscribers rates are not continuing to increase year on year as in the past.\u00a0 There&#8217;s debate if this is because people are watching more TV online or if the customers are belt tightening because of the economy.\u00a0 Margins are being further eroded by TV content suppliers demanding higher rates from TWC, such as their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestreet.com\/story\/10958179\/1\/sinclair-time-warner-cable-extend-deadline.html\" target=\"_blank\">most recent spat<\/a> with Sinclair Broadcast Group.\u00a0 Meanwhile, <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/news\/2009\/05\/isps-costs-revenues-dont-support-data-cap-argument.ars\" target=\"_blank\">costs to deliver broadband service<\/a> are falling and profits for that business are continuing to rise.\u00a0 In addition, America <a href=\"http:\/\/www.physorg.com\/news170447728.html\" target=\"_blank\">ranks 28th<\/a> in global speed of Internet connections while having comparatively <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/news\/2010\/12\/residential-broadband-prices-falling-but-not-in-us.ars\" target=\"_blank\">more expensive<\/a> ISP service.<\/p>\n<p>The only reasonable explanation is that broadband customers are being forced to subsidize cable TV service.\u00a0 For customers who subscribe to both this may be a financial wash, but it still hides the true cost of TV service. \u00a0 And while there are other TV options in the market, there is nowhere else to go for true broadband ISP connections.\u00a0 This is yet further reason why we need unbundled service options and more competition in this space.<\/p>\n<p>TWC has an effective monopoly in Rochester on broadband service.\u00a0 While their speed is paltry by international standards, it blazes with respect to other ISP options in the area.\u00a0\u00a0 It is completely unfair of TWC to now demand that the broadband customers it is holding hostage prop up its faltering cable TV profits.<\/p>\n<p>Competition would solve this problem as would regulation.\u00a0 At present we have neither, and broadband consumers are left at the mercy of TWC.\u00a0 Ouch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is yet further reason why we need unbundled service options and more competition in the ISP space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3],"tags":[87,82,29,60,86],"class_list":["post-3091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geekypursuits","category-politics","tag-broadband","tag-fcc","tag-federal-regulations","tag-isp","tag-twc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3091"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3095,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions\/3095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}