Items tagged with cable
Comcast and other cable companies are in celebration mode after winning a key legal victory against the state of Maine. Had the ruling gone the other way, cable companies would be bound by a recent law requiring them to offer subscribers the option of purchasing access to cable channels or programs on cable channels individually. The law essentially calls for an à la carte offering, whereby customers would not have to pay for bloated cable TV packages that include channels they may not be interested in viewing. it would also be a blow to the practice of including certain desirable channels only into pricier cable cable packages, which can be frustrating for the consumer. Maine introduced...
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For a long time, cable and satellite TV providers had customers in a vice grip. If someone wanted to watch premium channels, it was cable/satellite TV or bust. Like so many other things, the internet changed the game, and these days an increasing number of people are cutting the cord, as they say. With more streaming options available (and on the horizon), companies like AT&T and Charter Spectrum could feel the squeeze. Netflix and Hulu are the first two that come to mind, though they're far from the only options. CBS All Access is another streaming option, as are Sling TV and YouTube. The field is expanding, too—Disney recently launched it Disney+ service, and Apple rolled out its...
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Game streaming services are building up to be the next big race for the dollars of millennials in the future. Services like EA Access and Google Stadia are expected to be hugely popular with gamers around the world, and a new report claims that more American millennials now subscribe to a video game service than subscribe to paid television. The report claims that 53% of people born between 1983 and 1996 are now paying for gaming services compared to 51% who pay for television. The data comes from accounting and services firm Deloitte. The same firm ran the survey last year and found that 44% of that age group had paid for video game subscriptions compared to 52% having paid TV subscriptions....
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Some of you reading this may not find it shocking that Comcast is being fined millions of dollars for running afoul of consumer protections. Comcast is a major ISP, after all, and there are no shortages of customer complaints to be found on the web. But would you be surprised to learn that it broke the law hundreds of thousands of times? That's the finding of a King County Superior Court judge, who ruled that Comcast violated the Consumer Protection Act more than 445,000 times by charging tens of thousands of Washington residents an extra fee for its Service Protection Plan without their consent, according to Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson. "Comcast refused to accept responsibility...
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The adage "the more things change, the more they stay the same" seems very apt for the cord cutting streaming TV market. Many TV fans left behind cable and satellite services because the prices were always increasing and the service never got better. The rub is that now that cord cutters seem to have reached a sort of critical mass and streaming services are plentiful, streaming firms are starting to raise prices just like cable companies. AT&T DirecTV Now raised its prices earlier this month by $5 per month. YouTube TV and Sling TV also recently raised prices. Now PlayStation Vue is following right along with the masses. All Vue plans are seeing $5 monthly price increases across the board....
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We will not call it a coup, but the number of people who are willing to ditch their cable or satellite TV service in favor of streaming content through the Internet continues to rise. Not only that, but the number of streaming service subscribers, both free and paid, has grown to 68 percent in 2016, up from 63 percent in 2014, a figure that catches up with and slightly surpasses paid TV service providers (67 percent) for the first time.That's according to the Consumer Technology Association's new study, The Changing Landscape for Video and Content. The study shows that the percentage of paid TV service subscribers has gone done from 69 percent in 2014 to 67 percent in 2016. What that shows is...
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After taking on Internet service providers (ISPs) and wireless carriers with a set of net neutrality rules, it looked as though FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler was on the verge of going to war with cable companies next. That was the plan when, earlier this year, Wheeler talked about forcing cable companies to use open standards so that consumers could choose their own set-top box rather than paying rental or leasing fees for sub-par models provided by their service provider. Now the FCC is ditching that plan in favor of apps. What's that, apps you say? Yes indeed—rather than continue to push for the adoption of third-party set-top boxes, the FCC is set to vote later this month on a proposal that would...
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Not only is Netflix cheaper than a cable TV subscription, the value proposition is higher—much higher, in fact, which some might find surprising (and even outright dispute) due to Netflix's limited catalog of titles. Be that as it may, Netflix subscribers pay roughly three times less per hour of content than cable TV subscribers.That's one possible takeaway from a comprehensive report by Nielsen (PDF) that examines content consumption across television, radio, TV-connected devices, PCs, smartphones, and tablets. Nielsen didn't set out to compare Netflix to cable TV directly, but using the numbers provided, the folks at AllFlicks did some interesting math to figure out how much Netflix costs per...
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Much to the chagrin of cable TV providers that profit from leasing out set-top boxes to customers, the Obama administration joined the Federal Communications Commission in pushing for changes that would give consumers the option of buying less expensive third-party boxes that would offer full functionality with their TV service. At the beginning of the year, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler issued a proposal that would do exactly that. The FCC ultimately approved the proposal by a 3-2 vote, which kicked off a 60-day "information-gathering process" to give the FCC and cable providers a chance to work out the details on how to implement the proposal. "You could have a set a standards such that anyone could...
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Google is looking to round out its Google Fiber service, and well-entrenched cable companies like Time Warner Cable and Comcast, which often have virtual monopolies in various markets across the United States, should have even more reason for concern. According to a new report, the search giant will launch Google Fiber Phone, which would add to its exiting Internet and TV services to give Google Fiber a true “Triple Play” offering for customers. Members of the Google Fiber Trusted Tester Program have received invites via email over the past few weeks to test out Google Fiber Phone. Not surprisingly, the service sounds like it incorporates quite a bit of functionality from Google Voice, with Google...
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If there’s one U.S. industry that could use a healthy dose or regulation, it’s likely the cable industry. The cable industry has been slow to change and adapt to new technologies because existing regulations have allowed it to basically get it way, commanding service monopolies (or duopolies) in most regions and fighting tooth and nail to thwart any fresh competition (i.e. municipal broadband). The FCC has taken steps to weaken the power of cable companies in recent years by siding with towns looking to offer their own Internet services, and it now looks as though the regulatory body has another trick up its sleeve that could save customers a few bucks in more ways than one. FCC Chairman Tom...
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If you've ever been late on paying a bill, it's unlikely that you ever thought that you were running the risk of being publicly shamed about your shortcomings. That said, whether you're late for a good reason or not, business is business, and your business with a service provider is generally intended to be kept private and not loosely for public knowledge. However, for a few unfortunate individuals, one Canadian cable TV provider doesn't see things quite the same way. Recently, Senga Services, which is located in Canada's Northwest Territories, decided to begin posting the names of customers that had overdue payments to its Facebook page. As some of these late payments started at...
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As we discovered just the other day, Apple's latest iPad, Pro, isn't too repairable, scoring just 3 out of 10 on iFixit's scale - 10 being the best. Somewhat humorously, that's still a lot better the 1 out of 10 score the Surface Book received earlier this month. Nonetheless, the teardown helped highlight a feature Apple kept mum on: a USB 3.0-compatible Lightning port. That means that with the right cable, users would be able to enjoy transfer speeds going through a 5Gbps bus. That's theoretically ~625MB/s peak, but more accurately would top out at around 500MB/s in the real-world thanks to overhead. Currently, Lightning connectors utilizing USB 2.0 would peak at just over 30MB/s. The storage...
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Researchers at the University of California in San Diego have just crafted a new fiber optic technology which could dramatically improve our Internet's backbone, as well as reduce costs. While fiber optic connections to the Internet are a luxury for home and business, they're imperative for the outside sources that bring us our data. The backbone of the entire Internet is laced head-to-toe in fiber, as it's the only possible option for delivering and sustaining the bandwidth needed to serve everyone. But, its current design has a couple of caveats. At the forefront, current technology doesn't allow signals to be sent without some severe distortion -- severe enough that the receiving routers would...
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A Bloomberg report that came out on Memorial Day was right on the money when it came to Charter’s ambitions to take on cable juggernaut Comcast. Bloomberg learned that Charter would scoop up Time Warner Cable (TWC) for $195 per share, valuing the transaction at roughly $55 billion. Charter confirmed the acquisition this morning, valuing each TWC share at approximately $195.71. The transaction has an equity value of $55.76 billion, but TWC has long-term debt of $22.64 billion which value the entire whole shebang at over $78 billion. The TWC acquisition will vault Charter from fourth place in the U.S. cable market to second place, right behind Comcast. The combined companies will have an estimated...
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Federal regulators put into a motion a legal process that would have made it very difficult for Comcast to proceed with its blockbuster plan to acquire Time Warner Cable (TWC) for $45 billion, and as a result of Comcast pulling out of the proposed buyout, Bright House Networks has abandoned its own plans of merging with Charter.The deals were intertwined in hopes of appeasing antitrust concerns. As constructed, if Comcast received approval to buy TWC, it would sell 1.4 million subscribers to Charter for $7.3 billion. Comcast would also divest 2.5 million subscribers as part of a spinoff into a new cable company called GreatLand Connections, of which Charter would own a stake.Image Source: Flickr...
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Move over Google, and step aside AT&T, because here comes Cox with residential 1-gigabit Internet service of its own. Called G1GABLAST (Gigablast from here on out), the 1Gbps Internet service is now available in parts of Phoenix, Arizona; Orange County, California; Omaha, Nebraska; and Las Vegas, Nevada. Ultra high-speed Internet isn't anything new to Cox -- it's been offering business customers multi-gigabit options for over a decade. However, there's been a recent movement to bring 1Gbps service to home consumers, as both Google (Google Fiber) and AT&T (U-verse with AT&T GigaPower) have been aggressively expanding their fiber networks into more neighborhoods. "We started in Phoenix...
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Comcast is one of only two companies to be voted "Worst Company in America" multiple times, having come away with Consumerist's title in 2010 and again in 2014. The cable giant is aware that it has an image problem, one that largely stems from poor and sometimes downright horrid customers service, and it's going on a hiring spree as part of a plan to change the customer experience. One of the core elements of Comcast's plan is to create 5,500 customer service jobs over the next few years. Comcast hopes that this investment in workers will allow the company to always be on time for customer appointments, which is more than a desire, but a goal it aims to meet by the third quarter of this year....
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Cable companies are faced with a decision as more and more TV viewers cut the cord in favor of streaming -- evolve or become extinct. Only one of those options is enticing, and so Cablevision has gone and inked a deal with Hulu to apparently resell its Hulu Plus subscription service to its Optimum customers. As such, Cablevision becomes the first cable or satellite or TV provider to distribute Hulu. We say "apparently" because the press release Cablevision put out is short on details. The alternative to reselling Hulu Plus would be to offer it as a free service to Optimum subscribers, either as part of the package or possible dangle it as an incentive to customers who call to cancel their service....
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If Comcast and Time Warner Cable have a Plan B, they may want to consider implementing it. Just as was expected would happen, the Federal Communication Commission's staff reportedly recommended what's called a "hearing designation order" to determine if the proposed $42.5 billion Comcast-TWC merger is within the best interest of consumers.A hearing designation order is an undesirable procedural move in which an administrative law judge would ultimately decide on the fate of the proposed merger. And while the FCC hasn't come right out and said it opposed the deal, this can be viewed as a strong sign that it's not on board with the idea of these two cable titans teaming up. This is the same move...
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The opposition to the $45 billion Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger is growing. Late last week, we reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust division is damn near close to recommending that the deal be nuked. The DOJ’s recommendations could ultimately lead to a lawsuit aimed at stopping the deal in its tracks. For its part, Comcast contends that a merger with TWC would be good for consumers. “There is no basis for a lawsuit to block the transaction,” said Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice last week. Fitzmaurice went on to add that the deal would “result in significant consumer benefits -- faster broadband speeds, access to a superior video experience, and more competition in business...
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We learned last week that Verizon would be updating its FiOS TV service to give customers a lot more freedom with regards to their channel selection, and we followed-up over the weekend about ESPN's immediate objection to the move. Despite ESPN's objections, FiOS Custom TV is now open to Verizon customers. Isn't business fun? To be fair to ESPN, a contract is a contract, and as outsiders, it's hard or impossible to tell if Verizon is in fact breaking an agreement. Nonetheless, the move Verizon has made is a good one. I wouldn't go to the extent of calling it "great" quite yet, as there are quite a number of caveats, but it's still a lot better than what was available before. In order to take...
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