Time Warner Cable Also Raising TV, DVR RatesDoing 'everything in their power' to try and stop taking more of your money... 01:08PM Thursday Oct 30 2008 by Karl Bodetags: prices · business · cable · consumers · RoadRunner CableOn the heels of hike announcements from Comcast, Cox, Mediacom and Cablevision, Time Warner Cable customers say they're receiving notices saying they'll be seeing rate hikes of their own. While hikes are determined on a market-by-market basis by Time Warner Cable (in part by competition or lack thereof), many users are being told they'll be paying $1 more for DVR service. Users in Ohio are being told they'll see hikes between 10 and 12 percent starting in November. The e-mail to customers suggests Time Warner Cable feels just horrible about charging more: We know you expect and deserve quality programming and outstanding customer service. Our goal is always to provide you with the best value. However, with many of our fixed costs escalating, we are forced to adjust the prices of some of our services accordingly. We are doing everything in our power to control programming costs, which are increasing dramatically every year. Everything? How about using the revenue gained from your new entry into DNS Redirection advertising and the money saved from your decision to no longer offer newsgroup access to offset programming hikes? Or did you not really mean everything?
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 MacAlert
join:2005-03-16
Flushing, NY
edit:
October 30th, @01:08PM
| Yet more increases All TW does is increase rates. I have yet to see better service or better customer service. Internet speeds get progressively slower and video quality is getting worse. Horrible! | |
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mrchris
America the pitiful
Premium
join:2002-10-01
North Babylon, NY |  Re: Yet more increases
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| | Emiya
join:2006-03-30
Southington, OH
| Unfortunately where I live in northeast Ohio there isn't any ISP that can even closely match their speed or I would drop Roadrunner like I dropped TV service. I can't say I love everything about DirectTV but at least I don't get rate hikes like this. Plus I get FSN-Pittsburgh which TWC told me years ago I'd never see again in NEO. | |
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XPAMD
Premium
join:2002-06-08
united state
 ·ViaTalk
| Re: Yet more increases That's because Direct TV doesn't have a cable plant to maintain. They only have to worry about getting the channels from from the various networks and those birds in orbit.
Granted no cable company is perfect, they don't always maintain their crap very well. When it works, it works, when it doesn't ...we say they suck.
Compared to Satellite, they DO have more costs to pass to the customer. It's not like they're trying to make a profit or anything... 
Do I like higher prices, no.
Personally as hard as it was, in the summer, I turned my DVR back into them and dropped down to the "limited" cable package to reduce my costs.
With this hike THAT even went up to close to $15/month plus I have roadrunner. Fortunately they broadcast the local HD's in the clear, plus a few other of the OTA digital channels that you can't get with analog only. | |
| | | | dunworkin
Premium
join:2006-12-18
Bellflower, CA | Re: Yet more increases How much are the cable companies spending on satellite building, launching and fixed receiving sites? I would guess it costs a tad bit more to launch a new bird than put up a brick building to house your equipment. | |
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Corehhi
join:2002-01-28
Bluffton, SC
| said by Emiya  :Unfortunately where I live in northeast Ohio there isn't any ISP that can even closely match their speed or I would drop Roadrunner like I dropped TV service. I can't say I love everything about DirectTV but at least I don't get rate hikes like this. Plus I get FSN-Pittsburgh which TWC told me years ago I'd never see again in NEO. MY cable, ISP and telephone are all the same company and I zero other choices. Long distance carrier is the only thing I can pick. | |
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antdude
A Ninja Ant
Premium,VIP
join:2001-03-25
| said by Emiya :Unfortunately where I live in northeast Ohio there isn't any ISP that can even closely match their speed or I would drop Roadrunner like I dropped TV service. I can't say I love everything about DirectTV but at least I don't get rate hikes like this. Plus I get FSN-Pittsburgh which TWC told me years ago I'd never see again in NEO. Same here for me with Internet. I can go back to unlimited dial-up for $21.95, but why for 3 KB/sec? :P | |
| | | | | MacAlert
join:2005-03-16
Flushing, NY
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Yet more increases said by BSD24 :said by MacAlert :All TW does is increase rates. I have yet to see better service or better customer service. Internet speeds get progressively slower and video quality is getting worse. Horrible! All TV providers raise rates, even the Telcos, so take your pick. If you leave TW, your going to go to another provider lets say you go to Verizon Fios. They are raising rates just like everyone else has and will be. Last year Verizon's rate hikes were higher than most cable operators. I wouldn't mind an increase if the service they provide warrants it. | |
| | | | Kearnstd
Elf Wizard
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ
| Re: Yet more increases well one thing would be is for the delivery people(cable, telco, sat) to all band togather and across the board refuse to pay the content providers more and more money every year. a company like disney would have no choice if Comcast, TWC, FiOS, ATT, Cox, CV, Charter all told them where to shove their demand for more money.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports | |
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Vchat20
Landing is the REAL challenge
join:2003-09-16
Warren, OH
| Re: Yet more increases said by Kearnstd :well one thing would be is for the delivery people(cable, telco, sat) to all band togather and across the board refuse to pay the content providers more and more money every year. a company like disney would have no choice if Comcast, TWC, FiOS, ATT, Cox, CV, Charter all told them where to shove their demand for more money. A-friggin-men.
Sadly you also have another side to it: With the likes of DirecTV who have money to throw around, they can live with the price hikes by the content providers and god forbid they get high enough that everyone else (ie: TW, Comcast, ATT, etc.) can't afford it, it becomes a PR goldmine. I think the whole NFL channel fiasco and TW/DirecTV speaks for itself.
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I swear, some people should have pace-makers installed to free up the resources. Breathing and heart beat taxes their whole system, all of their brain cells wasted on life support.-two bit brains, and the second bit is wasted on parity! ~head_spaz | |
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RARPSL
join:1999-12-08
Suffern, NY
| said by Kearnstd :well one thing would be is for the delivery people(cable, telco, sat) to all band togather and across the board refuse to pay the content providers more and more money every year. a company like disney would have no choice if Comcast, TWC, FiOS, ATT, Cox, CV, Charter all told them where to shove their demand for more money. If they try that the Content Providers would scream to the Government who would respond by having the Justice Department (or the FCC) go after the delivery companies with Anti-Trust charges (for banding together to "strong arm" the Providers). | |
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Zen6
@rr.com | That would be real nice, lin tv is a perfect example. | |
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maartena
Nice'n Round.
Premium
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by MacAlert :All TW does is increase rates. I have yet to see better service or better customer service. Internet speeds get progressively slower and video quality is getting worse. Horrible! Here in Socal we have been treated with 12 new HD channels, and about 20 more coming 1st quarter 2009. Turbo subscribers are being upgraded to 15/2 from 10/1. E-Mail attachements have been upgraded from 10 to 20, and mailbox size was upgraded from 5 to 100 megs. Additionally, there have been a dozen or so other channel additions.
You can debate of course how much that should be worth, and whether it should be considered "better service", but they have been handing out more stuff over the last year or so. | |
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cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
 ·Verizon FIOS
| Fixed costs... quote:
with many of our fixed costs escalating,
Where to start...
...well if they are fixed costs why are they becoming more expensive? Apparently they aren't fixed...
...are DVRs suddenly more expensive to produce? No. Are they more expensive to operate? No. Are cable companies able to just willy nilly raise rates just because they can to increase revenues? Bingo.... | |
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MacLeech
The one and only
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-14
SoCal
| Re: Fixed costs... said by cdru : quote:
with many of our fixed costs escalating,
Where to start... ...well if they are fixed costs why are they becoming more expensive? Apparently they aren't fixed... Maybe you should really know what fixed costs are before you comment on them. Typical examples of "fixed costs" would be rent, utility costs, property taxes, interest on debt, insurance, plant and equipment expenses, business licenses, and salary of permanent full-time workers. | |
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cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
·Verizon FIOS
| Re: Fixed costs... said by MacLeech :Maybe you should really know what fixed costs are before you comment on them. I know what fixed costs are. It was a poor attempt at humor. I'll try to keep all my posts serious from now on since I apparently failed in my attempt. | |
| | | | | | | oldbuzzard
join:2001-12-06
Hudson, OH
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by MacLeech :said by cdru : quote:
with many of our fixed costs escalating,
Where to start... ...well if they are fixed costs why are they becoming more expensive? Apparently they aren't fixed... Maybe you should really know what fixed costs are before you comment on them. Typical examples of "fixed costs" would be rent, utility costs, property taxes, interest on debt, insurance, plant and equipment expenses, business licenses, and salary of permanent full-time workers. It's hard to imagine those adding up to 10-12%. Core inflation is running in the mid 2's. | |
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MacLeech
The one and only
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-14
SoCal
| Re: Fixed costs... said by oldbuzzard :It's hard to imagine those adding up to 10-12%. Core inflation is running in the mid 2's. Last I read core inflation leaves out energy costs, channel licensing costs, and costs for new FCC mandates.
It's easy to imagine those adding several percentage points per year to costs on top of core inflation.
Personally, I wouldn't use CORE inflation to judge what cable companies cost increases are. | |
| | | | | oldbuzzard
join:2001-12-06
Hudson, OH
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Fixed costs... said by MacLeech :said by oldbuzzard :It's hard to imagine those adding up to 10-12%. Core inflation is running in the mid 2's. Last I read core inflation leaves out energy costs, channel licensing costs, and costs for new FCC mandates. It's easy to imagine those adding several percentage points per year to costs on top of core inflation. Personally, I wouldn't use CORE inflation to judge what cable companies cost increases are. I'd bet everything I have that TW's % increase in all of those areas is closer to core inflation than the 10-12% that they are charging. Further, in most industries, they absorb cost increases at least partly through increased productivity and efficiencies. | |
| | 
BSD24
Premium
join:2008-04-30
Taunton, MA
clubs:
·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| said by cdru : quote:
with many of our fixed costs escalating,
Where to start... ...well if they are fixed costs why are they becoming more expensive? Apparently they aren't fixed... ...are DVRs suddenly more expensive to produce? No. Are they more expensive to operate? No. Are cable companies able to just willy nilly raise rates just because they can to increase revenues? Bingo.... Maybe shipping costs went up since gas had gone up? Maybe theft has increased - similar to insurance companies recouping losses from fraud and theft by raising rates in the community where they occur. But I'm sure they raise various rates for various reasons, not just these. | |
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maartena
Nice'n Round.
Premium
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by cdru : quote:
with many of our fixed costs escalating,
Where to start... ...well if they are fixed costs why are they becoming more expensive? Apparently they aren't fixed... ...are DVRs suddenly more expensive to produce? No. Are they more expensive to operate? No. Are cable companies able to just willy nilly raise rates just because they can to increase revenues? Bingo.... Here's a few examples of increasing costs you may not have thought about:
1) Fuel. Fuel is used in TWC trucks and service vehicles, and although the price of fuel has dropped below $3 again here in California, for a while we were paying over $4, where just 2 years ago we were barely paying $2. That is a pretty steep increase in the monthly fuel bill.
2) Electricity. Partly because of fuel, partly because of deregulation (like in California) electricity prices have gone up tremendously in the last 5 years. 5 years ago, my monthly bill was $50 on a winter's day (summer I use AC and its more). Now it is almost $90, and I haven't added a lot of equipment. As a matter of fact, I have changed all bulbs for energy efficient ones, and got rid of a TV that used more electricity then the new one I got. TWC uses electricity pretty much EVERYWHERE in their network.
3) HDTV. Like it or not, but the HDTV revolution costs money, and expensive upgrades to cable equipment to be able to deliver more channels and more on-demand to households.
4) Inflation. Like it or not, but even a healthy nation has an inflation rate of about 2% a year, and the battered economy of the US currently has an inflation that is more like 4 or 5%. Over a period of 5 years, everything has gotten at least 10 to 20% more expensive.
5) And just to get back to the DVR's you are mentioning: Most of them are produced in Asia, and those that are made right here contain at least a number of components from Asia, and due to the sinking dollar anything that is being imported is more expensive, so the price of producing a DVR, and the price at which TWC can buy them has increased. See also inflation above.
I am not an economist, far from it.... i hate numbers actually. But it doesn't take a genios to read the writing on the wall, and understanding the current crisis we are in. And I am not even taking into account the increasing costs of keeping employees on, like the raised minimum wage, health insurance, business taxes, credit lines that they can no longer get, etc, etc, etc.... | |
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fireflier
Coffee. . .Need Coffee
Premium
join:2001-05-25
Limbo
·Skype
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: okkkkk... said by BSD24 :Now we should also consider the recent times where gas prices went up a lot, since Jan/Feb of 2008. Now they have gone down, but you didn't see cable operators or Telcos raising rates as soon as gas went up. But it did cost them more money durring that time that they probably need to recoup now. Based on that line of reasoning, would you expect to see cable prices drop in a few months now that the price of gas has gone down and assuming it stays down for some time?
--
Tradition: Just because you've always done it that way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid. --despair.com | |
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Phil
Rojo Sol
Premium
join:2001-06-11
Camarillo, CA
·DSL EXTREME
| Goodbye Time Warner... ...you won't be missed. November 21 Verizon's FiOS service is scheduled to be installed at my new place.
In Time Warners defense, they have provided a solid Internet connection in my area, primarily fueled by Verizon's FiOS also being in the area and therefore allowing plenty of available capacity on my node.
On the other hand, the picture quality has eroded over the past couple of months with standard definition channels being the hardest hit. This occurred ~2-3 months back and has been attributed to further compression of existing channels making room for additional HD programming. | |
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viperpa33s
Why Me?
Premium
join:2002-12-20
Bradenton, FL | Amazing They feel sorry for the price hikes but don't feel sorry for testing low internet caps, amazing.
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Got Change? Better hide it before Obama taxes it! | |
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hobgoblin
Sortof Agoblin
Premium
join:2001-11-25
Orchard Park, NY
clubs:
| Re: Amazing said by viperpa33s :They feel sorry for the price hikes but don't feel sorry for testing low internet caps, amazing. Now thats a real stretch!
Hob
--
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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fireflier
Coffee. . .Need Coffee
Premium
join:2001-05-25
Limbo
·Skype
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Amazing Why would that be such a stretch? Obviously a 40GB cap represents a potential revenue stream if a user goes over (particularly if said user is locked into a 12 month contract with ETFs). It is at the very least a potential cost saving measure. I'm sure the argument will persist that they're only testing it. I don't buy into a company investing in resources to "test" something they have no intention of implementing in any fashion whatsoever.
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Tradition: Just because you've always done it that way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid. --despair.com | |
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SirXILE
The SolWar 2-1
Premium
join:2001-02-24
Brooklyn, NY | The sorriness does not matter. We consumers don't believe in that sympathy. :-/ | |
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hobgoblin
Sortof Agoblin
Premium
join:2001-11-25
Orchard Park, NY
clubs:
| Re: Cable free and loving it! said by PhoenixDown :I enjoy not having a cable tv bill  Yet you still spend your time posting in cable related threads!
Hob
--
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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TWLame
@rr.com
| TWC in the Heartland Rising prices? Today most non-locally originated HD channels and on-demand are not working. No one seems to notice, and the call center has not clue one. I did get a call back 2 hours later and they said there WAS a problem (surprise). This is in a few areas south of Kansas City so I suppose no one out here - er - notices? Now they have an announcement on their phone line. I opined that it would be nice to have call center reps given notice of outages... | |
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MagMan
Life is simpler when you tell the truth.
Premium
join:2003-10-01
Westlake, OH
·AT&T Midwest
·AT&T Midwest
| Cable sucks All cable companies suck period, doesn't matter which one it is.
They do and charge what they want, customer service means nothing.
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"The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is." | |
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RRMAN
Premium
join:2007-04-02
Cleveland, OH
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Cable sucks And Dish and DirecTV are better? Yeah right! NOT! They all raise rates. Live with it or watch DVD's the rest of your life other than that who cares? No one seems to care that gas goes up and down if you mention anything.
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Two people shorten a road. | |
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See 14 replies to this post | |
Jeff Simmermon
@rr.com
| bogus Hi -- in case it's not clear, I'm the Director of Digital Communications at Time Warner Cable.
Be careful, Karl -- your anti-cable bias is already pretty obvious, and if you bend over much further it'll be completely exposed.
AT&T, DISH, DirecTV and Verizon all raised their rates in the last year, too -- and it's telling that they're not mentioned here.
Everybody knows that programming, labor, fuel and other costs are rising, and businesses raise rates to reflect costs. The difference here is that when the price of bread and milk goes up, nobody sends out an e-mail. | |
| | cryptmagic
Premium
join:2006-06-26
New York, NY
| Re: bogus I'm glad i got two new Tivo HD'S sure I cant get on demand or paper view, but i rarely use those features. And at least you pay for the tivo and lifetime in today's dollars, and avoid all the price increases for the boxes from Time Warner. You can't avoid the service price increasing, but in 3 years you can pay of the cost of the box. | |
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Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-01
IA
| Re: bogus said by cryptmagic :I'm glad i got two new Tivo HD'S sure I cant get on demand or paper view, but i rarely use those features. And at least you pay for the tivo and lifetime in today's dollars, and avoid all the price increases for the boxes from Time Warner. You can't avoid the service price increasing, but in 3 years you can pay of the cost of the box. Assuming your TiVO will last that long. I'd rather pay monthly for my DVR service and not worry if the DCT will die.
I'd rather rent a DCT for $10/mo and get service for $9.95 as opposed to paying $300 upfront and $12.95/mo plus cable card fee ($1.99).
So it's a saving of $5 a month. In my mind it's like paying insurance for the DCT. Plus it would take 60 months just to get the $300 back and by then your TiVO can be dead or obsolete because your cable co made some changes. Most likely the cable co rates will go up in that time frame but still it's not something I would ever invest money in. | |
| | rid0617
join:2003-07-20
Greer, SC | How about reducing executive bonuses and then cry rate increase? We are getting tired of being hammered while SEC quarterly reports inform us of executive salaries and bonuses. | |
| | | | rob27
Premium
join:2008-07-16
Mary Esther, FL
·Cox HSI
| Well, if your for real, register on here and offer support on the TWC forum. I don't think they have any.
If your sick and tired of what he posts, don't read it. I agree news needs to stay balanced not anti cable and pro DSL.
(and yes, I think DSL sucks as it's slow)
This is why I WISH they wouldn't allow for annon posters on here.
-Rob
--
»www.cband.info A great way to pass the time! Interactive (IRC) radio you won't find elsewhere!
Put Winamp or Itunes to good use and join our growing family | |
|
JR101
@rr.com | socialist cable How do you think tw pays for all those "free" service calls. Saw a tw cable truck at my neighbors house 3 times in 2 weeks because he is always messing with his cable on weekends. Those costs get passed on to us. | |
| TWCdude
join:2006-04-28
San Antonio, TX | Not too bad here In San Antonio the DVR went from $9.95 to $9.99. And the stand alone RR went down from $46.95 to $39.99 | |
| | richardak
join:2001-07-08
Seguin, TX
edit:
October 31st, @08:59AM
| Re: Not too bad here You wouldn't happen to have a link to their website showing their rates for Roadrunner would you? I've looked all over and can only find their stupid bundles.
»www.timewarnercable.com/sananton···Services | |
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CajunTek
Insane Cajun
Premium,MVM
join:2003-08-08
Arlington, TX | No Rise in Rates for Me Hmmm I posted this in the RR forum but it really fits here better. I got a call the other day from TW and they said my bundle was obsolete. The reduce my bill by 15 bucks a month..
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da Cajun Darn I hate Malware | |
| | 
cbyrd
Where's The Any Key?
join:2001-07-11
Murfreesboro, NC
clubs:
| Re: No Rise in Rates for Me said by CajunTek :Hmmm I posted this in the RR forum but it really fits here better. I got a call the other day from TW and they said my bundle was obsolete. The reduce my bill by 15 bucks a month.. I dumped TW after they took over Adelphia and jacked my rate for basic cable + internet to $120 / month. Didn't look back, don't plan to. Screw them.. They can DIAF. I tell everyone who asks to dump them, get dish or DTV and get dsl through Embarq. It comes out much cheaper and you get HD as a bonus...which TW still does not offer here.
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I like to break stuff | |
| | | Infoman1
join:2001-03-21
Hubbard, OH
| Re: No Rise in Rates for Me I agree with you! Time Warner is a scam. They have consistently raised prices year after year. Programming additions are non existent with false advertising and promises. There technical support is off shore based out of India, there customer service stinks, and they spend needless dollars sending out techs to do absoulutely nothing to correct a problem. If your fortunate enough to live in market where they have been HD additions and rollouts, your luckey. For the rest of us were shit outta luck and still pay the higher premiums.
It's all about maxium profit and acquistions of other failed cables and financing there debt. It has nothing to do with providing the consumer with top notch programming and service. Cable deregulation was the WORST thing that was done. Just another Wall Stret scam IMHO! | |
|
Daveinkent
@comcast.net
| Remember These are companies trying to make a profit and please their shareholders.
If you look at the last 10 years worth of financial records, you'll see they've stayed about the same, if not declined some what. But programming costs (which is the costs the companies pay to HBO, MAX, USA Networks, Vivendi, etc etc etc) and equipment costs have been going up drastically.
If we want to yell and raise a fuss with someone, its got to be with the content providers themselves. | |
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dvr cost?