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Time Warner 2010 price hikes mostly affect those who order the least
December 14th, 2009, 3:49 pm · 26 Comments · posted by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress
As mentioned last week, Time Warner Cable customers in Orange County and Southern California are getting letters that cable TV prices are going up in 2010.
However, the company did not share specific prices because it said the increases vary by customer. Some won’t even see any increase until after their one-to-two-year contract expires.
I, a Time Warner customer, have not received the letter. But I’ve received specifics from readers about the increase. I noted some in last week’s post, “Time Warner Cable is raising rates in January 2010.”
Reader Bill C., a Time Warner customer in Garden Grove, sent in a copy of the notice he just received. Looks pretty straightforward. Click chart below right for larger view.
The quick analysis: Customers who order less will see a larger price increase.
- The most basic users — broadcast cable subscribers who pay to get clear, over-the-air channels that are free — will see their monthly bill jump $2, or 11 percent, to $20 a month.
- Customers in a bundled-service plan (phone, TV, Internet) will see their overall package increase by $2.04 or $3.04 per month.
- Whether you order Internet Basic (1.5 Mbps) or Internet Turbo (15 Mbps), the price for Internet plans will go up $2.04.
- Renting a set-top box is rising to $7.85 per month — or up $1.54, which is about 25 percent.
- The “digital programming fee” is dropping 50 percent to $1, from $2. What exactly is this fee? An added charge for customers who rent more than one digital set-top box, says Time Warner. Added 4:19 p.m.: Fee also applies to CableCARD users.
Comparably, the increases are not as high as 2009, when most bundles went up $5 a month. The all-the-best bundle will go from last year’s $114.95 to next year’s $122.99 per month. Meanwhile, the aforementioned ‘Broadcast Cable” is going from $14 last year to next year’s $20. Check out last year’s story on the increases: “Time Warner Cable raising prices in 2009”
Based on covering Time Warner for the past year, here are a few reasons why prices are increasing:
- Time Warner makes more money off customers who order more services, so the 2010 price increases aren’t as hard a blow to bundled customers.
- Time Warner, like other cable companies, is trying to move analog and basic cable customers to digital,which is cheaper and frees space for the company to offer more HD channels.
- The TV channels are asking for more money. Right now, News Corp. (Fox), Scripps Networks Interactive (Food Network, HGTV), and other networks are negotiating for more money from Time Warner. The result? These “programming fee” get passed to the subscriber. Earlier this year, Time Warner said it has paid $3 billion in programming fees in the first nine months this year, up 7 percent from a year earlier. Keep in mind, every TV provider must deal with higher fees so I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear that the satellite TV and Internet TV companies are raising rates in 2010 as well.
- Time Warner is making less money on advertising. As noted in its quarterly report, advertising revenues dropped 19 percent.
- Time Warner is a business. Its stock price is trading at $42.93 today, down about 33 percent from its 52-week high of $68.22.
| More on 2010 price increases: |
It’s a Catch 22 for Time Warner. The company continues to lose video customers each quarter so it must spread the cost of operating a cable TV company among existing customers.
At least the company continues to add more features, such as several new HD channels this year. Plus it is gearing up to offer its DVR customers a way to watch TV shows they forgot to record. The company is also working on TV Everywhere, which would allow existing customers to watch some of the same shows online at their leisure.
For those who haven’t been following my Time Warner stories, I should also mention that there is one way to avoid the price increase other than canceling cable altogether. Commit to a one- to two-year contract before the rate hike to get the price locked in for a length of time.
Right now, Time Warner’s best offer for TV, phone and 15 Mbps Internet service is $109.99 a month — or $10 off per month with a one-year commitment. A 2-year commitment drops the price to $104.99 per month. More details HERE.
Recent Time Warner stories:
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Maybe the CEO can take a pay cut. How much does he/she make?
Maybe now TWC will have the money to fix the voice syncproblem so many of us are dealing with that have their DVR. It’s bloody terrible!!!!!!
Anyone that is still a Time Warner Cable customer deserves what there getting. Raise my rate once shame on you. Raise my rates twice shame on me.
Just so you know some of us have to have this company, if we live in certain areas they have the monopoly on our neighborhood so we have no choice! Think before you speak.
I agree with you Commonwealth, I had comcast and when they bought Adelphia cable part of the agreement was all of southern California, now I am looking at DirectTV Time Warners problem are still here they refuse to get the NFL Network due to cost.
They may put fox on a different pay tier for those who want the channel can pay extra like the nfl network channel
DirecTV sucks, do your own research online and look for complaints. I’m currently waiting for my contract to expire at the end of May… I’m already using the off air antenna and I get HDTV signal. For free. I watch commercials anyway, why pay DirecTV or Time Warner for the privilege?!
I really don’t know why we’re paying more anyway when more and more of theses channels go off the air after 1 am and just play their Paid Programming of get rich schemes. what happen to the good old days of old reruns.
JUST CUT THEM OFF AND BUY DVD’S UNTIL THEY CHOKE..
I’m going back to basic antenna.
Ok, Time Warner may be a business but its a lot like the public transportation system’s current problem. They keep raising their rates and losing ridership. Then they sit around at their meetings, scratching their heads and voting to raise the rates again.
With cable there is a lot of competition and it’s not even a necessity. I get that everyone has to raise their rates, but don’t insult us with your lame reasons why. In a few months I’m sure I will see the story about how many subscribers they have lost so far in 2010.
thank God I returned their freakin’ dvr boxes last year. as it is,things are harsh now adays. I keep it cheap and entertaining: I go rent dvd’s @ the what’s it called, “Red Box”?for $1.00 and @ my local dvd rentals store..3 dvds for $5.00..cant beat that. and NO RERUNS..Best of all ..I don’t support these RICH CORPORATIONS ON THEIR MEDIA MONOPOLY..
You failed to mention that the basic cable customers (the tier above broadcast) are losing channels even as the price goes up. It was ironic that they dropped the Weather Channel just as a major storm was moving in. In my area the digital service is poor. i would happily use On Demand (and increase their profits) if it ever worked for more than five minutes at a time. I’m moving to satellite.
They didn’t drop the Weather Channel, genius. They moved it to the digital side to save bandwidth. Basic Digital Subscribers still have the Weather Channel. You may have noticed that they also launched 10 HD channels on the same day that they “dropped” the Weather Channel, as you put it.
•The “digital programming fee” is dropping 50 percent to $1, from $2.
Why should it costs anymore for two boxs? There’s no extra costs on their side to send programming to another box. It’s just another rip off. I’ve alread cut my bill by cutting services, may have to cut more now.
I have a crazy idea, how about Time Warner cutting prices to attract new customers. I guess they’re too busy raising prices to think about that. The problem with their business model now, once you lose a customer it’s almost impossible to get them back. I see Time Warner losing more money in the future.
Who care’s? I mean really? It’s 2 bucks people, if thats going to break you then you shouldn’t have cable to start with.
I also hate rainbows and kittens they always try to raise taxes and and take my beer money when I’m asleep!
And all them sites that say .com, what the heckstein is a .com?
You “have to have this company” Commonwealth? Really? You can’t call DirecTV or Dish Network? You can’t put up a digital antenna? You can’t TURN THE STUPID TV OFF and experience life for a while?
Anyone who says they have to have TW cable needs to examine their priorities.
I’ve had a friend who hasn’t had cable for years. Just rents DVD’s, reads, and gets news off the computer. A little boring for party conversations, but otherwise, they seem to do ok. ; )
You don’t get any local programming with Dish or Direct TV. You may not care about what’s going on in your city…but there are many that do.
Dish Network carries all of the same local channels as Time Warner Cable.
I canceled my TWC subscription this past May when they could not reach a new carriage deal with HDNet. I switched to Dish Network, and I couldn’t be happier. When channels disappear from TWC, they don’t come back. Can somebody ask Darryl Ryan how the negotiations are going with the NFL Network?
I can imagine the hell that will break loose if all of the Fox channels disappear in 2010,
Can someone ask the NFL network why they won’t allow the channel to be place on a sports tier instead of raising their rates exponentially and asking ALL subscribers to pay more for a channel they may not want?
Really, you get programming that is as local as your CITY with Dish Network? Check again. I can’t imagine that you are watching your local city council meeting on Dish Network. You may not care about that, but many do.
Fox isn’t going anywhere. The same thing happened with Viacom last year. Fox wants to whip up the public so they can raise their carriage fees. They’ll come to an agreement.
Incidentally, how many of you have given a serious look at a digital antenna? Do you realize that this is not your grandfather’s rabbit ears antenna? One of my TVs – the others are on DirecTV – is on a digital antenna, and it pulls in 16 channels with a perfect signal. Each local affiliate has at least a couple of channels out there. There is a 24 hour weather station, all the networks, and enough public TV channels that there is always kid’s programming on somewhere. I’ve already decided to switch to digital antennas when my DirecTV contract is up. Between digital antennas and the hookup between my computer and TV, there’s nothing I won’t be able to see for a fraction of the cost of cable or satellite.
[...] published HERE at The Orange County Register on December 14th. By Tamara [...]
TWC has a contract with each network to provide service. Part of that is the On Demand feature that I am sure each network has contracted for. But TWC does not post all of the episodes for each show that they promise!
AMC’s Mad Men and Breaking Bad had only a few episodes posted. Same with Rescue Me, Sons of Anarchy, Burn Notice, and more.
HBO has a contract for True Blood and From the Earth to the Moon episodes. HBO has a different list the TWC and we may never see each episode because that is the way TWC works.
How, on earth, could any provider have someone in every market checking what is actually shown?
We get ripped off and so do the nets.
I would like to see the non english channels removed. If you want thejm ask for them.
Time Warner cable customer