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A la carte and Time Warner? Don’t hold your breath

December 4th, 2009, 3:26 am by
Time Warner Cable Q&A, December 2009
Read the series:

Last month, I met with Time Warner Cable’s local leadership, Deborah “Debi” Picciolo, president of residential services for the West Region, and Clarence Caldwell, president of network operations/engineering for the West Region. I’ve finally had time to compile the question and answer post to help readers understand their cable company just a bit better. Those answers are HERE.

Now let me get to one of the bigger questions: When will Time Warner offer a la carte so customers can pay only for the channels they want to watch?

Answer: Don’t hold your breath. Time Warner is taking the National Cable & Telecommunications Association position. The organization is the cable industry’s trade group,which earlier this year detailed this stand: A la carte forces prices up.

That statement is up for serious debate. And here are a few groups who say baloney to the notion that channel choice means higher prices. The Consumer’s Union, which publishes Consumer Reports, says choice will encourage consumers to try paid TV services (this FCC filing points out the cable industry’s flaws in the argument).

But here are some reasons why the cable industry believes cable TV prices will increase if consumers paid only for the channels they wanted. Now, bear with me since I can already hear readers’ snarky responses: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • | 7 Comments »

Time Warner Cable: Unanswered questions

December 3rd, 2009, 12:45 pm by
Time Warner Cable Q&A, December 2009
Read the series:

If you’ve been following my Time Warner Q&A series, a number of reader questions were answered by the cable company’s staff and others were answered during my face-to-face interview with the local presidents, Deborah “Debi” Picciolo, president of residential services for the West Region, and Clarence Caldwell, president of network operations/engineering for the West Region.

But about three dozen questions still weren’t answered. I’ve pasted them all below in case any of the folks at Time Warner would like a second chance at responding.

UPDATE, added 4:20 p.m.: I just spoke to Darryl Ryan, Time Warner’s media relations guy and he wanted to add that Time Warner appreciated all the questions. He said the company learns a lot about what customers really want when they get questions like this batch. But not all were answered because questions either dealt with a future product or service (multi-room DVR) or the question was too limited to one user’s experience. Ryan suggests always calling customer service (888-TWCABLE) to get the issue documented.

I’ve added my own answers to some of the questions. If readers have answers, or links to answers, please post as comments and I’ll move them up.

Unanswered Questions

1. When is ABC on demand coming?

[Gadgetress: ABC is owned by Disney, which is pretty powerful when it comes to negotiating how much it wants to charge paid-TV providers to carry its channels.]

2. When will Setanta Sports become available?

[Gadgetress: To request the channel, go HERE.] Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

Time Warner Cable answers reader questions

December 3rd, 2009, 12:08 pm by
Time Warner Cable answers questions, Dec. 2009.
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Readers asked questions, and Time Warner Cable’s local presidents responded. Mostly.

Back in October, I told readers that Time Warner was letting me meet Deborah “Debi” Picciolo, president of residential services for the West Region, and Clarence Caldwell, president of network operations/engineering for the West Region.  Picciolo and Caldwell, pictured below on right, were willing to answer questions. So, readers asked away.

Picciolo and Caldwell were patient and responsive. And they’re relatively new to Time Warner. Picciolo joined three years ago from Comcast Corp. Caldwell came in 2007 from Cox Communications.

twcpres2009For those keeping track, Time Warner acquired the Orange County operations of Adelphia and Comcast in April 2006. Customers have had everything to complain about ever since, as Time Warner faced merging billing systems, customer service, programming, equipment. In Orange County, Time Warner combined its billing systems last fall. Picciolo said call-center operations consolidated in June.

During the interview, I concentrated on a few major questions:

  • How much work is left in Orange County?
  • Why are cable prices so high?
  • When are we getting more HD channels? (Here’s an answer.)

And then there is the a la carte question many readers want answered: When will Time Warner let customers pay for only the channels they want to watch?  These key questions I split up as separate posts and will publish them in upcoming days.

I went through all the reader questions that made it by my Nov. 1 deadline and categorized them. I edited some for clarity and consolidated duplicate questions and submitted them to Darryl Ryan, director of media relations. My instructions to him: Please answer all questions possible with simple responses. Follow-up questions can be asked later.

Not all questions were answered, but I’ve listed them in case Picciolo, Caldwell or Ryan would like to try again (Update: Here’s the list of unanswered questions). Answers are categorized in these topics:

  • Programming
  • DVR questions
  • Customer service, pricing
  • Technical, reception

Here are the questions:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • | 54 Comments »

Have a question for Time Warner Cable?

October 23rd, 2009, 8:26 am by

Time Warner Cable signMany of us have a love-hate relationship with the cable TV provider. Sometimes, it’s just due to a lack of communication. Here’s your chance to get questions answered by Time Warner Cable.

I’ll be meeting with the top brass of the company’s Orange County and Los Angeles regions — Debi Picciolo, president of residential services for the West Region, and Clarence Caldwell, president of network operations and engineering – in November. It’s an opportunity for me and readers to get some unresolved questions answered. A few for starters:

  • When, if ever, will we see a la carte cable TV service?
  • When will we get that multi-room DVR?
  • And why does cable service cost so darn much?

Time Warner is willing to hear all questions readers have, so I’m offering you a chance to ask. Simply leave a comment below. That way, others can see what’s been asked and/or offer their own 2 cents on the topic. The company has promised to work with me to get questions answered so let’s give them some good ones.

I’ll be collecting questions until Nov. 2. Of course, if you leave one after this deadline, I’ll still try to get it answered at some point.

The 10 most recent Time Warner stories:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • | 148 Comments »

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