TWC is being disingenuous when thye cry about wanting to protect it's customers from higher prices. That implies that they would only raise cable fees when the cost of doing business goes up. In reality they raise prices every year or two and will likely continue doing that regardless of whether their costs go up. I guess they don't feel cofortable raising prices as high as they'd need to in order to cover the CBS cost in such a short period of time. Yep, and TWC did the exact same thing to Dish Networks with their own brand new sports channel launched last year. TWC was asking for a very large fee. Dish used the same TWC P.R. move, crying to their customers that they didn't want to raise prices on their customers who weren't into watching spports. They finally worked it out. It is hard to see this thing going on too much longer. L.A. and NYC are the two largest media markets in the country and the NFL is starting soon. I can't see CBS being willing to refund all that ad money to the NFL for not broadcasting their ads. It makes more economic sense for them to forgo some of their projected profit and lower their demands. TWC only has to worry about losing customers to the dish companies (it would seem). I know I'm not going anywhere because I'm a Lakers fan and I need their sorry ass sports channel. (actually, it's not TOO bad)
I love TW and have had awesome customer service every time I've contacted them.. Not to mention their service has been damn reliable for many many years for me.
While it's more likely that it will be resolved given the channels involved Uverse to this day still doesn't have The Hallmark Channel because of a dispute like this that happened about two years ago or so.
Same here. Problems fixed quickly. Friendly representatives. I wont move from them, unless that changes. Having worked customer service I know what kind of A-holes people can be. People say things to you they would never say in public. So I know it's hard to be polite and cheerful and to make that one customer feel like he's the only one we have. They've done it without fail.
If a company can't make it on a hundred bucks or month they need to shut down. The infrastructure has already been paid for--and a hundred bucks a month is just fine for the greedy bastards.
Yes, because if, say, ten different channels decided to start charging $11 per person (just as a wild example), it's the cable/satellite dish company's fault that they can't give you all ten for $100. Simply because the infrastructure is already there.
This is a ridiculous statement. I have 100 unique HD channels, just say they each charge a carry fee of a dollar, there is your hundred dollars. That doesn't factor in maintenance of infrastructure, updating technology, paying customer service reps and technicians for service calls to fix minor and major outages. They also have to charge taxes as mandated by the Federal, State and Local governments. They also have to pay to maintain services for customers who don't have HD equipment. Then they also want to generate a profit.
Same here in So. Cal. Just in time for the NFL. I have a feeling this is gong to become a regular occurrence, though.
Welcome to the new cable industry. All your local affiliates are bought up by companies that want to make money off you and your cable provider. Then your cable provider, who do try and negotiate for your well being (I've been through this through a third party vendor for a cable company, so I have first hand experience), is unwilling to take all of those costs on, so your bill goes up. It's greedy versus greedy and we're in the middle. The only real way to stop it is to get rid of all the affiliates and have one CBS, one NBC, etc. for everyone.
That wouldn't have solved the problem - the dispute was between TWC and CBS the corporation. Both CBS and other CBS-owned channels were unavailable. The exact same thing would've happened in your scenario (except that potentially some affiliates were still available during this blackout; none would be if there was just the national channel).