Charter to buy Time Warner Cable (& continue with BrightHouse acquisition)

[TheRolyPoly 1843]

Huh. Really? I did not know that.

 

I wonder why they carry NY1 down there... isn't it really exclusively NY-focused coverage?

 

Yes... NY1 (in HD) can be seen on the digital HD tier in North Carolina and in Florida. I think in Florida, NY1 is available on Ch. 1214 on Bright House in both Tampa and Orlando markets.

[compubit 670]

Yes... NY1 (in HD) can be seen on the digital HD tier in North Carolina and in Florida. I think in Florida, NY1 is available on Ch. 1214 on Bright House in both Tampa and Orlando markets.

It was on in the hotel I was staying at in the Melbourne, FL area. Recorded several hours of programming from NY1 (as well as WESH/WKCF, WKMG, WFTV/WRDQ, WOFL and CFN13). No Bay News 9, though...

 

Jim

[TheRolyPoly 1843]

It was on in the hotel I was staying at in the Melbourne, FL area. Recorded several hours of programming from NY1 (as well as WESH/WKCF, WKMG, WFTV/WRDQ, WOFL and CFN13). No Bay News 9, though...

 

Jim

 

I wish I saw those recordings. Central Florida has become my second home to me, since I visit there every year.

[Eat News 4738]

Huh. Really? I did not know that.

 

I wonder why they carry NY1 down there... isn't it really exclusively NY-focused coverage?

 

It's because there are a few million present and ex New Yorkers in Fl at any given time.

[nomadcowatbk 144]

Huh. Really? I did not know that.

 

I wonder why they carry NY1 down there... isn't it really exclusively NY-focused coverage?

 

probably aimed old snowbirds in Miami and NY transplants in NC

[bgiesing 46]

I want to hear from an actual Charter Cable customer. What do you think about their service provided and also their customer service. Are they as bad as Comcast? Because I've had bad experiences with Time Warner and of course Comcast is always in the news, but I never seem to hear much about Charter.

 

I live in the St. Louis area (where Charter began and most operations still happen even though the headquarters moved to CT) and service is great. Faster than the only other provider (AT&T is 3 mbps down while Charter Spectrum is 60 mbps down) for less money (well still more than our budget so we dropped TV and do OTT but still cheaper than AT&T/DIRECTV).

 

Customer Service is way better than AT&T (our area doesn't have Comcast, Time Warner, or FIOS so I can't compare but I can guarantee anything is better than Comcast).

[ToriElectra 291]

Customer Service is way better than AT&T (our area doesn't have Comcast, Time Warner, or FIOS so I can't compare but I can guarantee anything is better than Comcast).

 

I've had Comcast since before I was born, and we've never actually had a problem with them- our internet's fast, there's an installer who lives just down our road (convenient), and X1 is awesome. My only real gripe is that they're not carrying Buzzr yet.

[scrabbleship 427]

I've had Comcast since before I was born, and we've never actually had a problem with them- our internet's fast, there's an installer who lives just down our road (convenient), and X1 is awesome. My only real gripe is that they're not carrying Buzzr yet.

 

I think that varies market by market since in many markets new subchannels were created. I know the scant number of Comcast systems in the NYC market do for one, ditto the isolated non-Fox O&O full power subchannel cases (Comcast does carry WLVI.2 in the Boston market).

[PelicanGuy 117]

Former Charter customer here. They serve areas north of Lake Pontchartrain and parts of the River Parishes (Baton Rouge metro and the immediate Southshore has Cox). Their service sucked in Washington Parish (where I live), with regular unexplained periodic outages, even during good weather. They bought out Washington Cablevision in the mid 90s. Service is awesome in Tangipahoa and St. Tammany parishes, with a government channel and Newswatch 15 and other channels (neither are available in Washington Parish).

 

My parent, myself and countless others ditched Charter for satellite after Hurricane Katrina because they had the nerve to cut service a day and half before the storm struck, then had the nerve to bill us for service two months after the storm...but we had no power until mid-October. Now a third party called Media3 out of Milan, Tenn. is running Charter's service in Washington Parish, which is connected to Picayune, Miss./Pearl River County's head-end, which leads me to believe Charter is ready to sell Washington Parish's stake, if they haven't sold to Media3 already.

[mvcg66b3r 97]

Now a third party called Media3 out of Milan, Tenn. is running Charter's service in Washington Parish, which is connected to Picayune, Miss./Pearl River County's head-end, which leads me to believe Charter is ready to sell Washington Parish's stake, if they haven't sold to Media3 already.

 

Media3 bought Charter's Washington Parish system in 2011.

https://apps.fcc.gov/coals/forms/opchange/opChangePdf.cfm?referenceNumber=248277747

 

Charter still has its Picayune system.

[Guest Former Member 207]

TWC's news channels are purely regional. You can see their regional news channels listed on the front page of http://www.twcnews.com/.

 

If you are outside of one of those regions, even if you are on Time Warner Cable, you don't get a TWC news channel. The same would apply to all of the Charter regions as well.

 

Oddly enough, some services areas in TWC's Los Angeles territory (particularly the Antelope Valley, in far-northern L.A. County) just got NY1 on their systems within the last month or so. Last time NY1 was on cable here in the L.A. area (albeit for a few months) was when the 9/11 attacks happened.

[Eat News 4738]

Oddly enough, some services areas in TWC's Los Angeles territory (particularly the Antelope Valley, in far-northern L.A. County) just got NY1 on their systems within the last month or so. Last time NY1 was on cable here in the L.A. area (albeit for a few months) was when the 9/11 attacks happened.

 

Lancaster and Palmdale are such hot beds for ex-New Yorkers...(not).

 

TW is up to something here...I don't care to speculate what it may be...but they are up to something sinister I bet.

[A3N 996]

Does anyone think that Charter might spin off a few areas to Comcast, or another cable provider?

[TheRolyPoly 1843]

Oddly enough, some services areas in TWC's Los Angeles territory (particularly the Antelope Valley, in far-northern L.A. County) just got NY1 on their systems within the last month or so. Last time NY1 was on cable here in the L.A. area (albeit for a few months) was when the 9/11 attacks happened.

 

Plus, the Antelope Valley now has their own TWC News channel, but it was never noticed at launched.

[LoadStar 363]

Does anyone think that Charter might spin off a few areas to Comcast, or another cable provider?

IMO, Unlikely on a short-term basis. There wouldn't be any need to do so for regulatory purposes, since even the combination of Charter, TWC, and Bright House would still result in a smaller combined company than Comcast. Additionally, many of the areas covered by TWC are directly adjacent to areas covered by Charter, resulting in a strong affinity between them.

 

Longer term, potentially, depending on how Charter decides to approach paying down their debt load. They might decide it's worth it to improve their liquidity to sell off a few markets.

[Breaking News 802]

Article from LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-charter-time-warner-puc-20160412-story.html

[mvcg66b3r 97]

FCC Proposes Charter-Time Warner Cable Merger Conditions

 

The FCC Monday circulated its expected approval—with conditions—of the proposed Charter-Time Warner Cable-Bright House merger. That followed the Department of Justice announcement it had allowed the deal to proceed with conditions.

 

“In conjunction with the Department of Justice, specific FCC conditions will focus on removing unfair barriers to video competition. First, New Charter will not be permitted to charge usage-based prices or impose data caps. Second, New Charter will be prohibited from charging interconnection fees, including to online video providers, which deliver large volumes of internet traffic to broadband customers. Additionally, the Department of Justice’s settlement with Charter both outlaws video programming terms that could harm OVDs and protects OVDs from retaliation– an outcome fully supported by the order I have circulated today. All three seven-year conditions will help consumers by benefitting OVD competition. The cumulative impact of these conditions will be to provide additional protection for new forms of video programming services offered over the Internet. Thus, we continue our close working relationship with the Department of Justice on this review.

 

“Importantly, we will require an independent monitor to help ensure compliance with these and other proposed conditions. These strong measures will protect consumers, expand high-speed broadband availability, and increase competition.”

 

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/fcc-proposes-charter-time-warner-cable-merger-conditions/155920

[CircleSeven 1944]

Here's the order of the greenlighted Charter/TWC/Bright House deal, released today.

 

The deal was voted 4-1.

[IndyNewsOpens 83]

I just read that Charter plans to retire the Time Warner Cable name tommorow, alongside the closing of the sale.

 

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2016/05/17/twc-to-officially-become-charter-communications-on-wednesday.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-17/so-long-time-warner-cable-charter-to-retire-much-maligned-brand

[Action Newsroom 1149]

Hmm...I wonder.

 

Charter News.

Charter Sportsnet.

 

Both have a nice ring to it.

Less words and less annoyance for starters.

[mrschimpf 2050]

Hmm...I wonder.

 

Charter News.

Charter Sportsnet.

 

Both have a nice ring to it.

Less words and less annoyance for starters.

 

Actually it'll probably be Spectrum; being in a Charter area for two decades they're really pushing for a fresh start by just pushing Spectrum over the old company names (Charter will remain as it's not in the dumps as bad as the TWC name). So it'll be more 'Spectrum News', 'NY1 News Spectrum'/'Spectrum NY1 News' and 'Spectrum SportsNet', which roll off the tongue very nicely.

[LoadStar 363]

I would suspect one reason they're retiring the Time Warner Cable brand is that they are licensing the "Time Warner" portion of the name from Time Warner, Inc. (and, I assume, making ongoing payments to do so).

[TheRolyPoly 1843]

Actually it'll probably be Spectrum; being in a Charter area for two decades they're really pushing for a fresh start by just pushing Spectrum over the old company names (Charter will remain as it's not in the dumps as bad as the TWC name). So it'll be more 'Spectrum News', 'NY1 News Spectrum'/'Spectrum NY1 News' and 'Spectrum SportsNet', which roll off the tongue very nicely.

 

Oh god no. No. No. That actually sounds awful. Why can't these channels revert back to their original names or at least a new name? I rather see NY1 go back to actually being called NY1 and that's it. Not "NY1 News Spectrum" or the other way around or anything else. Holy god.

 

Just keep it as NY1 News and I rather see Charter News than Spectrum News. As much as they're trying to push Spectrum now, I think they should just keep the names for those networks as Charter.

[mrschimpf 2050]

Oh god no. No. No. That actually sounds awful. Why can't these channels revert back to their original names or at least a new name? I rather see NY1 go back to actually being called NY1 and that's it. Not "NY1 News Spectrum" or the other way around or anything else. Holy god.

 

Just keep it as NY1 News and I rather see Charter News than Spectrum News. As much as they're trying to push Spectrum now, I think they should just keep the names for those networks as Charter.

 

Probably good odds that Charter just dumps the standardization with NY1 and just goes with 'NY1' most of the time and then 'NY1, the Spectrum news channel for the five boroughs exclusively on Charter & FIOS (and whatever else they're on)' in the copyright liner. Charter is one for simplicity in all of their branding.

[RGSJenkins 431]

Oh god no. No. No. That actually sounds awful. Why can't these channels revert back to their original names or at least a new name? I rather see NY1 go back to actually being called NY1 and that's it. Not "NY1 News Spectrum" or the other way around or anything else. Holy god.

 

Just keep it as NY1 News and I rather see Charter News than Spectrum News. As much as they're trying to push Spectrum now, I think they should just keep the names for those networks as Charter.

 

Probably good odds that Charter just dumps the standardization with NY1 and just goes with 'NY1' most of the time and then 'NY1, the Spectrum news channel for the five boroughs exclusively on Charter & FIOS (and whatever else they're on)' in the copyright liner. Charter is one for simplicity in all of their branding.

 

The only time NY1 uses their full name is on the opens & promos; and the only on-air person who says the full name is "The New York Times Close Up" host Sam Roberts (Technically, he works for The Times, not NY1) to the close the program.