Dec
02

Time Warner Polls Audience on New Fees

Time Warner Cable is running a new ad campaign centered around rising cable channel costs. They ask customers to vote for them to “Roll Over” or “Get Tough” with TV networks by going to www.rolloverorgettough.com.

It is an interesting strategy for the company. Of course every vote for “Roll Over” is essentially a ticket to pay higher costs, which will ultimately get passed on to the customer. A vote for “Get Tough” gives the company an excuse should they start removing channels for which they are unable to negotiate.

TWC’s strategy is in all likelihood formulated and they are simply harvesting data to support their negotiation stance. Certainly the company wants to offer as many channels as possible in order to match competitors’ offerings. If there is a significant message of “Roll Over”, TWC will simply pass along the fees. If there is a “Get Tough” mandate, TWC can begin removing channels, but this is most likely not their target result. In fact this option is being framed in the campaign as the TV Networks “taking away“ your shows.

Hence, the biased presentation of the ballot. The “Get Tough” option features a fast-forward icon while the “Roll Over” option displays a rewind icon. We’re Americans, dammit! We want to move forward and be tough! Yeah, and that’s why Time Warner is trying to easily mine data that covers their fannies should they fail in negotiations.

The channel offerings that are set to expire soon are:

WNVN-TV, WHFL-TV, WGHP-TV, WLFL-TV, WRDC-TV, Great American Country, E!, Encore(East), Encore(West), Encore Action, Encore Love, Encore Mystery, Encore Drama, Encore Westerns, Encore Wam!, Food Network, Fox Reality, Fox Soccer, Fox Sports Espanol, Fuel, FX, Lifetime, Speed, Starz!, Style, truTV, TV Azteca.

Wow! We actually get those channels? You mean we get more than Palladia, ESPN-HD, ESPN2-HD, and ESPNU-HD? (outside of free OTA programming, these are the only channels I care about). Unfortunately a la carte cable TV will never be a service offered in the current system (a federal and local government that completely coddles the cable TV industry), so it looks like our choices lie with rolling over, standing up, or just simply switching to U-Verse or satellite (two other options that are coddled by the government).

  • Kevin

    Maybe TimeWarner can explain why the cable internet prices are going up, again, to $54.95 for non-TV subscribers? Or, maybe they’d like to explain why my upload bandwidth is nearly the same as it was in the year 2000.

  • Chris

    Why not just give me an a la carte pricing menu and you can see firsthand which channels I will pay more for.

  • JeffS

    They’re just priming the pump for their next rate increase.

    It’s insulting to hear them pretend to care about the rate to consumers. If they did, they wouldn’t be forcing us to pay for the extra crap in the first place.

  • RaleighRob

    Wow…good analysis. Sounds like whichever you vote for, you’re gonna get screwed. Though, if that’s the list of channels they’d ax, I’m not too worried.

    I agree with Chris on a la carte pricing. I have no use for sports networks, shopping networks, or Fox News so I’d love to start there. Oh well.

  • Jenna

    At this point, my household subscribes to cable just to get Fox Soccer Channel. Everything else we watch is available on Hulu. The minute that live Premiership games are available reliably through the internet, we’re canceling. (Alternately, if TWC lets FSC expire, we’ll also cancel.)

    I’d love it if the government stopped giving cable providers special licenses and just let competition thrive, but I’m not holding my breath.

  • http://www.jonathanhawkins.net Jonathan Hawkins

    Fox Soccer Channel is one of the few channels I watch as well. I’ll be exploring other options immediately if they let it lapse. I’d be all for a la carte pricing; there are probably 400 or 500 channels on there, and I watch maybe 10 of them.

  • Lee L

    That website is a total scam. If you click Roll Over, it then asks if you really would not rather Get Tough and links to the Get Tough page.

    Clearly Time Warner has a strategy in mind already which is most likely, to continue to jack costs up even while denying various networks to the customers (win-win for TWC and lose-lose for customers) and is looking for some fake data they can point to later when complaints start.

  • Andrew

    It’s already been said, but a la carte pricing is the way to go. Why should I pay for Noggin and the Disney Channel (no kids yet) when I’d be HAPPY to pay for the NFL Network?

    Even the cable companies *could* profit from this pricing scheme, if they dramatically increase the prices on popular channels — or charge consumers an accurate, unbundled price for each channel ordered.

    I agree with the other commentators: Time Warner doesn’t actually care whether we say Get Tough or Roll Over. That’s why I won’t go near that Web site. What’s the point?

    So, who wants to start the revolution?

  • sam

    Revolution? I’ve been ready to start a fire for a long time. I wish TWC would get it together and stop ripping people off. I just dumped my ATT on the land line so and cut $75 a month off my bills. I’m all cell now, and I’m getting ready to go to to satelite very shortly. Programing over the internet is better than TWC. Saw the Jets/Bills game for free last night on my PC from the NFL Network.

Posted by Dana on December 2, 2009 | Tags: TV. | ( 9 ) Comments
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