Time Warner Cable has pulled the plug on CBS.

[Raizinman]

As a consumer I was a little surprised when some of the channels I turned to were not there. I feel a bit cheated as I'm paying for these channels and they are not available. Is this a violation of the time warner contract? Can I call them and demand a refund for these channels that they are not supplying me (yes, some are pay movie channels). I don't mind paying for what they supply, but when they don't supply, that is a breach of contract. Anybody have any luck getting them to reduce your bill due to failure to provide service?

 

[Engineer]

OT: If you have TWC internet service, you should see a small boost in upload and download speeds if you reboot your modem. Not a huge increase but it seems to be across the board on all tiers and across the country.

 

[jpiniero]

May not be so bad after all, it might give more people a reason to cut the cord.

 

[ViRGE]

If local broadcast stations make money from the over-the-air broadcast (which requires them to maintain high-wattage transmission equipment and FCC fees), then they make even more money when the cableco helps to redistribute their signal.

Want to know the dirty secret? They don't. OTA has become a matter of prestige, not profits. So few people don't have cable/satellite these days and ad rates are so low that they don't make any significant profits off of OTA viewers. Retransmission fees are now a significant chunk of the revenue of every traditional network, HSN and the other pay-for-placement networks withstanding.

The nationals are quickly transforming from a handful of major OTA networks to merely the biggest of the cable networks, who happen to also throw a bone to those relatively few people who don't have cable/sat.

 

[DrPizza]

Fantasy: "I hope TWC sticks to this."

Reality: TWC & CBS both know that as soon as football season rolls around, people will whine about it. Then, TWC will claim they had no alternative and will raise rates a little bit. More money into the pockets of CBS executives, more money into the pockets of TWC executives. NBC negotiates a bigger contract with the NFL. Pays the NFL more money. Overpaid football players make even more money. And, some poster here will claim, "that's how the 'free' market works,' ignoring two monopolies.

 

[Leros]

This happened a couple of years ago with another major channel. Things will be back to normal in a week or two. Rates might change a few percent.

 

[redgtxdi]

I was thinking I was going to miss Tiger's follow up round (at least til later tonite on Golf Channel) but then I remembered I picked up an HDTV antenna a few months ago off some fatwallet deal and selected "Antenna" input and......voila! Tiger, Tiger Woods y'all!

I want CBS to suck it hard. I'm no fan of TWC (or any other utility for that matter) but I just love somebody telling somebody else "no" for once.

 

[Leros]

I was thinking I was going to miss Tiger's follow up round (at least til later tonite on Golf Channel) but then I remembered I picked up an HDTV antenna a few months ago off some fatwallet deal and selected "Antenna" input and......voila! Tiger, Tiger Woods y'all!

I want CBS to suck it hard. I'm no fan of TWC (or any other utility for that matter) but I just love somebody telling somebody else "no" for once.

OTA is better quality than cable anyway.

 

[Phoenix86]

I was thinking I was going to miss Tiger's follow up round (at least til later tonite on Golf Channel) but then I remembered I picked up an HDTV antenna a few months ago off some fatwallet deal and selected "Antenna" input and......voila! Tiger, Tiger Woods y'all!

I want CBS to suck it hard. I'm no fan of TWC (or any other utility for that matter) but I just love somebody telling somebody else "no" for once.

:hmm:

 

[yuchai]

The best CBS programming for me is actually the morning show. I don't care much for the casual chatting style that most other shows use. I only want good reporting & relevant information and CBS offers exactly that.

I may have to dig out that indoor antenna and see how well that works.

 

[Oyeve]

As much as I liked Twc I got fios last week. Not because of cbs but because Twc was charging way too much. Saving like 80 bucks a month switching. They didn't even try to retain me.

 

[pyonir]

As a consumer I was a little surprised when some of the channels I turned to were not there. I feel a bit cheated as I'm paying for these channels and they are not available. Is this a violation of the time warner contract? Can I call them and demand a refund for these channels that they are not supplying me (yes, some are pay movie channels). I don't mind paying for what they supply, but when they don't supply, that is a breach of contract. Anybody have any luck getting them to reduce your bill due to failure to provide service?

You may want to call them after this ends and try and get credited for the downtime, especially Showtime/paid movie channels. When we had an issue with our satellite equipment, once fixed we were credited for the days we didn't have service. That's not TWC, it's DirecTV, but I would assume TWC would do the same thing for the channels you pay extra for.

 

[lupi]

Was reading that the last offer twc gave cbs was that they would restore all the channels, but as premium channels at whatever fee level cbs wanted to charge twc, for some reason cbs didn't want to do this and said twc was just playing pr games. Seems to me a pretty good move on their part if you think your fee would be seen as excessive if people had to directly pay it.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

The sad thing is watching people take "sides" in this whole debacle. Both companies are out to SCREW you in order to maximize THEIR profits. They don't give two shits about the consumer or what the consumer actually wants.

The best move you can make is to completely cut the cord and not give them your business. Yes I know, impractical for sports watchers but even an avid sports fan like myself has found ways to make due (Internet has lots of options). At the end of the day, the only way we will see change is by voting with our wallets.

 

[tboo]

NBC has been dropped by TWC in some markets as well over contract disputes, mostly in the Wisconsin area. There are going to be some pissed off Packer fans if they dont get to watch some of the preseason games covered by their local NBC station.

 

[poofyhairguy]

CBS lacks leverage now that Aereo won in court. TW could just build an array of antennas and stream OTA CBS to their customers.

 

[redgtxdi]

CBS lacks leverage now that Aereo won in court. TW could just build an array of antennas and stream OTA CBS to their customers.

Funny you say that. After I remembered I'd hooked up an antenna months ago, I told everyone here at work that if it were *ME* runnin the show, I'd put out a commercial on local channels stating that the local TWC office has a limited # of antennas available for customers being dissed by CBS & offer them for like $10 a pop!

Methinks a lot of folks would just need the motivation to go pick one up & hook it up to be willing to play CBS's game!

I finished watching Tiger clean up at the Firestone in uncompressed HD beauty via my antenna & couldn't be happier!!

 

[PingSpike]

Was reading that the last offer twc gave cbs was that they would restore all the channels, but as premium channels at whatever fee level cbs wanted to charge twc, for some reason cbs didn't want to do this and said twc was just playing pr games. Seems to me a pretty good move on their part if you think your fee would be seen as excessive if people had to directly pay it.

They should just install OTA modules in all their customers boxes, pipe the channels in there. Then offer CBS as an add on to customers who can't get it OTA, at the jacked up rate. Let CBS charge whatever they want and just pass it straight on to the consumer. Those guys will still bitch but there will hardly any of them because everyone else will opt for the OTA module. I don't know why they don't already do this honestly, I know the modules exist for some sat setups and its seamless from what I've read.

 

[Cal166]

OT: If you have TWC internet service, you should see a small boost in upload and download speeds if you reboot your modem. Not a huge increase but it seems to be across the board on all tiers and across the country.

Had 19MB download before, now 15MB after restart...more like a decrease.