New Technology TV

Time Warner Cable offers programming for over 14 million customers every month. They offer programming packages for families that want to come home and relax after a long, hard day, and other services such as high-speed online service and digital phone services that help busy families stay in touch with loved ones and friends all over the United States. These services are offered in a bundle that allows customers the services they need without high monthly rates that would be unaffordable for many households.

Time Warner Cable is a trusted name, having done business for almost 50 years, offering transparency and communication with their customers, where other providers have not. So, when Time Warner Cable starting getting pressured to pay more for their programming to broadcast companies like Fox, resulting inevitably in customers having to pay more, they took the problem back to their customers with the same transparency they are known for. To get the word to their customers on what was transpiring behind closed doors, Time Warner Cable launched a public education campaign that was aimed at giving the consumer a general overview of the process, while revealing specific details about the current contract negotiations between the cable TV provider and Fox.

The campaign to educate the public and, more specifically, Time Warner Cable customers came about as a consequence of failed negotiations between Time Warner Cable and Fox, which is owned by News Corp. Negotiations stalled after Time Warner Cable refused to pay price increases that would have had Time Warner Cable customers paying at least 300% more than what they currently pay for cable TV programming.

The campaign was called Roll Over or Get Tough. It entailed detailed explanations of the contract and negotiation process in general, and more specifically, the situation with News Corp over current negotiations. Time Warner Cable put out information concerning their situations and advertised the site online and in print to get the word to current Time Warner Cable customers. Subscribers were invited to log on at www.rolloverorgettough.com to get a thorough explanation and vote on whether or not Time Warner Cable should pay the new, higher rates, ultimately costing customers valuable money and resources that would be better used elsewhere, or to hold out and not pay them, even if it cost subscribers their favorite programming.

Since the campaign started, more than 600,000 viewers have logged on, with 400,000 customers saying Time Warner Cable should not “roll over” and pay the higher rates News Corp is trying to charge, even if it is their favorite programming.

A decision is expected to be reached no later than December 31, 2009 for current contractual pricing. If not, News Corp will lose a valuable customer and Time Warner Cable subscribers will lose familiar favorites.

With a vast number of Americans still out of work, or fighting their way back from a period of unemployment, an extra monthly expense incurred for any reason is not welcome. Time Warner Cable Packages offer their customers an educated choice on where they want their money to go.

With Charter Cable, families have more options and choices for affordable, family-friendly rates. Charter Cable offers digital cable TV programming, high-speed online services and affordable local and long distance rates to help the family stay in touch with loved ones and friends.

Charter Cable has detailed information on their products and services listed on their website at Charter.com. This information includes pricing and monthly rates for individual services or for bundled services. Charter Cable makes it easy for the family to get what they need for communication and entertainment by allowing customers to build their own bundles or to choose from a variety of bundles designed by Charter Cable.

For current Charter Cable customers, Charter Cable offers the Charter.net site. This site has valuable resources the entire family can benefit from, with online bill pay options and links to important topics of interest. It can be personalized to make sure that families only get the information they want, leaving out the unnecessary links.

These features and services include an online TV guide that gives up-to-date listings for regular programming, and online listings for available selections with the On Demand and Pay Per View features. The website also has useful links to get the latest news on celebrities, local, national and global events, politics, business and technology. These links provide videos and pictures, with or without articles.

Charter Cable can also offer help for busy parents that are concerned for their children’s academic progress. At Charter.net, parents can subscribe to online services that help children progress academically, even if they are not in school yet. These features include games for preschoolers that can give concerned parents reports cards and updates that show their children’s progress, helping to define their strengths and weaknesses. Children do not even realize they are learning as they play fun and educational games that help them grow in the skills they will need in school.

The features offered by Charter Cable also include help for older children or teenagers that have research to do for schoolwork and homework. Charter Cable provides a link to the Encyclopedia Britannica, an online resource that has articles, pictures, videos and maps, written and designed by the top minds in their fields.

When the homework is done, family members can go to Charter.net for links to online games and music. These games and the music can provide hours of additional entertainment for the entire family.

For the sports fans, Charter Cable offers detailed information on popular college and professional sports teams. This information includes statistics and play backs, archived to give histories on games and interviews.

Charter Cable also provides other important links to the Weather Channel and American Greetings.com. These sites can save time, allowing families to create meaningful greeting cards online to send to friends and loved ones, or to help plan family vacations and get important weather updates.
Charter Cable can provide everything the family needs for quality home entertainment and communication, with the added value and benefits of their online family services.

Comcast Cable provides monthly cable TV service to over 30,000,000 subscribers every month, and are currently providing service for a quarter of all American households.

They offer competitive cable TV features like On Demand, a digital library with 24-hour access to additional programming for children and adults, including newly released movies. They offer Pay Per View selections that include live sporting and music events, featuring well-known athletes and artists. Comcast Cable offers a DVR, the digital video recorder that records and stores programming, and allows viewers to fast forward, pause or rewind selections found on Pay Per View and On Demand. Comcast Cable also provides Parental Controls for their regular cable programming, the programming stored on the DVR and their online services.

Comcast Cable also provides broadband and digital phone services, two other important services that most people want in their homes. As a provider for all three of these services, Comcast Cable has been able to provide important services for entire communities, making it possible for loved ones to communicate with elderly relatives or giving the children in the house an outlet for their energy with educational programming or online games.

Their rates and fees are competitive with other Pay TV programming companies, but Comcast Cable has been feeling the pressure to enhance and expand on their products and features due to the expansion of other companies in other areas. Companies like Direct TV have started to offer online services and phone services, in addition to their programming packages. These programming packages offer cable TV channels, as well as other channels that Comcast Cable does not have.

As a result, Comcast Cable is trying to acquire 51% of NBC Universal. This acquisition would make it possible to satisfy customers with immediate access to programming on mobile devices like cell phones. It would also decrease the wait time on receiving newly released movies, just out of the theater, on Comcast Cable’s On Demand feature, increasing the viewing options currently available to Comcast Cable’s customers.

The acquisition would also give Comcast Cable the advantage with its competitors, making them come to Comcast Cable to gain access to the networks or programming Comcast Cable would control.

If the acquisition is made, Comcast Cable will gain control of the NBC network, Telemundo, USA, SyFy, the Weather Channel, Universal Pictures, and certain other cable channels, including certain sports channels. The acquisition would also provide Comcast Cable control over certain theme parks.

Some shareholders and consumer rights’ groups are concerned that the acquisition would drive up rates for monthly subscribers and drive down stock values. To answer these concerns, Comcast Cable has promised a dividend increase of 40% and a buyback option for shareholders that want to sell. There has been no mention of rate increases thus far.

Comcast Cable hopes to offer even more services and programming selections to their customers than is currently available, with an increase in availability for mobile device customers. No decision has been reached yet, but news should be forth coming shortly.

Cable TV providers have expanded to offer more services than just cable TV programming. Cable TV providers now also offer Broadband Internet services and digital phone services that help meet the family’s needs for entertainment and affordable communication.

These services can be offered separately or in a bundled package, making it possible for the family to enjoy affordable cable TV programming, broadband internet and digital phone services, all for one bundled monthly price.

The broadband high-speed internet service offers surfing and downloading speeds that are over 100 times faster than dial up and up to six times faster than DSL, offered through the phone company. The difference is the digital connection offered by the cable TV provider. Digital connections are always on and offer wider bandwidths to transmit information through, so larger files can be transferred and downloaded faster. More information is processed quicker, making surfing and downloading virtually effortless. Cable TV providers are also able to utilize online security software to make it safer to surf and chat, or bank and shop. This security software is offered free to the customer to protect the computer and family from popups, viruses, spyware and identity theft. Some providers also offer online Parental Controls to block undesirable content. With the faster speeds, free security software and Parental Controls, cable TV providers are able to offer a faster, safer online experience for the whole family to enjoy.

The digital phone services offered by cable TV providers are superior to traditional analog services for call clarity and service reliability. Phone service through a cable TV provider can help the family save money with a calling plan that allows unlimited local and long distance calling to areas that include the United States and Canada, with some providers offering Puerto Rico, as well. These calling plans also include important calling features like three way calling, call return, call forwarding and more, for up to twelve features total. Cable TV providers also offer voicemail, with some providers sending customers email notifications when a new voicemail is received. Subscribers can check their voicemail from any location in the world with internet access.

Cable TV providers also have more to offer for cable programming, with over two hundred and seventy-five channels to choose from. These channels can be broadcast in regular programming, digital programming or HDTV. The provider will specify which channel packages offer what broadcasting. Cable TV programming also comes with exciting features like Video On Demand, Pay Per View selections and the DVR, or digital video recorder. These features can provide additional viewing selections like newly released movies and live sporting and music events. The DVR helps the viewer make the most out of every selection by rewinding, pausing or fast forwarding them. Viewers get to watch instant playbacks, fast forward through commercials and pause the selections to watch them later.

Cable TV providers have several products and services to meet the entertainment and communication needs of the family. These services are offered at affordable rates in bundled monthly packages for more value at the best price.