So in our last episode Time Warner was ordered by the FCC to put the NFL Network back on for subscribers because of the lack of anything more than a 24 hour notice that they were going to turn off their channel.  The FCC also made some comments about their reasons for doing so, which I will get into in a minute.

On September 15th Time Warner turned off the NFL Network for those of us in the L.A. market, and I would assume in the rest of the markets they absorbed during the bankruptcy of Adelphia.  In case you haven’t been following along I am a big football fan, so the NFL Network is one of my favorite channels and I also pay close to $200 a month for my cable channels and modem.  So turning off the NFL Network as the season starts is not what I would have wanted.  Not to mention that Time Warner lied to everyone about why they were going to turn it off, complaining that the NFL Network was raising rates from $0.15 per subscriber to a shopping $0.20 and they were just doing what was best for their customers!  It later came out that they want to make an NFL package and the NFL Network would be part of it, so they want to charge us more for something we were already getting and something all other cable networks provide as part of the standard package.  Hmmm…let me think.

And now they claim that if they cannot charge Google for the traffic they get “this whole Internet phenomenon will come crashing down.”  It’s not often that I sit in front of my computer and actually laugh out loud.  Does that mean that AOL will finally tell it’s customers that it does own the Internet?  That you can actually get to web sites without them?  Remember “key words”? Or that the rest of the Internet, like e-commerce, will die off for everyone but AOL customers.

Verizon HURRY UP!  Can’t Dell get into this sector and drive prices down to like $12 a month or something?

Man I cannot wait to dump Time Warner, oh one final note.  When I called Time Warner to ask them about their plans for the NFL Network two weeks before the September 15 deadline, the customer service rep told me that there were currently no plans to drop the NFL Network as they were still engaged in talks with the NFL.  Nice, nothing like being lied to.

Here is a couple snipplets of a post by a (supposed) CSR at TWC from another blog…

“you people think you understand but you don't. you little no good crybabies go to dish or what not. see if we care because from what i see.. wheres the bad if you do?”

“my job description says nothing about kissing a customers ass. sure I have went above and beyond for a customer but they called in with their problem and treated me with respect if you dont give me any respect i sure as hell am not goning to give you none.. Idiots talking about they will hold til a sup comes i dont care about a hold time you can sit there all day for what i care.

Hell I dont want to work in customer service. But you know what it pays the bills everymonth. And being a recent college graduate entering graduate school this is as good as it gets.

If you hate time waarner so much why keep their service go to dish i could give a hoot it does not hurt my feelings at all. Oh and by the way if you do go to dish if you think our service is bad..... well your in for a surprise. Oh yeah no free service calls if it rains you have no service. um what else oh those commercials dish has are promotional offers. and they make you sign a contract. for a year or more and if you cancel within the contract you get cancellation fees. but enough of that. I hate time warner too. Hell I may go to dish myself when I quit-- I get it for free. BUt all this crying and whining and im about to die cause my cable been out for 5 minutes has got to stop.!”

This is TWC’s face for it’s customers.  Verizon HURRY UP! 

I don’t know why I even put up with this, because of the half a million dollar price tags on a home in my area I am forced to pay a thousand dollars a month for 900 sq feet in an apartment complex and my patio faces north so I can’t get dish, but I work with a fairly large number of super intelligent people and know a few engineers, I need to arrange a contest to determine the best way to setup a dish when you don’t face south–southwest and then call it day.  I will gladly pay more for a real NFL package that gets my wife the ability to watch the Packers!

Direct-TV here I come……

Original source:

"I think we are going to have to explore different ways of charging" to fund the cost of upgrades in ways other than ad and subscriber revenue, says Britt. "Unless we find some way to manage that traffic, and potentially charge for prioritization, this whole Internet phenomenon will come crashing down." Incumbent execs keep looking at the money being pulled in by outfits like Google, and want a slice of those profits to help subsidize upgrades.

broadband » News » Time Warner Eager to Charge Google? - CEO: Need to explore different ways of charging.