Time Warner Earnings; Insight Bid Confirmed - Joins Comcast in broadband slowdown...
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Time Warner Earnings; Insight Bid Confirmed
Joins Comcast in broadband slowdown...
(old news - 02:07PM Wednesday Aug 01 2007)
tags: competition · business · cable · TimeWarner
Time Warner today released their second quarter earnings. The company continues to struggle in converting AOL from a dial-up ISP to an advertising juggernaut, with AOL revenue sliding 38% to $1.25 billion -- thanks largely to the continued emigration of AOL dial-up users to broadband ISPs. AOL ad revenue also fell short of analyst targets.
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Time Warner Cable revenue soared 59% to $4.01 billion on increased demand for DVRs, VoIP, digital TV and broadband. Like Comcast, Time Warner Cable saw a dip in basic cable subs, losing 57,000 on the quarter. Also like Comcast, they showed a slowdown in broadband additions, signing up 188,000 broadband customers.

In this morning's conference call with investors, Time Warner's CFO John Martin blamed the basic cable losses on underperforming systems the company acquired from Adelphia. As our users have been noting, the transfer of Adelphia Customers to Time Warner Cable in Los Angeles has been particularly miserable.

TWC now serves 7.2 million broadband and 2.3 million VoIP customers. Also confirmed in the conference call was the fact that the company is in talks to acquire the remainder of Insight's customers. It has long been speculated that Time Warner Cable would, geographically, make the most sensible buyer.

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ColorBASIC @ 1st Aug 02:10PM:
Drop in basic cable customers is them going digital

Look at the digital adds. As good channels are moved to digital tiers and new features come out the digital services you have basic cable subs being upsold.
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Macintosh Users Group Serving the Inland Empire
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Rick @ 1st Aug 02:13PM:
So much for the news story from a couple days ago

that said TW wouldn't be bidding on Insight.

»www.multichannel.com/article/CA6454823.html

What a difference a day makes. :uhh:
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The Coyote captured the RR! Roadrunner Rick is now Comcastic!
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TK Junk Mail @ 1st Aug 02:15PM:
Re: Drop in basic cable customers is them going digital

said by ColorBASIC :

Look at the digital adds. As good channels are moved to digital tiers and new features come out the digital services you have basic cable subs being upsold.
The way I read the numbers, the basic subs were total losses(bye bye customer). But many of the remaining subs did upgrade to digital pkgs, thereby improving revenue. But those lost basic subs will NEVER upgrade because they are gone completely. And in the long run that is bad for a cable company.
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TK Junk Mail @ 1st Aug 02:20PM:
Not surprised about dropping AOL dial customer count

This past quarter I got two relatives to drop AOL dial-up and move to the $15/mo Verizon DSL plan. For 1 that was only a $5/mo increase and the other a $5/mo decrease.

They are very, very light users(email and minimal browsing), so the 768/128 DSL is fine for them. And they were already Verizon barebones landline customers already.
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ep1taph @ 1st Aug 02:22PM:
Re: So much for the news story from a couple days ago

My thoughts exactly. Felt my heart sink.

In their defense... It actually doesn't say that they wouldn't, it says that people should not be surprised if they do not.

Half of Insight to Comcast and the other half to Time Warner would be too textbook and predictable, spice it up a bit!
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Rick @ 1st Aug 02:25PM:
Re: So much for the news story from a couple days ago

I think TW would be a great fit. When I had insight..it was insight RR then and was very happy with them.
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The Coyote captured the RR! Roadrunner Rick is now Comcastic!
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ep1taph @ 1st Aug 02:31PM:
Re: So much for the news story from a couple days ago

Granted it's not the best comparison and you can't use it to justify anything:

I know a lot of people east of me who have roadrunner/TWC in Kentucky and their experience is horrible. But they are old Adelphia customers. Their service has been horrible forever and nothing seems to be done about it.

I hope whoever does purchase it spends some more time thinking about routing and the geographic area -- that would make me happy.

I was never clear -- what is the relationship between the "Insight RR" in columbus? What speeds is it (Insight speeds or RR speeds?) and who actually owns the systems? Does Insight just use the RR name to retain customers?
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acrowl @ 1st Aug 02:56PM:
Only one advantage....

I hate to say it.....

The only advantage of Time Warner purchasing Insight is the increase in the On Demand line up. Howard TV is a channel that we have been lacking.

But I really would have hoped Insight would have stayed around. Their data 10.0 is a great, great product.
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RIRWIN1983 @ 1st Aug 03:07PM:
Re: So much for the news story from a couple days ago

rr speeds, rr network, the first 2 hops were on insight localy, then transfered to rr out on the west site of columbus where rr's data center for columnbus is. insight was paying twc/rr for the use/access similat to bright house network's relationship.
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ominae @ 1st Aug 03:52PM:
Re: So much for the news story from a couple days ago

semi-RR speeds. insight in columbus only offers a 5/512 connection which has never matched what our neighbors on tw get just a few miles away although it's just resold tw.
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ncbill @ 1st Aug 04:42PM:
Re: Drop in basic cable customers is them going digital

I pay $8/month for basic analog cable (essentially, broadcast channels)

Once my local TWC stops sending analog down the coax, it will be much cheaper for me to either go OTA or to satellite.
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MacLeech @ 1st Aug 05:49PM:
Re: Drop in basic cable customers is them going digital

said by TK Junk Mail :

The way I read the numbers, the basic subs were total losses(bye bye customer). But many of the remaining subs did upgrade to digital pkgs, thereby improving revenue. But those lost basic subs will NEVER upgrade because they are gone completely. And in the long run that is bad for a cable company.
Those are basic VIDEO subs they lost, so they may still have HSO or phone service.

Keeping such a foothold in the home gives TWC a much better chance of gaining the customer back later as a video sub.

But you're right, EVERY video sub is usually counted as a basic sub first since it's a requirement for any additional video service levels.
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AJICQ499087 @ 1st Aug 06:49PM:
Re: So much for the news story from a couple days ago

said by Rick :

that said TW wouldn't be bidding on Insight.

»www.multichannel.com/article/CA6454823.html

What a difference a day makes. :uhh:
That link said TW has tax reasons not to buy Insight and wasn't even bidding on them and has trouble dealing with the takeover of Adelphia . What a piece of crap that link is looking like now. :o
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Shack @ 1st Aug 08:20PM:
Re: Only one advantage....

I am going to miss Insight when I get changed over to comcast in '08. Insight is far far from perfect, but pretty good for a Cable Co.
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anon @ 1st Aug 09:17PM:
FYI

Insight / brighthouse IS part of TWC all they are doing is playing a shift and shuffle game and TWC and Comcast ARE bleeding customers at the seems BUT its a lie about underperforming systems of Adelphia being the cause its due to there horrid customer service and tools that Adelphia used in 1990. As 1 of the thousands of former Adelphia employees that TWC and Comcast sent down the road for cheap outsourced people in Canada. This is all a game by TWc to try and impress ignorant people and share holders that "it's not our fault its the systems we aquired" Look at the forums and you'll see a trend people are leaving cable for better and cheaper offerings where they do get customer service and treated with a little dignaty.
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dentman42 @ 1st Aug 09:52PM:
Re: So much for the news story from a couple days ago

said by ominae :

semi-RR speeds. insight in columbus only offers a 5/512 connection which has never matched what our neighbors on tw get just a few miles away although it's just resold tw.
Never matched? Not much more than a month ago, TWCOL RR standard WAS 5/512, same as Insight. They just had it years before us, we only got it last fall. So it did match for about 9-10 months.
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hobgoblin @ 2nd Aug 12:14AM:
Re: FYI

"As 1 of the thousands of former Adelphia employees that TWC and Comcast sent down the road for cheap outsourced people in Canada."

Strange. I am one of the ex Adelphia employees taking calls from Ex Adelphia now TW Customers in Buffalo.

Hob
--
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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anon @ 3rd Aug 12:32AM:
Dialup?

Why does everyone talk about aol dialup still today when its free? All dialup with be gone, that includes mindspring and netzero, etc. AOL is no longer a dialup company but an actual portal... they should have done that long ago.
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