Charter to Buy Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks

Spike said:

It is so nice not having to worry about a two year commitment with either Directv or Dish Network.

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charlesrshell said:

If regulators blocked Comcast from a TWC merger, will they block Charter too!

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kittyhas1000legs said:

As someone about to move to a Charter area, I'm not sure if I care. So long as they don't have Warner-style customer service.

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Tampa8 said:

New customer promotions with Charter here ALL require a commitment. Just like DISH or Direct you can bypass the commitment and pay more. Existing customers can move up to Spectrum Triple play apparently with no commitment but like so many Cable websites it is nearly impossible to see exactly what you want to.
I don't think Charter is terrible and like so many others I have their internet service and it is quite fast. It does go out like Cable TV would in wind storms, snowstorms or car accidents when wires come down. But overall relatively reliable.

That said the devil is in the details. I can only go by what my Charter (If I had it for TV) says about the contract.
"2. Termination and Early Termination Fee. You may terminate this Bundle Package at any time by calling Charter. If you terminate per Charter’s 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee, or rescind this Bundle Package Service Agreement according to rescission rights granted under applicable law (see “Notice of Cancellation” form), no termination fee, equipment, installation or service fees will be charged. If this Package is terminated by you or due to your non-compliance after the first thirty (30) days and prior to the expiration date of the commitment period, and without you signing a new 24-month term agreement, you agree to pay all charges and costs incurred through the date of termination plus an early termination fee of up to $150 (the amount of the early termination fee will decrease monthly over the term of your agreement). In the event your Bundle Package is terminated, but you do not disconnect altogether from Charter, you will pay standard monthly prices for all services provided following termination.
Upgrades: You may switch to a different Price Guarantee package without incurring an early termination fee if you enter into a new 24-month term agreement. You may upgrade any TV or Internet service as an add-on to your existing Bundle Package without incurring an early termination fee as long as you pay any additional fees due with such addition."
(This is from a very recent mailing from them)

Note that with DISH you can downgrade to a different package without needing to extend the commitment. You just start getting the discount for that package. I can go on with other added costs but the point is made that when I see how wonderful Cable is I remind myself of the details and ending cost which is WAAAAY more than what I pay. And Charter is not the worst. I don't think they compete much with TWC and given the choices I would rather have Charter as a choice than many other Cable companies.

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Spike said:

That is not the contract that I signed. And had that been offered to me, I would not be a Charter customer. I am not a fan of 24 month commitments. I am sorry that that was all you were offered, if indeed that is what you were offered. I have no early termination fee. I can walk away anytime. And I am one happy camper, because of that fact. In my case, there was no devil in the details, which were laid out for me.

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Leave it to Liberty Media’s John Malone — Charter Communication’s largest shareholder — to provide a no-nonsense explanation of the logic behind the cable company’s $56.7 billion deal (not including debt) to buy Time Warner Cable.Charter CEO Tom Rutledge plans to “wake up a sleepy cable company that was treading water and pleasing shareholders with [stock] buybacks,” Malone told Liberty shareholders today in their annual meeting.Rutledge likely will take pages from his playbook at Charter by making TWC systems all digital, getting rid of the standard definition channels that duplicate high-definition ones, and using the freed-up bandwidth to offer speedy broadband. He’ll move the TV guide and other services to central servers instead of set top boxes, so they can be updated and fixed without a service call.“If we can take truck rolls and calls out of the business ….we don’t have to raise prices. We can drive simplicity.”Charter will be big enough so it can compete with Netflix by introducing “a meaningful VOD offering, perhaps in cooperation with other operators…Whether you call it catch up TV or competing with Netflix, the ability to see a lot of programming on a random access basis is very attractive.” So far TV Everywhere “is TV Nowhere,” he says. “That allowed Netflix and Hulu to fill a vacuum that should have been filled by the [pay TV] distributors. That is still an opportunity.”

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king3pj said:

Charter doesn't require contracts for promo prices here either. My 2 year internet promo prices were about to run out so I called and asked for a better price. I was offered a bundle with their Spectrum Silver package (similar to AT 250 + HBO,Cinemax, and Showtime included) for about $30 more than what I was going to pay for just internet.

I pay a little over $90 including taxes and cable card rental for my Tivo for 60Mbps internet and a very good TV package. I'm happy with pricing, reliability, channels, and picture quality. I'm also happy with my Tivo Roamio/Mini whole home setup and haven't experienced any hiccups with the cable card or tuning adapter.

Prior to this deal I had been happy with just internet and OTA for about a year and a half and I will go back to that in a heartbeat when the promos end if they won't continue to give me great pricing. That's the beauty of not having a contract. You actually have some leverage as a customer instead of being held hostage when the providers decide to drop a channel you want or raise prices.

I doubt I'll ever sign a TV contract again. They are too one sided in favor of the provider. They can change anything at any time and you can't do a damn thing about it. If Charter starts to require them I will just stick to OTA and streaming.

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Charter Communications Inc (CHTR.O) formally argued for regulatory approval for its Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC.N) and Bright House Networks deals, saying consumers would benefit as Internet services would become cheaper and faster.Charter said in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday that it would not block or suppress Internet traffic or prioritize content for a fee and that its broadband services would cost less than the current offerings of Time Warner (TWC) and Bright House.In its first official argument in support of the deals, Charter also said the new company would not harm online video services providers as its success would depend on the broadband business rather than on video services.

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Sometimes it pays to come in second: Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus stands to collect a whopping $91.9 million if the deal to sell his company to Charter Communications goes through, according to a 700-plus page preliminary proxy filed at the SEC today. He might see $21.8 million in cash, $67.1 million in equity, $396,156 in benefits — mostly for financial planning — and $2.6 million in other awards including a special bonus TWC gave execs for increasing video subs in Q1.That last bonus is unusual, and seems to give TWC brass a special reward just for doing their jobs: The company agreed to give execs 5% of their 2015 target cash bonus if in any quarter this year the cable company “experienced a net increase in residential video subscribers.” TWC met that goal in Q1, so the board decided to renew it — this time excluding Marcus — to “continue to motivate participants to work to add customers.”

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When Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE:TWC) complete their proposed merger, a handful of executives will win big.Leading that pack is TWC Chairman and CEO Rob Marcus, who will bring in $91.95 million following the deal, according to a recent regulatory filing. Marcus’ payday includes $21.8 million in cash, $67.1 million in equity, almost $400,000 in perquisites and more than $2.6 million in “supplemental bonus opportunities.”That’s a 15 percent premium to the $80 million Marcus would have received had TWC’s earlier merger plans with Comcast panned out, according to Multichannel News, a news website focused on the telecommunications industry.

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Charter Communications, Bright House Networks, and Time Warner Cable mergerThe merger between Charter Communications (CHTR), Bright House Networks, and Time Warner Cable (TWC) is making progress. A recent report by Reuters stated, “A California administrative law judge recommended approving Charter Communications Inc.’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks with some significant conditions, according to a decision made public late on Tuesday.” California is the only state where the deal has yet to be approved, and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) could vote on the deal as early as May 12.

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Yes616 said:

Think I will see a price increase?

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