Good grief.....Time Warner offers to charge you more for service you should be getting anyway

[marmar]

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Time Warner Cable Inc. is set to try a new pitch for customers: No more waiting for the cable guy.

There is a price, however. The second-largest U.S. cable operator will set a specific service appointment time for customers who pay $189.95 a month for a new premium package. The plan, dubbed “Signature Home,” is being tested in Charlotte, North Carolina, and will roll out nationally within a few weeks, Chief Executive Officer Glenn Britt said in an interview.

Time Warner Cable plans to introduce several custom bundles geared at different customer bases within the next two years to lure and retain subscribers. The premium package includes two whole-home digital video recorders and wideband Internet, as well as higher-end service. The company is testing a lower- priced service called “TV Essentials” in New York City for $39.99 aimed at economically strapped consumers.

“We’re doing a lot of work segmenting the audience,” Britt said. “It turns out that there are very distinct segments of the public, both in terms of usage of the things we sell and psycho demographics, incomes, what-have-you. If we can put together packages targeted at those groups we think that we’re going to be a lot more successful.” .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=afpH13U78tXQ&pos=11

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Which means that those who don't get the premium package are

automatically booted to the end of the line.

I hate monopolies.

[leftstreet]

2. $189.95 a month?! You gotta be kidding me

Good God

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Sort of like the new wave of "concierge" doctors,

who live off a list of pre- subscribed patients.

Somehow I do not think the business model of "special" services is a good idea for cable companies in this economy.

[woo me with science]

4. Here we go again.

Which tier are you in? The nobility or the serfs?

[dembotoz]

5. time warner bill just jumped 10 bucks per month.

now 73 bucks
and they dropped another station or two.
now under 70 and that includes a shitload of religous and shopping channels.

bastards
but my mom is getting rid of them
10 bucks a month more is real money when you are 89

[the redcoat]

6. And the digitization of all TV is finally dawning on some people...

Saw this coming a mile away.

It's only a matter of time before people start realizing they only watch 10-20 out of the 1000 channels they pay for.

[ejpoeta]

8. we have satellite and are seriously thinking of dumping it.

i told m hubby if we get an off air antenna and some device i can stream the internet through my tv then i'm in. i can watch most anything i want online and we have netflix.

[Newest Reality]

7. An aura of desperation

glows around that one as our construct of society becomes increasingly segmented into polar opposites where the deadbeat rich become increasingly obese financially in direct proportion to the losses incurred by those not in the decadent 2-percent.

With nowhere to go but to join the ranks of a burgeoning underclass, this segment of the ongoing Class War will most likely not be televised or even acknowledged by the mass-filtering media that are owned by the major stockholders that run the commonly accepted illusions foisted by the robber paradigm. Yet, ask yourself, how many people still lend credence to the machine that churns out carefully crafted agitprop 24/7? If we can't tune-out and find the solidarity to discredit the entrenched and embedded devices that are major weapons in our own defeat and dis-empowerment, then we are missing one of many opportunities to respond appropriately and with intelligent, focused intent.

As deeply entrenched as the Simulation is, there is a question of the boiling point now and what is in place for dealing with and mitigating the potential results. What is becoming essential to contemplate, in your own way, is not just the immediate social and financial ramifications of the take-down of seemingly willing masses, but the exceedingly dark and horribly dystopian implications for generations to come.

It is becoming a "winner takes all" scenario that has yet to encounter any massive, major retribution or strong, unified resistance that is noteworthy. The troops of the Class War-bucks are only a few steps away from a surrender that they won't even have to negotiate as it will be self-evident.

[Speck Tater]

9. Not long from now as we all huddle around the hobo stove, thankful for our bowl of rice and beans,

chatting with our camp mates about the good old days when there was such a thing as television, these last-ditch efforts to sustain an unsustainable dying civilization will have become completely irrelevant.