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Another rate increase
Time Warner Cable is raising prices again, less than five months after their last rate increase which took effect in January in the Rochester area.
This time, the cable company is adding $1-2 dollars for each premium movie channel, already battered by cord-cutting and consumers cutting back on high cable bills:
Effective with your July 2011 billing, the price for premium channels will be adjusted as follows:
- HBO:
$13.95$14.95- Cinemax:
$10.95$12.95- Showtime:
$10.95$12.95- Starz:
$10.95$12.95
This rate increase covers the Rochester/Finger Lakes region, but other areas can expect similar pricing in the future. The response to these price hikes will likely bring another round of cord-cutting as consumers increasingly look for less expensive alternatives.
Rochester
We also note a Brighton customer who signed up for the $29.99 12-month promotion for Road Runner Standard on Time Warner Cable’s website is currently fighting with the cable company over claims the real price of the promotion is $34.95 — the $5 difference reflecting a hidden modem rental fee. If true, it will be a first for the Rochester area where cable modems have always come with the service at no additional charge. We are waiting to learn whether this is a mistake or something new for Rochester.
In other news, Time Warner Cable has been teasing some customers on the company’s waiting list for Road Runner Extreme (30/5) and Road Runner Wideband (50/5Mbps) DOCSIS 3 broadband service. Several people, myself included, received phone calls earlier today notifying us the service was now available in our area. Don’t you believe it. After more than 45 minutes (and a call back a few hours later), we were told the service was not actually available in our area… yet. It’s certainly an annoying situation for both those getting the calls and the confused customer service representatives who then had to disappoint.
Interested customers can call (585) 756-1119 and bypass the usual voice prompts and speak directly with a customer service representative. They verify service availability based on the phone number/address on the account. Installation fees of around $68 apply, and although some customers report having them waived or reduced, we’ve heard the $68 fee often ends up on the bill anyway.
Anecdotal reports indicate early adopters are experiencing some technical glitches getting consistently fast speeds, but these are usually remedied after service calls or refreshing the cable modem from the office.
what no spam emails asking if they should roll over or not?
Or just cut the cord and get the same shows and movies released a few months later on Netflix for just $7.99 or 9.99/mo total via streaming or DVD. Less the cost of a single premium channel… The cable co’s keep trying to add more useless crap to their service thinking they’re adding more ‘value’ as they keep raising the prices and going about business as usual. Customers keep demanding lower prices and real value for their money and less junk that they don’t want. Offering a handful of semi-popular channels streaming from your cable box to your iPad but… Read more »
I dropped my last pay channel — HBO — in February. It wasn’t worth it at $13.95 and it SURE isn’t worth it at $14.95. Not now, not ever. Nor are any of the other pay channels. We have Showtime free for one year, and I have yet to watch anything on it since it started on 2/10. It will get dropped a year from now. The only show I miss is Bill Maher on HBO. When HBO was $10.95 and each additional channel was $7 a month, we took ALL of them. At $7 a month, it wasn’t worth… Read more »
I just got a $10 increase in my May bill and then I got my postcard today notifying me of the price increase. I’ve been getting a discount rate for several years on the premium channels after I switched back to cable, and if I get bumped up to the full new price of $54, I’ll be taking my current $30 (for all 4 channels) and apply it to a Netflix subscription with money left over. Short of brand new episodes of Dexter this fall, there’s nothing on the premium channels that I care about that I can’t get from… Read more »
Dexter is available for streaming (Seasons 1/2) and DVD rental from Netflix. If you are on a promo that TWC still recognizes, your rate should not change. Since TWC bills in advance, you’ll know if that changes, and drop channels accordingly before you get charged.
I agree that the more they raise the price, the fewer services I take from them. Premium channels are already in lots of trouble from cord cutting, and TWC seems like they are promoting more of it with price hikes like this.
After a decade with satellite, I switched back and was supposed to have a locked in promotional rate for two years… and that was about 4-5 years ago. While my rates have gone up, I’m still showing “promotional offer” for almost all of my services and seem to pay far less than anyone else I know for the same services. I don’t know if that’s because I’ve maintained the same cable package so I get a discount for having all 4 of the premium channels or if it is a billing error. So long as the discounts have been there,… Read more »
The same thing happens with Bell Canada. They increased the satellite theme pack prices from $7 to $10. This is when we decided to cancel four of our five theme packs, as well as disconnect the Internet. We also have a $10 discount for our TV service, so the one theme pack we have left is essentially free.
Bell also charges $6 for each of their pay-per-view movies, whereas Netflix asks $8 for unlimited movies. So why rent from Bell!?
All in all, companies like Bell and Time Warner lose money when they try to make much more.
just upgraded to the RR Extreme in Downtown Roch area — solid 3.68MB/sec — awesome.
Just called TW to order and upgrade to RR Extreme from Std RR. I am in Greece, NY. The monthly cost will be $20 more a month. I tried to get out of paying the installation charge but I couldn’t, they will charge me $68 one time and they will be sending a truck to do the install tomorrow morning.