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Time Warner Cable executives told investors on a morning conference call the cable company has embarked on a gradual transition to an all-IP-based distribution platform which could eventually mean the end of today’s set top boxes and radically increase the amount of bandwidth available for its broadband and video networks.
“Whatever the merits of that from an engineering sense, all things IP are the standards that the world is building devices to,” said Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt. “So that’s the standard we’re going to end up migrating to until something better comes along.”
The transition will help Time Warner Cable support additional customer-owned equipment, including video game consoles, streaming online video boxes, and televisions with built-in support for cable-delivered channels.
“If you look at the cable in 1980s, there weren’t a lot of set-tops, and I think we’re going back to that over time,” Britt said.
Britt has repeatedly criticized set top box equipment as cumbersome, expensive, outdated, and disliked from the perspective of customers. He noted the only reason Time Warner uses the boxes is to support traditional televisions that cannot handle all of the services the cable company offers today, including video-on-demand and encrypted premium channels. Moving to a different technology platform can result in significant savings if cable operators adopt open standard devices and technology.
Later this year, Time Warner will also be launching a nationwide channel realignment, affecting virtually every subscriber around the country. The cable company is adopting a unified, genre-based, national channel lineup, putting popular cable networks on identical channel numbers in every city.
Time Warner’s reported results found the company losing an additional 169,000 video subscribers during the quarter, a new record loss for the cable operator. Despite that, the company still booked an 8% increase in profits, thanks to higher prices for service and increases in the number of broadband customers. Time Warner blamed the video subscriber drop on seasonal losses from departing college students and those heading to vacation properties, as well as the downturned economy.
But the nation’s second biggest cable operator reports it has several initiatives under way for subscribers which they feel will boost earnings and subscriber numbers:
• Over the last 60 days, Time Warner deployed a new set-top box guide throughout the eastern region. After the Olympics conclude, the company will introduce the new guide across the western half of the country. The new guide features a new color scheme and better graphics, and is supposed to make navigation and search easier to use;
• The company will introduce IP-based set top boxes and home gateway devices by next year. The newest gateway is a combination DVR, DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem, and a video transcoder that can convert QAM-based video to IP for devices including game consoles and new IP set top boxes. Time Warner’s newest DVR will include the capability of recording five shows at the same time while watching another and 1TB of storage.
Install it yourself.
• Time Warner Cable’s TV Everywhere service will expand to include video on demand and the possibility of watching certain networks while outside of the home. The current service only works when you watch over your home Wi-Fi network.
• The cable operator’s Internet Essentials offer, which includes a 5GB monthly usage cap, will move beyond Texas and reach everywhere the cable operator serves by the second half of next year. When a usage meter shows up on your My Services page on Time Warner Cable’s website, you will know this new, optional plan is on the way.
• Time Warner is revamping their website to let customers shop, order, and buy more services online.
• Self-install kits will become increasingly common for customers comfortable installing their own services. The Easy Connect packages are available in stores or by mail, and are free of charge with no installation fee.
• Service call windows will continue to be refined. In most cities, two hour windows are currently offered, but the company is now moving to one-hour windows in many markets. In some cities, 15-minute windows for the first appointment of each shift are now available to customers who don’t want to sit at home and wait all day for the cable guy. The company is now also including an estimate of how long it typically takes to complete the type of service call requested.
• Customers continue to gravitate towards faster broadband service plans. The company’s Turbo, Extreme and Ultimate tiers together garnered 157,000 new adds in the second quarter and now comprise over 21% of high-speed data customers, up from 17% a year ago and 9% three years ago.
Britt also took questions about the impact Google Fiber will have on Time Warner Cable’s operations in Kansas City.
“There’s a lot of effort going on around the country to see what we could do as a society with more bandwidth in kind of a laboratory sense,” Britt said. “I view the Google effort as that. […] And I think that’s good for our business. We have a wonderful infrastructure, we have bandwidth, we have a way to go much faster with DOCSIS 3.0 by adding [higher speeds] to the offering. And the more the people figure out how to use broadband, the better off we’re going to be. So I think this is a good thing, not a bad thing, that people are trying to figure out how to use this technology.”
“If you look at the cable in 1980s, there weren’t a lot of set-tops, and I think we’re going back to that over time,” Britt said. Britt was a magazine exec during the 80s. He didn’t join TW Cable until 1990, so I’m not sure he really knows the history of cable before then. Of course cable had set tops in the 80s. That was the only way you could get cable back then. Most TVs weren’t built with cable receivers at that time. Still, TW’s move to an all-IP network is a good sign. But the NN-crowd should not… Read more »
Yes in the 1980s we had one box made by Jerrold I believe with a row of push buttons and a rocker switch with a 20′ brown cord attached so you could put the box where you wanted it. The cable company would send you new stickers everytime the lineup changed, and there was a place on the top of the box to stick them. When Cinemax launched, we ended up with a ridiculous Oak set top box with a center dial clicker with the tiniest numbers ever. It was completely ludicrous and impossible for older people to use. This… Read more »
And Philip: I know we disagree on things sometimes but I really appreciate you bringing attention to the various issues you post about, and providing a forum for discussion.
Too little too late TW. TW has bided their time as a monopoly where I live for far too long without even trying to provide better internet and service, but constantly raising rates. Now that Google is here in KC they make an announcement that they are moving to improve?! I’m done with them.
Does this mean they are going to an all digital stream?
Yes… but not all at once. This year and next, a growing number of TWC systems will be converting most of their analog lineups to digital. Customers don’t need usual set top boxes for all TV’s though. TWC will provide free adapters (for 2-3 years) for those smaller TVs around the house you don’t need a super HD picture on. These devices will let you watch digital cable channels on any TV in the house.
Local channels and some public access channels will remain in analog for the near-future, however.
And how are those of us who have not been notified that we could have had these boxes for free going to be credited?
Time warner could start by providing the speed they promise…hell I will take a consistent 75% of the speed I pay for before I even think about upgrading above their Turbo tier. Freaking crooks.
Why was this not communicated to everyone? I lost internet connectivity and was rudely treated by Time Warner when I called in for internet support. I finally fixed the issue myself after troubleshooting it PLUS seeing this story stating a “push” was being done. Now I have been without internet service for over 2 days, spent over 8 hours doing my own troubleshooting for something that Time Warner should have done but refused to do (plus the noise in the background at your call centers is ridiculous, cursing, laughing and talking about how bad all the customers are, how bad… Read more »
TWC will provide free adapters (for 2-3 years) for those smaller TVs around the house you don’t need a super HD picture on. And this info has not been give to anyone………….hello………so I have been paying for 2 DVR boxes for many years and how I could have had one for free?
I am an LONG TIME Time Warner Customer who is now FURIOUS………Had scheduled appt with technician to come out today, took time out of MY DAY on a Saturday morning when I could have gotten paid to work time and 1/2 at my job and when the tech called at about 8:30am, he was rude, condescending and laughed when I said my internet was “intermittent”. Then he stated “what do you want me to do about it then?”. I told him he has an appointment to be here, he stated “are you home now?”, I told him he was calling… Read more »
In less than one year customer service from TW in Western NY has gone from very good to abysmal. Once again I have lost the ability to remotely program my DVR over the internet, Chat (10 min wait) then no help, e-mail only a response to call and a Reference #, phone 11 minute wait and the person could not even find the reference number. After educating her on how this SHOULD work (she obviously did not know) all of a sudden she exclaimed “oh I see engineering sent out a note this morning that they are working on this”.… Read more »