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Time Warner Cable’s decision to spend $11 billion to broadcast Los Angeles Lakers and Dodgers games at an estimated cost of $50-60 a year per subscriber is the subject of a class action lawsuit from fed up customers.
The plaintiffs are upset cable subscribers across Southern California will have to cover the cost of the 20-year deal with no option to opt-out of the sports channels because they are bundled into the most popular cable package.
The suit, filed this week in Superior Court alleges at least 60 percent of subscribers have no interest in the sports programming, but will collectively cover $6.6 billion of the deal and never watch a single game.
Time Warner Cable is also accused of forcing AT&T U-verse, Charter Cable, Cox Cable, DirecTV and Verizon FiOS to sign restrictive contracts that compel the companies to include the sports channels on the basic lineup.
Ironically, Time Warner Cable itself regularly complains about the increasing cost of programming and contract terms that force it to bundle expensive sports channels inside the basic tier instead of offering customers optional, added-cost sports programming packages.
Both sports teams are also named as defendants in the suit because they were aware that all subscribers would face rate increases as a result of the deal.
“TWC’s bundling results in Defendants making huge profits, much of which is extracted from unwilling consumers who have no opportunity to delete unwanted telecasts,” the complaint states.
The suit claims there is no legitimate reason Time Warner Cable and the sports teams could not have offered the new networks only to customers that wished to pay for them. The suit wants the bundling of the sports networks stopped and customers given refunds for the higher television bills that resulted.
I, and my granny, both of whom have Internet-only cable service, object vehemently to subsidizing TW’s sports TV programming. Britt, you listening?
I watched golf once and needed intensive emotional therapy to recover from the acute case of severe boredom. I watch zero sports on television and would love to see the back of every sports channel if I could get away with it.
Same, I’ve never watched sports programming. There’s absolutely no reason to not put ALL sports channels into it’s own paid package and have customers that are interested in that programming to pay for their access rather than have all customers subsidize these multi-billion dollar deals that have nothing, and do nothing for customers will never watch them. Right now that’s the big thing keeping me a ‘cord cutter’ with Netflix, I have no interest in paying half my bill towards crappy programming and sports programming that I don’t watch. Otherwise I’d be more than happy to sign up for Satellite… Read more »
Just a waste of timely programming that could be geared toward DVS, at least in my opinion!
Where are these same 60% when your local government wants to offer tax incentives and stadium construction deals to keep sports teams in their town? And let some mega-corporation have the naming rights.
I’m sick of TimeWarner Cable too. I don’t buy their cable (no thank you, I can do without the unnecessary utility fees). I just had a conversation with the techies at Apple, and most of them have Verizon Fios to run their cable & WiFi needs. Why hasn’t a private equity corporation / group of investors or other billionaire build an Internet TV for broadcasting stations. I have spoken to many consumers, and they will pay between $10-15 for the TV service to live stream. Some pay for hulu/Netflix. Why doesn’t Hollywood & other large networks ban against time warner?… Read more »