While Time Warner Cable and Sinclair Broadcasting duel to the Dec. 31 deadline, some Time Warner Cable customers are using the dispute to their advantage — demanding, and winning price concessions on their cable service.

Time Warner Cable has fielded so many calls about the dispute, it has added a message to its customer call-in lines to share its side of the dispute.

Listen to the announcements Time Warner Cable is using around the country on its customer service lines to address the Sinclair-Time Warner dispute. (7 minutes)
You must remain on this page to hear the clip, or you can download the clip and listen later.

Some customers tired of being put in the middle have decided to take their business elsewhere.  Others are just threatening, which brings forth customer retention deals to keep customers from cutting Time Warner’s cord.

“I scored a one year extension of my new customer deal — $99 a month for every kind of service the cable company offers,” writes Scott from Syracuse, N.Y.  Time Warner Cable is expected to drop WSYT (Fox) and WNYS (MyNetwork TV) late Friday night.  “I told them their rate hike notice was bad enough, but dropping two stations from my lineup without offering me a refund was too much.”

Scott was prepared to switch to Verizon FiOS, but Time Warner offered a price he’ll take for some inconvenience.

“I threw my Time Warner rate hike notice in the trash — it doesn’t apply to me for a year,” Scott says.  “It took ten minutes on the phone with the cable company and now I’ll save hundreds a year.”

In Texas, Time Warner Cable customers trying to exit the cable company for a competitor found the cable company’s term contract harder to walk away from.

“They are playing hardball with me, telling me I’ll have to pay an early termination fee if I switch,” says Stop the Cap! reader Rod who lives in San Antonio.  He’s preparing to say goodbye to KABB (Fox) and KMYS (MyNetwork TV).”

“I told them with their attitude, it would be worth paying the fee to see the back of them,” Rod says.  “Besides, when you tell some of their competitors about the cable company’s exit fees, they sweeten the deal as a sign of goodwill, something I am not getting from the cable company.”

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Sinclair TW Dispute 12-30-10.flv[/flv]

Sinclair stations across the country are airing various news reports about the upcoming signal blackout on both Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, which uses Time Warner to negotiate programming contracts.  Virtually all are biased towards Sinclair’s position, and ignore the fact Time Warner plans to import Fox network programming regardless of what happens.  (25 minutes)

In Rochester and Buffalo, the cable company is willing to extend their $99 triple play promotion to customers threatening to drop service over the Sinclair dispute, especially when customers also mention the company’s recently announced rate hike.

“If the first person you speak with doesn’t offer you a better deal, hang up and call back,” advises Susan, our reader in Amherst, N.Y.  Both she and her mother in Cheektowaga are saving $35 a month for the next year all thanks to Sinclair and Time Warner’s money fight.

One of the stations impacted in the dispute

“We would have never thought about doing this before we started reading Stop the Cap!,” she says. “We had no idea we could get these kind of deals.”

“We’d lose WUTV (Fox) and WNYO (MyNetwork TV), but Time Warner promises all of the Fox network shows will still be aired and losing MyNetwork TV is hardly a loss at all,” Susan shares.  “Just call them and use the word ‘cancel’ and see what they offer.”

Sinclair stations are notorious for running local news operations on the cheap, when they bother to run local news at all.  So many viewers remain blissfully unaware of the dispute because many of the affected Sinclair stations are low-rated afterthoughts.  Of the 35+ impacted stations, fewer than six have serious local news operations, and many of those are in last place in the local ratings.  That’s a point Time Warner Cable had reportedly raised in their negotiations, noting the stations are not worth Sinclair’s asking price.

But the cable operator is also not saying a whole lot about the dispute on their various local news channels.  The company has instead taken out full page advertisements in newspapers alerting viewers to the upcoming signal disruptions and pushing customers to visit the cable operator’s national carriage dispute website: RollOverOrGetTough.com.

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Time Warner News Sinclair 12-30-10.flv[/flv]

Time Warner Cable briefly mentioned the dispute between the cable company and Sinclair Broadcasting on a few of their local news channels.  (2 minutes)

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WHAM-TV in Rochester took a third party look at the dispute and explained it to western New York viewers.  Special bonus: A brief interview with Scott Fybush, editor of Northeast Radio Watch who understands western New York media like few others.  (3 minutes)

AT&T customers looking for better service need to put down those cellphones and turn off the computer and pick up a good book.  AT&T recommends Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America From Washington, written by Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Perry’s book, which compares Social Security and FDR’s “New Deal” social programs with a Communist takeover is so popular with the Big Telecom, it purchased over 700 copies to hand out for free to state legislators, lobbyists and activists attending a conservative policy summit luncheon.  Oh, and the company paid for the lunch, too.  Total cost?  More than $13,000 — all ultimately paid for by AT&T’s customers.

AT&T made sure every guest had their own personal hardcover copy of the governor’s book, something that didn’t go unnoticed by former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, who thanked AT&T from the microphone for paying for the books.

“Governor Perry has written a book – a book that all of us very kindly have been given by AT&T,” Cruz said. “Thank you, AT&T.”

AT&T’s gladhanding of conservative state politicians doesn’t come accidentally, reports the Dallas Morning News.  With hundreds of millions in revenue at stake, AT&T’s investment in the state’s Republican dominated legislature guarantees the company’s voice will be heard on important legislative matters.

AT&T has spent as much as $9.3 million to lobby Austin lawmakers and regulators, according to Texas Ethics Commission data. AT&T’s political action committee has donated $494,740 to Perry during his nine years in office, according to Texans for Public Justice.

The latter group told the newspaper AT&T doesn’t get into the book club business lightly.

“It does raise concerns. AT&T has a lot of business before the state of Texas and Texas regulators,” said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, a group that tracks money in politics. “They are generally the largest lobby in the state. They can reach out and touch every lawmaker simultaneously.”

Elected officials who write books routinely find some of their biggest sales come from lobbyists, who buy books in bulk and hand them out at public speaking engagements, or simply shove them into the nearest storage locker.  It’s not about the book, it’s about the access companies like AT&T gain from the goodwill earned from buying copies.

Perry does not profit directly from the book sales, but his political interests do.  Proceeds of the book sales go to the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Tenth Amendment Studies, a group dedicated to protecting corporate interests and “state’s rights.”

AT&T’s corporate interest is protected by the Policy Foundation’s opposition to Net Neutrality, but the group generally opposes broadband stimulus funding, some of which is likely to end up in AT&T’s pockets.

[flv width=”480″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Texas Public Policy Foundation Net Neutrality.flv[/flv]

The Texas Public Policy Foundation invited two Republican FCC commissioners — one current and one former — to bash Net Neutrality and broadband reforms before a stacked panel and audience of like-minded thinkers.  (1 hour, 50 minutes)

An upset borough president

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is calling on New York City’s telecommunications workers to be pressed into service to cope with the snow emergency created by a weekend blizzard that left more than two feet of snow in parts of New York and New Jersey.

Markowitz told WABC-TV news the mayor’s response to the storm was a “royal screw-up” and he’s angry Manhattan streets are bare while outer boroughs like his contend with roads that have not seen a plow since the storm began.

“Verizon, Cablevision, Time Warner — we need men and women that are healthy and able-bodied,” Markowitz appealed on air.  “Twelve bucks an hour — that’s a lot of money — up to fifteen bucks an hour, to be able to help our Sanitation Department clean out streets.”

“We need every available vehicle you’ve got to help clean this place up,” said Markowitz. “I want as to look as good as Broadway in Manhattan — clean it like Broadway in Manhattan, no more and no less.”

These Verizon trucks won't be of much help, stuck in an intersection in Queens.

Much of the city remains under difficult driving conditions because of abandoned vehicles left in the middle of streets and a lack of plowing.  Disruptions to electric, phone and cable service have been reported because of accidents, damage done by snow removal vehicles, and moisture-related equipment failures.

Pressing companies like Verizon and Time Warner into service may not provide much assistance, considering vehicles belonging to both companies were themselves stuck in many locations around the city.

For residents upstate, already dealing with record-breaking snowfalls in December, the chaos downstate is mystifying.  Residents in Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse have another word for the holiday blizzard: Sunday.

The three cities continue their annual competition for the Golden Snowball Award for the upstate community left with the most white stuff:

Golden Snowball Totals for the 2010 – 2011 Snowfall Season
Updated  12/27/2010

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WABC-TV provides the views of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, as well as a roundup of the lightning-hot anger being felt by an increasing number of New Yorkers stuck at home because of unplowed streets. (17 minutes)

Sanders

Sen. Bernie Sanders has challenged FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s view that a merger between NBC-Universal and Comcast would not harm America’s media landscape or consumers.  The independent senator from Vermont released a statement today blasting the chairman for rolling over for another media conglomerate:

The FCC released some very bad news for the future of American media and, in my view, for the future of American democracy.  FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has circulated an order that would allow Comcast, the country’s largest cable and Internet provider, to merge with NBC Universal, one of the country’s largest media conglomerates.

If approved, this new media giant will be the largest cable provider, the largest Internet provider, and one of the largest producers of content in the United States.  At a time when a small number of giant media corporations already control what the American people see, hear, and read, we do not need another media conglomerate with control over the production and distribution of media content.  What we need is less concentration of ownership, more diversity, more local ownership-and more viewpoints.

By law, the FCC may only sign off on the merger if it determines that it serves ‘the public interest, convenience, and necessity.’ Far from meeting the public interest standard, Comcast’s takeover of NBCU would create a monolithic media superpower and cause irreparable damage to the U.S. media landscape and society as a whole. In addition, the merger of these two media giants would likely precipitate other media mergers and make an already bad situation of media consolidation far worse.  Despite the public interest standard, Chairman Genachowski appears to be charging ahead, pressuring his fellow commissioners to approve this deal.

Some take solace in the fact that Chairman Genachowski’s order would approve the merger only subject to certain conditions and regulations.  This in no way changes my opinion about the scope of the damage.  If this merger is approved, I have little doubt that Comcast-NBCU will retain hundreds of attorneys and lobbyists to exploit gaps and loopholes in any conditions and regulations.  Once we allow companies to become this powerful, the FCC does not regulate them.  They regulate the FCC.

Time is running out to stop this deal.  I hope the American people will take notice and stand with me to demand that the FCC change course, vote down the order, and reverse the disturbing trend of media consolidation.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Sanders on Comcast 12-2-10.flv[/flv]

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont appeals to Americans to join him in opposing the merger of Comcast and NBC-Universal.  (2 minutes)

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Salt Lake City’s local ABC affiliate never runs out of wonderful things to say about Comcast, the area’s dominant cable company. KTVX devoted more than four minutes of airtime last week to a puff piece promoting Comcast’s cable products.

It’s just the latest example of the blurring of the line between journalism and ingratiating sponsors by lending the station’s news talent out to shill for advertisers.

Included in the ‘Good Things Utah’ segment, an extended interview with Comcast’s Ray Child, who was encouraged to rattle on about all of the wonderful things Comcast/Xfinity offers local residents.  The two cheerleaders hosts presiding over the affair offered nothing but extended praise, although one host may have touched the third rail when she mentioned “monopoly.”  (4 minutes)