For your convenience, I have compiled a package of media on the 1st Quarter Results for Time Warner Cable, including audio from this morning’s investor conference call, and copies of the reports for your review. You must remain on this page to stream audio clips.

A cue sheet is referenced below for the different audio actualities.  The complete conference call is available for download as an MP3 file.

Audio Actualities

Cut 1: Time Warner CEO Glenn Britt introduces earnings results, and touches on general economic conditions & competitive risk (3:51 minutes)

You can download the clip and listen later.

Cut 2: Time Warner EVP and Chief Financial Officer Rob Marcus talks about broadband results (0:20 minutes)

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Cut 3: Time Warner EVP and Chief Financial Officer Rob Marcus notes subscriber results deteriorated in the last few weeks. (0:23 minutes)

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Cut 4: Time Warner EVP and Chief Financial Officer Rob Marcus breaks down subscriber growth by product (0:22 minutes)

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Cut 5: Time Warner EVP and Chief Financial Officer Rob Marcus discusses the reduction in capital spending (1:08 minutes)

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Cut 6: COO Landel Hobbs reviews competition and its impact on Time Warner Cable (1:42 minutes)

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Cut 7: COO Landel Hobbs on how Time Warner Cable will make investments in its platforms in this quarter and beyond (3:51 minutes)

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Cut 8: Q&A – What impact has the usage based metering trial had on the company and what about DOCSIS upgrades? CEO Glenn Britt answers. (2:10 minutes)

You can download the clip and listen later.

Cut 9: Results on the Road Runner Turbo product and its impact on profits. EVP and Chief Financial Officer Rob Marcus answers. (0:19 minutes)

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Cut 10: Q&A – How will online video impact Time Warner’s video business model, and are programming costs still increasing? EVP and Chief Financial Officer Rob Marcus answers and CEO Glenn Britt follows up. (3:46 minutes)

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Cut 11: Q&A – What fiber product created more competition for Time Warner Cable in the last quarter? COO Landel Hobbs answers. (0:24 minutes)

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Entire Event: 1st Quarter 2009 Time Warner Cable Investor Conference Call (54:48 minutes)

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Time Warner Cable Documents

04/29/2009      Time Warner Cable Inc. to Report First Quarter 2009 Results

All documents are in Adobe PDF format.

Time Warner Cable 2009 First-Quarter Results 436.9 KB

Time Warner Cable 2009 Updated Trending Schedules 61.2 KB

Time Warner Cable 2009 First-Quarter Slide Presentation 294.8 KB

WXII did a follow-up the day after Time Warner announced it was shelving its metered broadband service plan.  It was clear that not everyone believes Time Warner’s plans have been shelved permanently.

A fair report with all sides represented, but the reporter’s estimates about the size of movies was generally inaccurate.  DVD quality/HD movies are far in excess of one gigabyte.  One movie is much more likely to consume at least four gigabytes if you are obtaining a high quality version suitable for display on a television set.  Game play has a wide range of impact on usage.  Some online multiplayer games consume surprisingly small amounts — especially when sending game plays and movements across a network.  Latency is a very bad thing in a fast moving game, after all.  But many game add-ons, updates and enhancements can use a lot more.

In a morning conference call with Time Warner Cable executives and investors, Time Warner Cable announced that the Powerboost technology upgrade will be provided to all Road Runner customers at no additional charge in the coming weeks. Powerboost formerly was available in most markets only to customers on the Turbo tier.

Powerboost provides a temporary speed boost to downloads on the Time Warner Cable broadband service, usually around 16Mbps, according to Time Warner officials.

Company officials also announced the only market where DOCSIS 3.0 upgrades are currently scheduled is New York City.  All other markets will eventually see upgrades announced in the coming years on a market by market basis.  Company officials downplayed the importance of the upgrade, saying they had not seen much demand for increased speed.  This diverges significantly from the company line that usage caps and tiered pricing were required to prevent “Internet brownouts” and to race additional funds to complete “necessary upgrades.”

Complete coverage on this story and its impact on metered pricing can be found on StoptheCap!

Time Warner officials announcing Powerboost to be made available to Road Runner Standard subscribers (0:23 minutes)

You can download the clip and listen later.

In a conference call this morning with Time Warner Cable executives, reporters questioned officials about their usage based pricing trials.

Company officials indicated that the company was dealing with a dynamic business sector and was trying to improve returns by trying new products and services, and redefining the business model for broadband, depending on customer reaction.

Company officials noted there was significant push back by consumers and politicians over usage based pricing, and withdrew the market trials for the time being.  However, company officials stressed they will “keep trying to do things in the future.”

“Back in the 1990s, Time Warner was primarily a TV company in a TV industry.  Broadband then was an innovating and radical thing, and a lot of people thought it was stupid and wouldn’t work.  [The usage based trial] got a lot of pushback, but this was just going to be a market trial.”

In a morning conference call with investors, Time Warner Cable management announced they would be initiating an upgrade to DOCSIS 3.0, the next generation in cable broadband technology, in just a single city in 2009: New York.

The work has already begun in Manhattan, where CMTS deployment will commence by the summer.  Initial testing has produced results up to 138Mbps down/18Mbps up.  However, company officials stress they have no plans to offer that level of speed, at least initially.  The upgrade should be available to customers by the end of 2009.

Time Warner continues to downplay the importance of DOCSIS 3.0 with investors, telling them this morning the company has seen little interest from customers in additional broadband speed, making the upgrade a low priority.  However, even though the company has no specific rollout schedule, it does propose to upgrade in the coming years on a market by market basis, with announcements preceding deployment in each area.

This is in marked contrast to public statements Time Warner’s corporate communications department had been making in markets where usage based pricing trials were to begin this summer.  Repeated statements from company officials warning of “Internet brownouts” and “capacity problems” were used as justifications to institute caps on usage with significant overlimit penalties as high as $2/GB.  Officials claimed just two weeks ago that the revenue earned from heavier users charged a higher price would be used to deploy “necessary DOCSIS upgrades.”  That is a message not given to investors.  Additionally, company officials never mentioned the need for usage based pricing throughout the one hour conference call, except in response to a question from a caller.  Company officials downplayed the usage based billing controversy as a “market trial that had pushback,” but also warned that additional tests to change the current broadband business model would be forthcoming.