Time Warner Cable, the nation’s second largest cable operator, has agreed to carry Al Jazeera America on its cable lineup nationwide, giving the network 10 million more potential viewers.

The contract, to be announced later today, will bring the English language U.S.-focused news channel to major cities, including Los Angeles and New York within weeks. Time Warner Cable customers in other cities will see the channel added by next March.

Al Jazeera America launched two months ago and has not been an initial ratings success. Despite being available in 44 million homes, fewer than 25,000 people watch the news channel at any given time. The ratings are comparable to Fox Business Channel after it launched.

“We said in January that we would consider Al Jazeera America,” Melinda Witmer, the chief video and content officer for Time Warner Cable. “Now that the channel is live, we think that it would be of value to our customers and are pleased to make it available.”

Time Warner Cable threw Al Jazeera’s predecessor, Current TV, off lineups the instant the network was sold to the Qatar-based news channel. AT&T U-verse also dropped Al Jazeera English just as it premiered, sparking a lawsuit.

The news network is touting the carriage agreement with Time Warner Cable as evidence the network is being taken seriously by cable industry executives. An Al Jazeera spokesman told the New York Times the company was in active negotiations with other cable and satellite providers to pick up the channel.

To win the agreement, Al Jazeera may have temporarily agreed to pay Time Warner Cable a launch fee described as compensation for marketing and ad support. Typically, cable networks receive payment for carriage, not the other way around.

Unlike Al Jazeera English, a global English language news channel intended for an international audience, Al Jazeera America is an American cable news channel, featuring recognizable news personalities including Soledad O’Brien and Ali Velshi, both formerly with CNN.

Efforts by New York’s largest cable operator to deregulate telephone service in New York, potentially cutting off delinquent ratepayers’ phone service at inconvenient times, has run into opposition from an Albany newspaper.

The Times Union published an editorial last week opposing the measure, fearing it could leave some of the millions of Time Warner Cable phone customers without service on nights and weekends without any way to make a payment to prevent the disconnection.

Unlike other services that companies like Time Warner offer — such as TV, Internet, security and remote lighting and heating control — the home telephone holds special status. It has long been regarded as an essential utility, much like residential gas, water and electricity. The PSC regulates how and when a utility can cut a customer off such a critical service for failure to pay a bill on time.

For years, Time Warner maintained it was not a phone company and should not be bound by these rules. That changed earlier this year when it accepted the responsibilities and regulations that come with being a residential phone provider.

Now, though, Time Warner is petitioning the PSC to change the rules governing home phone bills.

Some of the requests appear reasonable, such as updating language about local and long-distance calling charges. But that’s not the case with Time Warner’s request to expand the hours and days when it can disconnect services for customers who have fallen behind in their bills, including their phone service.

Specifically, Time Warner wants to deal with delinquent customers on nights and weekends.

Most other utility providers can cut service for non-payment only during weekdays, when the PSC’s staff is working and available to help broker solutions and protect consumers. The PSC has the authority to make decisions on disputed bills, revise payment plan arrangements and remedy situations where continued service is medically necessary.

Late and unpaid bills are admittedly a chronic problem for cable companies. In the past year, Time Warner sent more than 1.7 million past-due notices to residential customers in the state and shut off or suspended service to nearly 600,000 households for failing to pay bills.

Time Warner calls its proposed change a convenience to its customers. It’s really a convenience for Time Warner, which wants to handle phone bills the same as other services. But this would bypass the special safeguards for phone consumers.

The Public Service Commission is still reviewing the proposal from Time Warner Cable, which is the dominant cable provider in upstate New York and parts of New York City.

Coming soon nationwide? Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T and CenturyLink sure hope not.

Verizon is talking to major cable programmers about launching a nationwide version of FiOS TV as an over-the-top video service that works with your existing broadband provider.

The NY Post reports Verizon is looking at launching an online pay television service for customers without installing additional fiber optic lines to deliver it.

The service would likely be an extension of the “TV Everywhere” online video platforms that many national cable and telco-TV providers already offer existing cable TV subscribers. What would make Verizon’s offer radically different is selling the virtual cable TV service in areas where it does not offer FiOS service.

Verizon must carefully negotiate with programmers to distribute networks over an online video service that would likely compete directly with those programmers’ best customers: cable operators and telco IPTV services like U-verse and Prism TV.

The concept was rejected out of hand Wednesday by Time Warner Cable chief operating officer Rob Marcus, who agreed with Comcast executive vice president Steve Burke’s contention that “over the top” video services that offer virtual cable television outside of their respective service areas lacked a compelling business model and would be difficult to monetize.

“At this point we don’t really aspire to delivering an over-the-top service,” Marcus said. “Our value proposition is delivering video via our facilities as opposed to being a retailer of somebody else’s video, which is a somewhat commoditized product.”

Neither cable executive mentioned the fact cable operators have also maintained an informal “wink and nod” agreement to steer clear of head-on competition with each other for decades.

Verizon: The next big supporter of Net Neutrality?

Verizon apparently wants to shake things up and sell online video without incurring the cost of expanding its fiber optic network FiOS to deliver it.

“They’ve had exploratory talks about how to become a virtual [multiple-system operator],” one person close to the conversations told the Post. “It’s a question of how to get there.”

Interestingly, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam is worried about developing the service without Net Neutrality protection or some other form of government oversight of broadband. Verizon could spend millions to negotiate programming contracts only to find competitors with their own TV packages to protect outmaneuvering the venture. Without Net Neutrality, Verizon could find its service blocked by competitors or made untenable with the implementation of broadband usage caps or consumption billing that would make a subscription too costly to consider.

The company is now trying to figure out exactly which branch of government (or agency) controls broadband policy in the nation.

The FCC’s current Net Neutrality policy depends on a shaky regulatory framework now being challenged in federal court.

Verizon declined to comment.

Roberts

Brian Roberts, the CEO of Comcast-NBC-Universal has two things to celebrate this week:

1. His exclusive invitation to golf with President Barack Obama at the Vineyard Golf Club on Martha’s Vineyard, joined by World Bank president Jim Kim and former U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk;
2. He is a billionaire again.

Thanks to a series of rate increases and improving broadband sales, Comcast’s chief executive has now amassed just over one billion dollars in assets, estimates Forbes magazine.

Much of his net worth rests in more than $800 million in Comcast stock controlled by Roberts. Comcast shares are up almost 30 percent in the last year and over 105 percent in the past 24 months. Comcast reported revenue of $16.27 billion in the second quarter alone.

Comcast’s earnings fueled the buyout of NBC-Universal.

Roberts had been a billionaire club member before, appearing on Forbes‘ 400 Richest Americans list in 1999 after inheriting the majority of his father’s stock, worth $750 million. By 2001, that stock increased in value to $1.2 billion. But by 2003, depressed Comcast share prices meant Roberts’ net value dropped to $625 million.

Executive compensation at most cable operators has increased right along with the prices customers pay for service.

The average owner of a large home that wants an alarm system, the ability to observe everything indoors and out, and remotely control doors, thermostats and electric outlets will pay AT&T $1,740 in installation fees and a recurring monthly charge of $69.95 a month for deluxe peace of mind.

AT&T’s “Digital Life” service, available in U-verse equipped areas, is just the latest revenue-booster for the telephone company. The new service will compete directly against similar offerings from cable operators and traditional home security vendors including ADT.

AT&T can claim some superiority for its offering, because it offers water damage sensors most others don’t. That add-on can detect a basement water heater on the way out or give an early warning of a sewer backup.

AT&T’s deluxe offer — headlined above — includes the water control add-on, three indoor pan-and-scan cameras, one outdoor security camera, sensors for six windows and a variety of home automation features. For the middle class, AT&T offers less tony packages, letting customers customize features most valuable to them.

Home security and automation is a growth industry, particularly since the cable and phone companies have gotten into the act. The Boston Herald reports 90 million homes worldwide will have some form of home automation system in place by 2017.

Although home security systems have been available for years, they require separate contracts, installation, and monitoring from alarm providers most Americans are barely familiar with. The cable and phone companies hope their packages, offered as “add-ons,” will attract more customers that would not normally consider a home security system. Maintaining broadband service is also often a prerequisite for the cable/telephone company systems. As customers are already accustomed to seeing the cable or phone guy and a large, multi-product monthly telecommunications bill, adding another service like home automation and monitoring is not a big stretch.

“Offering security services in the past was basically a separate offering,” said Mitchell Christopher, vice president of technical operations at  Time Warner Cable. “Security wasn’t tied to the existing products or network. With the new products we have now, it is fully integrated into our existing network. It is just an extension of what we are doing versus a departure.”

Unlike traditional intrusion alarms, services like AT&T’s “Digital Life” promote home automation and monitoring features above basic home security.

The Herald:

A few real life-examples: Turn on the lights and unlock your front door when you see your cleaning crew arrive. Lock it behind them when they leave — no need to give them a key. Set programs that make life easier, such as one that triggers your back door to open and your kitchen lights to turn on when your garage door opens each night as you arrive home. View a log of each time your front door has opened or closed to know whether your child has kept his or her word about staying in to do homework. Simply press a button on your smartphone or tablet for “police” or “fire” in the event of an emergency. Be alerted if the service detects a water leak, smoke or carbon monoxide. And if a leak is detected, have the water supply cut automatically.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/ATT Digital Life 8-2013.flv[/flv]

AT&T produced this introductory video for its Digital Life home security and automation suite. The most basic home security packages start at $150 for equipment and $30 a month with a 2-year contract. (1 minute)