Time Warner Cable customers having a hard time sorting out hard news for infotainment will no longer have to skim channels with Victoria’s Secret news anchors, blowhard political talk masquerading as news, or exploitative voyeurism from Nancy Grace or Greta Van Susteren.

By the end of December, BBC World News will be a part of the digital basic package on most Time Warner Cable systems.

“I’m delighted to see BBC World News coming to Time Warner Cable – this is another important foothold for our global news channel in the highly competitive US market,” said Jim Egan, who represents the news network. “We are really pleased by the growing demand in the US for a global news network which is both non-partisan and non-sensational in approach.  BBC World News is about serious news; with on the ground reporting and analysis from different parts of the world and a mandate to inform and provide a balanced view. We know that audiences around the world value the channel’s distinctive world view and we are pleased that more US viewers now have access to it.”

Time Warner Cable already carries several other international news channels, but none with the prestige of the BBC:

• RT: Russia Today, which has close ties to the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin. It is effectively the television extension of the Voice of Russia World Service (formerly Radio Moscow);
• CNN International: The overseas service of CNN, watched mostly abroad;
• CCTV: Chinese Central Television, a network owned and operated by the Chinese government.

Other news channels not on the lineup:

• France 24: The English language international news channel offering a French perspective on global news with a European focus;
• Deutsche Welle: The Voice of Germany’s international television news and documentary channel;
• NHK World: Japan’s external television news and information channel presented by the country’s largest public broadcaster;
• Al-Jazeera English: The English language service of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, focusing heavily on news from the developing world and the Middle East.

BBC World News will have grown its reach by over 10 million new homes in 2012 and in total, will reach 25 million full time homes in the U.S. following the Time Warner Cable launches.

Eight channels are missing from Raleigh-area televisions.

Time Warner Cable dropped eight analog channels from its lineup in Raleigh recently, advising customers they will need either a digital transport adapter (DTA) or standard set top box to get those channels back.

But one Raleigh customer tells Stop the Cap! those DTA boxes are hard to come by at the moment, forcing some to get costly set top boxes instead.

“We have been told three times by Time Warner Cable there is a multi-week wait for the free boxes, but we can get all the set top boxes we want today, for more than $6 a month each,” complains Rachel, who has three TV’s that need a box solution. “You think they would have waited for enough equipment before they took the channels away.”

Now missing from the analog lineup: C-SPAN, CMT, Oprah Winfrey Network, VH-1 Classics, Discovery Fitness & Health, Lifetime Movie Network, TruTV and the Golf Channel.

Jim DuBreck thought he had nothing to worry about when Time Warner sent him a postcard alerting him those eight channels were only going to be available in digital starting this month. He told ABC11 he already has a digital TV. Time Warner did not tell him that was not enough to keep watching.

DuBreck later learned the cable company not only converted the channels to digital, it also encrypted them. His digital TV would still need either a set top box or DTA. Only he is still waiting for the five DTA boxes for his own televisions.

Time Warner told the station they have seen a much higher demand than anticipated for the adapters. So, there may be some temporary delays before receiving one. DTA boxes are free for two years, set top boxes are not.

Customers better get used to it. Time Warner is gradually converting their systems to digital lineups, so as time goes by, more analog channels will disappear.

Time Warner Cable explained why:

“Moving analog channels to digital frees up capacity in our network to bring customers faster internet like we just did last week when we boosted the speeds of our standard internet service by 50 percent. Providing channels digitally also allows us to offer customers more because it’s dramatically more efficient: We can deliver up to four HD channels, or as many as 12 standard-definition digital channels, using the same capacity as it takes to carry one analog channel.”

[flv width=”600″ height=”358″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WTVD Raleigh Cable customer upset over Time Warner changes 12-14-12.flv[/flv]

WTVD in Raleigh helps Time Warner Cable customers understand where some of their analog channels are going.  (3 minutes)

Enjoy arrest and deportation.

If Time Warner Cable was hoping to attract new customers, allowing employees to arrange for their arrest and deportation is probably not the best way to accomplish that.

But that is precisely what happened to a Burlington, N.C., mom who tried to order cable service for her daughter with a fake Social Security number. An off-duty local police officer working part time as a security guard in the cable office overheard the conversation and arranged for the woman’s arrest.

Now 27-year old Lorena Yanez-Mata faces deportation to Mexico because she is in the United States illegally.

Yanez-Mata tried to use her individual taxpayer identification number to order cable service. The cable company rejected that, insisting on a Social Security number. So she arrived at the cable store with a counterfeit card with a random nine digit number.

When the security officer overheard the conversation, Time Warner Cable says he acted on his own initiative to contact local police, who arrested Yanez-Mata as soon as she left.

Yanez-Mata was charged with obtaining property by false pretense because of the phony Social Security number. But her prospects are likely to be more serious when she arrives in a Charlotte immigration court for possible deportation.

Time Warner Cable tried to distance itself from the debacle, claiming it is against their policy to share personal information with law enforcement and the security officer was not following any company procedure or direction. The cable company has no interest in bringing charges against the woman.

The company did not explain what would happen to the security officer who apparently disregarded the cable company’s policies when he choose to share potentially confidential, personal information with authorities. Nor did the company say whether it planned to issue new directives to avoid similar situations in the future.

Although Triad area residents and the local media used the incident to debate the issue of illegal immigration, another question remains: should an off-duty police officer working as a security guard act on private information he overhears and initiate a police investigation contrary to the interests of his employer?

[flv width=”604″ height=”424″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WFMY Greensboro Burlington Mom Faces Deportation After Trying To Get Time Warner Cable 12-12-12.flv[/flv]

WFMY-TV in Greensboro used the story of the Burlington mom to address the larger issue of why people illegally immigrate to the United States. We are wondering how Time Warner plans to handle employees sharing customer information with the authorities. (2 minutes)

Time Warner Cable today launched a major update to its free TWC TV app for iPad that will introduce on-demand access to more than 4,000 TV and movie titles from 91 different providers.

Existing Time Warner customers can access both standard definition and HD content, with plans in place to regularly refresh available titles.

But DVR owners are still out of luck — no application from Time Warner other than its Whole House DVR service will let you remotely watch recorded shows stored on your digital video recorder.

Time Warner Cable’s blog outlined the major upgrades in the new release:

1. On demand – Over 4,000 TV shows and movies from 94 providers

• FF / REW / Pause using standard iOS player controls (FF disabled where required).
• Browse by TV Shows, Movies, Kids or network.
• Search – search the On Demand catalog by title.
• Parental control – Channel blocking (network based parental control) is enforced for both TWC TV live and on demand content. To block channels, visit myservices.timewarnercable.com.

2. Live TV guide – now features “recently viewed channels” button to quickly recall previously viewed live TV channels.

3. Numerous performance enhancements and bug fixes have been implemented to improve the overall user experience.

Although “soft-launched” several weeks ago in many markets, Time Warner Cable has officially unveiled its holiday gift for 2012: a free 50% speed increase for Standard tier customers: 15/1Mbps service.

The speed increase is now complete across New York, New Jersey, New England, the Carolinas, Virginia and Alabama. Customers can activate the higher speed by briefly unplugging their cable modem for 10 seconds, plugging the cord back in, and in some cases rebooting their computer.

Customers outside of these areas can try this as well. Stop the Cap! has received reports from readers in the midwest, Texas, and California that the speed increase has arrived in their areas as well. All Time Warner Cable systems across the country should be providing the new speed by the end of this month.

Earthlink customers using Time Warner Cable should also see an identical speed increase.

Some Time Warner Cable customers are only now getting upgrades to DOCSIS 3 service, which open the door to 30/5 and 50/5Mbps speed tiers. The latest: Binghamton, N.Y. and surrounding southern tier communities. Customers further upstate have had that option for 1-2 years.