As Charter Raises Rates, Customers Flee in Wake of Mega-Merger As we've been noting Charter's acquisition of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable hasn't been particularly good so far for those customers. The company has not only frozen broadband upgrades in Time Warner Cable territories, but they've cut back on online support on social media and places like here in the DSLReports.com forums. And as an added kick in the digital posterior, most Time Warner Cable and Bright House users are facing notable price hikes when their existing contracts expire.

Not too surprisingly, many of these customers aren't sticking around to find out what happens next. As some Wall Street analysts predicted, customers being told of the rate hikes are deciding to take their businss elsewhere. Charter lost 47,000 net video subscribers last quarter, compared to a loss of 20,000 subscriber during the same quarter last year. In fact, Charter says that at least 54,000 Time Warner Cable customers downgraded or canceled their cable TV service in the wake of the merger. Charter executives are insisting that these users were "mispriced," but seem to believe this consumer annoyance will fade as users get used to Charter's new Spectrum services. “Third quarter customer results were more inconsistent with good performance at Legacy Charter and Bright House, but higher churn and downgrades in the Time Warner Cable markets, as we expected, given the way Time Warner Cable had marketed promotional pricing," said Charter CEO Tom Rutledge. "Until our Spectrum pricing and packaging is launched across the newly acquired service areas, we continue to expect higher levels of churn and downgrades where Time Warner Cable was the operator." Time Warner Cable, for all of its faults, would often respond to complaints by lowering prices or offering notable promotional savings. That appears to be a game Charter is completely unwilling to participate in.







News Jump WISPs Get CBRS Range As Great As Six Miles At 100 Mbps Speeds; Windstream Officially Exits Bankruptcy; + more news Charter Relaunches Free 60-day Internet And Wi-Fi Offer; NCTA: FCC Should Stick With 25/3 Speed Threshold; + more news Comcast Shuts Off Internet for Subs Who Were Sold Service Illegally; AT&T, Verizon Team To Stop T-Mobile 5G; + more news California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 41 comments



Tomek

Premium Member

join:2002-01-30

Valley Stream, NY 25 recommendations Tomek Premium Member Gotta Love Regulators / Legislators Banning municipal broadband, limiting competition and allowing Mega-Mergers. That always works out perfectly for customer/voter elefante72

join:2010-12-03

East Amherst, NY 13 recommendations elefante72 Member Too bad I know for lots of my family the option is TW/Charter or nothing in Upstate NY, so that is a real problem and sat is not cheaper and follows the expensive BOX model which should be shot.



On the other side, at least for some years they cannot cap, so I guess we will be seeing $100 internet bills to take the place of cable bills, then people will have to scrounge for OTT versions.



We talk about cable, but the REAL problem is cheap, fast, uncapped internet that can solve that problem in two seconds, because then you can get a $20 roku stick and your favorite channels and let THEM compete for your money rather than holding it as a bundling hostage.

Takuro

join:2016-10-17

Chapel Hill, NC 5 recommendations Takuro Member The question is, do they even care? Charter says that at least 54,000 Time Warner Cable customers downgraded or canceled their cable TV service in the wake of the merger. That's like a fraction of a drop in a bucket. Nobody over at Spectrum is going to lose sleep over this. That's kind of how monopolies work -- so long as you can retain most of your subscriber base (where else will they go?) while jacking up prices, they consider it a win.

CodeeCB

Premium Member

join:2001-10-01

Minneapolis, MN 3 recommendations CodeeCB Premium Member Makes me appreciate Comcast This sure makes me appreciate my 250/30 which ends up being 298/32 forn $80. Previously had 150/20 which ends up being around 180/21 for $60 a month with Comcast. Only competition here is Centurylink so basically nothing.

Eagles1221

join:2009-04-29

Vincentown, NJ 3 recommendations Eagles1221 Member I've leaving For Earthlink. Same crappy service but cheaper. I was paying $75 for 30 meg now I'm on $29.99 for 15 meg. New customers get 50 meg for 29.99. Charter hasn't rolled the 60 mbit for $60 here yet. I don't think I'll ever get TV from them. Zen6

join:2011-06-04

Saratoga Springs, NY 3 recommendations Zen6 Member Same issue different year Pricing for video services is still being held hostage by the content providers. Until we can un bundle this will be a dead horse issue.