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HBO Comedian John Oliver took on antitrust law and megamerger madness in a new segment on his HBO show "Last Week Tonight." While the segment makes fun of merger mania and the negative impact mindless consolidation has had on on the airline, food and even aluminum can industries, Oliver takes a few entertaining shots at the cable and broadband industry as well (take a look if you like watching cable boxes explode in slow motion). Oliver even has a few choice words for AT&T"s $85 billion planned acquisition of Time Warner, just the latest in a wave of mergers that consumer advocates say harm smaller businesses and consumer choice.
Of course Oliver"s boss will soon be AT&T, since Time Warner owns HBO, something he was quick to reference.
"Even our own company, Time-Warner, is trying to merge with AT&T, which makes this story a little dangerous to do. That is presuming AT&T executives get their shitty service working long enough to see it, Oliver joked.
Critics have argued that AT&T"s acquisition of Time Warner will only make a company with a long history of viciously anti-consumer behavior immeasurably more powerful. Its ownership of Time Warner will result in the company making it more difficult than ever for streaming companies to license content necessary to compete with AT&T"s own streaming video platform, DirecTV Now.
But AT&T"s Time Warner merger is just the latest in a wave of telecom and TV consolidation that has resulted in higher prices, worse service, and less competition than ever. Case in point: Charter"s recent acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, which resulted in many users paying up to 40% more money for the exact same service. That"s before you factor in that many of these acquired customers say the deal made already awful customer service even worse.
Heavily consolidated industries can lose incentive to innovate, and the best example of this maybe the cable box beneath your TV, Oliver said. If you have one of those, you probably hate it because it s huge, it s glitchy, and it may be one of the largest energy consuming items in your house even when it s turned off. If you think about it, cable companies have no real incentive to improve them. They are essentially regional monopolies. They know you basically have nowhere else to go.
Altice this week ramped up its rhetoric in attacks on Disney, as the two sides participate in a standoff that could leave Suddenlink and Cablevision (Optimum) customers without access to Disney and ABC channels. The failure of the two sides to strike a new programming deal by the end of the month could potentially result in ESPN, ABC, and other Disney-owned channels going dark for the French-owned company"s 4 million US subscribers. It"s only the latest standoff in an industry where consumers are already annoyed by skyrocketing bills and dismal customer service.
As with every standoff of this type, the two sides spent the weekend publicly bickering, trying their best to blame the other side for the failure to negotiate like adults without impacting customer services.
Despite the fact that viewership of their programming by Optimum customers has been declining in the double digits for years, ESPN and its owner are demanding double the rates for ABC for the same content they offer today, exorbitant fee increases for ESPN, and are trying to force customers who don t receive ESPN to have to pay for it, Altice said in a statement.
Disney of course owns ESPN, which has seen a mass exodus of consumers as users (particularly those that don"t care about sports) pay an estimated $8 more per month for ESPN channels they don"t want. Disney has been blindsided by ESPN"s contribution to the cord cutting threat, as Disney"s skyrocketing rates leave users hungry for cheaper, more flexible cable bundles. But Disney laid the blame at the feet of Altice, which does have an overseas reputation for being a bit of a cheapskate.
The typical Optimum customer pays $160 or more each month for service to Altice, and the bulk of that money goes into their pocket. For broadcast basic, Altice charges its customers $34, which is more than 15x the amount we are seeking for the market s most watched station, WABC," Disney said.
Altice, meanwhile, stated that Disney"s behavior was "anti-consumer."
This behavior by ESPN is anti-consumer, and we urge ESPN and its owner to stop the threats, leave their programming on for customers and focus on negotiating an agreement that is fair for our Optimum customers, Altice said.
Again, most of these standoffs end with both sides striking a controversial new programming agreement, resulting in skyrocketing rates. And while broadcasters are responsible for massive programming rate hikes, cable companies do their best to jack up rates as well, whether it"s usage caps on broadband connections -- or higher rates for DVR rental. As such, when most of these standoffs occur, many consumers may find themselves wishing that somehow, both sides could lose. read comment(s)
Users in our Charter forum indicate that the cable giant appears to be bumping its base speed tier from 60 Mbps to 100 Mbps in a number of markets. More specifically, 60 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up tiers are now being pushed to 100 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up -- a welcome change for a company that has been criticized for falling behind the pack -- especially in terms of offering speeds closer to 1 Gbps.
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Anyone surprised by these positions hadn"t been paying attention. Pai"s previous tenure as a regular Commissioner under FCC boss Tom Wheeler repeatedly involved a wholesale refusal to stand up to incumbent carriers on any subject of substance. Pai even voted down punishing AT&T for repeated instances of fraud.
Needless to say Pai may be one of the least popular FCC Commissioners in history, especially given that subjects like privacy and net neutrality have broad, bipartisan support among consumers. As such, consumer advocates like Free Press have begun gathering signatures on a petition to fire Pai, who needs a re-confirmation vote from the Senate in order to continue serving on the FCC.
"Since he joined the Commission, he"s worked to undo policies designed to protect Internet users, communities of color and poor people," complains the group. "While he"s supposed to protect the public interest, he"s continuously voted against it and sided with the deep-pocketed corporations -- like Verizon -- that once employed him. He"s failing at his job. And that means we need the Senate to fire him," Free Press added. "And we have an opportunity. The Senate has to vote to re-confirm Pai by the end of the year or he"s out."
Pai"s first term at the FCC ended last June, though under FCC laws he"s allowed to stay on until the end of 2017. When President Trump appointed Pai to head the agency, it involved re-nominating Pai for a new five year term. But Pai needs to be confirmed via Senate vote, which reports indicate could happen withiin a week. And while most expect the GOP to rubber stamp his re-nomination, Democrats say they plan to take their time with the process in the hopes of further highlighting Pai"s extremely anti-consumer positions.
"This debate on net neutrality, on privacy, is at a defining historical moment, and we have to ensure there is a full public debate so everyone can understand its importance," said Senator Ed Markey of the plan. read comment(s)
We"ve long noted that while Comcast insists its broadband usage meter is perfectly accurate, consumers traditionally have a notably different experience. As it stands, Comcast imposes a one terabyte cap on all customers -- except in markets in the Northeast where the cable giant faces more competition from the likes of Verizon FiOS. In these markets, users that cross the 1 terabyte limit face overage fees of $10 per each additional 50 GB consumed -- unless they pony up an additional $50 more per month to avoid usage caps entirely.
Worse, because no regulator independently determines that an ISP"s usage meter is accurate, we"ve consistently seen occassions when users have been charged for usage they didn"t engage in -- even in instances where modems were off or the power was out. Because regulators don"t seem to care and competition leaves them without options, challenging an ISPs usage claim is all but impossible.
As a result, most consumers are forced to grin and bear it when such ISPs impose these arbitrary, confusion, expensive and unnecessary restrictions on usage. Complaints to the FCC have proven useless, and with the current Trump FCC"s ultra cozy relationship with the industry it"s supposed to oversee, users shouldn"t expect help from regulators any time soon.
Over at Ars Technica, one users states they decided to cancel their Comcast broadband service after the company consistently accused the user of consuming more bandwidth than they actually did. And, as with previous complaints, the user says he was billed for additional usage despite his modem being off:
quote:At one point, Weaver says he left town for three days and had left his wireless router unplugged, though the modem itself was plugged in. After his trip, Comcast"s meter showed that he "used 500GB in three days of not even being home and not having a Wi-Fi network running," Weaver said...
"I have been told no less than eight times that I can rest easy if I would just buy the $50 unlimited data plan," he said. "This whole thing reeks of scam."
This has been an issue for the better part of the last decade, but we"ve yet to see a regulator or lawmaker give the problem so much as a fleeting glance. But as telcos increasingly refuse to upgrade their aging DSL networks at any real scale, companies like Comcast are using the resulting growing monopoly over real broadband (anything over 25 Mbps) to uniformly impose caps and overage fees. The only goal: abuse the lack of broadband competition to both hamstring and cash in on the rise in streaming video competitors. read comment(s)
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KinKi Kidsがアニメ「タイムボカン」OP担当、3パターンの新曲で彩る KinKi Kidsの新曲「DE […]
