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Seven media companies are said to be working with Time Warner on the trial program

One of the biggest fears for cable companies today is that the glut of free programs offered online by the TV networks and video sharing sites like Hulu will lead consumers to cancel cable plans and watch online only. To help alleviate these fears the cable providers are working with networks to offer online programs.

Time Warner Cable has signed up seven major media companies according to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal. The programs would only be available to paying Time Warner customers. Among the networks reportedly working with Time Warner in the expanded online offerings are SyFy, TNT, AMC, and BBC America. Some sources also say that the trial will also include CBS, Discovery, and Viacom networks as well.

The test will be offered to a limited number of homes online and to access the programming the users would have to fill out a questionnaire. The questionnaire would be to ensure that the viewer is a Time Warner customer. The trial will reportedly start as early as today and will include about 5,000 homes in several U.S. markets. Comcast launched a similar offering in July.

News has also rolled in that Verizon has been authorized to provide FiOS TV in three more communities in New York. The communities include Camillus, Skaneateles, and Cornwall-on-Hudson. The FiOS service is delivered to homes in the area via fiber optic and will bring the total of FiOS enabled communities to 161.

The agreements between Verizon and the three new communities are subject to review by the New York State Public Service Commission. Verizon expects to start offering the service in the communities this fall.

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How about...
By Gzus666 on 8/27/2009 11:57:06 AM , Rating: 2
the jerkoffs work on rolling DOCSIS 3.0 out already. Quick to charge, slow to deploy, I wish FIOS was in my area.




RE: How about...
By metaltoiletry on 8/27/2009 1:06:06 PM , Rating: 2
Tell me about it, right now Verizon only has 3mbps connections where I am. The moment FiOS is here I'm going to upgrade to it.


RE: How about...
By inperfectdarkness on 8/28/2009 6:48:20 AM , Rating: 2
fortunately, cox seems to average 14.4 mbps for me. fios can suck it for what they're charging.


RE: How about...
By mcnabney on 8/28/2009 10:48:09 AM , Rating: 2
Are you serious? FiOS is cheap for what you get.


RE: How about...
By Lord 666 on 8/28/2009 10:59:15 AM , Rating: 2
I miss comcast versus FiOS. Even with the 25/15 package, the VoIP and flexibility of the system were much better.


RE: How about...
By gamerk2 on 8/28/2009 3:58:47 PM , Rating: 2
Unfortunatlly, my town (brookhaven) requires all cable lines to be buried, so we're probably not getting FIOS for at least 3 more years...


RE: How about...
By MrSmurf on 8/27/2009 10:50:47 PM , Rating: 2
DOCSIS 3.0 costs money. They still haven't completely paid for their cable plant upgrades from the last decade. Have you ever wondered why cable companies don't go and do fiber to the home? They don't have the money.

Meanwhile, phone companies are losing customers at an alarming rate. They had to do something. Even AT&T didn't have money to do FTTH, instead they choose fiber to the crossbox (for the most part).


RE: How about...
By V2K on 8/28/2009 6:02:02 AM , Rating: 1
TWC made billions in profit last year (as they do every year) and DOCSIS 3.0 has a per user upgrade expenditure that's a pittance. Which is why Comcast have no trouble rolling it out.

The reasons TWC haven't done it is simple. Greed. They have no wish to spend money on it when they can keep control of their market without investing in hardware. They only increase their performance in areas of direct competition - which means DSL and FiOS. FiOS has a small footprint and DSL barely scrapes 6Mbps.

When the choice is TWC or nothing then TWC can keep raping the subscribers for $45 a month for 8-10Mbps (if you are lucky) without needing to do anything.

Their CEO Glenn Britt summed up their attitude quite well in a conference call ...

"Britt said the company remains bullish on DOCSIS 3.0, but he called high speeds “a marketing ploy,” given that few subscribers need the speeds, and few people have PCs able to handle such high bandwidth. When it comes to DOCSIS 3.0, it’s needed largely to counter competitors offering high speeds. “We will play that game where we need to,” Britt said."

Time Warner Cable - where technology comes last.


RE: How about...
By Lord 666 on 8/28/2009 10:54:45 AM , Rating: 2
The grass is not that much greener on the other side. Just went from Comcast County to FiOS.

At least the billing made sense in Comcast world, they have a better VoIP product, and the TV boxes didn't require a special data router for their onsite IP addresses and VoD menus. Read on some forums on how to get a Motorla unit that provides MoCA compliance and so I can start using a Cisco ASA5505.

Sure, the latency of the network is ok along with data performance, but at the end of the day, you are still dealing with Verizon and their BS billing.


RE: How about...
By Gzus666 on 8/28/2009 2:10:34 PM , Rating: 2
My parents have FIOS and I used to have Verizon for my cell. I have yet to see anything really wrong with either. I would have stayed with Verizon for my cell if their phone selection didn't suck at the time I switched to get my G1.

What on-site router are you speaking of? Granted I don't have it, my parents do, but the only thing I have seen is the ONT and the router in the garage. They have the internet and TV, everything seems swell.

Also, at least Comcast is deploying 3.0, Time Warner is sitting on their hands.


RE: How about...
By Lord 666 on 8/28/2009 2:32:23 PM , Rating: 2
The Actiontek MI424WR Rev E. The ONT is fine and makes sense. Its the TV box relying on a MoCA source for program guides and VoD and this comes from the onsite Actiontek.

There are several alertnative configurations, but in my opinion it was poorly thought out for advanced users that are looking for business level VPN connectivity.

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/verizonfios/3.0_Netw...


fears
By invidious on 8/27/2009 1:18:30 PM , Rating: 5
I know that you're afraid... you're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.




RE: fears
By PitViper007 on 8/27/2009 2:22:34 PM , Rating: 2
One of my favorite movies ever.


RE: fears
By kattanna on 8/27/2009 2:43:13 PM , Rating: 3
yeah great movie.. too bad they made a 2nd and 3rd part


RE: fears
By Omega215D on 8/27/2009 5:31:05 PM , Rating: 2
Well to be fair I loved all 3 based on their philosophical nature... that and you can never have enough kung fu fight scenes.


RE: fears
By sprockkets on 8/27/2009 5:57:40 PM , Rating: 4
If you feel the way that most do, that any movie's sequel (2 and 3 in this case) had to be exponentially better than the first, then yes, it sucked.

After watching all three in a close timespan, they all feature quite the same in effects and storyline.


RE: fears
By Jellodyne on 8/27/2009 8:13:49 PM , Rating: 1
I wish I was able to eat pale watery mush and tell my brain that it is a juicy and delicious steak like you apparently can.


RE: fears
By abzillah on 8/28/2009 1:56:20 AM , Rating: 2
Well, watch the Dezionized version and it's much better. They take out all of the parts related to Zion, and your problems are solved.


Compete eh?
By FastangLX on 8/27/2009 11:39:24 AM , Rating: 2
How are they going to compete with FiOS by having online streaming content yet impose daily download caps? Currently I am streaming Netflix on my 360, sometimes I watch shows on NBC.com and it is very noticable when I hit my cap.




RE: Compete eh?
By KeithP on 8/27/2009 11:54:06 AM , Rating: 2
Time Warner has no caps currently in affect. But even if they did, it would be a trivial thing for them to exclude their own content from counting towards a cap should they try and implement them again.


RE: Compete eh?
By amanojaku on 8/27/2009 1:18:59 PM , Rating: 2
Exclude their own content from the cap? Are you kidding? These are the same people that tried to sneak the cap in without us knowing. Time Warner would cap everything, or at least meter it to charge you up the ass later. The only reason it's not happening in a widespread fashion is that politicians got involved and told Time Warner to back off. It's been quiet so far, but I wouldn't fall asleep, yet.


RE: Compete eh?
By sprockkets on 8/27/2009 3:25:41 PM , Rating: 2
Bud, that's like trying to put a cap on how much TV viewing your digital box can receive. That's retarded.

When you realize that your modem only receives around 3 channels of what your digital box uses, you then see that there is no reason for a cap on digital TV.


RE: Compete eh?
By The0ne on 8/27/2009 1:41:15 PM , Rating: 2
They do in certain areas. They do it to me when I'm using bit torrent. You'll see your connection slow down and eventually die off. Doesn't matter if it's one torrent or several. Having said that, however, lately they've been pretty good at not doing it anymore. I haven't seen it in about a month now.

I would switch to another provider for TV, phone and internet but there are no other choices for my location. Dish/Satellite wont work because the dish won't be able to face the right direction. Time Warner sucks balls on their converter boxes, both the DVR and DV. The firmware just really blows no matter which unit I switch to. I've lost count of how many converters I've exchanged only to find different problems. Grrr!

None in the apartment complex that I am in (70+ residents) have time warner unless they are stuck like I am (same side apartment...around 5 residents at most). Most have dishes and it's plainly visible. That should tell you something eh? :)


RE: Compete eh?
By messyunkempt on 8/27/2009 5:47:27 PM , Rating: 2
quote:

They do in certain areas. They do it to me when I'm using bit torrent. You'll see your connection slow down and eventually die off


Yeah same with mine. I used to use bit torrent to get a TV show that was on while I was at work. Getting 20-30k a second with 200 seeders and 2-3 leechers on a 50mbit connection is never acceptable. Fortunately the channel now offers most of its shows for free download via HTTP so I use that instead now.


RE: Compete eh?
By Tsuwamono on 8/30/2009 5:37:24 PM , Rating: 2
Same story here in canada. I'm switching to Teksavvy cause right now my torrents are getting 30kb/s on a 5mbit line.

I can't wait to get on my MLPPP with Teksavvy. 12mbps/1.6mbps and no throttling. plus unlimited cap = bliss


RE: Compete eh?
By Narcofis on 8/27/2009 11:56:26 AM , Rating: 2
In my region Time Warner doesn't have a cap...


Oh, goody...
By marvdmartian on 8/27/2009 1:12:44 PM , Rating: 2
Now we can catch all the crappy SyFy direct to cable movies for free online!




RE: Oh, goody...
By Ringold on 8/27/2009 4:28:58 PM , Rating: 2
In light of Farscape, BSG and maybe this fall Caprica, I forgive them for their terrible attempts at movies. :P

Eureka is also an occasional guilty pleasure. Warehouse 13's been a relative ratings hit.


RE: Oh, goody...
By boobot on 8/28/2009 1:21:13 PM , Rating: 2
Never got into Farscape, but BSG and Caprica I agree!

Warehouse 13 is a failed attempt at making a more dramatic Eureka but I liked neither after watching the first 6 or so shows :(


SyFy = lamest name change ever
By kattanna on 8/27/2009 2:44:40 PM , Rating: 5
honestly.. its horrid




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