MUMBAI: Amid a weak economy, Time Warner Cable has come out with a cheaper option for subscribers who are struggling with rising cable TV bills. The second largest cable company in the US will start testing lower-priced cable TV packages in New York City and Ohio from next week.
Time Warner Cable will launch the trial of a new ‘TV Essentials’ package in New York City with a $39.99 offer and on 15 December in north east Ohio for $29.99 as a promotional offer.
It will officially retail at $49.99 and feature around 50 channels compared with around 130 channels for an average digital starter package at $59.95. The reasons for the reduced price will be the exclusion of higher cost channels such as Walt Disney Co‘s ESPN‘s flagship channels that charge most expensive carriage fees in the cable business. Not in the package are also Time Warner Inc‘s TNT Network, News Corp‘s Fox News and NBC Universal‘s MSNBC among others.
It may be recalled that Time Warner Cable chief executive Glenn Britt had said in July that the cable industry was working together to keep their customers trying to save money in a weak economy.
Cable and satellite TV companies have pointed fingers at network companies for restrictive carriage contracts that force distributors to carry lot of cable networks in the most popular basic tiers that push up the price of a minimum cable package.
One drawback of the new offer is that customers will not be able to buy it as a part of discounted ‘Triple Play‘ or ‘Double Play‘ package that would include internet or/and telephone service.
