Time Warner has just announced that it will be separating itself from Time Inc. The decision was made by its board of directors who felt that this separation is the best decision for both companies. Time Warner will cut away from the magazine business and focus all of its efforts on building its juggernaut media network comprised of a huge amount of popular TV stations as well as its movie ventures.
Super-fast internet connections like Google Fiber have only geek, not consumer, appeal, Time Warner Cable's CFO has insisted, dismissing suggestions that the ISP will need to speed up its consumer service any time soon. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference this week, chief financial officer Irene Esteves said that while the company has the capability to deliver high internet speeds, The Verge reports, right now customers don't actually want them.
5 internet service providers, including AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and Cablevision launched their "Six Strikes" anti-piracy program this Monday. The program is the latest attempt for ISPs to stop its users from pirating software and media illegally. At the launch of the piracy program, the ISPs kept quiet about the consequences that would ensue if the users reached their 5th or 6th warning, but now they've explained their punishments.
Starting next week, many of the major Internet Service Providers will be launching their much delayed anti-piracy system. The system was supposed to launch at the end of 2011, and again at various dates in 2012, but due to unforeseen conflicts, the system launch had to be delayed. Now according to various sources, the system has been "confirmed" to launch beginning on Monday next week.
Time Warner has announced that Kevin Tsujihara is slated to be Warner Bros. Entertainment's next CEO starting March 1, replacing current chief executive officer Barry Meyer. Both Tsujihara and Meyer will work together throughout the year along with company executives to make sure the transition from one to the other goes as smoothly as possible. Tsujihara has served as President of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group since 2005.
Time Warner Cable has announced that it plans to drop Ovation, the only arts-related station offered by the cable service provider. This move is due to low viewer numbers that put Ovation near the bottom of Time Warner's offerings. As a result of the low numbers, TWC has paid out more in fees than the station is bringing in, with the cable provider having paid the station in excess of $10 million over the years.
If there's one (of many things) customers don't like seeing on their monthly statement, it's a frivolous charge. It's not surprising that when Time Warner started sending out notifications alerting customers to a monthly $3.95 modem rental fee, the results were less than enthusiastic. Now the company is being hit with a class action lawsuit in New York and New Jersey.
A few months ago, Google introduced its own unique fiber optic TV and internet service by launching it exclusively in Kansas City, MO and Kansas City, KS. However, the company didn't just pick the two cities at random. Google was given a number of incentives by both cities, and now AT&T and Time Warner are coming forward and demanding that they receive the same incentives as well in the Kansas City area.
The executives at Verizon are likely jumping for joy today, as the FCC has approved the company's planned spectrum acquisition. Verizon will be purchasing spectrum licenses from SprectrumCo, which is a joint venture between a number of big cable companies, including Comcast and Time Warner. It's paying a lot of money for access to that AWS spectrum as well, as the total price comes in at a whopping $3.9 billion.
Whenever we talk about tiered data plans, broadband caps, and the death of unlimited service, the standard tone to take is to look at high data users as victims. But there is an entirely other side to the coin, which is users who don't access a whole lot of data and are paying way more than their consumption should dictate.
Time Warner Cable and Viacom have been embroiled in a lawsuit for a long time now that stemmed from Time Warner wanting to put Viacom channels on its iPad app for streaming. Viacom maintained that Time Warner only had permission to air its channels on cable TV. Viacom fought tooth and nail and is now finally settling the differences with Time Warner.
Google has filed a new patent infringement suit against Motorola and Time Warner Cable. TiVo is alleging the two companies are infringing on three patents that it holds having to do with DVR systems. The suit was filed in federal court in Texas and is a bit of retaliation over previous suit Motorola had filed against TiVo for patent infringement.