The death of cable TV as you know it seems to be here. Earlier this month, Spectrum and Comcast announced a new streaming player that will let you watch your TV subscription from Spectrum streaming online alongside other services like Netflix. Now Spectrum has announced that new customers will only receive the streaming-only option.
A year after their joint venture was formed, the cable giants are releasing their Roku and Apple TV competitor into the market.
Bundles will come with streaming, but networks from Disney Junior to Syfy are in jeopardy.
The Charter-Disney Showdown Didn’t Transform The TV Industry, After All, Despite The Hype
Alex Sherman: Charter and Disney finally reached a rights deal, and the media industry was duped. The details of Charter’s pact with Disney, announced in a press release Monday, don’t really suggest any earthshaking changes were the result. Disney will receive a higher programming fee increase as part of the deal. Charter will be able to include ad-supported Disney+ and ESPN+ for no additional charge to certain consumers of its cable TV programming, as part of a wholesale agreement with Disney. That’s kind of it.
The blackout fight between cable giant Charter Communications and Disney is over. Hours ahead of Monday Night Football, which airs on Disney’s ESPN, the companies reached a deal that would allow millions of Charter cable customers to watch the game, CNBC’s David Faber reported Monday, citing sources. Charter and Disney’s stocks, as well as media peers including Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global traded higher on Monday morning. Representatives for Disney and Charter didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Exclusives
Wall Street analysts say that the rift can result in a migration of subscribers and could even tip Hollywood’s power structure.
The battle between Charter Communications and Walt Disney, spurred due to cord-cutting, is now getting very tangled. Charter suggested last week that it might be ready to cut Disney networks from its programming lineup after the two companies reached an impasse in talks to extend their carriage contract. Now Disney is hinting to Charter subscribers that they might want to cut their connection with the large cable distributor.
The cable TV company will begin offering two different channel packages: One with RSNs, and a lower-cost option without them.
Comcast and Charter Communications have settled on Xumo as the name of their streaming platform joint venture, as the two biggest U.S. cable operators look to take on the likes of Roku, Amazon, Apple and Google in the space.
EarthxTV, a Dallas-based television entertainment network dedicated to environmental sustainability, is now available in millions of households in the U.S., U.K. and Europe through distribution deals with Charter Communications and […]
Charter Communications must pay over $1.1 billion to the estate and family of an 83-year-old woman murdered in her home by a Spectrum cable technician, Dallas County, Texas, Judge Juan Renteria has ruled. A jury in the same court previously ordered Charter to pay $7 billion in punitive damages and $337.5 million in compensatory damages.
Charter Communications is conducting a soccer trick-shot content, with the winner appearing in a spot that will air during the World Cup promoting the Spectrum Mobile Wireless service. The promotion is part of a partnership with Comcast’s Telemundo and Peacock Premium promoting the Spanish-language coverage of the World Cup.
Comcast and Charter, the two largest U.S. cable companies, have a broadband growth problem. As tens of millions of Americans canceled their cable TV subscriptions in the past decade, the cable industry focused on the more profitable business of selling broadband internet.
Now, the number of U.S. households paying Comcast and Charter for high-speed Internet is falling for the first time, with both companies reporting residential broadband declines in the second quarter.
605, a television and cross-platform measurement, analytics and attribution company, and Charter Communications have reached an agreement to extend their existing viewership data licensing agreement into 2031. The agreement also […]
Charter’s Spectrum Networks has launched the Spectrum News App, offering video- and text-based stories and live linear video feeds from its more than 30 TV news networks. The mobile-first service, free for all of Charter Spectrum’s 28 million residential internet, TV and mobile customers, is intended as a value-add to help maintain and grow Spectrum’s broadband and video customer base.
Cable networks and streaming company AMC Networks has partnered with the On Addressability initiative, which cable giants Comcast, Charter and Cox launched last summer, to pilot targeted advertising solutions on its linear TV and VOD services.
The cable operator submitted a proposal to the Justice Department to buy certain assets being spun off by the merger of the two wireless companies, but never heard back from the agency, three sources familiar with the matter said. Instead, Justice opted for a plan to sell the assets to Dish. Justice is expected to greenlight the merger.
Charter Communications has agreed to refund $62.5 million to 700,000 customers and provide streaming services and premium channels at no charge to 2.2 million active Spectrum customers to settle a consumer fraud lawsuit. On Tuesday, the office of the New York Attorney General announced the deal collectively valued at $174 million, which it says represents the largest-ever payout to consumers by an Internet service provider in U.S. history.
Three of the country’s largest cable providers, Comcast, Charter and Cox, are launching a shared advanced advertising unit that will design, deploy and sell ads across their national footprint. The new unit will be part of NCC Media, the advertising and sales company jointly owned by the cable firms.
Spectrum cable TV subscribers won’t have to give up their MTV anytime soon, as Charter Communications and Viacom have seemingly avoided a carriage dispute that could have knocked several networks off the service while the companies hashed out their differences in the court of public opinion. “Viacom and Charter have reached an agreement in principle,” the two said Tuesday in a joint statement. “Spectrum subscribers will continue to have access to Viacom’s networks, without disruption, while we finalize terms.”
Viacom and Charter Communications have agreed to a “short-term” extension of their carriage negotiations and will continue trying to reach a solution that will enable some 16.6 million customers to keep watching MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and many other networks.
With the backing of big tech companies, proponents of the FCC’s Title II net neutrality rules today organized an online protest against any attempt to water down the rules. The cable companies used the occasion to argue for a more flexible net neutrality regime. “As we have consistently pointed out, Title II legislation and net neutrality are not the same thing,” says Comcast SVP David Cohen in a blog. “We support permanent, strong, legally enforceable net neutrality rules.”
While Comcast and Charter Communications are currently doing plenty of work, both engineering and otherwise, on upcoming wireless products based on MVNO relationships with Verizon, the cable industry isn’t talking much about who specifically is leading it into the wireless business. Here are profiles of five key executives on the front lines of assembling the cable industry’s wireless businesses.
KTLA To Air Vin Scully’s Final Dodgers Games
As Vin Scully’s time in the booth winds down, Charter Communications has set a deal with Tribune’s KTLA Los Angeles to simulcast six Los Angeles Dodgers games, briefly lifting the TV blackout for local fans who don’t have access to the team’s SportsNet LA channel.
Showtime has filed suit against Charter, alleging the MSO is misusing licensing agreements following its acquisitions of TWC and Bright House. Showtime is now the third network to sue Charter, following similar claims from Univision and Fox News.
The $67 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks make Charter the second-largest home Internet provider and third-largest video provider in the U.S. Charter says its Spectrum brand will replace the Time Warner Cable and Bright House brands over the next 18 months or so.
Charter Communications expects to finally close its acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks “within a few days” of the California Public Utilities Commission’s May 12 approval vote of the deals. The combined company will be named simply “Charter.”
Traditional cable providers are launching TV packages that don’t require cable boxes — good for you because you save on monthly equipment fees and don’t need a technician to come install it for you. Here’s a breakdown of what’s good and what’s not:
Dish’s Sling TV and Sony’s PlayStation Vue paved the way with innovative online services nearly a year ago. Last fall, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and its buyer-in-waiting, Charter Communications, followed suit with their own online bundles. These now represent the latest gambit from the quasi-monopolistic cable industry, which continues to shed TV customers as more people watch online video from a variety of new outlets.
Top executives from Comcast and Charter Communications said this week their companies are considering participating in next year’s incentive auction of 600 MHz broadcast TV spectrum. However, Time Warner Cable will not take part in the bidding. But TWC did hint that it could be open to launching a wireless service if its competitors do.
