The Federal Communications Commission has launched an investigation into the pricing policies of 11 cable TV services, including Central Oregon’s own Bend Cable Communications.
According to the Associated Press, the FCC sent a letter to the companies Oct. 30 questioning their “practice of moving analog channels into digital tiers to free up bandwidth for other uses, such as high-definition channels. Analog customers will have to get a digital set-top box from the operator or buy the digital TV tier to watch those channels. …
“Most cable customers are analog customers, and those who do not wish to upgrade to digital cannot watch the channels that are moved to the digital tier.”
“I’m certainly concerned with the increasing cable prices that consumers are facing. They are getting less and being charged the same or more,” said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.
“The agency also will look into whether cable operators and Verizon are confusing customers by linking the shift of the analog channel to the digital tier to the nation’s transition to digital broadcasts,” The AP reported. “Linking the two in customers’ minds could prompt more people to opt for digital video and cable services … “
According to a report on CNET News, the FCC is asking the companies to provide “a tabular list of information, from the ‘number of overall subscribers in each affected cable system at the time of the analog-to-digital channel change’ to ‘whether [the] company permitted subscribers affected by the analog-to-digital channel change to modify their service at no charge for 30 days after receiving notice of such change.'”
“Switching to digital is good business for cable,” CNET News wrote. “The New York Times reported that Time Warner Cable and Cablevision had better than expected profit this quarter. While Time Warner attributed this to phone and Internet subscriptions, it still ‘lost 31,000 basic video subscribers in the quarter, but added 124,000 digital video subscribers.’ Cablevision also gained a significant amount of digital cable subscribers.
“We’ve reported that the cable industry has taken advantage of the confusion surrounding the upcoming DTV transition, and this may be another example.”
Besides BendBroadband, the companies that got a letter from the FCC include Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., Cox Communications Inc., Charter Communications Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp., Bright House Networks, Suddenlink Communications, GCI Company, Harron Entertainment and RCN Corp.
The Bulletin’s story on the investigation (sorry, available on-line by subscription only) had no comment from BendBroadband officials, and the company did not return a phone call from The Eye.
The Eye made the switch to digital cable TV almost a year ago, so this issue doesn’t affect us directly. And we’ve always thought BendBroadband provides reliable TV and Internet service and good tech support. We could wish, though, that it offered more HD channels in its basic package than it does. Our daughter in Portland has DirectTV and seems to get a lot more for the money.
This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2008.
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The Bulletin’s story on the investigation most certainly did have a several-paragraph statement from Amy Tykeson at BendBroadband. That was the piece that ran Thursday on the Business front. We talked to an FCC spokesman for our newscast last night, just an FYI.
UPDATE: Amy Tykeson of Bend Cable Communications called The Eye this evening and said the company doesn’t understand why the FCC is investigating because Bend Broadband has only about 1,000 analog subscribers now and will have no analog subscribers by the end of this year. “We’re kind of puzzled as to why we received that inquiry,” she said. “It doesn’t really make sense to me. We will file a response — that’s all we can do.”
Another update: The Bulletin’s followup article basically pasted a byline over several paragraphs of direct quotes from Bend Broadband’s press release. Pretty sad.
I am glad to see your article, I recently canceled my Direct TV service, no local channels in Bend and poor choices on the remaining with “infomercials” providing the majority of programing for the insomniac hours I choose to watch. Alternatively when I spoke to Bend Broadband, I felt they were a bait and switch, when I wanted to utilize a free install to change from satelite that promo was no longer available. The fact that I need to pay for a hookup is ludicrous since the house is cabled and the process is a flip of a switch, no manual labor required. The options were limited and confusing similar to dealing with the IRS. I have gone TV free in protest, TV viewing is a monopoly, why pay for it to watch mostly advertising that the advertiser also paid for? I would like to encourage more people cancel their cable and satelite service for this reason: when the 2 providers don’t have to compete on quality or pricing we end up paying too much, I can complain and lament the prices but the most clout I have is to vote with my dollars and boycot the duopoly. The bonus has been a $75 dollar plus in my monthly budget. I admit to spending $20 to $30 at Blockbuster renting movies, however its my choice and I feel good supporting the kids holding jobs there.
I do not know the specifics of Ms. Phillips case. However, we certainly do have a very attractive, ongoing dish buy back offer that includes free install and savings on video services. That offer is very substantial in and of itself and thus cannot be combined with certain other offers. There are no bait and switch tactics employed by BendBroadband. In fact, transparancy in pricing and honest presentation of offers is a key focus of our marketing efforts and a value that we discuss internally on a regular basis. If you want to point to a deceptive practice, how about DirecTV’s claim of offering 130 HD channels. Try obtaining those…. In fact BendBroadband has for the most part, maintained national leadership among cable companies for the most HD channels offered. Regarding our video options – I believe that the 4 basic digital packages and 3 genre based tiers of channels (as well as the premium packages) offer as much or more choice than any other video provider in terms of pricing and flexibility. We and other video providers are prevented from getting any more “creative” by the requirements of network programming contracts. I encourage anyone with questions or concerns to contact BendBroadband directly through our call center or our support request form at http://www.bendbroadband.com. Your concern will be dealt with fully and promptly.
With respect to the FCC investigation. As reported Friday, BendBroadband had one (yes one) formal complaint filed related to our all digital conversion which is being done under an FCC order issued in early 2007. As Amy’s comments indicated, it’s very perplexing that we’re even being included in this FCC effort when you consider our mandated digital transition. In any event, when going through a major effort to move from roughly 45% digital to 100% digital, there are going to be some customers who are concerned or upset. Over the past 18 months we have made a substantial effort to inform, educate and provide options/pricing cushions for thousands of analog customers. We are now down to the final weeks of the transition and focused on helping those remaining analog subscribers to avoid losing television service at the end of this year.