Rich Fiscus
21 Jan 2008 23:30
As Time Warner's Home Box Office (HBO) premium cable service begins trials of an online Video On Demand (VOD) offering targetted specifically at cable internet customers, another branch of the company, Time Warner Cable, is finalizing a plan to experiment with monthly download limits for broadband internet subscribers.
In other words, while the company's right hand is offering consumers extras available only through the internet connection they're already paying for, the left hand is threatening to charge them more if they use the service too regularly.
Meanwhile Time Warner Cable is trying to downplay the apparent schism between the two Warner Brothers divisions, telling The Hollywood Reporter "Time Warner Cable is confident our subscribers will enjoy content like HBO on Broadband no matter what the pricing is." No doubt there are more than a few customers who would disagree with that opinion, and probably more than a few Time Warner executives trying to figure out how to "clarify" the statement so it doesn't look quite as much like a major corporation calling their customers mindless sheep.
"I think the trouble with metered approaches in the Time Warner environment is that it evokes a dangerous variable that a consumer might find tricky," said Andy Nobbs, president of Teletrax, a firm that helps media companies track their content online.