Time Warner Cable Austin’s “Customer Service”

Whose Pixel Problem Is It?

Does Time Warner Cable-Austin (TWC) not have a competent engineer on the clock during prime time? If viewers wanted to watch MSNBC Friday, September 17, 2010 they could not help but be annoyed. I was annoyed.

I started trying to watch during “Hardball with Chris Matthews” around 6:20 p.m. Central. I finally gave up and switched to baseball shortly before 9 p.m. during “Rachel Maddow”. OK, so I revealed my viewing choices. This isn’t about MSNBC. It’s about what TWC calls customer service.

Tuning in MSNBC, “Standard Service” on Channel 49, it was periodically pixelling (Is that a word?). The pixels are little boxes and garbled sound when a channel isn’t tuned in. If you use your digital TV converter to pick up live television, you’ve seen this phenomenon before. When you’re tuning with “rabbit ears”, it’s one thing. When you’re watching cable TV, a service you’re paying for, it’s another issue.

Pixels can happen when a satellite transponder isn’t tuned. Rarely the problem is at the source. Most of the time, the problem is where the signal is received, in this case, Time Warner Cable.

Having worked in TV, I assumed (Never assume.) that some engineer was working on the problem. After an hour, I began to wonder. So, I called.

A nice guy—we’ll call him Bryan—said he’d check. Early on, Bryan said that he’d gotten other calls about Standard Cable Channel #49. Hmmmm. Then, Bryan came back on to say that he would reset my cable box. NO! This is the Standard Cable tier. There is no box. Others have complained. The problem clearly is not on the consumer’s end. The problem is either with TWC or MSNBC. Bryan seemed to understand. He put me on hold again.

He came back with this suggestion: He’d give me a telephone number, and I could call the network. NO! No, Bryan. “It’s TWC’s job to call the network, not mine. I’m buying the service, and you’re the provider of the service,” I said. He put me on hold again.

When he came back, I asked if TWC had an engineer on duty. An engineer should check the satellite transponder and tweak it until it is tuned, or the engineer should call their provider. He put me on hold again.

When he returned he claimed that they were working on it, and if it wasn’t resolved by tomorrow, I should call back. “No,” I said, feeling like a member of Congress having said “No” so much. I asked again whether they had an engineer on duty who could check on the problem because it could be a quick fix.

I didn’t want to hammer the poor guy whose job it is to answer the phone, but apparently is provided with little information and little understanding of how cable TV works.

He put me on hold again. I said that it was OK.

When “Bryan” came back, he claimed that their technicians were working the problem locally, and if TWC determined that it wasn’t their issue, they’d call the network. I thanked him for his efforts and time. When I gave up, the problem had not been resolved at the Standard Service level.

So, I ask again: Does TWC have a competent engineer on duty during prime time? Now, I’ll add the question, is this TWC’s definition of customer service?

TWC needs competition.

© Jim McNabb, 2010

Mickey Mouse and TWC are Friends Again

Who won? Who lost?

Time Warner Cable says it is its customers who won.

Customers/users/viewers of TWC found this email this morning:

"To Our Valued Customers...

"Time Warner Cable is always negotiating new deals with TV networks. Recently, we reached a new long-term agreement with Disney/ABC and ESPN, so you can continue to watch your favorite channels and the shows you love for years to come.

"There will be no interruption of ESPN or Disney channels, as well as WABC in New York, KABC in Los Angeles, WTVD in Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville and WTVG in Toledo. They'll stay right here on Time Warner Cable. In fact, our agreement means more networks and services for you, including the following*:

"Disney Junior - a new 24-hour basic channel for preschool-age children, parents and caregivers launching in 2012.

"ESPN3.com - ESPN's live sports broadband network will be available to all Time Warner Cable subscribers who get ESPN.

"A New ESPN Service - customers will be able to view ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU through broadband and mobile Internet devices.

"ESPN Goal Line - a college football super-highlight channel will be available only to Time Warner Cable’s Sports Pass customers starting as early as September 4, 2010.

"ESPN Buzzer Beater - a college basketball service similar to ESPN Goal Line, will be available to Time Warner Cable’s Sports Pass customers for college basketball season.

"Expanded Video On Demand Services - including ABC On Demand, Disney-branded On Demand offerings for kids, local sports content in select markets, plus the subscription Video On Demand service "Disney Family Movies."

"Start Over and Look Back - featured on a variety of Disney Media Networks content.

"ESPN Deportes - will be available to a larger Time Warner Cable footprint.

"ESPN 3D"

And so ends the latest TWC drama. There will be more, to be sure.

It will be interesting to see the roll-out of these newly announced features and what they will cost. I'm thinking that they will not be free.

(c) Jim McNabb, 2010

Here We Go Again

TWC Vs. Mickey

Poor Time-Warner Cable. Mickey Mouse is trying to rip them off.

Time-Warner Cable customers are getting email and spots are running on the cable that Disney, owner and operator of ABC TV, ESPN, and Disney Channels, is threatening to pull programming from Time-Warner. It’s another one of those revenue things that seem to happen with TWC every six months or so.

Of course, if Disney plays hardball, “Baseball Tonight” and “Desperate Housewives” could disappear from the cable line-up. (It seems that channels are disappearing from the standard line up all of the time. More about that later.)

“To connect you with all the shows you love to watch, we must pay the companies that own the broadcast TV stations and cable networks. We fight to keep those fees as low as possible, because they directly impact the cable bill you have to pay each month,” says TWC on its web site RolloverorGet Tough.com. “When all is said and done, Time Warner Cable earned a profit for its shareholders of about $0.06 for every dollar that we brought in during 2009. (That’s slightly below the average of 7% for the past 10 years among US companies in the S&P 500, according to the Wall Street Journal.)”

Let’s not forget that TWC is the second-largest cable company in the nation. The figures above notwithstanding, they make lots of money.

August 5, 2010, TWC reported its second-quarter profit rose 8.2%, as demand increased for its broadband and phone services and capital expenditures decreased, according to MarketWatch.com. “It earned $342 million, or 95 cents a share, compared with a profit of $316 million, or 90 cents a share in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue rose 6% to $4.73 billion.”

They’re doing OK. Better than most of us. Viewers should keep these things in mind as they read their email and see the spots from TWC. Also keep in mind that ABC programming will be available off-the-air via your digital converter and antenna. Watching ESPN and other cable channels are more problematic. TWC makes a point of saying that it won’t do any good to switch since Disney already pulled its HD programming from Dish Satellite in June.

Meanwhile, a spat between the City of Austin and Time-Warner Cable is brewing. When Time-Warner wrote a new franchise contract, it included public access channels for the City of Austin, the Austin School District, Travis County, the state legislature and even ordinary citizens. As of October 1, 2010, those channels are slated to be boosted to the digital tier.

It will take a cable box to receive them. Those boxes cost $7 per month each. TWC says it will supply one box for varying periods of time to customers who have standard service. What about customers who have multiple televisions?

Stacy Schmidt, TWC spokesperson, says the cable company is moving the channels to increase services and speed. “It’s what customers are demanding”

To this writer and perhaps the City of Austin, the move of local access and government channels to the more expensive, digital tier violates the spirit of the original agreement that created them. The City of Austin is threatening to take TWC to court over the changes. Austin City Council and commission meetings are telecast on Channel 6.

© Jim McNabb, 2010

Austin Reads

Austin reads. In fact, Austin ranks as the most literate city over 250,000 in the State of Texas. That probably doesn’t surprise you. Dallas comes in second. Ft. Worth is third. What may surprise you is that Austin isn’t in the top ten “Most Literate Cities in the Nation”, according to a 2008 study by Central Connecticut State University (their most recent). Austin is #17. Dallas is #38.5 (a tie), and Ft. Worth is #45. Austin is in the top ten when only the Internet is concerned, and that isn’t surprising.

Austin reads more than most boasts of the biggest book store in the land, Book People.

These are not the reasons for a brand new section in the Austin American-Statesman, “Insight and Books” beginning in this Sunday’s paper. “The thinking behind it doesn't rely so much on any particular set of stats as on Central Texans generally being not just literate but interested in their community and public affairs, prone to debate and discuss and embrace civic engagement,” says Tony Shuga, weekend editor.

Formerly in Life & Arts, “the new section will join Insight to form Insight & Books. Available every Sunday in print, the new section will offer thoughtful discussion, in-depth analysis and focus on community engagement. And every day, interactive online features that complement the print product will be available online at statesman.com/insight,” said a Statesman news release.

“Austin is a thoughtful place, and we love a lively discussion,” said Statesman Editor Fred Zipp in the news release. “With the new Insight & Books section, we hope to feed that discussion and make the Sunday newspaper experience richer.”

“The Sunday print edition will offer articles about Texas and Central Texas written by non-staff writers (experts from the business community, nonprofits, academics and more) as well as those written by Statesman staff, according to a Statesman news release. Former Statesman Texana writer Mike Cox’s columns and reviews will continue in the new section. “There will also be summaries of PolitiFact Texas articles, a new science feature, excerpts from blogs and reader comments, letters to the editor and op-ed columns,” the release said.

“Overall we're adding material, not trimming,” Shuga said.

Who knows? Maybe newsmcnabb might make the Statesman.

© Jim McNabb, 2010

Comm 1317

Broadcast Journalism

for Non-Journalists

Every one of the 3,500-plus students graduating from Austin’s St. Edward’s University is required to take Comm 1317, Presentational Speaking—every student. Why? The University believes that a person with a college education should be able to apply that knowledge verbally.

Some will speak as a part of their profession—teachers, priests, and marketers, but also a biochemist will most likely make a presentation to his peers at some point too. The audience might be two or three on a conference room or it might be two thousand in an auditorium.

Preparing to teach Comm 1317 these past few weeks, I’ve come to see that the course could be considered “Broadcast Journalism for Non-Journalism Majors”. To be effective, the same principles apply.

It starts with the audience? Who will hear your message? Know your audience. TV stations do audience research all of the time. Who’s watching? What do they want?

Rising from that research comes the story idea or topic. Every reporter and every student must come to the table with an idea. The idea becomes the thesis of the report.

Once approved, the idea is researched. All possible points of view are in play, making sure the message is factual. It requires critical thinking.

The facts are analyzed and organized. Some may actually create an outline to stay on topic and maintain the flow of the story or presentation.

Then, the words should fall on the page almost naturally. If the student or the reporter, however, uses bad grammar or poor pronunciation, all of the work done before is wasted time. The presenter will have lost all credibility with the audience.

The style should be conversational, not stilted. Fragments are fine. Eye contact with the audience, whether it is a camera lens or actual eyes, is essential.

For beginners and seasoned journalists alike, practice or rehearsal is important. I’ve paced back and forth before a live shot looking at notes and reaching for the right words, saying sentences over and over.

Finally, after all of this preparation comes the presentation, or in broadcast journalism it is the “package” or live shot. The presenter must have presence, using all talents and tools available including audio and video. It’s about selling the story, selling the speech. It can’t be a dull recitation, or you will have lost your audience. They will have gone to sleep in the conference room or turned to another channel in TV.

Certainly, there are other subjects covered in Comm 1317, but that is the gist of it. I’m even going to include a session on talking to the media in my syllabus. There will also be poetry. Poetry is to be read aloud, but you don’t hear much poetry on TV. I love poetry. Good poetry.

The fall semester starts in less than three weeks. Some of my students graduating in December may have put off taking Comm 1317 until now. The thought of standing and delivering makes their knees weak. They’ll get over that. In all cases the audience really wants you to succeed. Nobody wants to see a TV reporter melt down during a live shot either.

When I was in undergraduate school, I was required to take two courses in religion, chapel, and swimming. Yes, swimming. I guess Baylor didn’t want its graduates to die by drowning and go to hell!

I’m confident that St. Edward’s feels the same, but by requiring “Presentational Speech”, the University wants to ensure that their graduates can share what they’ve learned. Perhaps that’s one reason why they’re on the U.S. News and Forbes lists of top Universities in the nation.

© Jim McNabb, 2010

I Want My MSNBC

Time Warner Cable Channels Freeze

News 8, MSNBC, and ESPN 2 and possibly others disappeared for at least a day from Time Warner Cable. Where did they go and why?

If you tuned in to MSNBC yesterday (Monday, 7-26-10) to channel 49 on the Time Warner Cable Standard tier, you found a frozen picture some awful wreck or explosion. ESPN 2 was frozen on a NASCAR whizzing by the camera. News 8 was also static.

By this today, (Tuesday, 7-27-10), the frozen images had turned to “color bars”, an industry term for tuning cameras and equipment and a clear indication that TWC knew that there was something wrong.

Only the TWC “Standard” package channels were affected. Digital and HD channels were fine.

The channels returned to the Standard tier of channels shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday for those who keep News 8 on all day long and other fans of Rachel Maddow or alt sports on MSNBC.

I was toward the end of an online “chat” with a TWC representative, when the channels were restored.

No, it didn’t just happen to you or your neighbors. This outage was across all of the Austin area, according to Stacy Schmidt, TWC communications. I thought it have impacted a lot of people because of the half-hour wait for customer service Monday evening.

Where did these channels go?

“It was a part of a technology upgrade in the standard tiers [gone bad],” Schmidt said. Engineers were still testing all portions of the market “area by area” to ensure that the channels were up Tuesday evening.

Schmidt promised more information. So, there will be more information, and there will be another customer service aspect of this story later.

© Jim McNabb, 2010

Are You Happy

Is Your Journalist Happy?

Most journalists have muted satisfaction with their chosen profession, according to a short survey I conducted over the past couple of weeks. There is a striking difference in happiness when you break it down into job categories. Bosses are the happiest. No surprise there, but levels of satisfaction seem to go down each wrung of the ladder.

While some are trudging along, many of their colleagues are taking the necessary steps to be happy in journalism. “Some people are just not happy people,” one Austin news director commented to me a few years ago. That is true. I think it is also true that talented and motivated people can be beaten down by “the business” when they are not rewarded, supported, and encouraged by those happy bosses.

I cannot claim this is a totally “scientific” survey of journalists’ feelings for their jobs. I cannot claim to know all journalists. I don’t even know everybody in the business in Austin. This, therefore, is drawn from a sample consisting of my many friends working in news and choosing to participate. All were promised anonymity, unless they chose to speak out. These things said, I think that the findings are valid and representative of job satisfaction in the news business. Further, they may be applicable to many other lines of work nowadays.

I asked only five questions—questions which would be applicable to almost any profession:

1. Are you as happy in your job as you were three years ago?

2. Are you as happy in your job as you were 10 years ago?

3. Are you as happy in your job as you were when you started in the business?

4. Are you doing more with less support?

5. Are you confident about your future in journalism?

I got responses from journalists working in both broadcasting and print. Strangely, none of my friends working in Internet journalism replied. I divided the respondents into five categories: news managers, mid-managers (editors and producers), “talent” (on-camera anchors, etc.), reporters, and photographers.

News managers are the most satisfied and happy in their jobs. It’s apparent that the longer that they stay in “the business”, the happier they are, maybe because of money. As with any profession, your longevity and loyalty is often rewarded with raises. Many also find satisfaction in mentoring young, recently-graduated and talented minds.

“Most importantly, I’m ‘happy’ because we produce quality, multimedia Journalists,” said Henry Chu, a former news director at KXAN TV (NBC). Chu is now at WBKO in South Central Kentucky. “We hire a number of people straight out of college. We teach them about good storytelling, getting facts right, being fair and ethical. Our young Journalists learn every facet of the news gathering business.”

WBKO is in the 128th market. Austin is 48th. By the time journalists arrive here, they should be pros and they should be happy to be here. Austin is a coveted destination often equated with personal and professional happiness.

The news managers scored a “Perfect 10” in happiness. “I have the best ND [news director] job in the country, in my opinion,” said Frank Volpicella, news director at Austin’s #1 ranked KVUE TV (ABC). Being #1 may have something to do with it. One is never happy with being last.

The least happy group predictably is the mid-managers. As it is in any business, it is the mid-manager who is often caught in the crunch—in the middle between the generals and those working in the trenches. Every newsroom is different. Some are quite happy, but many others long for days a decade or so ago or more when the business was far less frenzied and more fun. As the pressure increases, so does their level of dissatisfaction. Since it is their job to “make it happen”, they, more than any other group, feel the pinch of “doing more with less support,” followed closely by reporters.

The reporters are a mixed bag. It appears that the biggest factor in many reporters’ growing dissatisfaction over the years is being asked to do more and more with less support. Reporters don’t just come up with story ideas, cover them, and write them, you know. Some TV reporters have to shoot their own stories. Some have to send their stories via broadband. They all have to tweet about their stories and post them on Facebook. They all have to contribute to their respective medium’s web site—stories and possibly blogs. This is not your father’s newsroom. I remember reporters whining about having to do different stories for different news casts. That would be a walk in the park nowadays.

“Are you doing more with less support?” resulted in almost universal answers like, “Isn’t everybody?” regardless of job category. One respondent discounted the pressure saying that one gets used to all of the extra stuff.

Perhaps because of these demands, these stresses, and these worries, many reporters, mid-managers, and even on-air “talent” are less than optimistic about their futures in journalism. News managers to a person were extremely confident (All scored “10s” again.), but that confidence isn’t always shared by their staffs.

While the anchors and other talent tend to love their jobs visiting Austin homes every day. Gone are the days when the anchors may have waited around for the next newscast. In all fairness, over the years, most anchors did help write for their shows, but their duties are greatly expanded now. They are the “face” of the TV stations. They also tweet, blog, and post to Facebook. They have some apprehension about their future in journalism. Given the dependence on Nielsen ratings, it is no wonder that some in this group would have some concerns.

Surprisingly, too few photojournalists responded to the survey to draw conclusions. One who did, Kenny Kaplan, formerly of Austin’s KVUE was extremely upbeat. “I am very happy with my job now, but I think that I enjoyed the TV business much more back then in 1978/79,” Kaplan said. Kaplan is now working in New York City. Many unhappy photographers have left TV news over the years, and they are very happy freelancing or shooting video for government or industry.

What conclusions can be drawn from these results? News managers may need to be more attentive to mid-managers and reporters. Mid-managers may need to be more assertive and upbeat. Reporters need may need to be creative and assertive too, choosing to be happy or choosing to, well, get out of “the business”!

© Jim McNabb, 2010