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With a vote of 264-158, the House agreed to delay the DTV transition to June 12. The Senate voted last week for the delay, and President Obama is expected to sign it. The delay will help the millions of consumers whose coupons expired before the converters were even available, as well as the two million on a waiting list for the coupons.
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Time Warner as a whole reported a 4th quarter loss of $24.2 billion today. The cable unit, which lost $8.16 billion, suffered as people canceled subscriptions due to the economy. Yowch. [NYT]
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After failing to get the required two-third majority on Wednesday, the House is expected next week to pass legislation delaying the digital television transition to June 12, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. The Senate has already voted to extend the deadline, and President Obama has indicated he will sign the bill.
Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports and, um, brand-spanking-new owner of Consumerist, the blog that you are reading right now, is asking Congress to delay the DTV switch until “until a plan is in place to minimize the number of consumers who will lose TV signals, particularly by fixing the flaws in the federal coupon program.” Why are they doing this? Well, the coupon program has already run out of money. Read the letter inside.
After ordering a TV from TechGearNow, Reid noticed two notes on his account asking him to call to confirm his order. It turns out they wanted to sell him an HDMI cable and warranty for $60, which he declined. The next time he checked his account, he saw the above note.
Phil found out that you don’t order DVDs from websites that look like this, or that offer sets that aren’t for sale elsehwere. Now his wife is the proud owner of some homemade discs with low-quality TV footage of the series and a “TBS” bug in the corner.
Update: A deal has been reached. Crisis averted. Viacom is demanding that Time Warner Cable pay more for the right to broadcast its networks, but TWC has refused. Tonight at midnight, 13.3 million subscribers in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Cleveland will feel the effects of the stalemate first hand when Viacom makes good on its threat to pull all of its networks from TWC. Translation: no more “The Daily Show,” “Dora the Explorer,” “The Colbert Report,” “The Hills,” etc. But hey, there’s always Hulu and BitTorrent, right?
Reader Angel writes that a DirecTV installer in Oklahoma added a cable to her house, and subtracted $10 in quarters and a nine millimeter.
There has been some demand among readers for a flowchart that explains how you will be affected by the digital TV switch that will happen this February. Your wish is our command.
CNet has an article about a couple who saw the writing on the wall, recession-wise, and canceled their satellite TV package. Surprisingly, they are, in fact, still alive and not at all depressed.
Reader Josh is a Comcast customer says he was without power for 7 days due to Hurricane Ike, and by calling 1-800-COMCAST he was able to get a service credit for the whole time he couldn’t watch TV.
Netflix will be start charging you $1 more per month to offset the costs of Blu-Ray movies, starting November 5. You have to opt-in to the Blu-Ray access, and the $1 surcharge, by going to “your account” and “add Blu-Ray access.” If you don’t already have Blu-Ray access on your account, then your membership price stays the same. Sounds like they needed to invent a way to make more money and this fee, admittedly small, seemed the best way to go about it. Copy of the email they sent subscribers, inside.
Here are some executive email addresses and phone numbers if you need to escalate an unresolved problem with DirecTV:
Meet Brandon. He canceled DirecTV after less than 24 hours (the agreed upon time limit to avoid a fee, apparently), only to see that DirecTV debited $446.60 from his checking account.
Where is the salesman in this screencap? He’s behind the table, holding his ribcage and crying out in pain. Don’t keep striking your $45 samurai blade against the table, kids—otherwise you might find yourself saying things like, “Ohhh, that got me good,” instead of talking about the awesome swordlike qualities of your sword.
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Tonight’s premiere of “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” is about cannibalism and hunting men for sport. The unfortunately-placed McDonald’s commercial halfway through the show featured a guy swinging a bat at his friend because he smells food, and then everyone else at the party swarming over the fallen friend to feast. Awkward!
If you’ve ever wanted to see the rants from angry Consumerist tipsters brought to life by the woman who played Patrick Swayze in “Ghost,” here ya go—although Sherri Shephard is actually a bit funnier, describing how the Time Warner CSR makes her go to an evil place. Seen here is Shephard letting out the evil because of the CSR who tells her, “Well my supervisor is going to say the same thing.” Video clip below.
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