"RACINE COUNTY — The planned Time Warner-Comcast merger won’t impact Racine County customers right away, but changes will certainly be felt if and when the deal becomes final.
"What exactly those changes will be remains to be seen, experts say. A lot depends on whether Time Warner’s Milwaukee operations are consolidated with Comcast’s in Chicago, said Barry Orton, University of Wisconsin professor of telecommunications.
"Doing so could save the company money, but might not benefit consumers, he said.
“'Customer service is probably going to get worse' under that scenario, Orton said, though he added that Comcast and Time Warner generally get high customer-service marks compared to other cable companies.
"Orton and Marquette economics professor Abdur Chowdhury agreed that costs will likely go up. The merger will grow Comcast’s customer base from 22 million to 30 million, which gives it a higher national market share and will lead to a price increase locally, Chowdhury said.
“'In the long run, we will see an increase in price,' he said.
"Orton said the cost of Racine County residents’ cable will probably go up because, well, it always does. It has gone up consistently since Congressional action in 1992 dropped cable rates by 10 to 15 percent, he said.
"Orton has a saying about cable rates: 'You have to look at the natural order of how things go. Snow falls down, rates go up.'”
Read more: http://journaltimes.com/news/local/experts-predict-price-increases-after-cable-merger/article_2449d3f4-9513-11e3-b2e1-0019bb2963f4.html
"Snow falls down, rates go up." Wtf does that mean? Do rates go down when the sun shines?
Never forget, the "natural order" of cable companies is to gouge their customers as deeply as possible.
The video below is a re-post, but the message is important.
http://www.jtirregulars.com/2013/03/the-first-honest-cable-company.html
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