Time Warner plans to spin off Time Warner Cable at long last

Time Warner Cable, which just endeared itself to New Yorkers with a whole mess of HD channels, is finally getting a full break from parent company and all-around media conglomerate Time Warner. This has been speculated about for years, and a portion of TWC was spun off into Bright House Networks in 2003, but the clean break should give both companies a good shot at doing what they both do best: raking in obscene amounts of cash. There's no word on the timeline or method for the spin off just yet, only a promise to finalize an agreement "soon." [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Jagannath A @ Apr 30th 2008 9:34AM]

"...doing what they both do best: raking in obscene amounts of cash."

"[Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]"

lol priceless....

[absurdio @ Apr 30th 2008 4:22PM]

Yeah. Funny how when you're a beneficiary of the empire, "empire" is spelled F-a-m-i-l-y.

[Brian @ Apr 30th 2008 9:35AM]

Hopefully they will get a new logo in the process. Their current logo looks like some kind of cross between an Egyptian eye and the Dreamcast swirl. Not very balanced or aethestically pleasing at all...

[Andrew @ Apr 30th 2008 9:47AM]

@Brian Your right about that logo, it's horribly ugly. It looks like an eye with a weird swirly leaking out of the bottom.

http://pixblix.com

[waffles @ Apr 30th 2008 9:51AM]

keep waiting for ben stein to pop in, "for leaking eyes use new Clear Eyes..."

[Joe @ Apr 30th 2008 10:15AM]

I hope they break up with Scientific Atlanta, too. Those cable boxes are downright terrible. Why is my HD STB giving me pixelated menus and unintuitive menu controls?

[Boz @ Apr 30th 2008 10:43AM]

The Motorolas TWC uses in D/FW are no better. My DVR locks up when doing nothing more than flipping channels.

[santosh @ Apr 30th 2008 10:44AM]

hi

[teej @ Apr 30th 2008 4:46PM]

hey man! how's it going? ah, great? that's awesome! i'm doing well too. how's the family? hope everything's super...you done with school yet, bud? oh sweet! that's totally awesome! okay man, see you later!

diaf.

[DJ @ Apr 30th 2008 11:14AM]

Potential buyers?

ATT - The monopoly grows once again.

Foreign Media Companies - Dollar's weak, makes it a semi-bargain.

Microsoft - Has billions & billions & billions & billions in cash. Could merge AOL with Yahoo and make Google really squirm. Gets ready to go home distribution system.

Google - Has billions & billions & billions & billions in cash too; Could merge AOL with main search engine. Would go a long way in spiting Microsoft for buying Yahoo. Gets ready to go home distribution system.

Private Equity - Maybe, but more likely to partner with one of the two above or Yahoo, allowing Yahoo to remain independent..

[benjamin @ Apr 30th 2008 11:15AM]

For what it's worth, despite people bitching about them I've always had good service from Time Warner's cable service. I'd love love *love* for a better DVR/cable box, though.

[Adam @ Apr 30th 2008 11:16AM]

No SciFi or USA HD (they can take their "upgrade" back!!!!)

[DJ @ Apr 30th 2008 11:17AM]

By the way, the logo represents an eye and an ear for sight and sound.

[phanbouy @ Apr 30th 2008 1:18PM]

my brain read that as "an eye for an eye"

[Brian @ Apr 30th 2008 4:54PM]

I know that, but to most people, it means "ugly."

[phanbouy @ Apr 30th 2008 5:35PM]

a nudge is as good as a wink to a blind bat?

[Nate @ Apr 30th 2008 11:33AM]

I hope the split gives them the opportunity to figure out how to not suck. Their hardware sucks, their service sucks, they don't employ enough technicians to fix their crappy hardware and wiring. Does anyone know if they have an actual monopoly on the NYC area, and how long before they start charging all of their internet customers by the byte, not just their Texas test run?

[Sam @ Apr 30th 2008 11:39AM]

A)They share the city with Cablevision; RCN also operates in some areas.
B)The city just inked a deal with Verizon that will allow FiOS to compete throughout the entire city.

[Cygni @ Apr 30th 2008 11:47AM]

Ive got TWC in LA and its HD channel lineup is absolutely horrendous. As is the Moto DVR. As is the fact that we can ONLY get TWC in my building because of an exclusivity contract.

But hey, my download speeds are pretty slick and ive never had a problem with customer service... so at least theyve got that...

[michael @ Apr 30th 2008 1:59PM]

you do realize that now those contracts are illegal right? http://www.news.com/FCC-bans-exclusive-TV-deals-for-cable/2100-1037_3-6216264.html

btw, i live in manhattan and get the royal screw-job by twc, too. i can't wait for fios to roll out.

[Tim @ Apr 30th 2008 12:19PM]

I've always felt the logo looked like the eye of the Crimson King, from the Dark Tower series.

http://www.cafepress.com/dtcstore.38060080

[Mike @ Apr 30th 2008 12:19PM]

Bright house Networks wasn't a spinoff, it was more of a franchising deal that had ended. Time Warner Cable owned a stake in the systems but they were mostly owned and now run by another company (Advance/Newhouse). Essentially Time Warner had bought a stake and managed the business until Advance got upset with the direction and took control of the networks back and created Bright House.

What's left are the cable systems that are majority owned or fully owned by Time Warner, which is what's being spun out.

[Bodero @ Apr 30th 2008 12:24PM]

I thought their whole purpose was the "package deal" thing where you can get phone, internet and TV service through one company? Now they're going to split it off like Alltel did when they spun off Windstream.

Meanwhile, AT&T and Verizon are in the process of doing the reverse (more AT&T than Verizon, though), going back to the one-bill-one-company.

Soon enough, I'm sure the cycle will change and everything that's old will be new again.

[miko34 @ Apr 30th 2008 12:28PM]

So this is why I just received a bill from them saying that I had kept a Road Runner cable modem from a service I had three years ago? I knew something was up.

When I talked with them, they said I did return a cable modem at that time, but that I had another cable modem out that I never returned at the same time. Why would I need two cable modems for a one bedroom apartment, especially since I have a wireless router? And why are they sending me the bill three years late when I no longer live at that apartment and have had DirecTV and DSL which is worlds better? Idiots.

Anyone else getting screwed recently by Time Warner? They are trying to clean up now and this must be the reason.


...

[GreezyG @ Apr 30th 2008 12:44PM]

The service in Austin is great. We have tons of HD channels and have a 15mb/2mb connection. I do belive that Austin is one of their test cities though.

[anon @ Apr 30th 2008 12:58PM]

TWC is already a publicly trade company, TWX is selling its 80% interest in it.

[John Allison @ Apr 30th 2008 12:59PM]

By clean break, what do you mean?

Is this a spin-off, a split-off? Who gets the shares of TMC? Who will control the board? What are TM's intended goals by making this change? What will we as internet user, an possibly clients of TMC gain from this transaction?

The article cited requires registration, so I couldn't readily answer these question if they were in fact stated in the article?

[The_Steven @ Apr 30th 2008 1:22PM]

I don't like seeing this happen... I've seen another company spin off a division in the name of short term gains claiming that there also would be long term beneifts. Years later that same company experimented with a pilot program in selected areas that would provide the very same type of service that was previously spun off. Yet their compitition still tries to bring aditional services and content vectors under one big umbrella. And many customers still curse their name.

[Disclosure #1: I am related to a former high level executive of Time Warner.]
[Disclosure #2: I am employed by another content provider that spun off one of its' divisions.]

[Achilles @ Apr 30th 2008 1:39PM]

I've usually had great cable service from Time Warner. Their DVR boxes are indeed needing an upgrade. However, their menu responses are much faster than Direct or Dish. No lag.

HD channels look good but they need to offer more. USA is not HD. It's stretch-o-vision at best. Same with TNT and a few others.

[michael @ Apr 30th 2008 2:06PM]

you're kidding right? have you ever tried the mystro software. it's craptastic! it's slow to respond when changing channels. the on demand channels take upto one minute to load, the picture breaks up (pixelates) or the box freezes completely requiring a restart which takes between 10 and 15 minutes (literally.)

[Achilles @ Apr 30th 2008 5:48PM]

Michael, my menu's (when I had TWC) were very fast in response time. Especially compared to Directv and that's because I have a HR21-100 HD DVR... menus are much slowwwwweeeerrrr....... It might just have been the service area I was in compared to yours.

[kastonie @ Apr 30th 2008 2:52PM]

[Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]


[Disclosure: My ass is a part of my body]
im sorry....

[dcny @ Apr 30th 2008 4:35PM]

I just wanna know what took so damn long.

Why the hell they didnt merge AOL, TWC and Roadrunner from the get go that would have made sense, back when Aol had lots of users they could have have easily merge the three made the new company take the aol name and said fuck it but they had to do stuff the idiot way.

[Achilles @ Apr 30th 2008 5:48PM]

Michael, my menu's (when I had TWC) were very fast in response time. Especially compared to Directv and that's because I have a HR21-100 HD DVR... menus are much slowwwwweeeerrrr....... It might just have been the service area I was in compared to yours.