by admin on April 4, 2011
It’s easy to rack up a huge cable bill, but not $16 million easy.
Lt. Daniel DeVirgilio of Beaverton, Ohio was more than stunned to learn his credit card had been rejected by Time Warner Cable. He was even more surprised when he learned just how much the company had tried to charge him.
The number totalled $16,409,107, according to MSNBC.
Apparently his March Madness charges had gone a bit haywire. He had been charged over $1 million for each game of the March Madness Sweet 16 he had watched, according to the Dayton Daily News.
But he was humorous about the whole affair.
“Had I known this I would have bought Showtime,” DeVirgilio, an engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, told the Daily News. “Five bucks more for Showtime is a bit much, but heck — $16,409,112. Who cares?”
The bill was ultimately attributed to human error. DeVirgilio never actually received a paper bill for the amount, and it wasn’t charged to his credit card, according to MSNBC.
“We apologize for the inconvenience that it caused,” a spokesman for Time Warner said. “We are going to work with the customer to get this resolved.”
Latest News
Tagged as:
Bill,
cable,
Ever,
largest
by admin on March 31, 2011
WASHINGTON — Time Warner Cable Inc. will drop a dozen cable channels from its iPad app after three big programmers complained that the company does not have the rights to distribute their content on the popular tablet computer.
Time Warner Cable’s decision comes after News Corp.’s Fox Cable Networks, Viacom Inc. and Discovery Communications Inc. asked the cable company to pull their programming from its iPad app – arguing that the app was violating their programming contracts.
The media companies want to extract more money from cable companies to distribute their programming on devices other than just television sets. But Time Warner maintains that it already has the rights to do that under its existing contracts.
Time Warner launched its app for Apple Inc.’s iPad, which streams live television, earlier this month.
The channels being dropped are: Animal Planet, Black Entertainment Television, Country Music Television, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, FX, MTV, National Geographic, Nickelodeon, Spike, TLC and VH1. That leaves the app with just 20 channels, although Time Warner said it will add more overnight.
“For the time being, we have decided to focus our iPad efforts on those enlightened programmers who understand the benefit and importance of allowing our subscribers – and their viewers – to watch their programming on any screen in their homes,” Time Warner Cable said in a statement.
The company added that it will “continue to fight to ensure that our customers have access to the content they pay for, no matter which screen in their home they choose to view it on.” Alexander Dudley, a company spokesman, would not elaborate.
Time Warner Cable’s iPad app is free to download, but it only works for the company’s existing customers who subscribe to both video and Internet service. And even then, it only works in the home, when the iPad is connected to the company’s cable modem via a Wi-Fi router.
Fox, Viacom and Discovery had no comment Thursday.
Latest News
Tagged as:
cable,
channels,
drops,
From,
iPad,
Some,
time,
warner
