An Ignoble Experiment

2. Verizon's latest call center technology: Pick your own CSR

Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) said Thursday that 48-year-old COO Rob Marcus will take over as chairman and CEO on Jan. 1, 2014, succeeding Glenn Britt, who is retiring after 12 years at the helm of the nation's second-largest cable MSO.

Rob Marcus

Marcus has taken a more active role at TWC since January, when the company reorganized into three divisions--residential services, business services and media services, with the heads of the three divisions reporting to Marcus. Reports first surfaced in February that Britt, 64, would retire after his employment contract expired at the end of 2013.

Britt has championed the introduction of new products like video-on-demand and broadband Internet service and has pushed employees to embrace the "four anys"--delivering any content, any time, on any device to subscribers in any place. He predicted at The Cable Show convention in 2012 that set-tops would eventually become extinct and be replaced by connected TVs and other consumer electronics devices capable of delivering encrypted cable programming.

Glenn Britt

"I love this business, but I'm ready to retire knowing Rob is ready to lead," Britt said in a prepared statement. "He is an accomplished executive, a strong strategic decision maker, and has a deep understanding of our company, our industry and what it will take to lead TWC into the future," he added.

Marcus was named CFO in 2008 and was promoted to president and COO in 2010. He worked for former TWC parent company Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) before joining the cable MSO in 2005.

The leadership change at TWC comes as Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR), backed by cable pioneer John Malone, is reportedly pushing TWC to consider a merger.

Marcus will oversee a cable MSO that has 52,000 employees and counted 11.9 million video, 11.1 high-speed Internet and 5 million voice customers at the end of the first quarter. The MSO lost 135,000 video subscribers in Q1, which it attributed to subscribers who defected after promotions offering steep discounts expired. TWC is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on Aug. 1.

In recent quarters, Marcus has told analysts that TWC is focused on improving customer service and reducing expenses by enabling self-service transactions. The MSO has also hired more customer service representatives that specialize in retaining subscribers.

"Our competitively advantaged network, talented employees, robust customer base and strong tradition of innovation position us to build on the successes of Glenn's tenure. I look forward to leading our company into a new era of world-class products, outstanding customer service and continued growth," Marcus said in a prepared statement.

For more:
- see the release

Read more about: Charter Communications
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By Steve Donohue

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3. Meredith counters plummeting ad revenue with increased retrans fees

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) may be considering installing new software at its call centers which would allow its FiOS and mobile phone customers to quickly switch to a new customer service representative if they are aren't happy with the first representative who answers their call, according to a patent application obtained by FierceCable.

The patent application, published June 26 by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, details how Verizon could use a "customer satisfaction engine (CSE)" to allow subscribers to rate a CSR and switch to a different representative.

"Customers making service calls may find their experience with the CSR unsatisfactory and/or inefficient for a number of reasons. For example, the customer may be subject to long wait times and/or numerous transfers, the customer may have to call back a number of times especially if the CSR lacks expertise to understand the customer's specific problem or the CSR may be rude," Verizon states in the patent application, which it filed on Feb. 15.

The telco reveals multiple options for letting a subscriber switch to a new CSR and details how it may limit the number of times a customer could request a new representative. "A caller may be required to talk to a particular CSR for at least 3 minutes before being provided with the opportunity to switch to another CSR by pressing a button on his or her telephone or clicking a link on a CSE Web interface," Verizon states in the patent application.

Tampa, Fla.-based inventor Umashankar Velusamy is named as the inventor on the patent application, which is titled, "Apparatuses, Methods and Systems for Accessing a New Customer Service Representative and for Monitoring Customer Service."

Verizon has traditionally performed well in national customer satisfaction surveys. In May, FiOS TV was ranked as the top pay TV service in the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Last fall, J.D. Power ranked FiOS as the top pay TV service in the East region.

Verizon officials didn't respond to a request for comment Friday about the patent application.

Source: Verizon

For more:
- see the patent application

Read more about: FiOS
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By Steve Donohue

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4. ACA pushes FCC to open 5 GHz band for next-gen Wi-Fi services

Meredith Corp. saw political ad revenue plummet to just $725,000 for the quarter ending June 30, compared to $3.2 million this time last year. But the TV station group owner, which runs CBS and Fox affiliates in several states, said increased retransmission-consent fees from cable operators and satellite TV providers helped it generate a $12 million increase revenue for the quarter.

Meredith said it posted $22.5 million in "other" revenue--primarily retransmission consent fees--nearly double the $12 million in revenue it posted in the "other" category during the same period last year. It collected $69.2 million in non-political advertising revenue, down slightly from $69.4 million last year.

The 2012 election helped Meredith drive $38.9 million in political ad revenue for its fiscal 2013, an increase of more than $32 million from the previous year. It generated $68.2 million in "other" revenue, or retransmission-consent fees, in fiscal 2013, up from $38.8 million in fiscal 2012.

Meredith own Fox and CBS affiliates in Georgia, Oregon, Connecticut, Missouri, South Carolina, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Massachusetts.

For more:
- see the release

By Steve Donohue

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5. Infonetics sees increased demand from operators for transcoding technology

Cable operators need the FCC to open up more spectrum in the 5 GHz band to meet demand from subscribers for next-generation Wi-Fi services, the American Cable Association said in a filing at the commission on Thursday.

"Unlicensed Wi-Fi use of spectrum has burgeoned over the past decade, becoming an essential element to providing ubiquitous high-speed broadband service," ACA CEO Matt Polka said in a prepared statement. "Accordingly, to ensure this fundamental technology can meet exploding consumer demand, it is imperative that the FCC allocate sufficient unlicensed spectrum and establish rules that facilitate connectivity."

Most broadband Internet subscribers have routers that can transmit Wi-Fi signals in the 2.4 GHz band. But some cable MSOs are beginning to install Wi-Fi routers and gateways that can also transmit 5 GHz signals.

Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR) announced on Thursday that it would begin leasing advanced dual-band routers from Netgear to its cable modem customers. And Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) recently began deploying wireless gateways from Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) which it said can transmit data of speeds up to 270 Mbps by using the 5 GHz band.

According to the ACA, operators will be able to deliver speeds of up to 1 Gbps by using the 5 GHz band.

For more:
- see the release

Read more about: Comcast, ACA
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