Time Warner Cable gets aggressive post-Q4; offers 1 year free phone service to wideband subs

Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) says it'll market more aggressive promotions aimed at in luring subscribers from telephone and satellite TV rivals, including one year of free phone service to subscribers who order its 50 Mbps Internet service.

The second largest U.S. cable MSO attributed discounts on its triple play and other promotions to improved performance during the fourth quarter. While it reported Thursday that it lost 129,000 video subscribers during Q4, it picked up 117,000 high-speed Internet subscribers and 27,000 voice subscribers. Time Warner Cable lost 8,000 residential voice customers during the third quarter.

COO Rob Marcus told said on an earnings call that Time Warner launched a promotion last week in which it will offer one year of free telephone service to subscribers that order its 50 Mbps wideband Internet service. The MSO has previously offered free Slingbox receivers to wideband subscribers in New York City.

Marcus said new promotions helped the MSO post a 3 percent increase in new connects during Q4 compared to Q4 2010, including an $89.99 monthly triple-play offer and a $29.99 monthly high-speed Internet service offer that was targeted at DSL customers.

Time Warner Cable added 54,000 wideband Internet subscribers during Q4, which was its best quarter yet for selling its new DOCSIS 3.0-based product. The MSO has been focused on a sales and retention effort called internally "get, grow and keep," Marcus said.

Following its pact to sell broadband wireless spectrum to Verizon Wireless, Time Warner Cable will kick off joint marketing promotions with the Verizon in several cities during the first half of the year, Marcus said. The promotions will be similar to promotions Comcast recently kicked off with Verizon (NYSE: VZ), he added. Verizon and Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) recently began offering $300 prepaid Visa cards to subscribers that order new Verizon Wireless and Xfinity TV cable products.

Time Warner Cable is also stepping up its customer service efforts, offering one-hour appointment windows in several markets, and beginning to experiment with giving subscribers specific appointment times, Marcus said. It's also using call centers staffed with retention experts to try to keep subscribers that call to cancel service.

Also worth noting from Time Warner's Q4 earnings and conference call:

• In response to retransmission-consent disputes with broadcasters that have resulted in some stations pulling their signals from Time Warner Cable systems, the MSO has kicked around the idea of equipping set-tops with over-the-air antennas, CEO Glenn Britt said. But, "I don't think you should expect big developments in that particular item," Britt added.
• About 76 percent of Time Warner Cable's plant had been upgraded to DOCSIS 3.0 by the end of the year. The company said it'll complete D3 upgrades this year.
• Time Warner hopes to turn on 10,000 WiFi access points in major cities this year, following the deployment of 1,200 hotspots in Los Angeles in 2011.
• Time Warner signed 9,000 subscribers to its SignatureHome service, which offers wideband Internet, a 500-GB DVR and 24-hour "white glove" customer service. 
• The TWC TV app is has been downloaded to 850,000 Apple iPads. Time Warner generated 300,000 unique users from the iPad app in December.
• After adding more than 200 live TV channels to its iPhone app last week, the MSO will soon offer similar live TV capabilities to Android phone users that have the Android 4.0 operating system.
• Time Warner Cable reported $5 billion in Q4 revenue, up 4 percent from this time last year. Its business services revenue grew 37.2 percent to $409 million.

For more:
- see the earnings release

Special Report: Sizing up the cable industry in Q4 2011

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Time Warner Cable loses 128,000 video subs, but posts revenue gain
Time Warner Cable using Slingbox to market wideband service
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