One of the most challenging things we do at WOW! is to decide what channels to offer customers. Often we receive requests to add certain channels and questions as to why others aren’t available or have been dropped or put into a different package. There are a number of factors we take into consideration – what physical capacity is available; which channels have the greatest overall customer demand; how much the programmer or network is demanding in license fees. We know our choices won’t always be popular. But we hope you understand that we strive to make decisions that we truly believe are responsive to the programming and pricing needs and desires of all our customers.
In order to air the television channels you enjoy, we have to have the necessary physical capacity – or bandwidth – to distribute them. Much like any retail store, we have a finite amount of shelf space available. Most of it is already occupied by the current channel line-up. And so there is a limited amount of bandwidth available at any given time. We continually look for ways to remove channels with low performance or at least move them to a more appropriate package so that we can free up capacity to add the programming that customers actually want.
So when we have available bandwidth, how do we decide which networks to consider? First we take a look at customer feedback. We have a channel request form on our website from which we track and monitor what our customers are asking for. We also look at the Nielsen ratings to understand viewership of the various channels in each of our markets. Feedback from our Regional GMs, our technicians and customer care representatives who speak with customers every day is also taken into consideration. Our goal is to satisfy as many customers as we possibly can with our programming decisions. So armed with that information, we prioritize which networks we think would best meet the needs of our broad and diverse customer base.
Finally, we engage in programming negotiations with the network to try and reach business terms that make sense for our customers and our company. We negotiate to renew carriage of existing channels as well as launching new ones. Sometimes a reasonable outcome is reached. But more often than not these days, negotiations seem to become more and more contentious. The larger media companies are demanding significant increases and threatening to pull their signals unless operators like WOW! succumb. Or they require carriage of channels with little customer demand in exchange for the right to continue distributing their higher rated channels. And as for HD, there’s an alarming trend towards “launch one, launch many” where programmers will allow operators to carry the HD feed of a highly desirable channel –but only if we agree to carry the HD feeds of many of their less desirable channels as well.
What does all of this mean? Here’s the bottom line. We accept that programming expenses increase every year. We don’t like it, but we get that everyone has a business to run – as do we. So as channel changes are evaluated, we’ll continue to fight hard for business terms that are fair and reasonable. There are many worthy channels we carry or would like to carry, but they’re not worth carrying at any price.
WOW! Moments- Eric Mikich - Royal Oak, MichiganFriday night December 30th 10:00 PM, my cable and phone go down. I call WOW and very quickly get Antoine- Tech. Support I.D. WOU on my cell phone. He’s calm, courteous and professional. He Promptly pinpoints the problem (say this five times fast) and I’m back “On-Line”. Doesn’t seem like much compared to some...[more]
- Matt Boone - mount prospect, IllinoisI just moved to Chicago, IL from VA where I had Comcast cable/internet because it was the only option in my area. We are between addresses and it was too easy to transition to IL using Comcast. However, we are moving into a new place in 1 week and my wife and I...[more]
- roberto ruiz - ELGIN , Illinoismy name is roberto wow made it easyfor me had 2 techs out manny colon & walter carroll 2 best techs ever..they know there stuff. made my problems go...[more]
- Lauri Hyland - Dublin, OhioWOW!!!! I can’t begin to tell you of the outstanding customer service we have recieved from Ronna Green EA3. We have literally been thru a nightmare and thru Ronnas tireless persistance we will hopefully be a loyal WOW customer. It all started when Time Warner whom we have been with at least...[more]
- Kevin Kelly - Naperville, IllinoisI am very pleased with the work of Ryan (ID:WUQ). He stayed with me to guide me with resolving a problem with a digital adapter. While we were waiting to make sure that the problem was resolved until we got the replacement DTA. He was very patient in answering all of my questions about various...[more]
- Tim Hughes - Columbus, OhioHave I ever told you how great Wide Open West is as a cable company? I just called to question my bill, and why my bundle was priced higher than the price listed on their web page. Eli (AQ1) upgraded my service, lowered my bill and guaranteed my rate for 2...[more]
- maruquel rivera - san antonio, TexasI was reading consumer reports and WOW is the best according to them and I always go by what they say! So ya’ll need to come on over to Texas we are waiting!! the monopoly over here is incredible. thank you Maruquel...[more]
- Victoria Douglas-Howard - Streamwood, IllinoisCody op id #AIR actually took the time to help me with an issue/problem with my email that I have had for 5 years now!!! Can you believe it??? My problem has finally been solved. He has made my life soooo much easier & I cannot begin to tell you how much I really appreciate...[more]
- Gene Stefanov - Reynoldsburg, OhioI recently switched back to WOW and during the install, the tech (Shawn B.) did a wonderful job but ran into a slight problem with the DVR. He said his supervisor would be by later in the day to finish. Around 6:30pm, I called WOW and asked if somebody was really going to stop by...[more]
- Lynn M. - Columbus, OhioI’d like to thank a wonderful WOW guy who solved my month long problem. His name is Eric and he worked tirelessly for a couple of hours – rewiring out to the alley – tall ladders, etc. Eric is a real professional with a calm disposition and pleasant manner. WOW –...[more]
- Eric Mikich - Royal Oak, Michigan
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Hi Cathy,
Based on some of the feedback I received on the “I Love Feedback” article, there’s lots of folks interested in getting all the best channels and want to know how those decisions are made. I think your article answers all of those questions. Awesome article! Thanks for sharing.
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You mention three criteria for which channels WOW carries but you didn’t mention an important one: Your competition. I am a big baseball fan. I suffered last year because WOW doesn’t carry the MLB Network. But your competition does and they are after my business with lower rates and all the stations I want.
I followed the WOW process and made the channel request for MLBN, from the webpage and by phone, half a dozen times as the year went on. Not once did I get a reply. Now baseball season is coming up, and I take it my only choice is to switch providers. From this blog entry, you seem to understand that and accept that will happen, i.e., you try to satisfy the majority of customers and apparently WOW doesn’t think baseball fans are in the majority. I understand this; I don’t agree with it, but I can accept it.
What will make me mad, as I really love WOW, is to find out days after I switch providers that WOW finally realized they need to carry this network, because when that happens, I am not coming back.
I have two suggestions: I recommend you add “competition” to the criteria WOW considers relevant on this topic, as somehow your competitor has this channel and at a lower rate than WOW. My second point is WOW isn’t providing customers who make channel requests any feedback (at least I got none), so we have to assume that when changes aren’t made that the channel isn’t coming and we better look elsewhere. Which is what I am doing now.
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Thanks for your comments, jdfuss. You’re correct, I neglected to mention competition. We do consider what other folks are distributing, and I didn’t call them out specifically as we tend to see that effect come through from our customer requests and feedback from our service representatives and other employees.
Specific to MLB Network, we did meet with them and I recognize they are building a following. There are a couple of reasons why we have chosen not to carry them at this time. As with lots of the sports networks that are out there, we might be willing to distribute them if we could carry them in a separate package. That would allow customers who are willing to pay to watch the channel to do so, without having to force the higher cost of sports programming onto a larger customer base that’s not interested. Unfortunately, at this time, that is not an option available to us from MLB Network. Additionally, MLB offers MLB.tv over an Internet connection so there are options for fans to access a lot of the content and games they may want. I recognize that’s not the same as having the channel available, but it is a viable option for many folks.
There are definitely a lot of baseball fans out there, and we do carry a lot of baseball games and shows across the various sports networks and local broadcast channels that are available on our line-up today. As you say, we accept that we won’t be able to make everyone happy. But I assure you we do our best to carefully weigh the various factors in the decisions that we make.
I do appreciate your feedback on how we respond to customers who make channel requests. When I receive an email directly from a customer, I do my best to answer it personally or find someone who can provide the right answer. However, I don’t always see the standard online forms and so maybe there’s a better way for us to help customers understand our intentions around carriage of a specific channel. I’ll work on that and hopefully your suggestion will benefit others in the future.
Ugh. I hate to lose you as a customer because of a channel. I empathize with what you’re going through (I’m here in Colorado with a dog named Fenway…); but, for the reasons I stated above, we do not have plans to launch MLB Network. Maybe MLB.tv is an option for you?
Regardless, thanks for asking the question and giving me an opportunity to respond.
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I, too, have left several channel requests to no avail. What I don’t understand is that the channels I am requesting are available on WOW in other service areas. I live in the city of Chicago, but we don’t get some of the channels that they get on the suburban Chicago WOW line-up. All I’m asking for are channels that WOW has, apparently, already contracted for since they are available in other service areas.
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I realize that can be frustrating to see channels that are available in the Chicago suburbs but not in the city. One of the primary reasons why that occurs comes back to the issue of available bandwidth or capacity. We are obligated and required to carry several channels in the city that don’t apply to the suburbs. As a result, they consume some of our shelf space that we might otherwise use to deliver channels that customers have requested. There are other reasons too. For example, we typically don’t carry all of the regional sports networks in each of our markets — just the ones that make the most sense regarding local teams. And sometimes for whatever reason, we hear from a lot of customers in one market about a certain channel that doesn’t come up in others. Those are some of the things we balance when we make our decisions. Hope that helps in some way to answer your question.
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Admit it, you guys were trying to be sneaky by adding in Versus HD.:)Feel free to do that in the future, I like surprises…
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Ok, I couldn’t find a better place to put this, so here goes:
In the past few weeks the FOOD Channel had been advertising the COOKING Channel that will start the end of May. Will WOW be carrying it?
Just asking.
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Bismark, yes, we will be carrying the Cooking Channel. Fine Living Network is changing their name and programming to Cooking Channel on May 31st. This is on WOW! Digital Basic Cable, channel 213 in Evansville, and channel 318 in all other areas (Cleveland, Columbus, Chicago and Detroit)
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Family members recommended Wow! to me and I switched because I was unhappy with a competitor’s service as well as their price hikes. However, I watch two channels that are not offered on Wow!’s service, namely Cloo and Hallmark HD — there are two Hallmark channels; I would like to see Wow! offer these two channels. It would really make my switch worth it then. Right now I am happy but I could be happier. I would hate to switch to another service provider.
Mrs. Samwise
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