Q. I thought my Spectrum cable service was supposed to add the ACC Network last week, but it hasn’t. What’s up with that? Why don’t I have it? — Luna, Lebanon, Connecticut.
Luna, you are right. Charter, which delivers your Spectrum cable TV service, announced last week that it would add the new ACC Network to all Spectrum markets on September 6. But there are two reasons why you, and many others, still don’t have it.
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1. Charter is behind schedule.
While the cable operator has added the ACC Network in most markets, it says the channel now won’t be added until September 10 in some areas, such as Connecticut. Charter has not given a reason for the delay, nor has it informed subscribers that there would be a delay unless they contacted the company’s customer service department. That has triggered considerable confusion among Spectrum subscribers who expected to be able to watch their favorite ACC teams by now.
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2. Charter is playing hardball with former Time Warner Cable subscribers.
Charter also says that former Time Warner Cable subscribers who have yet to switch to Charter plans will not get the ACC Network in their legacy Time Warner plans. (Charter purchased Time Warner Cable in 2016, but it has allowed some TWC subscribers to keep their old program packages.)
If they want the ACC Network, they will have to call Charter and officially switch to a Charter programming package. Some former Time Warner Cable customers are balking at that, saying the Charter plans are more expensive.
The cable operator has also done an inferior job of communicating reason two, which has caused even more confusion.
Luna, hope that clarifies the situation a bit.
Happy viewing!
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I’d safely assume they’re dragging their feet on adding the ACC Network to see who really wants it outside of the ACC states. It’s no longer a bandwidth issue since all Spectrum markets no longer have analog signals clogging up bandwidth. Adding new channels was a legitimate problem at Time Warner Cable because they’d have to take a channel, like OWN, Oxygen or Fuse, and switch it from analog to encrypted digital format in order to create available bandwidth for whatever new channel was being added.
The amount of employee turnover at Spectrum is so great they have front-line employees answering the phones who know absolutely nothing about the legacy Time Warner Cable video packages. I believe this is done on purpose because Spectrum does not want anyone on a legacy Time Warner Cable plan. Tom Rutledge himself complained for three years to his investors about how Time Warner Cable was a ‘Turkish Bazaar’ with the way they prived their products.
By the end of 2020, every legacy Time Warner Cable video package subscriber will be off their Time Warner Cable promotional price (assuming they signed up on the final day legacy TWC packages were still available), and will see their price “explode”. Then, and only then, will it be cheaper to make the move to Spectrum Pricing & Packaging. It’ll more be like pay about the same price, and receive 10-25 less channels depending on which TWC package one has.
I switched to the new charter spectrum plan to get the ACC network. What I was not told was that I would lose channels I was getting from my time Warner package. Now I’m told once you switched, you can go bsck. I lost American Hero channel (fka the military channel).