Sources: Time Warner Cable will start testing $10 to $50 internet-only TV service in New York City next week
Time Warner Cable will test internet-only TV in NYC next week — If you want cable TV without the cable box, Time Warner Cable may have something for you soon.
Context & Ripple Effects
Time Warner Cable is joining the unbundling wave its rivals started this year: Comcast launched Stream, a $15/month web TV add-on for its internet subscribers, and Cablevision has been peeling channels off the bundle all year — offering HBO Now to broadband-only customers and selling Hulu Plus subscriptions. A $10–$50 tiered test in New York City puts the city's biggest incumbent operator directly into that same no-box experiment.
First-order effects
- NYC internet subscribers get an app-delivered live TV option at price points far below standard video bundles, eliminating the cable box and its rental fee for participants.
Second-order effects
- Comcast's Stream and Cablevision's broadband-only HBO Now and Hulu deals mean TWC can't treat this as a side test — every major New York-area operator is now competing on cheap app-based tiers, pressuring programmers to license content outside traditional bundles.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, cable operators complete the pivot to broadband-first businesses: the pipe becomes the core product and video becomes an à la carte app layer, eroding the classic channel-bundle economics that funded carriage negotiations.
The trend: Pay-TV providers are decoupling television from the set-top box and the bundle, repositioning around broadband as streaming apps replace traditional channel packages.