Business Cable TV Now Available to TWC Agents

By Khali Henderson

Time Warner Cable Business Class, the business-to-business arm of Time Warner Cable, will announce at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, Sept. 23-25 in Miami, that it is adding cable TV to the services available for sale through its indirect channel effective Oct. 1.

Now, agents in the TWCBC Partner Program can offer small and medium businesses the triple play — Internet, phone and TV — on a single bill, said Michael Prendergast, vice president of National Accounts for TWCBC and head of the company’s agent channel. Previously, he said, the typical SMB offer has been a double play minus the TV service.

Prendergast said agents and their customers have been requesting the cableco’s TV services for some time. Previously, customers would have to call TWCBC direct to get the service even if they were buying the Internet and phone through the agent.

Business cable TV has applications for a variety of business settings, including waiting rooms, private offices, lobby areas and employee lounges. Restaurants, medical offices, auto dealerships, retail stores and fitness centers are among the hot targets. A variety of programming options are available — news channels, financial channels, sports channels and family channels — so that a business can tailor programming to its customer base.

Business cable TV is available now in all Time Warner Cable markets throughout the United States. It is offered in two service tiers: a standard package, featuring more than 77 channels; and a digital video service package, featuring hundreds of additional news, entertainment and sports channels. Both packages are available in a HD, which requires a set-top box and an HDTV.

One of the first sales agents in the TWCBC Partner Program to offer Business Cable TV is Intelisys, a master agency based in Petaluma, Calif. “The beauty of TWC’s Cable TV offering is that it allows our sales partners to sell another viable communications product to their customers,” said Jay Bradley, president of telecom services at Intelisys. “This is a real value-add for our partners because it provides another opportunity to fill the needs of the customer. And they have the added benefit of working with just one provider — all on one monthly bill.”

Prendergast said business cable TV has been sold by agents on an individual case basis for a few months. Agent training will be Web-based, but takes less than an hour. In addition, product collateral, rate cards and quoting tools are available in the TWCBC Partner Portal. Agents will receive a monthly residual on the sale, but the percentage was not disclosed.