Time Warner Cable To Skip Cable Box With Pilot Internet TV Service In New York City

Given the proliferation of online video streaming, you could say that it's taking quite some time for cable companies to "get with it" and begin offering us their wares online. It's no secret that the number of cord-cutters is steadily increasing, and it's no wonder why: services like Netflix have made it easy to watch content online in very good quality, and through a number of different devices.

Well, it seems like Time Warner is going to be one of the first out the door with an online version of its cable TV service, and at first, it's just going to be using New York City as the testing ground. Unfortunately, the company is keeping mum on a lot of details right now, including what kind of packages will be offered.

We'd hope that Time Warner would actually offer online cable TV packages at attractive prices, because one of the biggest reasons people move away from traditional cable TV in the first place is the high cost. $50 or more per month just to watch a couple of channels is insane nowadays, especially when you can subscribe to a service like Netflix, which offers a ton of content, and is controlled by you.

Ideally, any cable TV provider would offer a la carte options. Personally, there are very few channels I'd care to watch, but if a sports package was offered, I'd jump all over it. When it comes to online streaming, consumers simply are not going to overpay. Netflix is ridiculously popular because the value proposition is very high. If it isn't, it's not hard to see gauge how successful a service will be.

Nonetheless, once Time Warner begins rolling out this service to customers, it'll enable them to get rid of their cable boxes, and instead use a Roku, which TWC itself will provide. It's not entirely clear at this point if customers will be able to get the same experience on their desktops or notebooks, so that's another bit of information we'll have to hold out for.