ST. PETERSBURG — If you watch TV on Bright House Networks right now get ready to meet your new cable provider.
Bright House is now owned by Charter Communications.
You might have questions about what that means for your service and your cable bill. 10News WTSP is here to break it down for you.
Here's the deal. If you've ever heard that terrible message -- “all of our lines are busy right now, but your call is important to us…” -- while you wait to get through to your cable company, you know.
For decades, the cable industry has burned bridges with complaints of bad customer service and few options.
It's likely why some of you are wary of yet another cable take over in Tampa Bay.
“A lot of my friends have Frontier now and they had a lot of problems with changing subscriptions and no subscription, and I just hope that doesn't happen here,” said Bright House turned Frontier customer Jade Premer.
Wednesday Charter Communications closed its $67 billion deal to buy Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable.
So what the heck does that mean for your bill?
Telecom expert Jeff Kagan don’t worry yet -- prices probably won’t go up.
“If this merger happened five or 10 years ago, prices would go up,” Kagan said. “Now with competition, I don't think that's going to be the case.”
He says innovation from other big cable companies and digital networks like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and others will keep your monthly bill pretty much the same.
So how about the service?
“You're going to see companies focusing on better quality, focusing on better services, focusing on better pricing, focusing on improving the relationships with the customers,” Kagan said.
And Charter spokesperson Alex Dudley told our partners at the Tampa Bay Times, “Billing is the same, customer service numbers are the same, subscription packages are the same, and the trucks will still have Bright House on the side.”
Charter is now the second biggest cable provider in the country and Tampa Bay's largest cable and internet provider.
