The Time Warner Cable brand, which Bloomberg calls "beleaguered," will cease to exist. Synonymous with poor customer service and frequent outages, the company is merging with Charter Communications, which will expire the name.  

David VanAmburg, managing director of American Customer Satisfaction Index, said, "Nobody in the cable industry performs particularly well. One merger isn't going to change structural issues with pricing, infrastructure and battles with content providers. When there's not a great deal of competition in an industry, you're not going to get great satisfaction scores."

Charter will introduce "Spectrum," new products and offerings from Time Warner and Bright House Networks, which Charter also recently purchased.

In a statement obviously written for Wall Street analysts, Charter Communications announced the merger deal.

Discussion Starters: 

• The company has a lot more work to do than simply changing the name. What are your experiences with Time Warner, and how do you think they can improve service? 
• This is a critical time for Charter. What should the company communicate now about its plans?