Consumer Confidential: Time Warner profits while losing customers; backing for a ‘Slurpee Summit’

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Here’s your thought-for-the-day Thursday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- Is the writing on the wall for cable companies? Time Warner Cable, the dominant provider in Southern California, lost more video subscribers -- 155,000 -- in the most recent quarter than it ever had before. The danger for cable, as with newspapers, is that more people are leaping to the Internet for their media consumption, leaving traditional media providers in the dust. Nevertheless, Time Warner said its quarterly profit grew to $360 million from $268 million a year earlier. Hmmm. Fewer subscribers ... higher profit ... Am I the only one wondering if ever-rising cable rates are fair?

-- President Obama joked after the election that maybe he should hold a ‘Slurpee Summit’ with Republicans to discuss the future. 7-Eleven, which owns the Slurpee brand, likes the sound of that. The company is now pushing to make the Slurpee Summit a reality. ‘This is a rare opportunity for a brand,’ says Margaret Chabris, a spokeswoman for the chain. ‘We don’t want to be opportunistic, but nothing has ever been this big for Slurpee.’ She says 7-Eleven would be happy to provide Slurpees for the event, even in red and blue colors so all participants feel welcome. Hey, maybe Slurpees can prevail where common sense has failed.

-- David Lazarus