Suddenlink Communications, formerly
Cebridge Connections, is a top-10 cable broadband services provider in the United States with approximately 1.3 million subscribers. Suddenlink operates in 19 states in primarily medium-sized communities. Its corporate headquarters are located in
St. Louis, MOSt. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States...
and is part of Cequel Communications, LLC. Cequel III, an affiliated company, was founded in January 2002 by Jerry Kent, Howard Wood, and Dan Bergstein as an investment and management firm that focuses on development of cable and telecommunications companies.
Suddenlink traces its origins to February 2003, when its senior management team assumed responsibility for the assets of Classic Communications, which served remote suburban areas, smaller towns, and rural communities.
Suddenlink Communications, formerly
Cebridge Connections, is a top-10 cable broadband services provider in the United States with approximately 1.3 million subscribers. Suddenlink operates in 19 states in primarily medium-sized communities. Its corporate headquarters are located in
St. Louis, MOSt. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States...
and is part of Cequel Communications, LLC. Cequel III, an affiliated company, was founded in January 2002 by Jerry Kent, Howard Wood, and Dan Bergstein as an investment and management firm that focuses on development of cable and telecommunications companies.
History
Suddenlink traces its origins to February 2003, when its senior management team assumed responsibility for the assets of Classic Communications, which served remote suburban areas, smaller towns, and rural communities. Starting in 1992, Classic completed a series of acquisitions of various cable systems. In 2001, it filed for bankruptcy and emerged from bankruptcy in January 2003.
http://www.cebridge.net/cebridge/news/NRClassic02-12-03.pdfSuddenlink's parent company, Cequel Communications, reported it would invest in and assume management of Classic Communications on February 12, 2003. At the time Classic was the twelfth largest MSO with 325,000 customers in nine states (Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Colorado, and Ohio). Classic’s customers had been largely deprived of advanced services like high-speed Internet access. The new management team claims to have invested tens of millions of dollars to upgrade Classic systems and improve the quality and quantity of services they offered.
The company was re-named Cebridge Connections and continued to acquire new cable companies and new cable systems.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/telecom/search/profile.aspx?id=M000216 As Cebridge, the company acquired cable systems previously owned by Alliance, Tele-Media, Thompson and USA Media. In 2006, Cebridge became Suddenlink Communications after the deals to acquire cable systems from
Cox CommunicationsCox Communications, also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television and telecommunications services in the United States...
and
Charter CommunicationsCharter Communications is an American company providing cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to more than 5.7 million customers in 29 states. It is the third-largest cable operator in the U.S., behind Comcast and Time Warner Cable...
closed.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/telecom/search/profile.aspx?id=M000216
Nortel
On June 21, 2006 Suddenlink began providing cable VoIP services using Nortel Technology. Suddenlink uses Nortel's VoIP solutions to provide digital telephone services to customers from California to North Carolina, including 30,000 acquired customers from Cox.
Sprint Nextel
On November 8, 2006, Suddenlink and Sprint Nextel announced a five-year agreement to enable wireline VoIP solutions to residential and commercial Suddenlink subscribers. The new contract awarded Sprint Nextel the right to facilitate Suddenlink's residential telephone service, available to approximately 2.2 million households in Suddenlink franchise areas, with more than 200,000 active customers as of March 2009.
SinclairThe Sinclair Broadcast Group is the operator of the largest number of local television stations in the United States with a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of which are located in the South and the Midwest. Broadcasts by SBG stations can be...
dispute
After Suddenlink completed the purchase of cable systems from Charter Communications in West Virginia, the right to retransmit two local stations,
WCHS-TVWCHS-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for Charleston and Huntington, West Virginia, the second-largest market in terms of area east of the Mississippi River, serving 61 counties in central West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southern Ohio...
and
WVAH-TVWVAH-TV is the FOX-affiliated television station for Charleston and Huntington, West Virginia, the second-largest market in terms of area east of the Mississippi River. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 19 from a transmitter south of Scott Depot along the Putnam and...
, expired. Parent company
Sinclair Broadcast GroupThe Sinclair Broadcast Group is the operator of the largest number of local television stations in the United States with a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of which are located in the South and the Midwest. Broadcasts by SBG stations can be...
, which owns WCHS but operates WVAH under a local marketing agreement, wanted to pull the two stations on July 1, 2006 unless Suddenlink paid $40 million to Sinclair up front in retransmission fees and $1 per subscriber. Suddenlink countered that FCC rules prohibited Sinclair from pulling the two stations during the middle of Nielsen Media sweeps week. Suddenlink was allowed to carry the stations in Charleston and Parkersburg until July 26, 2006. Sinclair pulled the stations on July 1 from viewers in the Beckley, WV market.
http://multichannel.com/article/CA6349903.html
After several weeks of negotiations, the two companies reached an agreement that allowed WCHS and WVAH to continue transmission over the Suddenlink cable system and both stations were restored to the Beckley market. The terms of the agreement were not released to the public.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6361496.html
WVAH blackout
On October 20, 2006
WVNS-TVWVNS-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for southern West Virginia that is licensed to Lewisburg. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 8 from a transmitter on Keeney's Knob between Alderson and I-64. Owned by West Virginia Media Holdings, the station has studios on...
filed for both non-duplication and
syndication exclusivitySyndication exclusivity is a federal law in the United States designed to protect a local television station's rights to syndicated television programs by granting exclusive rights to the station for that program in the local market, usually defined by a station's Nielsen DMA...
protections for Fox programming in the Beckley, Princeton, Lewisburg and Hinton, WV, markets. In these areas WVAH-TV, the Fox affiliate from Charleston, is also carried on Suddenlink cable systems. Suddenlink reported the only programming that will not be available from WVAH is Fox programming. All local news and other programming will still be available to customers.
http://www.register-herald.com/local/local_story_352220521.html
NFL Network
Suddenlink, like many other top-ten cable providers, is in a dispute with the NFL Network over carriage. NFL Network wants to be carried on Expanded Basic while Suddenlink and other cable companies want to put the network on a digital sports tier.
NFL Network offered a
free previewFree preview is a term, most commonly used by cable television, referring to when cable systems offer a pay-TV service to customers for free for a short period of time.-History:...
from December 24 through December 30, 2006, to West Texas area cable systems run by Suddenlink Communications and to New York area cable systems run by Time Warner Cable and Cablevision. The package included the Texas Bowl and Insight Bowl, but not that week's NFL game between the New York Giants and Washington Redskins, which was shown on WNBC for New York viewers. However, the free preview did not lead to long-term carriage agreements between the three cable companies and NFL Network.
In 2007 Suddenlink set up a section on its website called Play Fair. Suddenlink claimed that it wanted to carry the network while being fair to the customers who want the NFL Network and to the customers who don't want it. The site claimed that Comcast and Cox can carry NFL Network on a sports tier while Suddenlink would like to have the same option. Placing NFL Network on the sports tier allows customers who want the network to pay for it. The site further claimed that NFL Network doesn't have the kind of year-long programming that justifies putting it on basic cable service.
In November 2007, Suddenlink made several offers to the NFL Network, one of which included giving the NFL Network a free channel that would be widely available to the customers who wanted it. The NFL Network could make that channel available for free or for a set price that the network would want, while keeping all revenue from it, including advertising revenues. With this option Suddenlink would make no money carrying the network. The NFL Network denied this and other offers on November 27, 2007. In rejecting the offer, Suddenlink claimed that the network was "reiterating that they [NFL Network] would accept nothing less than the same $100 million ransom they demanded more than a year ago. Suddenlink states that it is ready to make a deal with the NFL Network and asks "the citizens and leaders of the communities we serve to contact the NFL and ask them to accept Suddenlink's generous offer of a free channel, widely available to customers who want it."
The other offers Suddenlink proposed were to carry the network on its digital sports tier, at a reasonable fee." The second option was to make NFL Network’s eight live NFL primetime games and the NFL Network’s Texas Bowl and Insight Bowl coverage available on pay-per-view at a rate determined by the network, with all revenue remitted to the NFL Network.
In May 2009, a long-standing feud between NFL Network and Comcast was resolved when the two agreed to a deal that might pave the way for other cable companies to reach similar deals and end the long-standing holdouts.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/263703-Analysis_Comcast_Pact_RedZone_Channel_May_Trigger_More_NFL_Network_Distribution_Deals.php
In October 2009, a local Suddenlink office in College Station, Texas began posting signs on their property claiming NFL Network and Red Zone are coming soon.
LIN TVLIN TV Corporation is an American holding company that operates 31 television stations.-History:LIN TV's roots trace back to the founding of its former parent, LIN Broadcasting Corporation, in the mid 1960s. LIN Broadcasting was engaged in radio, television, direct marketing, information and...
dispute
Carriage agreements for
Austin, TexasAustin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 15th-largest in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in the nation...
, NBC affiliate KXAN and
Albuquerque, New MexicoAlbuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 521,999 as of July 1, 2008, according to U.S. census estimates, and ranks as...
, CBS affiliate KBIM-TV expired on December 31, 2007. LIN TV and Suddenlink were unable to reach a new agreement for both local stations. Suddenlink proposed an extension to the current contracts so the two parties could continue negotiations.
This was denied along with two offers proposed by Suddenlink on January 2, 2008, which included Suddenlink's offer for KXAN only, in areas with no duplicate NBC station, and an offer to provide KXAN its own, stand-alone channel for which LIN-TV could set the price and from which it would keep all money generated, including all customer fees and ad revenues.
KXAN
On January 3, Suddenlink reached a deal with
Temple, TexasTemple is a city in Bell County, Texas, United States. Adjacent to the county seat , Temple lies in the region referred to as Central Texas. Located off Interstate 35, Temple is 65 miles north of Austin and 34 miles south of Waco. As of the 2000 Census, the population was 54,514, but a 2006...
-based KCEN to retransmit its signal to Suddenlink's central Texas customers. Additionally, KCEN offered NBC in high definition (HD) while the original carriage with KXAN did not. KXAN claimed that Suddenlink placed little value on local stations and said it would work closely with competitors like DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse to give viewers better options "than the cable monopoly that currently exists". The station was restored on March 25, 2008, after LIN TV and Suddenlink reached an agreement. Both the standard and HD feeds of KXAN are now available to Suddenlink customers in Georgetown, Leander and Pflugerville, Texas. In all three cities the HD feed of KXAN replaced KCEN's HD feed and customers in Pflugerville lost KCEN altogether at the request of the station owner. In Georgetown and Leander, KCEN moved to channel 16 while KXAN took over its previous channel position on channel 4.
KBIM-TV
Suddenlink customers in
Clovis, New MexicoClovis is a city in and the county seat of Curry County, New Mexico, United States. Its population was 37,213 as of the 2009 census.Clovis is located in the Llano Estacado and eastern New Mexico regions. The largely agricultural town is also noted for its role in early rock music history...
, were instructed to turn to
KFDA-TVKFDA-TV NewsChannel 10 is an CBS affiliated television station in Amarillo, Texas, USA. In 2002, KFDA-TV is the first Amarillo station to simulcast in HDTV. Its transmitter is located in Amarillo...
for CBS programming, a local station on channel 5. Unlike sister station KXAN, KBIM/KRQE did not enter into a media battle with Suddenlink by encouraging subscribers to switch to a different service. The station was restored on March 25, 2008.
Acquisitions
- February 12, 2003 Cequel III invested in Classic Communications, Inc.
Classicomm was a small cable provider in Canada serving communities in southern York Region from its offices in Richmond Hill, Ontario.Classicomm, or Classic Communications Ltd, was founded in the late 1960s by John O. Graham and Stewart H...
- June 30, 2003 Cequel III acquired cable systems from Shaw Communications, Inc.
Shaw Communications is a Canadian telecommunications company that provides telephone, internet and television services. Shaw is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. It provides services mostly in British Columbia and Alberta, with smaller systems in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario.-...
- January 26, 2004 Cequel III acquired cable systems from Alliance Communications Partners
Alliance Communications was a former Canadian-based movie distribution company. Based in Toronto, Ontario the company was formed in 1984 by Stephen Roth, Denis Heroux, John Kemeny, Robert Lantos and Jay Firestone. It acquired a Montreal-based Francophone production company, Vivafilm, in 1990. In...
.
- April 5, 2004 Cequel III acquired cable systems from Thompson Cablevision.
- June 3, 2004 Cebridge acquired cable systems from Tele-Media.
- August 19, 2004 Cebridge acquired cable systems from USA Media.
- May 5, 2006 Suddenlink acquired cable systems from Cox Communications
Cox Communications, also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television and telecommunications services in the United States...
.
- July 3, 2006 Suddenlink acquired cable systems from Charter Communications
Charter Communications is an American company providing cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to more than 5.7 million customers in 29 states. It is the third-largest cable operator in the U.S., behind Comcast and Time Warner Cable...
.
External links