The National Association of Television Program Executives, which filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month, said that it has canceled its 2023 NATPE Global Conference and Marketplace in January.

The event was scheduled to be held at the Baha Mar Resort in the Bahamas.

NATPE said that it has not made decisions at this time about whether or not its NATPE Budapest, Hungary, and other 2023 events will also be canceled.

C21 Media, a British publishing company, has said it wants to acquire NATPE’s assets and said it plans to hold conferences for content producers and distributors in 2023 in Miami, where NATPE traditionally held its January conference, and Budapest. NATPE slated the Bahamas event after canceling the annual conference that was to be held in Miami, Florida, this past January. It canceled that January 2022 event less than two weeks before it was to begin. 

NATPE said it filed for Chapter 11 because the cancellation of in-person events due to COVID caused its financial position to deteriorate. It has laid off staff members, with three former executives retained as consultants, including CEO JP Bommel, who put out today's release. Its most recent event was NATPE Streaming Plus in September.

In its bankruptcy filing, NAPTE said it has total assets of $949,000 as of September 30, 2022, the end of the first half of its fiscal 2023. At the end of fiscal 2022, the organization had assets of $2.6 million. 

The NATPE filing said that it ran at a $1.33 million deficit in the first six month of its fiscal year. ■

Frontier Communications said it has named former Arcosa Inc. executive Scott Beasley as its new chief financial officer, replacing Sheldon Bruha who will leave the company to pursue other opportunities. 

Beasley previously served as CFO of Arcosa, a Dallas-based maker of infrastructure products. He will join Frontier effective June 14 and will report to president and CEO Nick Jeffery.

“The addition of Scott Beasley as our new CFO is an important step in building a world-class leadership team as we transform our business into a modern technology company,” Jeffery said in a press release. “Frontier has a newly strengthened balance sheet and Scott brings considerable experience in corporate finance that will be critical as we invest in building our high-speed Fiber network. Scott is the ideal executive to lead our finance organization as we build Gigabit America."

Frontier named Bruha, who had been serving as interim CFO, as permanent CFO in June 2019. He joined Frontier in 2018 as SVP and Treasurer. Frontier emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April and began trading under a new NASDAQ symbol (FBYR) on May 4. 

“We thank Sheldon Bruha for his significant contributions over the past three years,” Jeffery added in the press release. “Sheldon played a key role in Frontier’s successful emergence from bankruptcy, including leading the Company’s critical balance sheet restructuring. We wish him well in his future endeavors.”

The Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority approved Frontier Communications' Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan Wednesday, agreeing to expand its fiber network and pledging not to reduce its workforce in the state for at least two years.

Frontier filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April. The company received Federal Communications Commission approval for the plan earlier this month.  With Connecticut’s approval, 12 of the 25 states in which Frontier operates have approved the plan.

The Communications Workers of America, which represents about 1,600 Frontier technicians and call center workers in Connecticut, had pressed for the approval to include conditions to improve service quality and preserve jobs in the state. The CWA had pointed out that Frontier has jettisoned about 740 employees in the state, about 30% of its workforce, since 2016. The union also wanted the PURA to use the oversight process to ensure the company stayed accountable to its workers and customers and not Wall Street hedge funds.     

As part of the reorganization, Frontier said it would reduce debt by about $11 billion and build out its fiber network across its footprint. It expects to emerge from bankruptcy early this year. In December, the company named former Vodafone executive Nick Jeffery as CEO.  Jeffery, who is expected to take the helm on March 1, replaces Bernie Han, who will remain on the board of directors and assist in the transition.  

Among the conditions for approval in Connecticut, Frontier agreed to add at least an additional 100,000 locations in the state in a four-year period ended Dec. 31, 2024, pledged not to reduce its technicians and call center workforce through involuntary attrition for two years and promised to maintain its corporate headquarters in Connecticut.

In a statement, CWA Local 1298 president Dave Weidlich said the PURA approval commits Frontier to expanding its fiber network and offers some protections for employees, but fell short of the mark.

“However, we believe this was a missed opportunity to follow the lead of other states who have put stronger conditions on Frontier related to capital investment, broadband deployment and workforce retention,” Weidlich added. “CWA remains committed to working with Frontier to provide the best possible service to Connecticut customers and to ensure that Frontier lives up to both the letter and spirit of this decision. We hope that this decision will serve as a starting point for Frontier’s continued investment and that Frontier makes a strong, ongoing commitment to Connecticut homes and businesses to provide Connecticut with the connectivity we deserve.”

About four years after a major purchase that many believe was the source of most of its problems, Frontier Communications is attempting to solve them through a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and a debt-for-equity swap that will erase about $10 billion in balance sheet obligations. Frontier had been expected to file for bankruptcy protection for months. The company, which has about 3.8 million residential customers in 29 states, many in rural areas, has been struggling to make payments on its $17.5 billion debt load, the majority of which is tied to its 2016 purchase of Verizon Communications Fios assets in California, Florida and Texas.

That $10.5 billion deal doubled the size of the small-market carrier, but brought with it a world of operational problems. For weeks after the deal was closed in April 2016, the switchover from Verizon’s network to Frontier’s was riddled with outages and increasingly poor service. Frontier later blamed the spotty transition partly on insufficient customer data supplied by Verizon.

“With this agreement with our bondholders, we can now focus on executing our strategy to drive operational efficiencies and position our business for long-term growth,” Frontier CEO Bernie Han said in a press release about the bankruptcy filing. “At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the entire business community, and our team is focused on ensuring the health and safety of our employees and customers. The services we provide to our customers keep them connected, safe and informed, and I would like to thank our team for their continued dedication, especially in light of the current environment.”

Frontier had been expected to file for bankruptcy for months. The company said late on April 14 that it had reached an agreement with bondholders representing more than 75% of its $11 billion in unsecured bonds on the deal, which is expected to reduce its debt by more than $10 billion. In addition, the company said it has secured about $460 million in debtor-inpossession (DIP) financing, which coupled with its $700 million of cash on hand give it about $1.1 billion in liquidity. Frontier said it filed for Chapter 11 protection with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on April 14 and will continue to operate normally as it goes through the process.

Frontier expects to emerge from Chapter 11 with about $7.5 billion in debt, considerably less than the $17.5 billion in leverage it had carried previously. The company has admitted it has underinvested in fiber over the years, and in the 10-K it said it would need to invest only about $1.4 billion to build out its network — part of that possibly coming from federal programs — through 2024.

In a presentation to bondholders that was made public last month, Frontier admitted its broadband speeds are lacking compared to competitors, and that only 3 million of the 14 million residences able to access its internet service are passed with fiber. Most of Frontier’s broadband customers have slower speed digital subscriber line service. About 30% of its customers have service with download speeds of 0-12 megabits per second; 35% have download speeds of 13-24 Mbps and only 6% have download speeds of 24 Mbps or higher. The company has managed to survive mainly because in many of its markets it is the only provider.

Fueled for a Rebuild

With the DIP financing and the planned sale of its systems in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana for $1.352 billion to Northwest Fiber — a deal it agreed to earlier last year — Frontier should have more than enough capital to go through with the rebuild. The Northwest Fiber transaction is slated to close on April 30.

The FCC said it would make sure Frontier continued to fulfill its obligations to keep its customers connected, which has become especially important during the pandemic. “As the company undertakes this process, we expect it to comply with all Commission regulatory obligations,” Kris Monteith, chief of the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, said. “We will be vigilant in ensuring both that Frontier’s customers stay connected to vital 911, voice and broadband services and that Frontier continues to put the federal funds it receives through the Connect America Fund and other universal service programs to work for the American people.”

In a statement, the Communications Workers of America, which represents some Frontier employees, hoped that workers would have a voice in the reorganization. “Frontier’s front-line employees have a unique insight into the challenges — and opportunities — that the company faces. Unfortunately, Frontier’s management did not engage with CWA members or leadership as part of their negotiations with creditors, denying their workforce a much-needed voice in the future of the company,” it said. “CWA members expect to have input in the direction of the company as the bankruptcy process goes forward.”