The Cable Center CEO Jana Henthorn said Tuesday that she will retire at the end of the year, ending a 17-year run at the industry organization.  A replacement has not yet been named.

Henthorn joined the Cable Center in 2004 after serving as VP of affiliate sales for A+E Television Networks and earlier, as VP of operations and service fulfillment for Jones Intercable. She became CEO of The Cable Center in 2016.  During her tenure as CEO, Henthorn made strides in helping the industry think tank expand its offerings and cultivate and inspire new leaders, forming the Intrapreneurship Academy in 2017 and creating the Cable Center’s 5-year strategic plan in 2021. 

According to the Cable Center, as of July, the Intrapreneurship Academy has graduated more than 150 industry intrapreneurs from 30 different industry organizations and has expanded its curriculum into four, value-driving courses: Driving Innovation; Leading with Agility; Leading with Agility: Executive Intensive; and Leveraging Customer Experience.  

“Upon becoming CEO, Jana spearheaded the next evolution for The Cable Center, ushering in the era of intrapreneurship and innovation. Jana’s legacy will be her creative, compassionate leadership and impact on our industry’s future leaders through the Intrapreneurship Academy,” said Cable Center board chairman and CEO of Penthera Partners Michael Willner. “The Cable Center’s total assets are at the highest point in the past decade and beyond, and we are positioned for continued growth and success. It has been such a pleasure to collaborate with Jana. She is truly a trailblazer.”

During her watch, Henthorn also advanced the Center’s mission of honoring and celebrating the industry’s many entrepreneurs and founders, sharing their stories and expertise through programs like the Barco Library and Hauser Oral and Video History Project; the Cable Center Customer Centric Consortium (C5); the Edward Breen Technical Archives, and the Mavericks Lecture Series.

“The Cable Center has achieved tremendous growth and success over the last few years. I am extremely proud of all our programs, and the development and launch of our newest program, Intrapreneurship Academy,” Henthorn said in a press release. “Grit, determination, and hard work are the principles upon which our great industry was founded, and I believe that we have been entrusted with the responsibility to inspire the next era of innovation.

“I want to thank my industry colleagues, our wonderful board of directors, our esteemed honorary board of directors, our Cable Center ambassadors, our generous donors, and my many mentors and guides along the way," she continued. "I am incredibly proud of my dedicated Cable Center team of collaborators and ambassadors. We have been able to accomplish so much together due to the collective support, agility, enthusiasm, and diligence of our staff.”

Henthorn will continue as CEO of the Cable Center through the end of the year. Upon her retirement, she will remain on the board of directors as the immediate past president. The board has begun the process of naming her successor.

Penthera Partners, a company that specializes in software that manages the secure downloading of TV shows, movies and other large digital files to mobile devices, said it as received a $6 million investment from Liberty Global Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of cable legend John Malone’s international cable giant Liberty Global.

"I am truly excited that Liberty Global will be helping us grow Penthera and realize the full potential of our technology,” Penthera CEO Michael Willner said in a statement. “Proceeds from this financing will be used to expand our worldwide sales efforts and accelerate the development of new products and enhancements to our existing products."

Penthera develops software that allows customers to watch content when they don’t have access to a suitable internet connection. Its products have been used by several content providers servicing millions of users, including Showtime, Starz, Comcast, and Charter Communications.

"After vetting available technologies we were impressed with the feature sets included in Penthera's SDK,” Liberty Global chief technology officer (Europe) Dan Hennessy said in a statement. “Whether it's for viewing video when connectivity is limited, intermittent or expensive, downloading is a feature we know customers want and will value greatly, which is why we decided to invest in the company."  

Michael Willner, the cable industry vet and current CEO of video downloading tech firm Penthera Partners, has been appointed to the board of Digicel Group, a communications provider with operations in 33 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and Asia Pacific.

Willner’s appointment is effective Nov. 1, 2015, Kingston, Jamaica-based Digicel said.

Willner’s been president and CEO of Penthera, a vendor that has deals with several operators, including Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications, since 2012. Willner, the former CEO of Insight Communications (acquired by TWC in 2012), had been set to take the helm of GreatLand Connections, the MSO spinoff that was to emerge from the proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger. With prospects thin that the deal would gain regulatory approval, Comcast walked away from the deal in April. 

Willner’s appointment comes amid a report that Digicel, which faces off with Cable & Wireless Communications in many markets, is planning to raise up to $2 billion in an IPO as soon as this month, and that it would use the funds for capital spending, acquisitions and to pay down debt.

“The Digicel story is a fascinating one,” Willner said in a statement. “The opportunity to help it evolve from a leading provider of mobile communications into a total communications and entertainment provider and to deliver these services across some of the most vibrant countries on earth was too good to pass up. It’s a unique opportunity and one that I am relishing taking on.”

“As we continue on our journey to becoming a total communications and entertainment company, Michael’s enormous wealth and breadth of knowledge garnered from over 40 years in the cable industry will be invaluable in ensuring that the experience we offer to our customers is second to none,” added Digicel chairman Denis O’Brien. “ Michael is a fantastic addition to our Board and I am delighted to welcome him to the Digicel family.”

Willner started his career in 1974 at Vision Cable Communications, later becoming COO of the company from 1979 to 1985. He has also served twice as chairman of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and was the NCTA’s 2004 Vanguard Award for Distinguished Leadership, a 2005 inductee into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame, and the Cable Hall of Fame in 2008.

Penthera,  a startup that specializes in software that manages the secure downloading of TV shows, movies and other content to mobile devices, has reupped its existing agreement with Comcast and has notched deals with Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications.

That’s according to Michael Willner, the CEO of Penthera and the long-time cable exec who was set to take the helm of GreatLand Connections, the MSO spin-off that was to emerge from the proposed (and now scuttled) Comcast-Time Warner Cable transaction.

Comcast started to use Penthera’s Cache & Carry system for downloadable titles offered through an older app called the Xfinity Player in 2012, but is now using the technology to support it on the Xfinity TV Go app as well as for Comcast’s Cloud DVR, which lets customers “check out” recorded titles for viewing on mobile devices when they are offline.

TWC and Charter, which are now set to merge under an agreement announced Tuesday (May 26), are in the process of customizing Penthera’s SDK for their respective environments.

Willner said Penthera has several more deals in the pipeline with other MVPDs as well as with some "major” programmers in the U.S. and abroad. He said Penthera hopes to announce its first deals with programmers “within weeks” that will use the company's download engine with their video apps.

Penthera is also in the process of building a next-gen version of its platform that will enable its partners to switch out ads in TV shows that have already been downloaded . Those capabilities, covered in several patents that have been granted to the company, will ensure that the ads in downloaded shows are kept fresh and should position MVPDs to secure additional rights that enable them to expand the amount of titles they can offer in a downloaded fashion. 

While dynamic ad insertion is used widely in streamed video, “in the downloaded world, it becomes more complicated,” Willner said. “It’s not about when you download the program; it’s about when you watch it in order for the content owners to monetize the viewing of that ad by the consumer. “

Under Penthera’s ad-swapping technique, the system is aware of where the viewer is located and when the last time the viewer made contact via the Internet, and can download a fresh set of ads in the background and insert them into the program that was originally downloaded.

 “It’s constantly updating,” Willner explained.

Willner said discussions about adding that capability are underway and the hope is to have it ready to go later this year or in early 2016, noting that the feature will be “critical” in order for Penthera's partners to secure the rights necessary to offer a greater selection of titles for downloading.

“This had to be solved,” he said.

As a business update, Willner said Penthera is considering an admission of new shareholders through a private offering.  Willner and Sidney R. Knafel, co-founders of Insight Communications (now part of TWC), reunited to invest in and lead Penthera in 2012.

 “We don’t need a whole lot of money in order to get to break even,” he said.

Charter Communications expects to nearly double its revenue to $16.3 billion in 2019 from $8.4 billion in 2013 as a result of the swaps, sales and spinoffs associated with the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger, outpacing the impact most analysts had expected the deals would have on the company.

In a proxy statement at the Securities and Exchange Commission — filed because of an upcoming special shareholders’ meeting Charter will hold concerning the deals — Charter said it expects its total pro forma revenue to rise from an estimated $11.4 billion in 2014 to $16.3 billion by 2019. Pro forma cash flow is expected to rise from $4.4 billion in 2014 to $6.6 billion by 2019.

In 2013, Charter reported total revenue of about $8.4 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $2.9 billion.

Back in April, Charter cut a series of deals with Comcast and Time Warner Cable in which Stamford, Conn.-based Charter would swap systems with 1.6 million of its subscribers for Comcast properties with 1.5 million customers.

Charter also agreed to buy systems with 1.4 million customers from Time Warner Cable. And Charter will own 33% of a separate, publicly traded entity called GreatLand Connections, which includes former Comcast systems in the Midwest and Southeast with 2.5 million subscribers.

Charter will manage the systems for GreatLand — and receive a management fee of 4.25% of GreatLand’s revenue, or an estimated $200 million in 2015 — and the properties will take advantage of Charter’s programming contracts.

GreatLand, headed by cable veteran and former Insight Communications chairman Michael Willner, is expected to report revenue of $4.6 billion in 2014, rising to $6 billion by 2019. That figure could rise even higher if GreatLand participates in continued industry consolidation, as is expected.

Analysts had been conservative in their forecasts mainly because about half of the new Charter will consist of slower-growth — Charter’s characterization — Time Warner Cable systems.

While CEO Tom Rutledge said recently that those TWC systems are “where Char ter was a couple of years ago,” in terms of their digital networks, he noted that Charter converted 4 million customers to all-digital in about 13 months.

Ah, politics. Just two days after President Obama asked the FCC to pursue Title II reclassification of broadband services, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said the telco will pause further fiber investment until after the company has a better fix on the rules it will be operating under. 

"We can't go out and invest that kind of money deploying fiber to 100 cities not knowing under what rules those investments will be governed," Stephenson said, according to this Reuters report of comments the exec made at an analyst conference. "We think it is prudent to just pause and make sure we have line of sight and understanding as to what those rules would look like.”

AT&T has already threatened to sue the FCC if the Commission takes the Title II route.

One person who is likely unsurprised by AT&T’s current posture is cable vet Michael Willner.

Speaking here Wednesday (November 12) at the NewBay Media NYC Television Week event in New York, Willner, the president and CEO of Penthera and GreatLand Connections (the MSO poised to emerge after Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter Communication sew up their transactions and system swaps) and the former head of Insight Communications, warned that applying Title II to broadband could cause operators to close the capex spigots and pull back on plant investments like they did following the 1992 Cable Act. “Everything came to a screeching halt,” he recalled, noting that the industry is “teetering” on a replay of 1992 Act.

For those keeping score,  AT&T announced in April that it was  exploring an expansion of its 1-Gig-capable GigaPower to as many as 100 additional cities across 25 markets. It has also proposed to expand GigaPower to an additional 2 million customers as a condition of its pending acquisition of DirecTV.

By market, here’s a look at AT&T’s announced GigaPower commitments and where it’s already been deploying it and who its primary wireline competitor is in those markets:

-Atlanta, Ga.* (Comcast, Charter Communications)

-Austin, Texas** (Time Warner Cable, Grande Communications)

-Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas** (Time Warner Cable, Grande Communications, Charter Communications)

-Cary, N.C.* (TWC)

-Charlotte, N.C.* (TWC)

-Chicago, Ill. (Comcast, RCN)

-Carrboro, N.C.* (TWC)

-Chapel Hill, N.C.* (TWC)

-Cupertino, Calif. (Comcast)

-Durham, N.C.* (TWC)

-Greensboro, N.C. (TWC)

-Houston, Texas (Comcast)

-Jacksonville, Fla. (Comcast)

-San Antonio, Texas* (TWC, Grande Communications)

-Overland Park, Kan.* (TWC)

-Miami, Fla. (Comcast)

-Nashville, Tenn.* (Comcast)

-Raleigh, N.C.* (TWC)

-St. Louis, Mo. (Charter Communications)

-Winston-Salem, N.C. (TWC)

 *Also a potential buildout site for Google Fiber

**GigaPower services launched

The Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal still needs to be consummated, but we learned this week that former Insight Communications CEO and current Penthera CEO Michael Willner has already agreed to step up to become CEO of “SpinCo,” the new 2.5 million-sub operator to be spawned from systems spun off from Comcast. If all the pieces fall into place, Charter Communications will own 33% of the new, separately publicly traded cable entity.

And maybe (but most likely not) the name “SpinCo” is growing on you as a brand to carry forward when/if this new, sorta new operator is born. If so, don’t get attached to that idea.

“I will be able to absolutely represent to you today that by the time SpinCo exists, it will not be called SpinCo,” Comcast executive vice president David Cohen said Wednesday at the MoffettNathanson Media & Communication Summit in New York. “As people have said to me, ‘Please tell me that my cable company is not going to be called SpinCo’.”

So, we can assume that cable’s finest marketing minds will be on the case when the spin-off becomes active, but, in the meantime, perhaps we can be of service and stoke the creative fire a bit and offer up some suggestions.

Let’s get some of the easy ones out of the way:

-Chomcast: Too obvious…and too dumb.

-Son Of Insight: Playing up the Willner connection and some of those former Insight territories.

-Beyond Xfinity

-MediaOne. Why not? The logo and tagline (“This is Broadband. This is the way.”) are already done. Problem solved!

Got an idea? Just drop me a line at jbaumgartner@nbmedia.com.

Comcast and Charter Communications said today that Michael Willner, the former NCTA chairman who was CEO of Insight Communications before it was sold to Time Warner Cable, will be chief executive officer at "SpinCo," the new cable company being created with systems spun off from Comcast after Comcast completes its merger with Time Warner Cable and system-swap deals with Charter are approved.

The new company will have 2.5 million cable customers in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee and Wisconsin, including former Insight territories. It will have a nine-member board of directors, three of whom will be appointed by Charter, including Charter CEO Tom Rutledge, who will be non-executive chairman, the companies said in a release. Comcast will pick three of the remaining six members of the board and will choose three more from a list provided by Charter. These six board members will be independent of both Charter and Comcast, the companies said. Charter also will have a services agreement with SpinCo, "which will help both companies achieve greater scale and regional efficiencies," they said.

“A skilled operator with an impressive track record of success, Michael has been a pillar of leadership and an active ambassador for the Industry,” Rutledge said in the release. “Michael’s expertise, strategic vision, and knowledge from his years at Insight will be invaluable to the customers, employees and shareholders of SpinCo.  Having him on board now – and leading the new business post-transaction – will be extremely advantageous.”

“Michael is an excellent leader and the perfect choice to be at the helm of this new company,” Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said in the release.  “His deep knowledge of the cable business, combined with his experience and focus on technology, will enable him to drive growth and product innovation for customers and position SpinCo as a competitor in the industry.”

“I am excited to assemble and lead a new team of executives who will be exclusively focused on creating a great company with terrific products and excellent customer service,” Willner, who is CEO of software firm Penthera, said in the release. “I am honored to take on this task and look forward to working with Tom and his team at Charter, as well as the strong teams in place within these systems and the other MSOs and suppliers in the industry.”