Cable operators RCN, Grande Communications, Wave Broadband, enTouch and commercial fiber-services provider Digital West said they will officially consolidate their brands under the Astound Broadband name effective today (January 12).

“This is an exciting time for our company with our new name solidifying our commitment to ‘astound’ our customers each and every day through our national fiber-rich network, fast reliable service, mission-critical connectivity, and award -winning customer service,” Astound Broadband CEO Jim Holanda said in a statement. “Keeping ourselves grounded in our deep-rooted focus on customer service is at the core of what we do. We’ve been part of our local communities for years. Our dedicated teams will continue to serve the areas where they live and work.”

Astound Broadband has more than 1 million customers, which is enough to rate as the sixth largest cable operator in the U.S. 

To ease the transition, each region will retain sub-brands under the Astound umbrella — Astound Broadband powered by RCN, in the Northeast; Astound Broadband powered by Grande in Texas and Astound Broadband powered by Wave on the West Coast. The former Harris Broadband systems in Central Texas and WOW properties in Illinois, Indiana and Maryland will follow by mid-year. For business services, the combined companies will be unified as Astound Business Solutions. 

In an interview, Holanda said the sub-brands will probably last between 12 and 24 months, and then all of the systems will be branded under the Astound umbrella, “to ease customers and communities into it, to understand that they’re still dealing with the same local management, the same local employees and the same great service and company that they’re accustomed to.” 

Repainting trucks and issuing new uniforms to employees has already begun. 

In an interview, Holanda said the work to unite the companies under one name probably started about 2½ years ago.

“We knew after we bought Wave that at some point if we kept buying cable companies that we were going to have to unite the brand under a single name,” Holanda said, adding that while several names were considered, “We kept coming back to Astound.” 

The rebranding process was further delayed by the pandemic and later by former parent TPG’s decision to sell the company to Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners. The Stonepeak deal closed in August, near the end of the quarter, which made a rebranding unfeasible, and then 2021, a series of purchases helped push back the date even further. Astound closed its purchase systems in Anne Arundel, Maryland; Chicago and Evansville, Indiana in from Wide Open West for $661 million in November. Later, Grande Communications purchased Harris Broadband. 

Cable watchers should be familiar with the Astound Broadband name — it has been used as the moniker for the parent of the five smaller operators for years and dates back to former parent TPG’s 2017 purchase of Wave Broadband. Holanda said Wave purchased a Northern California provider named Astound Broadband about five years ago, which made selecting the name even easier. 

“We owned the domain names, we already had that in place, so when we started really digging into the research, not only did we love the [Astound] name and the aspirations of it, the fact we owned it made it almost a no-brainer at that point,” Holanda said. ■

About a year after its parent company, Astound Broadband, was purchased by private equity firm Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners in a deal valued at $8.1 billion, RCN said it has made several management changes within its operating areas.

Astound has been on an acquisitions tear over the past few months, and the management changes are also intended to help with that expansion. In November it closed on its $661 million purchase of systems in Indiana, Illinois and Maryland from WideOpenWest. The Maryland portion of that deal — in Anne Arundel County — is expected to increase RCN’s Washington D.C. footprint by one-third.  In July, Astound’s Grande Communications unit said it would purchase central Texas-based broadband provider Harris Broadband for an undisclosed sum.

RCN said it hired former Comcast cable executive Doug Guthrie as senior VP and general manager of its New York system, replacing long-time New York market VP and GM Bruce Abbott, who announced his retirement. Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., senior VP and general manager Sanford Ames will add oversight of the Boston market to his duties, taking the reins from retiring Boston SVP and GM Jeff Carlson.

Guthrie has more than 34 years experience in the communications industry and will be responsible for residential and business customer operations, technical support, and developing and implementing marketing and sales strategies in RCNs New York market. Guthrie had been a SVP at Comcast Cable, where he worked for nearly 20 years and was one of the few executives to serve in all three of the cable giant’s operating divisions and its corporate headquarters.

Ames has been with RCN since 2011, and under his tenure, Lehigh Valley subscribers have increased by about 40%, the company said. 

Twenty-year RCN veteran and vice president of customer care Tori Faulkenberry has been promoted to senior VP of customer care, taking over for retiring customer care SVP Bill Sievers. She will spearhead customer service, training, performance management, sales, and operational efficiencies. In addition, RCN said Michael McPhillips has joined the company as VP of Business Solutions for RCN’s Central Region, taking the spot vacated by retiring exec Ted White.

Also retiring after long tenures with the company are VP of human resources Ken Conrad and VP of regulatory & public affairs Tom Steel.

“We are excited Doug and Michael are joining the RCN team and thrilled to elevate Sanford and Tori’s roles within the company,” said RCN chief operating officer Chris Fenger in a press release. “These colleagues are highly trusted and respected veterans in the industry and have successful track records in their fields.  Sanford, Tori, Doug and Michael are very accomplished individuals with extraordinary abilities to transform, inspire and drive positive change. Through their leadership and strategic insights, our company can expect to continue to deliver growth and innovation with an unwavering commitment to our customers. We also want to thank Bill, Jeff, Bruce, Ted, Ken and Tom for their dedication and hard work over the years. They have been instrumental in guiding our business in their respective areas for many years and we wish them a happy, healthy, and well-deserved retirement.” ■

In a year dominated by a pandemic and a nationwide inability to agree on practically anything, Patriot Media not only managed to help engineer the biggest system sale of the year for private-equity giant TPG Capital — the $8.1 billion sale of Astound Broadband to Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners — but it came in a way that will likely positively affect cable valuations in the years to come.

Led by CEO Jim Holanda, Multichannel News’s 2020 Executive of the Year, Patriot has been a constant in Astound’s operations in its various forms for about a decade, starting with the 2010 purchase of RCN by Abry Partners. After Abry sold RCN and Grande Communications to TPG in 2016 for $2.25 billion, Patriot continued to manage the assets and help TPG build its cable stronghold, later adding Wave Broadband and enTouch Communications to the mix. 

ALSO READ: Steve Simmons: The Original Patriot

Astound — there is still a question as to whether the new private-equity owners will keep the name — is the sixth-largest cable and broadband provider in the country, with about 1 million customers. But make no mistake, the company’s success over the years is a result of the astute stewardship of Patriot Media, which has steered somewhat disparate assets — a mixture of rural and urban systems, overbuilds and incumbent operations across eight states and the District of Columbia — through a business climate that could at times be hostile. 

“[Holanda] has really become the face of the middle market broadband industry,” said Garrett Baker, managing director at Lazard and group head of middle market telecom, media & technology. “Once you get past the big MSOs — Comcast, Charter, Altice — he’s become the most visible and most respected executive in that next level. He’s really become the biggest voice in the room and the face of that part of the industry.” 

In Cable Since the ’80s 

Holanda got his start in the cable industry on somewhat of a lark. After graduating from The Ohio State University in 1987 with a degree in political science, he and a college friend moved to Southern California and started looking for jobs. In 1988, his college buddy, a former cable installer, found the same work with Comcast.

“I had a college education and he had cable experience, so the deal was they had to hire us both because we only had one car,” Holanda said. 

After six months as a cable installer, Holanda moved up to Comcast’s accounting department and, after taking some additional accounting and business courses, moved to the finance department. In 1995, shortly after Comcast purchased systems from Maclean-Hunter, it moved him to another finance job in New Jersey. He stayed in New Jersey for another three years, moving on to Charter Communications when an opportunity to run systems arose.

“I grew up on the finance side of the business, but I always wanted to be in operations,” Holanda remembered. “When Charter bought AT&T in St. Louis, [then-Charter CEO] Jerry Kent and [then-chief operating officer] Dave Barford asked me to be the general manager and vice president of operations for all of St. Louis and the whole market. It was my first operations role.”

Holanda helped Charter integrate the AT&T system and spent four years at
the company, rising to regional VP of operations for its Central Region. In 2003, he joined former Simmons Communications founder Steve Simmons in his new venture, Patriot Media. 

“Steve’s a very convincing and compelling individual,” Holanda said, adding that Simmons drove home the point that getting the opportunity to build a company from the ground up doesn’t come often, even in the cable business. “I’ve learned over the last 18 years that I am, deep down, an entrepreneur.” 

That last quality, Simmons added, was a key reason why Holanda was hired.

“He recognized the importance of equity,” Simmons said. “I could see he had a real entreprenuerial spirit. After two days of grueling interviews — I even gave him my projects to analyze and a written exercise — I hired him. Every year for 18 years I’ve been thankful that decision was made. He’s been spectacular.”  

The going was anything but easy from the start. Patriot’s first system was a property in the Princeton, New Jersey area that needed a lot of work. 

“The Central New Jersey system, it was a complete and utter mess when we bought it,” Simmons said. Patriot had to create call centers, rebuild the plant, redo the channel lineup, overhaul technical operations and how people were trained and completely revamp the marketing systems and strategy. 

“I don’t want to skip over the challenges the Patriot Media team had when we entered Central New Jersey,” Simmons continued, adding that when he initially met with the mayors of the communities the systems served prior to buying the properties, he learned they had banded together to try to get the old owner ousted. About 12 months after Patriot bought the systems, those same mayors got together to praise the company for the massive changes they made.

“It was a real turnaround,” Simmons said. 

Patriot sold that system to Comcast in 2007, and soon after bought Puerto Rico cable operator Choice Cable TV, with the help of its Princeton system backer, Spectrum Equity Associates. That was just before the 2008 global recession, a period when deals were falling apart as banks and other financial institutions began tightening their belts. By applying the same strategy it used in Princeton, Patriot got Choice Cable back on its feet. 

“We owned that asset for seven and a half years, tripled cash flow over that period of time and made significant investments,” Holanda said. 

While running Choice Cable, Patriot and Spectrum Equity hooked up with Boston private-equity firm Abry Partners to look at its next target, then-publicly traded overbuilder RCN. Abry bought RCN in 2010 for about $1.2 billion, naming Simmons chairman and Holanda CEO of the overbuilder.    

The RCN deal also gave Holanda and the Patriot team first-hand, early exposure to the true power of broadband. Simmons remembered that RCN wasn’t necessarily a distressed company, but it needed work. But the company had already proven it wasn’t afraid of getting down in the dirt.  

“I think they realized that even though some of these businesses had challenging competitive profiles, they still had underlying positive trends, specifically around broadband,” Baker said. “They [Patriot] were able to take challenged businesses and put them together, created synergies, created growth strategies and eventually built a great business out of it.”

Still, overbuilders had a reputation of being tough businesses that require a lot of investment and face stiff competition from incumbents. Despite those drawbacks, RCN had something its competitors didn’t, Holanda said.  

Spotted Key Asset at RCN

“Clearly, after 20 years of being on the traditional side of the incumbent cable business, I never thought I would own or operate an overbuilder,” Holanda said. But as the companies conducted their due diligence, they found that RCN’s networks, built in the late 1990s and early 2000s, had two to three times the fiber of traditional cable networks, and much more excess fiber capacity per node. While the average cable system had 500 to 700 homes per node, RCN had built to under 150 homes per node.

“That network advantage was something that jumped out at us right away,” Holanda said. “It took us a little while to wrap our heads around that overbuilder nomenclature, but at the end of the day, a customer is a customer. 

“And whether you’re competing against a telephone company for those customers or a cable and telephone company, we’ve always seen competition ever since the satellite guys got into the video business, so we were used to it and not afraid of it,” he added. “Obviously, it turned out to be a really good gamble.”

That was evident in the rising valuation of the company. TPG bought RCN and much smaller Grande Communications in 2016 for about $2.5 billion — more than twice the original price Abry paid — keeping Patriot as an equity partner. In 2018, the company bought Northwest broadband company Wave Broadband for $2.36 billion and enTouch Communications was added earlier this year. Collectively, the assets are known as Astound Broadband. 

The mix of Astound’s assets, in rural, urban and midsized markets, has also proven to be an advantage, something larger cable operators are just beginning to see. For the past couple of years, Charter Communications and Comcast have been edging out their networks to smaller areas adjacent to their service footprints to take advantage of the demand for high-speed internet service.

Those moves by bigger companies haven't impacted Patriot’s or Astound’s business, Holanda said. 

“It hasn’t impacted us other than it kind of reaffirms the strategy that we’ve been pursuing for the last eight years,” Holanda said. “We already knew it was a good investment. It’s nice to see the industry recognizing that as well.” 

Boosted By Solid Backers

Holanda said having the support of its backers throughout the years also has been a big benefit to Patriot. Companies like Spectrum Equity, Abry and TPG have all helped finance Patriot’s moves over the past 18 years — and have allowed managers to run the business their way. 

“Private equity does not make quarter-by-quarter and year-by-year decisions about the business,” Holanda said. “They want to understand how we’re going to set it up for success over the next three years, the next five years, the next seven years.”

That includes Patriot’s earlier private-equity owner, TPG, which bought into RCN and Patriot about three years ago. Initially, Holanda said, TPG wasn’t looking to sell Astound. It was investigating several different scenarios, including going public, to push the company forward. 

“There wasn’t a rush to exit, but it was hard to ignore the fact that cable multiples were hitting record highs in the back half of 2019 and the early part of 2020,” Holanda said. “Being prudent equity investors, if there was an opportunity to take advantage of that in the public markets or the private markets, we wanted to be able to set ourselves up to do that.” 

Then, the pandemic hit and everything was put on hold, switching the company’s focus to day-to-day operations and keeping employees and customers safe. While there was initially  some doubt as to how COVID-19 would affect the economy, early signs were encouraging: federal stimulus packages were strong, the Federal Reserve kept loan flows humming and the bond market was performing well.

Patriot first created a new debt structure for Astound, allowing its investors to take a dividend. More importantly, that new structure included a portability feature that would eliminate the financing risk if they ultimately decided to sell the company or go public. 

That helped spur interest from potential suitors, and Holanda said he was surprised at the number of players (more than a dozen) that expressed interest in buying Astound.

But the combination of a robust broadband market, available capital and favorable financing made Astound an attractive target. And even in the pandemic, there is a lot of idle cash looking for a home. 

 “It hasn’t been front-page news, but the residential broadband market, broadly speaking, is stronger now than it’s ever been in my career,” Baker said. Fueling that strength are deep-pocketed infrastructure funds once focused on energy, airports and toll roads, he added. “The infrastructure funds, of which Stonepeak is one, are entering the industry incredibly aggressively,” Baker said. 

ALSO READ: Holanda: Astound Will Continue to Grow

Stonepeak partner and senior managing director Brian McMullen said the private-equity company isn’t a total stranger to residential broadband — it has an interest in Canadian residential provider Xplornet Communications — but Astound was a unique opportunity.

“We've looked at dozens and dozens of opportunities in North America and Asia-Pacific,” McMullen said. “We’ve looked at incumbent telcos, fiber-to-the-home overbuilders and we’ve looked at cable. There’s puts and takes across all the above, but we thought that Astound, and its network footprint, aligned really well with what we were looking for.” 

The sale of Astound to Stonepeak — the deal is expected to close in Q2 of next year — gave a needed lift to cable valuations overall. With a price that some analysts estimated to represent a multiple of 14.1 times 2020 forward-looking cash flow, the purchase further solidified the importance of broadband service and could help raise valuations for public cable companies.

In a research report last month, Bernstein media analyst Peter Supino pointed to the Astound deal as a benchmark for future valuations, adding that it was able to attract a hefty multiple even without the operating synergies usually inherent in such transactions. 

“Astound’s sale price appears to be highly relevant” to public cable operators like Altice USA, Charter Communications and Comcast, Supino wrote in a November note to clients, adding that applying the same multiples to the publicly traded stocks would result in increases to their share prices ranging from 32% to 91%.  

Stonepeak manages more than $29 billion of capital for investors, but its portfolio consists mainly of data centers and fiber companies, not cable or broadband service providers. Add to the fact that Astound was managed well, meaning there is little fat to cut from operations, and the sale price is even more impressive.

Holanda said the business isn’t a one-trick pony. Astound has a three-pronged growth opportunity: residential broadband; commercial services, growing at a double-digit percentage rate annually; and edging out the network to adjacent communities within its footprint. 

“Those three combined growth strategies allow us to grow our cash flow faster than most traditional cable companies,” Holanda said. “And if you add back the ability to continue to do add-on acquisitions, which we’ve had a long history of success with, we have the ability to grow this business from a whole lot of different angles. I think Stonepeak appreciated that early on.” 

Kept Executive Team Together

Another key to Patriot’s success has been its ability to retain key executives. Most of the company’s senior management and six of its eight local market leaders have been with the company for a decade or more. Having that kind of experience and expertise allows everyone to have a voice at the table, Holanda said, whether that means finance executives can talk about marketing or marketing people about network issues.

“To have that kind of group thinking leaves everyone hyper-focused on the business all the time,” Holanda said. “I think that is a tremendous key to our success. … To have that kind of leadership stability at the local level as well just gives the organization a tremendous ability to focus on what
the right long-term decisions are on behalf
of customers.” 

That continuity also was a factor for Stonepeak in its decision to pull the trigger on the Astound deal and to work with Patriot.

 “If you look at the people around Jim, it’s an absolutely fantastic team,” McMullen said. “It’s a team that has been together a long time. There’s a lot of continuity, which I think speaks to Jim’s leadership, it speaks to the culture of the business and the organization.”  

The three major publicly traded cable distribution stocks, up about 34% this year as positive sentiment around broadband growth has driven shares, could be even higher if private valuations are considered, according to a report by Bernstein media analyst Peter Supino.

The three top publicly traded cable distribution stocks -- Comcast, Charter Communications and Altice USA -- have ridden a wave of strong sentiment fueled by even stronger broadband additions. But using data from a recent private equity purchase in the sector -- Stonepeak  Infrastructure Partners $8.1 billion purchase of Astound Broadband -- Supino believes that the stocks’ prices could be between 32% and 91% higher. 

Supino estimated that Stonepeak valued Astounds at about 14.1 times the broadband company’s estimated $576 million 2020 cash flow. Considering that Astound is essentially an overbuilder in most of its markets, faces stiffer competition and has no inherent synergies with its new owner, applying that same valuation to publicly traded cable stocks would result in some serious upside. 

Astound consists of four companies -- RCN, Grande Communications, Wave Broadband and EnTouch Communications -- with about 1 million subscribers  across eight states and Washington , D.C., and has about 23,000 miles of fiber in its network. Stonepeak partnered with Patriot Media, which had been running the systems for former owner TPG for years, to continue to manage the systems. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter or 2021.

“Astound's sale price appears to be highly relevant to Altice, Charter and Comcast,” Supino wrote. “First, Stonepeak does not appear to bring material operating synergies (adjacent sales, billing systems, real estate, etc.) to the deal, so ‘the price is the price’ (notwithstanding tax assets). Second, we believe that Astound's systems are frequently third-to-market ‘overbuilders,’ which means they participate in markets which are inherently more competitive than the average of the US cable industry. Third, we do not see major fat to cut—TPG has been the owner of Astound, so we believe that the organization is efficient.” 

Applying those multiples would lift Altice USA’s stock price, ($34.07 on Dec. 1) up 91% to $65 each; Charter would rise 32% from $662.25 per share to $876.70 each and Comcast would gain 47% from $51.02 per share on Dec. 1 to $74.90 each. 

With the ink barely dry on TPG’s sale of its Astound Broadband assets to Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners for $8.1 billion, Jim Holanda, CEO of Patriot Media, the company that will manage the assets for its new private equity owners, said that future growth will be fueled by a mixture of organic opportunities and possibly new deals. 

TPG agreed to sell Astound on Nov. 1, for about $3.6 billion in cash and $4.5 billion in assumed debt. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of next year. 

In an interview Monday, Holanda said that Astound will remain focused on several core objectives under its new owners -- growing its  residential and commercial customer base, expanding its commercial and residential networks, and accretive mergers and acquisitions when they make sense. 

“We’re happy at this size,” Holanda said. “We’re the sixth largest MSO behind Comcast and Charter and Cox and Altice and Mediacom. We’re bigger than other public cable companies like Cable One and WOW. I think we have the scale we’re very comfortable with. But if there are opportunities to grow through mergers and acquisitions or organically, we’re going to continue to pursue those, because they historically have been very accretive for us and have accelerated our growth.”

Astound Broadband has more than one million subscribers and operates under the RCN, Grande Communications, Wave Broadband and EnTouch Communications brands across seven states and Washington, D.C. Holanda has been a part of the company practically from the start. Patriot was formed in 2002 by Holanda and cable Hall of Famer Steve Simmons to buy RCN’s Princeton, N.J. assets (later sold to Comcast), managed RCN and Grande Communications for ABRY Partners beginning in 2010,  and continued that role after TPG bought RCN and Grande in 2017.  From that base TPG went on to purchase Wave Broadband in 2018 and EnTouch in September. 

In an interview, Holanda said that TPG began looking at its options for Astound earlier this year, refinancing its debt in late August to take advantage of lower interest rates. At that time, the private equity firm introduced a portability structure to the debt, which made it easier for a potential buyer to assume its leverage. 

“That woke up people to the fact that there was no financing risk in purchasing the business,” Holanda said. “Obviously we have seen lots of infrastructure players now coming into the fiber and residential broadband space.”

Holanda said he didn’t know any of Stonepeak’s partners before the deal, but its reputation in the fiber business has preceded it. Stonepeak’s portfolio includes investments in Cologix, which operates data centers in the U.S. and Canada; fiber distributed network provider ExteNet Systems; and Canadian rural broadband provider Xplornet.

“Clearly there has been a lot of activity on that side and we were hoping we would be able to find an infrastructure provider with a long term view of the business as a logical next partner in our evolution,’ Holanda said. “In the months I've gotten to know Stonepeak, we’ve been very very impressed with them. They have deep conviction in the business, a great deal of knowledge given their prior investments in infrastructure and again have a very strong balance sheet in terms of their ability to allow us to grow across all of these various disciplines.”

While it has been broadband-centric for the past five years, Holanda said Astound still has a strong video presence, dating back to the integration of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu into its offerings back in 2014.

“We also have been seeing the macro trends and shifts in the business, and as content costs continue to skyrocket out of control and impact people’s budgets, we just want to give people as much optionality as possible to put together whichever package of services they are comfortable with. Holanda said, adding that the company has its own IPTV streaming platform and is currently streaming its full lineup and VOD library to RCN customers on any device in the home. Grande customers will receive that capability in the fourth quarter, expanding to Wave customers in the first half of next year. 

About two months after it was put on the block, TPG Capital sold its Astound Broadband cable systems with more than one million customers to a joint venture between private equity firm Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners and Patriot Media in a deal valued at $8.1 billion including assumed debt.

TPG put Astound -- a combination of RCN, Wave Broadband and Grande Communications -- up for sale in September, reportedly asking about $8 billion for the assets. TPG purchased the assets in three separate deals, agreeing to pay $2.25 billion for RCN and Grande in 2016, and completing its $2.36 billion purchase of Wave in 2018. They purchased Entouch in September, adding 22,000 customers. 

According to reports, Stonepeak and Patriot are ponying up about $3.6 billion in cash for the assets and assuming $4.5 billion in debt, putting the total price tag at $8.1 billion.

Patriot Media is led by long-time cable executives Steve Simmons and Jim Holanda, and currently manages Astound. It will continue to run the properties after the deal closes, expected in the second quarter of 2021.

Astound, consisting of RCN, Grande, Wave and enTouch, is the sixth largest cable operator in the country, serving more than one million customers with 23,000 miles of fiber across Chicago, Eastern Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York City,  Northern California, Oregon, Texas, Washington, DC., and Washington.

“We are delighted to partner with Steve, Jim and the Astound team for the next chapter of growth. Astound is the premier operator of critical broadband infrastructure in the United States with a long history of delivering market leading customer service and network performance to communities across the country. In our increasingly connected society, we believe there is an extraordinary opportunity to deliver faster speeds and greater coverage, fundamentally enabling many aspects of everyday life,” Stonepeak partner Brian McMullen said in a press release. 

As part of the partnership with Stonepeak, Patriot Media said it will continue to invest significantly in the network and in technology.

“We have created a market leading broadband platform with national reach, broad capabilities and expertise, and exciting growth potential,” Astound CEO Holanda said in a press release. “We are very eager and excited to partner with a premier investor such as Stonepeak to further accelerate our growth and take our companies to new levels of customer satisfaction and performance. We also want to thank TPG for their great support and partnership over the past four years.”

Simmons formed Patriot Media in 2002 after buying RCN’s Princeton, N.J., systems with private equity company Spectrum Equity Associates. He grew the operator to about 350,000 subscribers before selling it to Comcast for $483 million in 2007. Three years later Simmons and Patriot took over management of RCN and Grande, after they were purchased by Abry Partners, staying on in that role when Abry sold the properties to TPG in 2017.

“As we continue to grow our platform, our core objectives remain the same: to deliver exceptional service to our customers and communities, a best-in-class experience for our employees, and outstanding results for our investors,” Simmons said in a press release. “Our mission and management vision are aligned with Stonepeak and we very much look forward to our partnership with them.”

BofA Securities and Lazard  are acting as financial advisors to Stonepeak, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is serving as legal counsel. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC are acting as financial advisors to Astound, and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, LLP and Seyfarth Shaw, LLP are serving as legal counsel.

“We’ve had a long-held theme and belief in the growing value of broadband infrastructure, culminating in our successful investment in Astound Broadband, in partnership with Patriot Media,” said David Trujillo, partner at TPG. “We’re proud to have been part of the company’s journey, which has been characterized by significant platform expansion, strong growth and great leadership. We wish Steve, Jim and the outstanding Patriot management team well, as they continue to grow Astound in partnership with Stonepeak.”

TiVo has announced the first major operator deal for its new TiVo Stream 4K OTT device, with TPG Capital-owned cable operators RCN, Grande and Wave set to bundle the Android TV-powered HDMI dongle with their high-speed internet service. 

Any customer who subscribes to RCN, Grande or Wave high speed internet service of 100 Mbps or higher can add a TiVo Stream 4K device free alongside free access for one year to TiVo’s new streaming service, TiVo Plus.

Debuting in late-April, and currently priced at $49.99, the TiVo Stream 4K stacks TiVo’s proprietary search-and-recommendation software over an Android TV-based operating system. It provides native integration of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus, as well as access to any app in the Google Play Store. 

Notably, in their marketing, the TPG cable triumvirate is emphasizing the Stream 4K’s native integration of virtual pay TV service Sling TV and local broadcast station streaming service Locast, of the latter of which the trio says “mimics the look and feel of traditional cable.”

The three cable companies currently offer traditional cable TV service, leveraging Evolution Digital's eStream 4K set-tops running Android TV with the TiVo user experience. They’ll now feature the Stream 4K device as an option to internet customers who don’t want the eStream thin-client pay TV service. 

RCN serves customers across areas of Massachusetts, Chicago, Pennsylvania, New York City, and Washington, DC.; Grande Communications’ footprint is in Texas; while Wave Broadband serves customers in Washington, Oregon and California.

“As a provider committed to bringing customers unique, affordable options, we continue to partner with brands such as TiVo and Sling TV to offer customers ultimate choice and control,” said Chris Fenger, COO of RCN, Grande and Wave, in a statement. “With the TiVo Stream 4K, internet-only customers can connect our award-winning internet service to a compact and powerful device to create an entirely customizable entertainment experience with access to live TV, streaming services and free TiVo content in one place.”

Private equity firm TPG said it has completed the purchase of Houston-area broadband and video service provider EnTouch. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

TPG said EnTouch will join its other pay TV and broadband services -- RCN, Grande Communications and Wave, collectively known as Astound --  which combined have more than 1 million customers. 

The deal was first announced in February.  

“With the acquisition of EnTouch, the company will be joining the Grande Communications eco-system, which also includes RCN and Wave Broadband, allowing customers to take advantage of Grande’s higher internet speeds and streaming services,” said RCN, Grande and Wave CEO Jim Holanda in a press release. “The addition of EnTouch creates further opportunities for sustained growth in our Texas service area and continues the expansion of our reliable, robust fiber-rich network on a national scale for both residential and business customers.”

According to TPG, the addition of EnTouch expands its existing Texas presence to servicing both residential and business customers in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Waco, Temple, San Marcos and Midland/Odessa.

“As part of Grande Communications’ service network, we will continue to focus on providing customers with high-quality technology and customer service,” said Sam Luxton, President and CEO of EnTouch. “Together, we will offer new and improved products and services and continue to grow and innovate.”

The news comes as TPG is reportedly seeking out a buyer for its pay TV properties, valuing them at about $8 billion. 

Private-equity firms, anxious to get back into the cable broadband business just a few years ago, are considering exit strategies, with at least one big deal in the works and others in the wings, according to sources in the cable financial community.

Perhaps the biggest deal in the pipeline is the possible sale of Dallas-based private equity giant TPG’s interest in Astound, its rollup of RCN, Grade Communications and Wave Broadband. TPG, which spent around $5 billion rolling up those three overbuilders between 2016 and 2018, is seeking about $8 billion in a sale and has hired investment bankers Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan Chase to handle the auction, according to a Reuters report.

TPG declined comment.

Sources in the financial community confirmed the Reuters report, adding that TPG originally tried to start an auction for the properties in March, but pulled it back when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The second round of bidding is expected to take place in the next two months, with a winner expected to be chosen early next year. 

Already, interest among larger operators is beginning to rise. On Sept. 2 Altice USA launched a $7.8 billion unsolicited takeover bid for Canadian telco Cogeco, the parent of Quincy, Massachusetts-based Atlantic Broadband. Altice USA has partnered with Toronto-based Rogers Communications, which would buy Cogeco’s telecom businesses for $4.8 billion. Altice USA would pay
$3.6 billion for Atlantic Broadband, about
10.2 times the cable company’s forward-looking cash flow. Cogeco’s controlling shareholder rejected that offer on Sept. 3, although most analysts expect Altice to raise its bid. Either way, the offer itself could mean that  valuations for other assets would start at even higher multiples.    

Riding the Broadband Wave

TPG burst onto the distribution scene in 2016 with its $2.25 billion purchase of Grande Communications and RCN and has ridden the broadband wave over the past several years, as large and small cable companies have shifted their primary focus away from video and toward faster data speeds. All three companies serve diverse geographies. Grande focuses on metro and rural Texas, and has customers in Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Corpus Christi, Midland, Odessa, Greater Temple and Waco. Wave, which TPG purchased in 2018, focuses on Washington (including the Seattle area) Oregon and California. RCN, the largest of the three,  operates in Boston; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Lehigh Valley, Pa.; New York and Philadelphia.

When TPG closed the Wave deal in 2018, it claimed the combined companies passed about 2.7 million homes and had 925,000 residential and business customers, delivering nearly 1.7 million data, voice and video services.

Just who would buy the TPG assets is the big question. Because of its status as an overbuilder in some of its larger markets like New York, Chicago and Boston, incumbent operators like Comcast and Charter Communications would be prohibited from buying. Midsized cable and broadband provider Cable One has been aggressively buying smaller cable companies and fiber network owners over the past three years: Emporia, Kansas-based broadband services company ValueNet Fiber; Sullivan, Missouri’s Fidelity Communications; Sikeston, Missouri-based  NewWave Communications and ClearWave Communications. But a TPG deal could be too pricey for Cable One, which paid about $735 million for NewWave and $526 million for Fidelity. The company didn’t reveal the price of the other purchases, but it is believed they were for considerably less.

 In a research note, MoffettNathanson principal and senior analyst Craig Moffett said CableOne needs to add scale to justify its high valuation, either organically or by other means. Its stock has been the best performer in the distribution sector for three years running, currently priced at nearly $1,900 per share. In the second quarter, Cable One beat analysts’ expectations by adding more than 44,000 high-speed internet customers, an 11.3% growth rate and more than double the 5.1% rise in Q1.     

Broadband is driving much of the interest in cable at the moment. According to one member of the cable financial community who asked not to be named, familiar names in the smaller cable business that had sold their systems in the past — like NewWave’s Gleason family and former Wave Broadband CEO Steve Weed — have been dabbling in companies in the fiber-to-the-home business to help address the broadband boom.

Fiber Draws Interest

“It’s been nuts,” said the cable financial executive who asked not to be named. “There’s a lot of interest in fiber-to-the-home. It’s a new chapter for overbuilders.”

Weed, who sold Wave Broadband to TPG in 2018 for $2.36 billion, formed WaveDivison Capital with former Wave Broadband executives Harold Zeitz and Wayne Schattenkerk shortly after closing that deal, and in May 2019 teamed up with Searchlight Capital to purchase former Frontier Communications properties in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana with 350,000 residential and commercial customers for about $1.35 billion, renaming the company Ziply Fiber.   

At the time of the Frontier deal, Weed hinted that more deals could come. 

“We are big believers in the Northwest’s future growth opportunities and that future runs on broadband,” Weed said in 2019. “Our plan is to invest further in our markets, specifically by extending fiber to more homes and businesses, to bring them the high speeds they want.” 

Overall broadband growth has been strong and continues to be dominated by cable distributors. Leichtman Research Group estimated that cable operators added about 1.4 million high-speed internet customers in Q2, compared to 530,000 additions in the prior year. While much of that was due to work-from-home and stay-at-home orders in many states due to the pandemic, Leichtman Research president Bruce Leichtman said in a press release that the increase was the largest since 2008. Some believe the momentum
will continue. λ

Private equity firm TPG has hired investment bankers Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase to shop its overbuilder unit Astound, which includes its interests in RCN, Grande Communications and Wave Broadband, according to reports.

Reuters said Monday night that TPG hired the bankers and was looking at a valuation of the overbuilder that would top $8 billion, including debt.

TPG pieced together Astound through a pair of acquisitions over the past four years. It purchased RCN and Grande Communications in 2016 for $2.25 billion and Wave in 2018 for $2.36 billion.  All together, the properties offer pay TV, broadband and telephone service in eight states to about 1 million customers.

TPG declined comment.

The news comes as AT&T is attempting to sell a majority interest in its DirecTV satellite unit and other traditional operators are making moves to expand their broadband reach into more rural areas. 

Broadband growth has been especially robust in the COVID-19 era, and smaller operators may want to capitalize on that growth. But finding a buyer with the required financial muscle to wrestle a deal of this size could be tricky. Because many of its properties are overbuilds of incumbent providers, that would mean operators that have systems nearby like Charter, Comcast and others, would be prohibited by federal regulations from doing a deal. And while Cable One has purchased smaller operators in the past like NewWave Communications, Fidelity Communications, Clearwave  and ValueNet, this deal could be a little price for its tastes. 

Still, broadband growth has been strong and has shown little signs of slowing down. According to Leichtman Research Group, cable operators added about 1.4 million broadband customers in Q2, up from 530,000 additions in Q2 2019. 

RCN has joined other broadband providers in voluntarily extending its COVID-19 related connectivity pledge to June 30. 

Related: Comcast Extends Connectivity Pledge

FCC chairman Ajit Pai proposed the Keep Americans Connected Pledge on March 13 and more than 700 ISPs agreed to keep it until May 13. Pai last week asked them to extend it to June 30. 

RCN originally signed on April 6. 

RCN's pledge: 

1. "RCN is offering free internet and WiFi for 60 days to all qualifying low-income households, especially students in low income households who do not already subscribe to the company's internet service and who enroll in the Internet First program. 

2. "RCN will not terminate service to any residential or business customer because of their inability to pay their bills due to disruptions caused by COVID-19. Customers can reach out to make special arrangements to keep services active." 

3. "RCN will waive any late fees that any residential or small business customer might normally incur because of their economic circumstance related to COVID-19." 

"Now, more than ever, keeping people connected is a critical priority," said RCN COO Chris Fenger. 

Related: Cox, Altice Extend Pledge

RCN serves customers primarily in Boston, Chicago, Pennsylvania (Lehigh Valley), New York City, Philadelphia and the District of Columbia. 

Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Midco has become the latest tier 2 cable operator to sign onto TiVo’s Next-Gen Platform, with an eye toward delivering IPTV to Android TV set-tops and mobile devices.

Midco delivers TV, internet and phone service to 385,000 homes and businesses in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas and Wisconsin with cable TV, high-speed internet and landline voice services. It had previously deployed the TiVo Experience 4 user interface to its video customers, but is now looking to build out the capacity to integrate OTT experiences along with its managed linear service.

TiVo’s Next-Gen platform is a cloud-based technology that delivers both IP-based VOD and linear video, as well as a full range of cloud DVR features, to a wide range of set-top platforms, as well as iOS and Android mobile devices.

Like other tier 2 operators who’ve signed on to Next-Gen platform—a group that includes RCN, Armstrong and TDS Telecom—Midco will eventually roll out thin-client set-tops powered by Android TV.

Notably, TDS announced earlier this week that forged a deal with Arris to provide Android TV-powered devices.

Related: TDS Becomes First North American Operator to Deploy Arris’ Android TV Set-Top

“With TiVo’s Next-Gen Platform, we are able to easily and rapidly deploy superior entertainment experiences that meet the evolving needs of our customers,” said Jon Pederson, chief technology officer, Midco. “Our business is built on innovation, and TiVo’s industry-leading solutions enable us to deliver a simple, smart, and elegant customer experience, while leapfrogging our competitors.”

Added Jeffrey Glahn, VP of North American sales for TiVo: “TiVo’s advanced platform gives operators a flexible migration path to IPTV, allowing them to continuously innovate and easily introduce must-have features to its customers.”

TiVo announces its second quarter earnings results later this afternoon. 

Wave Broadband said it has split its business operations into two regionally-focused operations -- Wave North and Wave South -- effective immediately.

Wave North will serve the company’s business and residential customers in Washington State, while Wave South will focus on business and residential customers in Northern California and Oregon. Both entities will continue to serve customers under the Wave Broadband brand.

The company said it has signed leases for two facilities to support its Wave North regional operations -- a  45,600-square-foot building in Bothell, Washington, which will become operational in the early summer of 2019, and a 31,600-square-foot facility located south of downtown Seattle. Wave expects to be operational at the Seattle location by the Fall of 2019. These new facilities replace Wave’s previous plans to move its headquarters into the Kirkland Urban development and are a direct result of Wave’s desire to decentralize its operations to better serve its customers.

Wave South’s operations center will continue to be based in the company’s existing Rocklin, California facilities.

The moves come more than a year after Wave was purchased by TPG Capital for about $2.36 billion, combining it with two earlier purchases -- RCN and Grande Communications.

In addition, former AXS TV and Charter Communications executive Fred Lutz and former Suddenlink Communications SVP Jared Sonne have joined Wave North and Wave South, respectively, both as general manager and senior vice presidents. Each organization will continue to operate as part of the national consortium with RCN and Grande Communications that comprises the sixth largest US cable and broadband services provider.

“Fred Lutz and Jared Sonne bring exceptional industry and leadership experience and are building localized operations to advance the superior customer service, reliable communication services, and strong overall value that our business and residential customers have come to expect,” RCN, Grande and Wave chief operating officer Chris Fenger said in a press release. “The establishment of Wave North and Wave South enables us to make business decisions closer to our customers and employees while we continue to invest in our network, enhance our products and services, and capitalize on future growth opportunities.”

No immediate changes are planned to Wave’s products, services, or pricing, the company said. 

TiVo announced today that RCN will be the first operator to deploy its Next-Gen Platform.

Introduced at CES in January 2018, the IPTV-based Next-Gen Platform is targeted directly to pay TV operators, enabling them to blend linear and OTT services over managed network, to proprietary set-tops based on Linux and Android TV, popular streaming devices like Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV, and mobile platforms like iOS and Android.

TiVo, meanwhile, can port its interface and overall user experience—which includes advanced search and recommendation—along with the customer, regardless as to what device the user chooses, thus achieving its broader goal of remaining relevant as pay TV consumers expand the ecosystem of devices beyond the cable or satellite set-top.

Related: CES 2018: TiVo Goes Device-Agnostic with New Platform for MVPDs

TiVo announced a deal to deploy the product last year with TDS Telecom, but says RCN will be first out into the market with it. RCN—which has long deployed TiVo’s operator-targeted products and services—said it will expand the use of the Next-Gen Platform across its pay-TV properties, which also include Grande Communications Networks and WaveDivision Holdings.

“After reviewing a number of solutions on the market, we were impressed with TiVo’s Next-Gen Platform and their commitment to helping us bring forth a compelling user experience, personalized recommendations, advanced voice functionality and multi-platform support to our customers,” said Patrick Murphy, CTO, RCN, Grande and Wave, in a statement. “Additionally, TiVo’s IPTV products provide advanced video solutions for our broadband-only subscribers and enhance the RCN viewing experience across mobile platforms.”

Added Jeffrey Glahn, VP of sales for TiVo: “We are excited to continue working with RCN and providing their customers with a feature-rich and highly personalized user experience that they can take with them across their favorite devices. TiVo’s future-proof product portfolio provides the flexibility, scalability and next-gen IPTV services that will enable RCN to demonstrate market leadership in an ever-evolving entertainment landscape.”

Less than a year after it joined RCN, Grande Communications and Wave Broadband, TPG Capital said the combined entities have made some key executive appointments, naming Patrick Knorr chief commercial officer and EVP of commercial services and Paul Koss as SVP of carrier and wholesale.

TPG purchased RCH and Grande in 2016 for $2.25 billion, and snapped up Wave in January for $2.36 billion. The combined companies cover nearly 20 metro areas in 11 states including California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Washington, D.C.

Knorr had been EVP of business solutions for Wave Broadband. A long-time cable executive, Knorr had been general manager of small cable operator Sunflower Broadband before joining Wave in 2012. 

“Commercial services is our fastest-growing segment and Patrick’s appointment underscores our combined commitment to ensuring that businesses nationwide have the most robust fiber network and services available, so that they can continue to grow and take advantage of future technologies,” said Jim Holanda, CEO of RCN, Grande and Wave, in a statement.

In his new role, Koss will be in charge of growing the company’s carrier and wholesale business, including cellular backhaul.

“At a time when innovation in technology is thriving, the security and reliability of fiber connectivity has become fundamental to economic growth for enterprises of all sizes,” Knorr said in a statement. “As an organization, we are committed to making fiber infrastructure more accessible and affordable to support today’s technological marketplace.”

The Department of Justice signaled it is OK with a D.C. district court accepting a brief from smaller cable operators offering a compromise resolution to the AT&T-Time Warner merger.

That wasn't a huge surprise given that DOJ, which sued in that court to block the deal, also said its antitrust division generally doesn't oppose amicus briefs in district courts.

DOJ also said it was not weighing in on whether the ACA/RCN proposal would be "helpful to the court at this time," beyond saying it disagreed that behavioral conditions, as ACA/RCN proposed, "were appropriate in this case."

But it at least gave the submission credit for being on point.

"Unlike the two prior motions for leave to file amicus briefs, which the Court denied, the proposed RCN/ACA filing does appear to be relevant to the issues to this case, as the Court requested input with respect to alternative remedies, DOJ told the court.

Earlier this week, smaller cable operators pitched the court on a hybrid structural/behavioral remedy that could make the AT&T-Time Warner merger palatable to them.

The brief, from the American Cable Association, RCN Telecom, Grande Communications Networks, and WaveDivision Holdings, was filed Monday (May 14).

That court is currently deciding whether to block or condition the proposed merger after the Justice Department filed suit to block the deal unless AT&T spins off Turner programming assets.

The Justice Department had asserted that without spinoffs of Turner networks, the merger would mean substantially less competition and thus higher prices for consumers.

The companies argued that to make their case, the government had to prove that the merger "will likely (not potentially or possibly) lessen competition substantially, in a video marketplace that is experiencing revolutionary, unstoppable transformation and growth in competition at all levels."

The operators are not taking either side in their amicus brief, though they say they are assuming, as does Justice, that the deal as structured violates antitrust laws by "enabling the merged entity to raise prices for its programming to ACA members in excess of those that would occur in a competitive market."

They argue that the case divides along all-or-nothing positions while their's is a "middle ground," and that the court has more flexibility than DOJ or AT&T-Time Warner suggest to strike such a compromise.

Justice says that if the court concludes the deal violates antitrust laws, it can only consider DOJ's structural remedies to fix it, while Turner has offered up behavioral conditions of outside arbitration and standstill agreements for any program access complaints.

ACA and company say both are wrong, that the Turner remedy is underwhelming, and that the court can fashion a remedy that employs a behavioral remedy in addition to or in lieu of structural conditions.

That remedy would be to apply the arbitration and standstill agreements to all programming of the post-merged company, including Time Warner's HBO, tweak the arbitration process, ensure the use of bargaining agents and fee-shifting, prevent retaliation against rivals' subs, and permit the remedy itself to be tweaked or extended.

RCN Corp. said it has begun to roll out a 4K-ready box to customers in Lehigh Valley, Pa., that integrates the operator’s pay TV service with some OTT content.

RCN’s rollout there includes cities such as Bethlehem, Easton and Allentown.

The device is made by Arris and is powered by TiVo’s software and user interface. The remote also supports a remote finder and a dedicated button for Netflix, which features a small but growing 4K library.

Arris’s MG2 Cable Media Gateway is an HDR- and 4K-capable, six-tuner device with a 1-TB hard drive and integrated MoCA 2.0

The 4K-facing agreement expands on a collaboration between RCN and TiVo that started in 2009.

TPG Capital has completed its previously announced purchase of Wave Broadband, a $2.36 billion deal that creates the sixth largest cable operator in the country.

TPG, which also owns RCN and Grande Communications, first announced the Wave deal in May.

“By combining RCN/Grande and Wave, we are creating a leading, national-scale internet provider and cable TV operator with significant growth potential,” RCN/Grande CEO Jim Holanda said in a statement. “We are pleased to announce the close of this transaction, and look forward to our continued growth led by a strong focus on customer service and commitment to providing the highest quality high-speed internet, TV, and voice services available.”  

The combined companies have a presence in seven of the top 10 DMAs and have nearly 950,000 voice, video and data subscribers.

Wave will continue to operate as a branded entity headquartered in Kirkland, Wash., serving business and residential customers in Washington, Oregon, and California. RCN provides similar services as Wave along the East Coast and in Chicago; Grande operates throughout Texas.

“Together, RCN/Grande and Wave create a market-leading broadband platform with national reach,” said TPG partner David Trujillo in a statement. “The combined platform is providing businesses and residents across the country with fast, high-quality, and reliable communications services that allow them to rapidly access the content they crave. We look forward to our continued work with the RCN/Grande and Wave teams.”

TPG Capital’s agreement to buy Wave Broadband for a robust $2.36 billion could have some over-the-top implications going forward, according to the man who will be running the combined companies once the deal is closed later in the year.

RCN CEO Jim Holanda said once the deal is completed Wave will be incorporated into the RCN family, along with Grande Communications in Texas.

Wave, with about 138,000 video customers and access to more than 600,000 homes passed, has carved out a strong business in the Northwest. It offers cable and telecom services in the suburbs of top markets in the region like Seattle and Portland, and in metro areas it offers a commercial phone and broadband package with speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second. The company has been piggybacking residential service on that commercial network in some metro areas, offering a 1 Gbps broadband-only service to apartment buildings.

That service, called Wave G, has been popular especially with millennials, says Wave founder Steve Weed, who will stay on as a member of the RCN board of directors once the deal closes.

Weed added that with Wave G, the company decided to promote “OTT video to customers rather than launching our own cable service. We’ve been pretty successful at it. We found that customer penetrations are just as good when you don’t have cable and customer satisfaction is very high.”

RCN and Grande CEO Jim Holanda, said after the deal is closed, RCN may look at providing cable to the metro markets down the road, but for the time being it is comfortable with offering a competitive broadband product in larger markets.

“That’s not much different from what we do in downtown Manhattan and downtown Chicago and downtown Austin, Texas in terms of the gigabit services we’re providing to customers,” Holanda said. “I think opportunity abounds and we continue to look at where we have a strong competitive advantage to continue to try to take advantage of that.”

And as the industry starts to move toward smaller video packages – so-called skinny bundles – RCN and Wave could have a solution for that too.

“Taking a broadcast level of service and pairing with a TiVo and then paring that with over the top options like a Sling TV and a Netflix, all of a sudden a customer has a very robust lineup – it has live TV, it has live sports, it’s got streaming, it’s got binge watching with thousands of hours of content,” Holanda said. “It can be a pretty powerful value proposition. We’re trying to keep a foot or a toe in each of those to try and take care of what our various customers want. We make our decisions based on what our customers are telling us and what they want. “

But he said it is unlikely that ARCN would try to launch an out of footprint OTT service.

“Long term strategically speaking, our company with 900,000 total customers and less than that in terms of video customers, having an OTT service that goes to a large group of people outside our footprint, we simply don’t have the size to play in that space,” Holanda said.

Although lumped in with other overbuilders – aside from a small part of the San Francisco market where it competes directly with Comcast – Wave is generally the incumbent cable operator in its regions. Cable is the operative word, however. Weed said in an interview that Wave’s strategy has been to focus its cable service on suburban markets outside of larger cities. But for commercial broadband, anything goes.

“The metro markets where we serve in Seattle and Portland and now Sacramento are pretty extensive, but that’s not where our cable footprint is; it’s our metro fiber,” Weed said. “We have a large competitive network in Seattle, Portland and Sacramento that is commercial enterprise fiber network, not the residential footprint. It’s really two different areas.”

The commercial side of the business has been booming, and Wave has been aggressively acquiring data centers and ISPs over the past few years to bolster that offering. The combination with RCN will only make that product stronger, Weed said, adding that in the past, if a commercial customer needed to connect offices outside of Wave’s Northwest footprint, they were out of luck.

“If any of those customers had facilities on the East Coast or Chicago or Texas, we had to say we can’t do that,” Weed said. “Now that opens up the market for us. Going forward there will be an opportunity to have more of a national product offering that we don’t really have today.”

Holanda added that Wave’s fiber-rich network also will help bolster the back-haul business with wireless carrier, especially as they begin to deploy 5G networks that depend on small cell sites connected with high-capacity lines.

“Whether it’s co-location, whether it’s back-haul, carrier or enterprise, there’s going to opportunities across all of this that play well for people that need national solutions,” Holanda said. “As we think about small cell that needs to get built out over the next five to eight years, that small cell infrastructure needs fiber deep in the neighborhoods.”

Holanda said when Wave and RCN built their respective networks, it was with three times the fiber of a traditional cable operation, which should give it a leg up on competitors.

As part of RCN – all three companies (Wave, RCN and Grande) will remain under the same corporate umbrella but retain their brand names in their markets --

Wave’s has invested heavily in fiber for its network – in September it raised another $125 million for the buildout and had initially raised $130 million for the project a year earlier.

This is TPG’s third cable purchase in about a year – it bought RCN and Grande in August for $2.25 billion – but it probably won’t be the last, according to Holanda. Prior to the recent cable buys, TOG has mainly focused on content and connectivity, investing in internet music service Spotify, broadcaster Univision Communications, travel website Hotwire and TV and movie studio STX Entertainment, among others.

“They are obviously very formidable with a lot of capital at their disposal given how big they are,” Holanda said of TPG. “I think they are very bullish on the infrastructure space clearly as are we as well as the content space. I think you’ll continue to see them potentially play on both sides.”

TPG Capital has agreed to purchase Seattle-based Wave Broadband in a deal valued at about $2.36 billion.

News that a deal was close was first reported by Reuters.

TPG has been on an acquisitions tear of late. In August it paid $2.25 billion for Grande Communications and RCN. 

Wave’s owners Oak Hill Capital Partners and GI Partners had hired investment bankers in April to seek out a buyer for the company. At the time they were reportedly seeking $2 billion.

Wave has about 138,000 video customers in Washington State and Oregon – including Seattle and Portland – and overbuilds Comcast in parts of San Francisco. The company has concentrated on its broadband service and has recently focused on purchasing fiber and data companies to boost its high-speed data presence, including Seattle-based CascadeLink.

In September the company raised about $125 million to continue an ambitious fiber buildout geared toward serving enterprise customers. 

Oak Hill and GI Partners teamed up with Wave management – including founder and CEO Steve Weed – to buyout long time backer Sandler Capital Management in 2012 in a deal some valued at about $950 million.

Wave said the new deal will create the sixth largest internet and cable operator in the country. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2017. Wave will be combined with TPGs’ RCN operations, according to the announcement.

“Over the last several years we have accelerated our growth substantially by expanding from our heritage of residential broadband services into enterprise grade fiber,” said Wave founder and CEO Steve Weed in a statement. “We are excited that our new partners in TPG and RCN recognize the value of what we have created, and share our passion for creating happy customers – we are eager to enter our next era of growth alongside them.”

Wave will continue to operate as a branded entity headquartered in Kirkland, Wash., serving business and residential customers in Washington, Oregon, and California. RCN provides similar services as Wave along the East Coast and in Chicago; Grande operates throughout Texas.

The company said it will continue to grow its residential customer base while also accelerating expansion of its fast-growing commercial and enterprise business segments that have driven much of its recent momentum.

“At RCN and Grande, we pride ourselves on providing the best products, best service, and best value to our customers. Through our partnership with TPG, and by expanding our footprint with Wave, we are creating a market-leading broadband platform with national reach, broad capabilities and expertise, and exciting growth potential,” said RCN and Grande CEO Jim Holanda in a statement. “We’ve known the team at Wave for many years, and their focus on delivering value to their customers aligns perfectly with ours.”

Wave management will remain significant investors, partnering with majority owner TPG. Wave’s CEO, Steve Weed, will join the combined company’s Board of Directors.

RCN Corp. said it has launched a DOCSIS 3.1-based 1 Gbps (downstream) residential service in Boston starting at $69.99 per month.

RCN, which competes with Comcast in the market, said its 1-Gig offering there is offered without a contract.

RELATED: RCN Launches 1-Gig in NYC

RCN has also launched D3.1 in Chicago; Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley, Pa.; New York City, and Washington, D.C. It's been pairing its uncapped 1-Gig downstream service with an upstream that maxes out at 20 Mbps.

Music Choice is targeting IP-connected boxes with a new, streaming version of its service that will initially be available on TiVo-powered boxes from RCN and Grande Communications.

That new offering, called New Music Choice, enables viewers to access VOD fare from Music Choice via the set-top’s interface.  Music Choice said the next-gen version offers 75 commercial-free audio channels and 25 video channels with access to 20,000-plus music videos.  

RCN customers with TiVo set-top boxes will have access to the New Music Choice via channel 851 or 1900 in Lehigh Valley, Pa.; and on channel 752 for Grande customers. It’s also accessible via TiVo Central.

Music Choice also offers an authenticated TV Everywhere app on iOS and Android devices, as well as Web browsers.

RCN Corp. will beat Comcast to the punch in the Philadelphia area with a 1-Gig (downstream) residential broadband product that uses DOCSIS 3.1, Philly.com first reported.

RCN COO Chris Fenger told the pub that the competitive overbuilder will introduce the offering on Thursday for $69.99 per month, alongside a $15 rental fee for the new D3.1 modem.

RCN confirmed that the initial launch will target its Delaware County areas, including Clifton Heights, Darby, Drexel Hill, Upper Darby and Yeadon.  The operator noted that it is also launching a 330 Mbps offering in Lehigh Valley.

Comcast recently announced it will soon expand the reach of a gigabit service that utilizes DOCSIS 3.1 in Colorado, Kansas City, Oregon, Washington, Knoxville, and California, ut has not said when it will debut that service in the Philly area. In the meantime, Comcast does offer a pricier, symmetrical 2-Gig residential service in the Philly area that uses FTTP technology.

RCN has already introduced uncapped, D3.1-based 1-Gig service in New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. RCN is also offering it for $69.99 per month for 12 months, but hasn’t announced how the price will change following that period.

RELATED: RCN’s 1-Gig Goes to Washington

RCN Corp. said it has launched 1-Gig residential broadband across its serviceable areas in the D.C. Metro area.  

RCN Launches 1-Gig in NYC

RCN, which competes with Comcast in the market, said the rollout there includes Washington, D.C., Montgomery County, Maryland, Falls Church and the Braemar community in Bristow, Virginia.

Like its rollouts in Chicago and New York, RCN’s residential, uncapped 1-Gig (downstream) service will be powered by DOCSIS 3.1, the new multi-gigabit platform for HFC networks.

RCN is selling 1-Gig for $69.99 per month for the first 12 months, but has not announced how pricing for the tier will change following the first year.

Last week, Comcast announced it was deploying D3.1 and 1-Gig service to several markets, including Denver, San Francisco, and Kansas City, but has not yet said when it intends to offer it in the nation’s capital. Comcast does offer Gigabit Pro, a 2-Gig symmetrical FTTP service, in the market.

“The fastest Internet speeds in the market are now available to the D.C. area where reliable, uninterrupted and high performance speed is in high demand,” Sanford Ames, Jr., senior vice president and general manager of RCN D.C. Metro, said in a statement. “We recognize our customer’s need for speed is getting stronger with multiple devices, Over-The-Top (OTT) video content, smart homes and more. By integrating the newest technologies, RCN remains unrivalled in D.C. innovation. RCN 1 Gig customers will notice a big difference in the way they access the internet and share bandwidth in the home.”

Applying some pressure to Charter Communications and Verizon Fios, competitive cabler RCN said it has introduced a DOCSIS 3.1-powered 1-Gig residential broadband service in New York City.

The service, offered in its “serviceable areas” in NYC, including Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, starts at $69.99 per month for the first 12 months. RCN has not announced what the pricing will be after that first year. The operator has set up a web page where prospective customers can check to see if 1-Gig is available in their respective neighborhoods. RCN introduced a 330 Mbps residential tier in NYC in late 2014.

The NYC 1-Gig debut, follows RCN’s recent announcement that it was closing in on a DOCSIS 3.1 launch in Chicago, where it competes with Comcast and AT&T. In Chicago, RCN is also touting a 1-Gig (downstream) service paired with an upstream that maxes at 20 Mbps for $69.99 per month for the first 12 months. RCN does not cap its residential broadband service.

RCN has not announced when it plans to extend D3.1 service to markets such as Boston, Lehigh Valley (Pa.), Philadelphia (Delaware County) and Washington, DC.

But RCN is beating the competition to the punch with a residential 1-Gig service in NYC. Verizon Fios’s current high-end product delivers symmetrical speeds of 500 Mbps.  Prior to being acquired by Charter Communications, Time  Warner  Cable introduced a DOCSIS 3.0-based 300-Meg service in NYC as part of the MSO’s “Maxx” upgrades (those upgrades were put under review by Charter following the merger).

Altice, which competes with RCN to a smaller degree, recently launched a 300 Mbps residential high-speed Internet service in New York.

“1 Gigabit is a giant leap forward in Internet technology and RCN is the first provider to offer this new service at an affordable price to residents of New York City,” Bruce Abbott, VP, and General Manager of RCN New York, said in a statement.

Watch this RCN promo about the new 1-Gig offering:

[embed]https://vimeo.com/184366440[/embed]

Taking a page from the Google Fiber playbook on pricing, RCN said it will “soon” launch a 1 Gbps (downstream) service in parts of Chicago for $69.99 per month for 12 months.

The service, which will use DOCSIS 3.1 technology, will initially be offered to RCN customers in Skokie and Lincolnwood. RCN has also set up a web site where interested customers can be alerted on when the service will become available to them.

RELATED: TPG Capital Puts Up $2.25B for RCN and Grande Communications

RCN’s introductory pricing for 1-Gig comes in just below the promotional price of $70 per month (with unlimited data) Comcast is using for its DOCSIS 3.1 gigabit consumer trial in Chicago for customers who agree to a three-year contract. The contract-free price is $139.00 per month. AT&T’s symmetrical 1-Gig offering in parts of  Chicago is being sold for $90 as a standalone, with a 12-month agreement and unlimited data.

RCN said its gigabit service in Chicago will have no contracts and caps. Multichannel News has asked RCN what the pricing will be after the initial 12 month period, and to detail the upstream speed customers are getting with the new D3.1 service, and will update the story when the info becomes available.

Update: RCN is pairing its 1-Gig downstream with an upstream that maxes out at 20 Mbps. It has not announced pricing following the initial 12-month period, but noted that customers will be notified of the change in the rate, which will remain "competitive" and also be based on how customers are bundling broadband with other RCN services. 

Comcast’s 1-Gig downstream D3.1 offering is currently paired with an upstream that maxes out at 35 Mbps.

RCN has not announced when it plans to extend D3.1 service to its other markets, which include Boston, Lehigh Valley (Pa.), New York City, Philadelphia (Delaware County) and Washington, DC.

“The capacity provided by 1 Gigabit is massive, and it more than keeps up with the explosive growth of internet usage,” said Chris Fenger, COO of RCN. “Year-over-year internet usage is increasing 35-50 percent and the average home now has 7.8 internet-connected devices, which represents an increase of 64 million devices over the past year alone. This continued trend confirms that DOCSIS 3.1 is a critical technology for the future, enabling not only Gigabit internet speeds, but also future enhancements such as IP video and other advanced services. RCN remains committed to staying at the forefront of innovation to offer customers the fastest speeds, increased reliability and the best customer experience.”

TPG Capital’s surprise $2.25 billion purchase of over-builder RCN and small Texas-based cable operator Grande Communications could signal a new wave in the cable M&A space: new entrants that are laser-focused on broadband and the potential to offer over-the-top and short-form video services, rather than stodgy old pay TV.

TPG, which is paying $1.6 billion for RCN and about $650 million for Grande, is teaming up with Google Capital, the investment arm of the Internet search conglomerate, on the deal. It’s expected to close in the first quarter of 2017.

Google Capital is taking a minority financial interest in the deal, but at least initially there is no mechanism for the company to increase that stake.

The relatively high price surprised some members of the financial community: At 8.4 times cash flow for RCN and 8.6 times for Grande, the deal is valued nearly on par with the Charter Communications’s $78.7 billion buy of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks (9.1 times). It seems to place a premium on pay TV providers for their broadband infrastructure, rather than their video businesses.

As TPG Capital partner David Trujillo noted in announcing the deal: “High-speed data has become, and will remain, the essential connection for both consumers and businesses.”

That mindset is not new, and operators such as Cable One and Wave Broadband have been de-emphasizing video for years. But it could bode well for smaller operators that have been forced to concentrate on high-speed data as programming costs have skyrocketed.

“This is likely the beginning of a mini-boom,” said Garrett Baker, founder of Garrett M. Baker Advisors, LLC, who has advised on dozens of large and small cable deals over the years. “Many private operators are finally deciding, ‘This is my big chance to get out.’ ”

RCN and Grande are in similar straits as the rest of the industry: They’re watching their video customer base decline as younger viewers migrate to over-the-top services and skinny bundles for their entertainment needs. Like many other operators, both have put a greater emphasis on their broadband business, providing the pipe for those smaller content packages.

While Grande has had a higher profile — it has moved to launch 1 Gigabit-per-second service in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio, Texas, three markets where Google Fiber has expressed interest — RCN has maintained its broadband presence, offering services ranging from 10 Megabits per second to 330 Mbps in its markets.

While RCN has basically been managed for cash flow since Abry purchased it in 2010 and was not initially marketed with Grande for sale, it has been growing broadband customers organically and was the property that drew TPG’s interest.

“Grande is a little too small to build a platform asset,” said one source in the cable community familiar with the company.

TPG is expected to continue to test the deal waters after it closes the RCN-Grande deal, sources familiar with the company said this transaction will do for the time being.

“I’m sure they’d love to do more,” said one source in the cable financial community. “But this deal can stand on its own.”

It's official: Private equity fund TPG Capital announced Monday it will buy RCN Telecommunications and Grande Communications for $2.25 billion.

TPG is acquiring them via separate transactions – from ABRY Partners for $1.6 billion and $640 million, respectively, and plans to combine those assets to create a top ten U.S. cable operator.

Additionally, TPG said it’s partnering with Patriot Media, a management team headed by Steve Simmons and Jim Holanda that have managed RCN and Grande since 2013.

Under that partnership, Patriot Media “will continue to make significant investments in the network and in technology that will enable RCN and Grande to expand Gigabit per second high-speed data services, creating the premier internet experience in their markets,” they said. 

TPG said the deal expands on its strategy of identifying and partnering with companies at the forefront of thriving and evolving industries, citing investments in sports and entertainment intermediary CAA; Cirque du Soleil; online education platform Lynda.com; Spotify; Univision; Airbnb, Ipsy, RentPath, and Uber.

TPG and ABRY expect to close the deal in Q1 2017.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the deal would be announced as soon as Monday.

RCN and Grande, operators that have both leaned on TiVo-powered video platforms, together serve Austin, Texas; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Lehigh Valley and other areas of Pennsylvania; New York; San Antonio; and Washington, DC.

TPG was advised on the deal by PJT Partners, UBS, Cleary Gottlieb, and Deloitte. ABRY, Patriot Media, RCN, and Grande were advised by Credit Suisse, Kirkland & Ellis, Locke Lord and PwC.

Update: “We believe that Grande has been on the market for some time, and that as part of the process TPG convinced Abry to sell RCN as well, JP Morgan’s Philip Cusuick and Eric Pan said in a note issued Monday, citing SNL Kagan data that RCN has about 289,000 video subs, alongside Grande’s 88,000.

They said the sale price of $2.25 billion compares to the 2015 EBITDA of $192 million at RCN and $76 million at Grande, and believe that the deal is about 8.25x TTM EBITDA.

“While this is substantially lower than the 8.8x EBITDA that Altice paid for Cablevision or 9.1x that Charter paid for TWC, RCN is also a cable overbuilder so likely has fewer potential buyers,” they said, adding that they don’t believe TPG expects much  by way of synergies in the deal. 

“Given RCN’s presence in the New York area and Grande’s in Texas we would expect that Altice/Cablevision (New York overlap) and Charter (New York and Texas overlap) were not likely to be bidders,” they added. 

Private equity firm TPG is reportedly close to a deal to purchase RCN and Grande Communications in a deal worth $2.25 billion.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, a deal could be announced Monday.

The Journal said that in addition to TPG, which owns other digital media investments like Univision Communications, Spotify and STX Entertainment, Google Capital, the investment arm of Alphabet Inc. is taking a minority stake in the deal.

Overbuilder RCN was sold to Abry Partners in 2010 for about $1.2 billion. RCN has about 289,000 customers in parts of Boston, Chicago, Lehigh Valley (PA), New York City, Philadelphia (Delaware County) and Washington, DC. Grande Communications was launched about a decade ago and has recently concentrated on its high-speed Internet business, and has made moves to deploy 1-Gigabit service in some of its markets. According to its web site, Grande serves more than 160,000 customers in larges and small communities in Texas, including Dallas, San Antonio and Austin.

RCN and Grande Communications are the latest U.S. MVPDs to offer access to Hulu’s SVOD service on the set-top box.

RCN and Grande are offering Hulu as a “channel” on leased set-tops that run TiVo’s software, search and interface, a move that follows earlier integrations with other OTT services such as Netflix, YouTube and HBO Go, the premium programmer’s authenticated TV Everywhere app.

Hulu can be found on channel 398 for Grande customers and on channel 449 for RCN subs in Boston; Chicago; New York City; Philadelphia; and Washington, D.C.; and channel 749 for RCN customers in Lehigh Valley, Pa.

"In the last year alone, we've seen a 23 percent increase in activation of streaming services such as Netflix, HBO GO and YouTube through our TiVo set-top boxes and that number continues to rise," said Chris Fenger, COO of RCN and Grande, in a statement. "On average customers consume 15 – 17 hours of content on just one of these services. These rising numbers consistently remind us that integrating popular streaming services into our suite of products allows instant access, convenience through one device, and a superior customer experience. We will continue to innovate in this arena to deliver what our customers want most."

Suddenlink, GCI and Cablevision Systems have also integrated Hulu. Suddenlink and GCI are also offering it on its TiVo-based platform, Cablevision Systems is enabling it with ActiveVideo’s CloudTV StreamCast, a technology that converts user interfaces, video and other content from Web formats to formats that can be rendered and displayed by non-IP or incompatible IP set-tops.

Notably, content from CW and Univision isn’t available on those integration due to streaming right limitations on certain devices.  However, those customers who sign on for Hulu can still access content from those programmers through other Hulu-supported platforms.

Hulu has also announced integrated distribution deals with AT&T, Armstrong, Atlantic Broadband, Mediacom Communications, Midcontinent Communications and WideOpenWest (WOW!), which this week announced that it is rolling out eBOX, a hybrid QAM/IP box from Evolution Digital that runs the TiVo platform and will also support a selection of OTT video services and apps.

Hulu is also developing an OTT-TV skinny-bundle service that would presumably compete with some of its new MVPD partners.

RCN said it’s among the first cable operators to provide access to the authenticated HBO Go app on set-tops/DVRs powered by TiVo.

RCN said it is supporting HBO’s TV Everywhere offering on TiVo boxes it has deployed to customers in Chicago; New York; Boston; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley, Pa., eliminating the need for subs to access HBO Go on other types of TV-connected devices.

RCN noted that HBO Go content is integrated into the TiVo Search and OnePass platforms.

TiVo announced this week that it has begun to offer HBO Go on its  TiVo Bolt, Roamio and Premiere retail product line, and that it would also extend support for the app on select TiVo devices that are distributed by its MVPD partners.  Other TiVo U.S. MVPD partners include Buckeye CableSystem, Atlantic Broadband, Midco, Armstrong, GCI, Grande Communications, Suddenlink Communications (now part of Altice Group), and Mediacom Communications, among others.

“Watching popular content from the HBO GO app just became a lot more convenient,” said Chris Fenger, RCN’s COO, in a statement. “Our customers can now easily enjoy all HBO GO programming from either the big screen in their living room or on mobile devices - anytime, anywhere.”

”RCN remains at the forefront of innovation in the cable TV industry, and we are very excited to partner with them to provide their users with easier access to HBO GO and our incredible line up of programming,” added Joseph Bahr, VP, worldwide digital distribution & business development for HBO.

“TiVo is proud to continue to enhance the entertainment experience for RCN customers by establishing content partnerships that further their access to top-quality programming,” said Tara Maitra, SVP, GM of content and media sales for TiVo. “By partnering with HBO to offer the HBO GO app, TiVo is enabling their operator partners to provide premium content to their customer base in a single set-top box.”

RCN — a competitive cable operator with a sizable footprint in big urban markets such as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C. — has opened Univision Communications’s UVideos TV everywhere platform to its subscribers.

RCN subscribers can now use their logins to access the authenticated site, which offers programming from networks Univision, UniMás and Galavisión, as well as a live stream of the Univision network.

According to Nielsen data cited by RCN, more than one-third of Spanish-speaking Hispanic consumers say the ability to consume content on multiple devices is a highly important factor in choosing a video provider. The Nielsen study also found that six in 10 Spanish-speaking Hispanics were likely to share clips with friends online and expressed an interest in additional Spanish-language digital video content.

“These findings, coupled with Univision Communications’s strategy of making their content available anywhere, anytime and across platforms, reinforced RCN’s decision to add the Univision, UniMás and Galavisión networks to its lineup,” RCN said in a press release.

“The Univision, UniMás and Galavisión networks are important additions to our offerings, as our Spanish-speaking customer base continues to grow, along with the demand for TV Everywhere,” said RCN chief operating officer Chris Fenger. “What’s more, research from ThePlatform shows that more than 90% of pay TV subscribers have the ability to access premium content on their video-enabled, Internet-connected device of choice. That same study also states that the number of video-enabled devices connected to the Internet is expected to eclipse the global population by 2017. As the demand for this service continues to grow, we continue to expand our offerings to keep pace.”

RCN’s TV Everywhere platform has expanded to the Android platform with the debut of a new RCN2Go app that is powered by a TiVo-based interface and search platform.

RCN said the authenticated app, also offered on Web browsers and iOS devices, provides access to programming from more than 40 networks, including live and VOD fare from ABC, A&E, CNN, Disney, ESPN, NBC, USA Network and TNT. Users can also tap the app to set DVR recordings, browse for shows and movies up to 14 days out, and, in the home, use the mobile device as a second TV screen or remote control.

“As consumer viewing evolves beyond traditional TV, RCN will continue to innovate to offer the flexibility our customers want and need,” said Chris Fenger, COO of RCN, in a statement. “RCN2GO empowers our customers to watch their favorite programming whenever and wherever they want – on any screen.” 

LOS ANGELES -- Three years ago, Fox Hispanic Media turned on the lights and soft-launched MundoFox, a new Spanish-language broadcast network targeting U.S. Hispanics.

MundoFox was designed from the get-go as an ambitious stab at a sophisticated Latino audience that craved more than the “Cinderella”-style telenovela or family oriented live variety show.

With sleek scripted dramas, a popular early prime game show adapted from Family Feud, and a strong emphasis on local and national news, MundoFox entered the scene with gusto, its executives confident it would eventually rival Univision Communications’ No. 2 network, TeleFutura (now UniMas), for viewers. That day will never come for MundoFox.

On July 16, Colombia’s RCN Television Group — Fox International Channels’ joint-venture partner in the Fox Hispanic Media-managed network — announced it had purchased 21st Century Fox’s interest in MundoFox. Also gone is the Fox brand, as the network is now known as MundoMax.

And RCN has said goodbye to roughly 35 journalists associated with the national Noticias MundoFox newscasts, which have been “canceled” as part of the wholesale rebranding.

News programming is expected to return in 2016, however, as RCN executives are reviewing MundoMax’s entire programming slate.

"RCN is excited to be carrying on the MundoFox network that we started jointly with our partner FIC," said Morales, whose resume includes a stint as president of Telemundo Station Group.  "We look forward to serving the remarkably vibrant and dynamic U.S. Hispanic community with our successful programs and are proud to dedicate our efforts to the continuous growth and success of the network.”

One notable holdover from MundoFox is the hour-long 100 Latino Dijeron, the Family Feud-style game show that emerged as one of its lone ratings successes. The competition program still airs at 7 p.m. weeknights. Also still on the primetime lineup is the Tims Productions telenovela Suleimán, El Gran Sultán, dubbed into Spanish from its original Turkish (Muhteşem Yüzyıl).

At 9 p.m. weeknights is La Guerrera, a dubbed-into-Spanish version of Rede Globo’s Brazilian soap opera Salve Jorge. At 10 p.m., affiliates such as Meruelo Media’s KWHY Los Angeles will continue to air local news. KWHY will now air the 30-minute Noticias MundoMax 22 weeknights at 5 p.m. and at 10 p.m. Veteran news anchor José Ronstadt, widely known for his time at Telemundo-owned KVEA, co-anchors KWHY’s newscasts with station veteran Palmira Perez.

It was not known at press time if other affiliates would continue their 30-minute local newscasts.

MundoFox until July 27 aired a 10:30 p.m. national newscast anchored by Rolando Nichols and originating from Los Angeles. Nichols in the mid-2000s anchored a now-defunct newscast for TeleFutura (now UniMás).

Today, the studio is dark; it is believed Nichols and correspondents Carolina Sarassa and Max Aub are all seeking new opportunities. The Los Angeles studio made MundoFox the only Spanish-language network serving U.S. Hispanics with a newsroom outside of the Eastern time zone.

Replacing the national newscast, which also aired at 5:30 p.m. on MundoFox’s more than 50 affiliates, is the reality exposé show Most Shocking.

RCN informed the multicultural marketing and advertising community of MundoMax’s official launch with a promotional spot on its website featuring the tagline, “Live to The Max.”

One advertiser has already signed on with MundoMax, automaker Dodge. Thirty-second commercials, featuring Machete actor Danny Trejo in character, appear on the MundoMax.com website, which features detailed program information and sections devoted to sports, horoscopes, and health and beauty.

Meanwhile, Fox Hispanic Networks continues, with Spanish-language cable television networks Nat Geo Mundo, Fox Life and Fox Deportes as its three U.S. offerings. Tom Maney remains as executive vice president of Fox Hispanic Networks. Andy Checo, MundoFox’s former director of publicity and community affairs, has joined public-relations firm Havas Formula in New York as a director. 

AT&T has launched its fiber-based, 1-Gig-capable “GigaPower” service in parts of Chicago, where the telco competes with Comcast and RCN Corp.

AT&T said it will initially offer GigaPower in parts of Elgin, Oswego, Plainfield, Skokie, Yorkville and “surrounding communities located throughout the metro area.” AT&T estimates that it has invested more than $3 billion on its wireless and wired networks in Illinois between 2012 through 2014.

Comcast has identified Atlanta and California as markets that will get its new FTTP-powered “Gigabit Pro,” which will deliver symmetrical 2 Gbps speeds on a targeted basis to residential customers. Comcast plans to make Gigabit Pro available to as many as 18 million homes this year, but has not yet said when it will offered in the Chicago market. Comcast also plans to offer gigabit speeds on its more broadly deployed HFC network using DOCSIS 3.1.

In Chicago, AT&T is selling stand-alone 1-Gig starting at $120 per month, or 100 Mbps starting at $90 per month, under a “Premier” tier that requires customers to participate in the telco’s Internet Preferences targeted Web advertising initiative. The 1-Gig/TV bundle starts at $150 per month, while a triple-play version starts at $180 per month. AT&T has also been applying a monthly data consumption policy to GigaPower that caps usage at 1-terabyte before charging $10 for each additional bucket of 50 Gigabytes, with a maximum monthly overage charge of $30.

AT&T is selling GigaPower services for less in Kansas City, where Google Fiber has already launched 1-Gig broadband and pay TV services, including an uncapped, stand-alone 1 Gbps offering that runs $70 per month. 

AT&T has also launched GigaPower in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth, Texas; Cupertino, Calif.; Kansas City; and Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem, N.C.   AT&T has announced plans to deploy GigaPower in parts of several other markets, including Charlotte and Greensboro, N.C.; Chicago; Jacksonville and Miami, Fla.; Nashville, Tenn.; St. Louis; and San Antonio. 

The telco has also pledged to expand its fiber-based platform to an additional 2 million customer locations as part of its proposed acquisition of DirecTV.

One World Sports has expanded its relationship with the New York Cosmos through a renewal deal.

Under the multiplatform pact, financial terms of which were not disclosed, One World Sports will televise all of the 30 team's 2015 NASL regular-season games, as the upcoming campaign will mark the first time the global sports service will air the team's away matches.

“Cosmos fans have been clamoring to see away games,” said Alexander “Sandy” Brown, One World Sports president and CEO.  “Thanks to our new agreement, we’ll be able to ensure fans can catch all the action throughout the spring and fall NASL seasons.”

In the New York area, Cosmos fans will be able to watch the club on Cablevision’s Optimum TV, channel 1159; Dish Network, channel 9794; Verizon FiOS, channel 309; and RCN, channel 571. 

One World Sports is also available on mobile devices via a Watch One World Sports app for authenticated customers.

For the April 4 spring season opener, the Cosmos head to Fort Lauderdale to face the Strikers, which made the 2014 NASL playoffs. The April 18 home opener will see the Cosmos battle the Tampa Bay Rowdies at Hofstra University’s Shuart Stadium.

"This is great news for our fans and another step in the growth our club and the NASL," Cosmos COO Erik Stover said.  "One World Sports, with its very high-quality production values, has been a tremendous partner for us, so we’re delighted that our road games will also be broadcast this season.”

The full Cosmos schedule will be available on ONEWorldSports.com as the season approaches.

About ONE World Sports

ONE World Sports is a multiplatform sports network featuring exclusive best-in-class sporting events, live from around the globe. The network was created to fulfill American sports fans’ growing demand for global sports.  ONE World Sports delivers live and exclusive coverage of some of America’s most popular sports played outside the USA – basketball, baseball, golf and ice hockey – plus sporting events with the largest global following, including soccer and cricket.

ONE World Sports showcases some of the world’s most competitive soccer, including Arsenal FC, Chelsea FC, FC Bayern Munich, AC Milan, and the New York Cosmos, along with top soccer from Asia and the Pacific Rim. The network also exclusively telecasts the England National Cricket Team’s international home matches, Japan’s legendary baseball team, the Yomiuri Giants, Kontinental Hockey League, Champions Hockey League, Chinese Basketball Association, OneAsia Golf Tour and the top competitions in table tennis and badminton from around the world.

ONE World Sports is available via Verizon FiOS, DISH Network, Charter Communications, Cablevision’s Optimum TV, Mediacom Communications, Hawaiian Telcom, Google Fiber, RCN, Atlantic Broadband and a growing number of systems through the NCTC.

ONE World Sports, headquartered in Stamford, CT, is owned and operated by ONE Media Corp., which also owns and operates ONE CONNXT, a global HD/SD broadcast video transport services provider; and America ONE Sports, a leading provider of live broadband sports.

For more info, see www.oneworldsports.com.

Continuing to build its distribution base, One World Sports has inked a master agreement with the National Cable Television Cooperative.

The pact, financial terms of which were not disclosed, has already resulted in two NCTC members, RCN and Atlantic Broadband, adding One World Sports to their distribution lineups.

The NCTC pact makes the network, which has the rights to a bevy of international sports properties, available to all of the cable cooperative’s nearly 1,000 members, which collectively reach some 12 million subscribers across the U.S.

“More and more fans in every pocket of the country – especially ‘millennials’ -- are embracing if not clamoring for sports from around the world,” said Randy Brown, executive vice president, distribution, of One World Sports.  “Our agreement with NCTC, a fabulous organization helping bring top-flight programming to viewers throughout the USA, is the latest major step in our successful effort to reach those fans.”

Noted NCTC executive vice president of programming Judy Meyka: “Our member companies serve subscribers that are increasingly embracing soccer and other global sports. We appreciate independent programmers like One World Sports that have a clear brand identity and focus on content such as global sports and are also highly supportive of our independent cable distributor members.”

Previously, another NCTC member, Hawaiian Telecom, had concluded its own deal with One World Sports.

The global sports proponent also counts Verizon FiOS and Charter Communications, both of which signed on last year, as well as Dish Network, Cablevision’s Optimum TV, Mediacom Communications, Hawaiian and Google Fiber on its affiliate roster.

The rollout with RCN has placed One World on the provider’s systems in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, as well as in New York, where subscribers can join Optimum and FiOS customers  in watching New York Cosmos soccer action.

The Atlantic Broadband launch also opens up more viewing to futbol fans in the South Florida area.

In addition to the Cosmos, One World Sports showcases plenty of soccer action, including matches and related programming from Arsenal FC, Chelsea FC, FC Bayern Munich and AC Milan. It also has the rights to futbol from Asia and the Pacific Rim, notably the Asian Cup, the 16-team tournament that it is making available in Canada on a streaming, subscription basis.

Among its more than 3,000 programming hours, the network also televises the international home matches of  England's national cricket team, Japanese baseball squad, the Yomiuri Giants, the Kontinental Hockey League, Champions Hockey League, the Chinese Basketball Association, OneAsia Golf Tour, and the top competitions in table tennis and badminton from around the world.

One World Sports is now kicking it around on RCN.

Beginning today, the global sports network is now available to RCN digital TV subscribers on the provider’s Premiere Sports Tier in both the standard- (channel 393) and high-definition format (571) in the New York DMA and throughout most of the distributor’s footprint.

The deal, financial terms of which were not disclosed, will afford RCN subscribers in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley with more than 3,000 hours annually of exclusive sporting events, including baseball from Japan, basketball from China, cricket from England, ice hockey from Europe and Russia and golf and soccer from around the world. 

The deal should bolster the Big Apple audience for New York Cosmos, the 2013 North American Soccer League champions.  One World, which is also carried by Verizon FiOS, Dish Network, Charter Communications, Cablevision, Mediacom Communications, Hawaiian Telcom and Google Fiber, is the Cosmos’ television home, and also features programming from renowned international soccer clubs via Arsenal FC TV, Chelsea FC TV and FC Bayern Munich TV. In January 2015, the network will also carry live, exclusively in the United States, the AFC Asian Cup, an international soccer tournament.  

“Global sports programming such as that provided by One World Sports appeals to our diverse customer base whose appetite for sports extends across the globe,” said Chris Fenger, RCN executive vice president and COO.  “Like RCN, One World Sports is an independent provider nimble enough to target a diverse audience segment with a strong emphasis on delivering high quality content. More and more people are showing interest in international sports offered by ONE World Sports, and we are excited to make these events available to our viewers.”

“Our agreement with RCN gives us an additional foothold in the New York market, where we’re seeing particularly strong demand, as well as an entrance to other key top-10 markets,” said Randy Brown, executive vice president of distribution of One World Sports.  “In fact, all of RCN’s markets, spanning the East from Boston to Virginia, plus west to Chicago, present an excellent opportunity for our network, since our research shows that these regions demonstrate a solid fan interest in soccer and other global sports.”

Lynne Buening, 61, a longtime programming and marketing executive in the cable-TV industry, died on Nov. 6 following a seven-year battle with a chronic blood disorder, family and friends said. A memorial service has been scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 6, at 11 a.m. (after visitation at 10 a.m.) at the Norman Chapel at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.

A Cincinnati native, she graduated from Marian High School and received her bachelor of arts degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Her career in the telecommunications industry early on included marketing and sales positions in newspaper, broadcasting and cable operations, including at the Playboy Channel and as programming director at Viacom Cable. In 1993 she became vice president of programming and a corporate officer at Los Angeles-based Falcon Cable, then a top-10 cable provider (later sold to Charter Communications). She continued working in the industry as an independent consultant for RCN, where she was head of programming, and other cable operators.

An avid traveler, she was always planning her next adventure and eagerly recruited family and friends to join her on trips to destinations around the globe or simply to visit her in the cities she lived, which included Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.

Michael Buening, her nephew, who followed her into the cable industry with her help and encouragement, said she was very well known by her friends and family for her support, involvement and generosity, and enjoyed helping people, personally and professionally. 

Skip Harris, a former Falcon Cable colleague, and his wife, Victoria Harris, remained close friends with Buening, who made Victoria's wedding dress. Before she moved from Los Angeles to the Washington, D.C., area to work for RCN, "Lynne ran her own small business designing and manufacturing beaded hand bags, wallets and eye glass cases," Harris said. "She launched a small manufacturing facility in Vietnam and supported a small village employing many of the town’s people. She established a day care center for the children of the employees so the parents could work in her facility. She travelled to Vietnam two to three times a year during this period. She continued to consult to cable networks and distributors even as she ran this small hand bag business."

“Lynne was a tough negotiator, wonderful giving friend, world traveler and a fun and competitive dominoes champ," Harris said. "We both treasured our relationship with her and will miss her clever ‘one-liners’ that always made you smile.”

Lynne Buening is survived by her 99-year-old mother, Mary Geraldine (Schaefer) Buening; her brother, Jerry M. Buening Jr.; her sister, Mary Pamela Deshler; niece Karin Redelberger; nephews Kevin Deshler and Michael Buening, and their families. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages a memorial donation to Interlochen Center for the Arts, PO Box 199, Interlochen, MI, 49643-0199 (attention Samantha Charnes/Advancement Dept.), or to the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

RCN has rolled out an upgraded version of its TiVo-powered user interface, introducing a speedier version of the UI alongside other new features and capabilities, including in-home streaming to Android devices.

The refreshed UI, available to all RCN TiVo customers, includes a My Shows page and a Three Column My Shows element that lets users filter programs based on specific categories rather than requiring viewers to dive further into each folder to see what’s on.

With the Android enhancement, users can stream live and recorded content in the home to a wider range of smartphones and tablets. The new release also opens up access to new apps, including Spotify, Huffington Post, and TiVo’s recent integration of the HSN Shop-By-Remote service. 

RCN, whose primary service areas include Boston, Chicago, Lehigh Valley (Pa.), New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., said the new look and feel and features are available on its range of TiVo models, which include the TiVo Premiere Q, Premiere, Preview and TiVo Mini.

“The past year has been one of great change and improvement at RCN, as we have delivered a variety of new offerings to enhance the customer experience. Each of these offerings is a building block, and the new TiVo user interface represents the latest improvement for our customers,” said RCN COO Chris Fenger, in a statement.

TiVo flipped on Android streaming in September, complementing capabilities it offers on iOS devices. Atlantic Broadband, which is using the T6, an MSO-optimized version of the retail-focused Roamio Plus DVR, was among the first  TiVo MSO partners to take advantage of those enhanced features for Android.

The top five cable overbuilders have been growing video and broadband customers at a healthy clip over the past five years and could play a key role in the expected upcoming wave of consolidation, according to research by SNL Kagan.

Video subscribers at the top five overbuilders — WideOpen- West, RCN, Wave Broadband, Grande Communications and Click! Networks — have risen by about 25% since 2009, while broadband subscribers have grown at more than three times that rate, according to Kagan.

“Given cable M&A’s lofty valuations in 2014, magnified by the consolidation atmosphere surrounding the industry, overbuilders could play a key role in the M&A market going forward, either as buyers or targets,” Kagan said.

While much of the video-subscriber growth was due to acquisitions — WOW had the greatest increase in video customers (73%) during the period and was the most aggressive buyer of systems — other overbuilders have seen broadband growth outpace video customer declines.

For example, the next largest overbuilder, RCN, has seen video customers decline by about 15% since 2009, while broadband customers have risen by 26% since then.

STRONG SURVIVORS

Overbuilders burst onto the video scene in a big way in the 1990s, as new regulation (the Telecommunications Act of 1996) and easy financing encouraged competition. While some fell on financial hardship after they couldn’t compete with incumbents, a handful survived and some have even managed to crack the top 10 among video distribution companies.

Today, according to Kagan, overbuilders represent about 1.26 million video subscribers across the country, or about 1% of the nation’s roughly 100 million TV households and 1.5 million broadband customers.

Waller Capital president Garrett Baker, who helped sell four of the top overbuilders — WOW, RCN, Wave Broadband and Grande — to their current owners, said the success of companies in the deal market is causing others to look toward nontraditional targets: “The overbuilders’ operating success has put them in a position to look outside their current footprints. That is likely to continue.”

A SHOT IN THE ARM

The cable deal market, stagnant for years after a big consolidation wave in the late 1990s and early 2000s, got a shot in the arm last year when Comcast agreed to purchase Time Warner Cable in a deal valued at about $69 billion in stock and assumed debt. As part of that deal — which is currently undergoing regulatory approval — Comcast and Time Warner Cable agreed to sell, swap and spin off about 6 million customers in a series of deals with Charter Communications.

When the smoke clears, expected early next year after the Comcast-TWC deal is closed, Charter will have doubled its owned-andmanaged customer base, and the combined Comcast-TWC will have about 30 million subscribers across the country, including 19 of the top 20 television markets.

Charter, which touched off the consolidation frenzy with its pursuit of TWC last year, isn’t expected to stop there. Both Charter CEO Tom Rutledge and one of the cable operator’s largest shareholders, John Malone’s Liberty Media, have said Charter — and GreatLand Connections, the publicly traded company that will hold the spun-off Comcast-TWC assets (and be 33% owned by Charter) — could serve as vehicles to further consolidate the industry.

Whether overbuilders like WideOpen-West, which was founded in 1999 and is backed by private-equity giant Avista Capital Partners, will be a target or a competitor for cable assets remains to be seen. But WOW, which has about 699,000 video customers and 770,000 broadband subscribers in seven states (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee), has proven it has the stomach for acquisitions.

WOW’s first big purchase was in November 2001, about seven months after it opened for business, when it bought telco Ameritech’s Americast systems in Illinois and Indiana. WOW has done several deals since then, ranging from the $55 million purchase of bankrupt Broadstripe Communications’ 31,000 customers in 2011 to the $1.5 billion purchase of Georgia- based Knology’s 257,000 customers in 2012.

RCN, which was bought out by private-equity group ABRY Partners in 2010 for about $1.2 billion, has kept a low profile since then and has been more of a seller of systems than a buyer in its most recent deals. But RCN — the first overbuilder in the country, formed in 1993 — has a long history of aggressive deal-making.

Overbuilders could target each other for M&As, Pivotal Research Group principal and senior media & communications analyst Jeff Wlodarczak said, but if they want to compete for cable assets with the likes of Charter, they’ll likely lose unless they want to “dramatically overpay.”

ESPN's newly-created SEC network, which debuts today as among the largest network launches in cable history, has added two providers to its growing distribution reach. 

Through separate deals with Disney/ESPN, both RCN and Vyve Broadband have been added to the SEC Network's list of distributors, which already includes DirecTV, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter.  All told, SEC Network will launch in more than 60 million homes and be available to over 90 million.

In addition to the highly anticipated televising of 45 SEC football games, the SEC Network will also air men's and women's basketball, baseball and softball games as well as other sports featuring teams from the college conference. The network will also include original in-studio programming to provide analysis and news for the Southeastern Conference. 

RCN's multi-year distribution deal with ESPN will make the network available to Premiere Sports Tier subscribers in all of the provider's markets, which include major metro areas Boston, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.

Vyve Broadband's deal brings the network to viewers in five states with SEC schools: Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. The network will also be offered by Vyve in areas throughout Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming. 

"Vyve customers have made their passion for sports programming, especially for the extremely competitive SEC, very clear," said Jeffrey DeMond, chief executive officer of Vyve Broadband, in a statement. "The SEC Network will bring football, basketball baseball, and other campus sports directly to our customers. This is something that Vyve customers have asked for, and we're very happy to be able to deliver it to them."

The first football game to be televised on the SEC Network will be Texas A&M vs. South Carolina on August 28 at 6 p.m. ET. 

Cablevision Systems expanded its board of directors from 17 members to 18 on Tuesday, naming RCN chairman and long-time cable executive Steve Simmons to the panel.

Simmons has a long history in the cable business – he created Simmons Communications in 1982 and sold it in the late 1990s. In 2002 he partnered with private equity firm Spectrum Equity to buy former RCN properties in New Jersey,  renaming the company Patriot Media. Simmons headed up Patriot until 2007, when he sold the company to Comcast.  Simmons became chairman of RCN after the company was taken private by ABRY Partners in 2010. He also serves as Chairman of RCN Telecom Services, LLC, Grande Communications, and PPR Media, LLC/Choice Communications. Mr. Simmons was a director of Virgin Media Inc. from 2008 to 2013. He also served as the Chairman of the Connecticut Commission of Educational Achievement and now chairs the Connecticut Counsel for Education Reform.

Tightening the integration of its video and voice services, RCN said it has begun to offer a TV-based Caller ID on TiVo boxes it leases to customers.

The feature, launching this week and expected to be available to all customers as soon as Wednesday  (June 18), displays the name of the caller and the number on the TV screen during an incoming call. The TV-based alerts, which support multiple phone lines per subscriber, pop up when customers are watching live TV or recorded programs on their TiVo boxes, said RCN, which recently integrated the Netflix streaming app on its leased TiVo platform. 

Existing customers can activate the new feature by visiting TiVo Central, followed by Settings, Displays and then Caller ID. The Caller ID feature is already set up on TiVo boxes going to new RCN customers. It’s the sort of feature that several other cable operators offer now on leased set-top boxes.

“This convenient Caller ID service is another achievement in our relationship with TiVo, and also represents one of more than 15 free calling features included in the RCN Digital Phone service,” said Chris Fenger, RCN’s COO, in a statement.

Among other recent TiVo-related moves, RCN has begun to rollout next-gen TiVo hardware that’s equipped with six tuners, 1 terabyte of storage, and an integrated video transcoder that lets users stream live TV and recorded shows to other TVs and connected devcies on the customer’s home network. The deployment of TiVo’s T6 platform is the operator-optimized version of hardware for TiVo’s new retail-focused Roamio Plus DVR.

RCN has begun to rollout next-gen TiVo hardware that is equipped with six tuners and 1 terabyte of storage.

The deployment marks RCN’s debut of TiVo’s T6 platform, which is the operator-optimized version of the hardware for TiVo’s new retail-focused Roamio Plus DVR. Atlantic Broadband was the first cable operator to deploy the T6. The ZatzNotFunny blog reported in May that RCN is leasing the T6 for $45 per month.

The new set-up will let RCN subs record up to six shows at once, record up to 150 hours of HD video or 1,200 hours in standard-definition. RCN’s T6 also builds in the TiVo Stream, a transcoding component that lets users stream live TV and recorded shows to other TVs and connected devices in the customer’s home (the retail-focused Roamio version allows out-of-home viewing), and sideload recorded shows to iOS devices for on-the-go viewing, save for some premium content that is marked as “copy once.”  The T6 allows simultaneous streaming of recorded content to as many as three devices on the home network.

RCN’s version also integrates apps from Netflix, YouTube and the Opera TV Store, and a cross-platform search that can sift through RCN’s live TV lineup and VOD library, as well as the supported apps and OTT offerings. 

RCN’s primary service areas include Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley, Pa.; Boston; and Chicago, where it competes with  Comcast; and in New York, where it matches up with Time Warner Cable and Cablevision Systems.