Latest from Next TV in Service-electric-cable-tv

Altice to Buy Service Electric New Jersey Systems for $150M

Mike Farrell — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 23:48:58 +0000

Altice USA said it has reached an agreement to purchase Service Electric Cable TV of New Jersey for $150 million in cash.

The deal, which would expand Altice USA’s New Jersey footprint — it already has operations in Newark, Hoboken and other communities in the state — is expected to close in the third quarter.

Other Service Electric operations -- Service Electric Cable TV & Communications, which has operations in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania and parts of Hunterdon County, New Jersey; and Service Electric Cablevision, which covers Birdsboro, Hazelton and Sunbury, Penn. -- were not part of the deal.

Altice has said in the past that it would look to grow through acquisition, and the Service Electric purchase seems to jibe with that strategy.

In a conference call to discuss Q4 results, Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei said the Service Electric Cable TV of New Jersey systems were located in and around Sparta, N.J., adding that the properties have attractive broadband growth opportunities.

"If we had a hundred of these deals we'd love to have them because they are very, very profitable and accretive to us," Goei said. But later he added that he didn't expect many more like it.

"We don't have a pipeline of a lot of these," Goei said. "If they're available we pounce and try to go very quickly. ...There are not a lot of sellers out there. When there are they're interesting, but in terms of size, we don't see anything sizeable right now that's available." .

Hearst Station Goes Dark to Service Electric

Mike Farrell — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 21:39:00 +0000

Service Electric Cable TV customers in Lancaster, Pa. have been without NBC affiliate WGAL-TV since midnight Sunday after the parties failed to renew their retransmission consent agreement.

According to a report in the Reading [Pa.] Eagle, pricing for the Hearst Television-owned station appears to be at the heart of the dispute. Service Electric has carried the channel for more than 25 years, according to the paper.

Margaret Walson, Co-Founder of Service Electric Cable TV, Dies

Will Hagle — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 18:15:00 +0000

Margaret Walson, co-founder of Service Electric Cable TV, died Wednesday at her home in Boca Raton, Fla., according to an article in the Citizen's Voice news site.

Walson founded Service Electric Cable TV, with her husband John, who is credited with creating one of country's earliest cable systems. Prior to establishing the company in 1948, the couple owned an appliance store in Schuylkill County, Pa., but had difficulty selling television sets due to poor reception from Philadelphia broadcasters. Service Electric built an antenna on a nearby mountaintop overlooking the couple's town and ran a cable to the store, ultimately connecting additional residents and creating the family business. For more on Walson's early efforts, please read this Multichannel News article from 2005.

Margaret served as a secretary and advisor for the company in the company's earliest years, and stayed on as company executive and adviser to her children following John's death in 1993. Her son, John Walson Jr., who was president of Service Electric Cable, died in 2012 at age 63.

Service Electric currently provides service in Hunterdon, N.J., and Lehigh Valley and Wilkes-Barre, Pa. A plaque in Wilkes-Barre's Public Square acknowledges Service Electric's role in making the city "The Birthplace of HBO."

"In November of 1972, 365 subscribers of Service Electric Cable TV became the first subscribers to Home Box Office. By participating in the launch of the nation's premier pay television service, these citizens of Wilkes-Barre became part of communications history," the plaque reads, according to the Citizen's Voice article.

In addition to her accomplishments in the cable industry, Walson was a talented performer. Several news outlets, citing a statement from the company, said she once sang with Frank Sinatra at the Lakewood Ballroom but abandoned aspirations for a music career to build the cable business and raise her family.