About two weeks after a Bloomberg report that said Altice USA had hired investment banker Goldman Sachs to seek a buyer for its Suddenlink systems, company CEO Dexter Goei confirmed that a sales process is “going on,” but declined to offer more details. 

Suddenlink has about 1.8 million subscribers in 17 states in the Midwest, south and western parts of the country. Altice is also in the process of rebranding the Suddenlink systems under its Optimum brand.

Goei’s confirmation came during a conference call with analysts to discuss Q2 results.

News of the sales process confirmation drove Altice USA stock -- which had been down about 2% in after-hours trading earlier -- up nearly 9% to $10.50 each in after-hours trading.  

“We can confirm there is a process going on,” Goei said on the call. “I don’t think we want to comment any further than that, much like we did when there was a lot of chatter around Lightpath. We’ll update you and the rest of the market when we deem it appropriate to update. But at this time there is nothing further to talk about.”

Altice sold a 49% interest in its Lightpath telecom unit in December 2020 to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners in a deal with an implied value of $3.2 billion. 

The value of Suddenlink would depend on the buyer. While Bloomberg had said the systems could sell for as much as $20 billion, implying a deal multiple of 14 times cash flow, many believe the systems would sell for less. 

Goie said the company has “received a lot of reverse inquiries for all or parts of the Suddenlink assets” but declined to speculate on potential buyers or prices. 

“I don't think we want to get into a debate,” as far as the financials or operations of the systems, Goei said. “The numbers have been out there historically on the assets, so you can probably figure out what the numbers look like.” ■

Altice USA said it has begun the rebranding of all of its Suddenlink systems under the Optimum name, launching a nationwide brand campaign, “Get Closer, Go Farther.”

Altice USA took the first steps toward retiring the Suddenlink brand in July 2021,  when it said all of its wireless products would be rebranded under the Optimum Mobile name. In April of this year, it launched its “Let’s Reconnect” campaign with a pledge to rebrand the Suddenlink markets later in the year. Suddenlink has about 1.8 million customers in 17 states mainly in the Midwest, southern and western parts of the country. Altice purchased the systems in 2015 for $9.1 billion. 

The rebranding news also comes days after reports claimed that Altice USA had hired Goldman Sachs to seek a buyer for the properties.  

“Get closer and go farther. That’s our Optimum brand promise and what we aim to deliver to our customers through our connectivity services and experiences we offer,” Optimum EVP consumer and business services Matt Grover said in a press release. “We are thrilled to launch this new campaign and officially bring our Suddenlink products and services under the Optimum brand, uniting our telecommunications division under one name, one voice, and one promise to customers to deliver the very best internet, TV, and mobile service to them every day.”

Starting August 1 and throughout the months ahead, the company will transition Suddenlink properties and assets to Optimum, including vehicles, stores, websites and uniforms.

In the press release, Altice USA said the aim of the new brand and tagline is to demonstrate the company’s promise to bring customers closer together with its products and services to enable them to go farther into the future. This effort includes new campaign TV spots, the acceleration of the build out of its fiber internet network; the launch of Optimum 2 Gig and 5 Gig Fiber Internet; removing data caps on all Suddenlink internet plans as part of the transition to Optimum; opening nearly 20 new state-of-the-art Optimum retail stores across the country in recent months; and rebranding its Optimum Mobile service, which was recently ranked #1 in customer satisfaction by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. ▪️

Altice USA stock continued to rise on Friday, albeit at a much slower pace than the day before, as investors started to realize that if a sale of its Suddenlink unit were to happen, it would likely be at a more reasonable price than the $20 billion that had been previously speculated.

Altice USA shares spiked as high as $13.17 each on Thursday, up 43%, after Bloomberg News said the company had engaged investment banker Goldman Sachs to look for potential buyers of its Suddenlink systems in the Midwest, South and West. According to the Bloomberg report, buyers could pay as much as $20 billion for the unit. The stock closed at $11.24 each, up 22.5% on July 21 and rose another 2% in Friday afternoon trading.

A $20 billion price tag would imply the deal could be done at a 14 times multiple of cash flow -- the prevailing metric for cable deals -- or about twice that of earlier deals. Suddenlink has about 1.8 million subscribers and passes about 3.9 million homes, which would make it the fifth largest cable operator in the country on a standalone basis. 

In a research note, MoffettNathanson senior analyst Craig Moffett wrote that while a Suddenlink sale would seem to contradict Altice USA’s previous direction -- it has pumped billions of dollars into building out its fiber network and has said Suddenlink was its clearest growth engine -- a deal could be done. Moffett noted that there has been substantial interest in cable assets from private equity funds recently -- Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, TPG  and Macquarie Capital all have done recent deals -- as well as from smaller strategic players. But paying twice the prevailing rate for cable operations that will still need to be upgraded may be a tough row for Altice USA to hoe. 

Moffett also questioned Bloomberg's $1.3 billion cash flow estimate for Suddenlink, adding that was the company's trailing 12-month EBITDA in 2018. It likely has risen since then -- and if it hasn't Suddenlink has more serious problems -- and Moffett predicted that today it is more likely in the $1.6 billion range. That would value a $20 billion deal at about 12.5 times cash flow, still high, but more palatable to a potential suitor.    

As far as potential buyers Moffett wrote that the two largest operators -- Comcast and Charter Communications -- have held back on system purchases because of regulatory concerns. That leaves Cable One as the most likely strategic player interested in Suddenlink, because it is around the same size. 

But he added that Cable One would likely have to issue equity in a deal, and Altice USA probably has little interest in owning another cable stock. While Cable One has issued shares to the public and used the proceeds for deals in the past, the size of a Suddenlink deal would make that infeasible. 

“To be sure, none of this means that Cable One couldn’t be a potential buyer. It is simply to say that it wouldn’t be easy,” Moffett wrote.

That leaves private equity players. And though there haven’t been any significant PE cable deals this year, meaning the desire to pay high prices for assets may have waned, Moffett noted that there should be both significant amounts of capital available and a high degree of interest in Suddenlink. 

“In short, then, while we don’t expect the two largest cable operators to be active buyers, we nevertheless believe that Altice could mount a robust auction process, and that they could likely be able to attract a fair price,” Moffett wrote. “It’s just not likely to be a price comparable to what they might have gotten nine to twelve months ago.” ■ 

Shares in Altice USA soared Thursday (July 21) after a report in Bloomberg News said the mid-sized cable operator was seeking a buyer for its Suddenlink Communications division that could fetch as much as $20 billion.

According to Bloomberg, Altice USA is working with Goldman Sachs on a potential deal, citing unnamed sources.

Altice officials declined to comment on what they called "rumors."  

Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei opened the door ever so slightly to a sale back in May at the MoffettNathanson Media & Communications Summit, when he didn’t rule out a potential deal. 

“Suddenlink in itself is a great asset, great growth matrices, under-penetrated markets, less competitive areas, despite that it’s very rural,” Goei said at the conference. “But strategically, it's not a footprint that makes you sit there and say ‘Wow, that’s the most strategic footprint out there.’ So are we sellers or restructurers of certain of our assets in other areas outside of Cablevision? We're always open to listening to people out there if it makes sense for us to trade, swap, sell certain assets.”

Altice USA shares rose more than 40% in afternoon trading July 21, priced as high as $13.17 each, up 43.5% or $3.99 per share. Trading was halted briefly by the NYSE because of the spike, but was resumed later in the day. The stock closed at $11.24 each on July 21, up 22.5% or $2.06 each. 

Nevertheless, the gains have basically erased year-to-date declines for the shares — they were down 43% since December 31 prior to Thursday — fueled by broadband subscriber losses and threats of more intense pricing competition from telco Verizon Communications.

Altice USA has the greatest exposure of any operator to Verizon’s Fios product: About two-thirds of its Optimum footprint in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut competes with the telco. While its Suddenlink footprint is virtually Fios-free, it faces increasing competition from fixed wireless and fiber builds from large and small providers.  

Suddenlink operates primarily across 17 states in the Midwest, southern and western parts of the country. Although Altice USA does not break out specific data for Suddenlink, in a research note Wells Fargo Securities analyst Steven Cahall wrote that he estimates the unit has about 1.8 million customers and passes about 3.9 million homes. He also estimated that 2022 cash flow could be about $1.4 billion. At a $20 billion take-out price, that implies a 14 times cash flow multiple, which would be considerably higher than recent deals. 

Cahall had previously speculated in May that Altice USA could sell Suddenlink at a 7-to-8 times cash flow multiple, which would imply a $12 billion to $13 billion price tag. But if the Bloomberg report is correct, Cahall wrote that his past enterprise value for the company “was far too low.”

In a research note in September 2021, MoffettNathanson senior analyst Craig Moffett assigned a 12 times cash flow multiple to an upgraded Suddenlink, in line with past deals like Cable One’s purchases of Fidelity Communications (11.7 times) and Hargray Communications (17.2 times); adding that any possible buyer would not have as many cost-cutting opportunities as Cable One in those prior deals.

The list of possible buyers could run the gamut of private equity and strategic players, including Cable One, Breezeline (formerly Atlantic Broadband), Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, TPG and others.    

Whatever the price it is likely to be far in excess of the $9.1 billion Altice paid for Suddenlink back in 2015. That purchase was the international telco’s first in the U.S., and led to its $17.7 billion purchase of Cablevision Systems in 2016.

While Altice was able to cut a lot of costs out of the two companies, more recently it has had trouble gaining broadband customers, reporting a loss of 13,000 high-speed data customers in Q1, after shedding about 3,000 broadband subscribers in 2021.

In a note to clients Thursday, Moffett said while the idea that Altice would sell Suddenlink isn’t that surprising — equity values across the cable landscape are short of their intrinsic values — he was surprised they would attempt a sale while they’re still publicly traded. Altice shares have been on a steady decline over the past several months -- prior to today (July 21), the stock was down 68% since September 3, 2021. That had some speculating in the past that Altice management could take the company private.  

“A large part of our recent reticence in taking a more constructive stance on the company despite its appealing valuation has been our fear that majority owner Patrick Drahi would be much more likely to take the company private first, potentially at only a modest premium, in order to capture the upside of a Suddenlink sale for himself,” Moffett wrote Thursday. ■

Months after it reported a full year of broadband subscriber losses — the only major cable operator to do so — Altice USA continues to step up efforts to win back customers with a new campaign entitled “Let’s Reconnect,” and pledging to rebrand its Suddenlink Communications markets to Optimum later this year.

The new campaign comes after Altice USA lost about 3,000 broadband customers in 2021,  a year where although overall high-speed Internet customer growth slowed down, it was at least positive for the rest of the sector. Altice USA is in a bit of a unique competitive situation — about one-third of its footprint is within Verizon Fios territory, which has been very aggressive in winning broadband subscribers. As a result, Altice USA said it would accelerate the buildout of its fiber network and push hard to bring new services and functionality to customers. 

The rebranding and “Let’s Reconnect” campaigns are just another step in that process. Altice has already rebranded its wireless service as Optimum Mobile, and said Suddenlink subscribers in the West and Mid-Atlantic states would be receiving service under a new name in the future. That future, apparently, is now. 

“As part of Let’s Reconnect, we’re making changes to ensure that we are delivering the very best service and experience to our customers and keeping them at the center of everything that we do,” Altice said in a statement. “This means more speed and reliability through our fiber network and mobile service, 24/7 customer support online and over the phone, the opening of more retail stores across the country and so much more.”

In a letter to customers, Altice USA executive VP of consumer services Matt Marino pointed to increased internet speeds as the fiber buildout progresses; easy to understand pricing and surprise-free billing; better service through the hire of thousands of local employees and the opening of 70 new retail locations; and an increased commitment to its communities, through company donations to public schools and organizations.

“We heard you and we know it’s time to reconnect,” Marino wrote in the letter. “Though keeping you connected to what you love has always been our number one goal, we understand that we haven’t always gotten it right. So, we’re working hard to make important changes as a recommitment to you.”

Whether this will be enough to put a dent in subscriber losses remains to be seen.

Still, Altice USA is making an effort to right the ship. In addition to the fiber acceleration, the company has expanded its MVNO agreement with T-Mobile for its Optimum Mobile service, launched Optimum Stream, a 4K-capable Android TV device for free to its 1 Gigabit-per-second broadband customers, and made some management changes.  

Altice stock went into a tailspin in February after it announced plans to step up the fiber build and accelerate its edge-out program to expand its addressable footprint. Shares fell as much as 22% on February 17,ending the day down 18% to $11.83 per share from $14.40 each the day before. Since then, the stock hasn’t regained much of that ground — it closed at $12.70 each on April 4. 

In a research note in February, MoffettNathanson senior analyst Craig Moffett noted that Altice’s plans to speed up the fiber deployment and accelerate edge-outs to increase their addressable market are good signs. But Moffett added that it can no longer be assured that the company will be a grower in the long term.

“At the heart of the problem is broadband,” Moffett wrote. “Altice’s broadband subscriber growth has slowed to a stop.” 

It appears that with the new campaign, Altice is hoping to turn that perception around. ■

Altice USA said Thursday that it has expanded its existing MVNO deal with wireless carrier T-Mobile, but offered few details of the new agreement.

Altice had been one of the last remaining major cable operators to redo its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement with a carrier -- Comcast and Charter renegotiated their MVNO pacts with Verizon in 2020 and Dish reached a new MVNO deal with AT&T last year. At the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom conference in San Francisco earlier this month, Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei said a new deal with T-Mobile was coming soon. 

On Altice USA’s Q4 conference call with analysts on February 16, Goei said that the company was on the “one-yard line” with T-Mobile regarding renegotiating the MVNO deal, adding that the revised agreement would offer Altice more flexibility and provide “financial incentives” to T-Mobile. 

In a press release, Altice USA said the terms of the new agreement “are mutually beneficial to both companies.”

Altice USA launched its mobile product in 2019, through an MVNO deal with Sprint. Sprint was purchased by T-Mobile in 2020. 

Altice USA is in the process of rebranding its mobile service as Optimum Mobile across both its Optimum and Suddenlink footprints.  As of Q4, Optimum Mobile had about 186,000 mobile lines. Comcast's Xfinity Mobile ended the year with about 4 million mobile lines and Charter closed out 2021 with about 3.6 million mobile lines.  

Also: For Cable Operators, Wireless Gets Real 

“As we continue to grow and evolve our Optimum Mobile service, we are pleased to reach a new agreement with T-Mobile that ensures our mobile customers will continue to benefit from T-Mobile’s nationwide network,”Altice USA EVP of consumer services Matt Marino said in a press release. “In addition to access to America’s largest 5G network, the agreement enables Optimum Mobile to provide more flexibility and value to our customers and, when coupled with our Optimum and Suddenlink broadband service, deliver a 360-degree seamless connectivity experience at home and on the go.”

Optimum Mobile currently offers three data plans -- 1 Gigabyte, 3 GB and Unlimited GB -- all with unlimited talk and text and delivered over the T-Mobile network. The services are aggressively priced -- Optimum Mobile’s 1GB plan is free (not including a $20 activation fee) for the first 12 months and $19 per month ($14 if an Optimum broadband customer) thereafter. The Unlimited GB plan is priced at $45 per month. 

"We are excited to extend and expand our Altice USA partnership on the T-Mobile network with fast and reliable service to Altice USA’s Optimum Mobile subscribers,” said T-Mobile wholesale SVP Daniel Thygesen in a press release. “By leveraging T-Mobile’s unparalleled network and platforms to serve Optimum Mobile subscribers, Altice USA remains the premier one-stop-shop for bundled mobile and broadband services for its subscribers."

Altice USA said it has named former J.P. Morgan Chase executive Ben Collier as senior vice president of Brand, Marketing and Media, effective immediately. He reports directly to EVP of Consumer Services, Matt Marino. 

Collier will be based out of Altice USA’s Long Island City, N.Y., headquarters and will lead the company’s brand and marketing strategy, advertising, and media teams as the company prepares to unify its Suddenlink and Optimum brands under the Optimum banner.  

“We’re thrilled to have Ben Collier join Altice USA as the Optimum brand enters a new era,” Marino said in a press release. “He has proven throughout his career to be an intelligent, agile, and innovative marketer, and I have no doubt that he is the right person to lead our brand, marketing, and media teams as we look to re-engage our customers and grow our business in today’s ultra-competitive environment.”

Collier has nearly 20 years experience in marketing and advertising, most recently serving as executive director of Brand Experience and Development at J.P. Morgan Chase Private Bank, where he drove brand awareness, engagement, and client growth for the firm. He also has held senior marketing positions at Remy Martin and American Express.

“I’m looking forward to working with Matt and our teams across the company to continue to share what makes the Optimum brand experience and services like Optimum Fiber and Optimum Mobile so special,”  Collier said in a press release. 

Altice USA’s recent acquisition of a regional fiber-optic broadband service provider helped offset organic customer losses in the second quarter, as revenue rose 1.7% to $2.52 billion and cash flow growth was flat at $1.1 billion in the second quarter. 

Altice said unique customer relationships were down by 12,000 in the period, but showed a gain of 23,000 unique customers when 35,000 subscribers from its most recent acquisition -- Morris Broadband -- is included. Altice USA purchased Morris broadband in April in a deal that valued the North Carolina company at $310 million. 

Organic broadband subscriber growth was flat in the period, but increased to a gain of 30,000 customers when Morris Broadband data was included. That compares to a gain of 70,000 broadband subscribers in the prior year. 

The same held  true for video customer losses -- down 48,000 organically in Q2, or 36,000 when Morris Broadband’s 12,000 video customers are considered. Altice USA lost 35,000 video subscribers in Q2 2020.

Also Read: Analysts Brace for Broadband Slowdown 

Residential revenue growth was spurred by a 7.8% rise in broadband sales and a 36.4% spike in News & Advertising revenue, supported by a strong recovery in local, regional and national advertising plus additional political advertising revenue from the New York mayoral and New Jersey  gubernatorial races.

At its Optimum Mobile service -- which was rebranded earlier this month  -- revenue rose 4% to $20.7 million as the company added 5,000 new customers. Optimum mobile ended the period with 180,000 customers, reaching about 3.8% of Altice USA’s residential customer base. 

Altice USA said that broadband-only customer usage averaged about 558 Gigabytes per month in Q2, a 26% increase and that the average broadband speed taken by customers has nearly doubled over the past three years to 316 Megabits per second in Q2. More than half of its broadband customers subscribe to speeds of 200 Mbps or less, representing an opportunity to upsell to faster service, the company said. 

Altice USA said it continues with its fiber-to-the-home upgrade plans, adding that at the end of the quarter it covered about 1.1 million homes with FTTH technology available for service. FTTH sell-in to new customers is at about two-thirds of net additions in areas where the technology is available, the company said.  Penetration of FTTH passings grew to 4.3% compared to 1.0% in Q2 2020. 

Altice said it also is moving forward with its edge-out program, adding 127,000 homes passed in the quarter (39k homes passed excluding Morris Broadband) and 315,000 homes passed in the past twelve months (160,000 homes passed excluding the acquisitions of Morris Broadband and Service Electric Cable T.V. of New Jersey). 

“As the states and businesses in which we operate have been reopening more widely, Altice USA has seen an acceleration in revenue growth led by advertising and business services,” CEO Dexter Goie said in a press release. “Our residential business remains extremely focused on achieving faster broadband customer growth going forward from a faster pace of footprint expansion and network upgrades including fiber. We are delighted to have announced recently the new Optimum Mobile brand as the first step in the company’s plan to align all its connectivity brands under one national Optimum brand, and we continue to invest in innovative new products such as Optimum Stream to support increased video streaming activity which is driving broadband data usage.”

Altice USA said it is rebranding its wireless service across all its business units under the Optimum Mobile name, a move the company said is the first step in the transition to one consumer brand across all its connectivity products. 

The switch to Optimum Mobile will officially occur on July 25. Altice had branded the wireless service, offered via a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement with T-Mobile, across the country under the Altice Mobile brand. Its cable and broadband services are branded as Optimum in its metropolitan New York area markets and under the Suddenlink Communications name in its West and Mid-Atlantic states. Altice USA operates in 21 states across the country.

“Today’s consumer demands reliability, speed and ubiquity when it comes to connectivity,” Altice USA president of telecommunications and chief operating officer Hakim Boubazine said in a press release. “As we unify our brands under one Optimum brand, we will deliver on our promise to provide a consistent and reliable converged connectivity experience to all our customers inside and outside the home.  So, whether it’s Gigabit speed internet service or Optimum Mobile service, customers can expect the most reliable coverage and speed wherever they are.”

The move also comes days after the company launched Optimum Stream, a 4K-capable Android TV device that is free to its 1 Gigabit-per-second broadband-only customers. 

Altice USA first came on the U.S. cable scene with its $9.1 billion purchase of  Suddenlink Communications in 2015. It purchased Cablevision Systems, which originated the Optimum brand, in 2016 for $17.7 billion. 

Cox Media Group and Altice USA/Suddenlink have struck a retransmission consent deal for multiple stations in six markets.

The stations in Tulsa, Okla.; Memphis, Tenn.; Spokane, Wash.; Eureka, Calif.; Greenville-Greenwood, Miss; and Alexandria, La, have been off Suddenlink systems since Jan. 8, when Cox invoking the pandemic and the importance of local station connectivity to argue that Suddenlink had made and anti-consumer decision by not agreeing to a "fair market deal."

Also Read: ACAC: NCTC Retransmission Consent Good Faith Protections Yield Results

So did Suddenlink during the impasse, saying in a statement: “Despite being in the midst of a pandemic when access to affordable news is incredibly critical, Cox Media Group has pulled its channels from Suddenlink TV lineups in certain markets in an effort to extract an exorbitant increase in fees from us and our customers," Suddenlink, part of Altice U.S., said in a statement."

"The parties wish to thank consumers for their patience during this negotiation," the companies said in a statement announcing the pact.

Jon Lafayette contributed to this report.

Cox Media Group TV stations in six markets have gone dark to Suddenlink subscribers in a dispute over retransmission consent fees.

Also Read: Cox Media Group Nears Blackout With Suddenlink

The blackout affects viewers in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Memphis, Tennessee; Spokane, Washington; Eureka, California; Greenville-Greenwood, Mississippi; and Alexandria, Louisiana. 

Both sides blamed the other.

Also Read: Retrans Season Starts With a Bang

“Our country continues to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic and, during these uncertain times, it is more important than ever that our viewers know their trusted local stations are there for them, providing the news and information they need to make decisions for their families. CMG stations take pride in being trusted and vital resources for our communities, and we will fight to continue to fulfill this responsibility,” said Paul Curran, executive VP of television at CMG, controlled by Apollo Global Management.

Also Read: CMG’s Pruett: Station Business Must Innovate

Suddenlink said that CMG was asking for a higher retransmission fee than other broadcasters it works with. It also noted that Cox Media Group owns the stations carrying all of the broadcast networks in Greenwood, Mississippi, and that the dispute left Suddenlink customers there without access to any broadcast programming.

“Despite being in the midst of a pandemic when access to affordable news is incredibly critical, Cox Media Group has pulled its channels from Suddenlink TV lineups in certain markets in an effort to extract an exorbitant increase in fees from us and our customers," Suddenlink, part of Altice U.S., said in a statement. “With so many households across the nation struggling, we call on Cox Media Group to stop holding our customers hostage, return the channels to our lineups, and focus on working with us to negotiate a new deal that is fair to our customers.” 

Cox Media Group stations were blacked out on Dish in July and didn’t return until a deal was reached in December.

Cox Media Group, owned by Apollo Global Management, said its retransmission consent agreement with Suddenlink is about to expire, and could lead to a blackout that would affect stations in six markets.

Read Also: Retrans Season Starts With a Bang

“Rather than reach a fair and reasonable deal with CMG, Suddenlink may instead choose to adversely impact their customers. Now, more than ever, viewers need daily access to important and evolving information on the pandemic, and social and political issues,” CMG said. 

CMG said it has more than 100 distribution agreements in place with other major cable and satellite providers. It added that Suddenlink customers can watch the CMG stations by switching providers.

The CMG stations were blacked out on Dish in July and didn’t return until a deal was reached in December.

“Our country continues to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic and, during these uncertain times, it is more important than ever that our viewers know their trusted local stations are there for them, providing the news and information they need to make decisions for their families," said Paul Curran, CMG’s executive VP of television. "CMG stations take pride in being trusted and vital resources for our communities, and we will fight to continue to fulfill this responsibility.” 

The markets affected are Tulsa, Memphis, Spokane, Eureka, Greenville-Greenwood, and Alexandria.

 We are currently negotiating a new carriage agreement with Cox Media Group and are disappointed that they are threatening to remove their channels from Suddenlink lineups in certain markets in an attempt to extract an exorbitant increase in fees from us and our customers, particularly in the midst of a pandemic when access to affordable local news is more important than ever," Suddenlink and its parent, Altice USA, said in a statement. 

"Cox Media Group is currently demanding higher rates than we pay any other broadcaster, and with programming fees being the greatest contributor to rising cable costs, we urge Cox Media Group to stop its threats and instead focus on negotiating a new agreement that is fair for consumers, especially during these challenging times," the statement said. 

Altice USA stock was up as much as 4.7% in early trading Monday after Sanford Bernstein media analyst Peter Supino upgraded the stock to “outperform,” adding that the shares are woefully undervalued and pointing to potential catalysts in its mid-sized Suddenlink Communications markets.    

Altice USA shares rose as high as $27.27 each, up $1.22 or 4.7%, in early morning trading. The stock was priced at $26.57 each (up 52 cents each or 2%) at 12:05 p.m. on Oct. 5. 

Supino wrote that Altice USA has suffered from sluggish growth in the past, but he believes the underlying fundamentals bottomed out earlier this year. With capital spending associated with its fiber buildout expected to decline as the company nears completion, and the sale of 49% of its Lightpath commercial telecom subsidiary expected to inject about $1.1 billion in cash to the company in Q4, Altice USA will be able to invest more in the business.

Altice USA made an unsolicited offer to purchase Canadian telco Cogeco with Rogers Communications last month, a deal that was soundly rejected by the target’s ruling Audet family. Altice would have purchased Cogeco’s U.S. cable assets -- Atlantic Broadband -- for $3.6 billion while Rogers would acquire its Canadian assets for $4.2 billion. While some analysts had expected Altice and Rogers to increase their offer, so far, the deal appears dead in the water. 

In the meantime, Supino believes that Altice USA should benefit from continuing to expand its homes passed, upgrading under-penetrated Suddenlink passings, modifying its MVNO agreement with T-Mobile and fiber upgrades to existing customers.

“Altice is a cheap stock of a solid business led by a highly incentivized management team,” Supino wrote. He pointed to the stock's low trading multiple (8.4 times cash flow) compared to peers like Charter Communications (11.6 times) Comcast (9.1 times) and Cable One (16.8 times). 

While most investors focus on Altice USA’s New York area markets (sold under the Optimum brand), Supino said its Suddenlink markets could be the “sneaky secular growth driver” for the company.

“Amidst steadily rising demand for bandwidth – a powerful trend long before COVID19 – and with relentless cable upgrades overwhelming DSL competition, small town cable has become a quasi-monopoly on Internet service,” Supino wrote. He added that despite lower purchasing power and dispersed service territories, the rising demand for broadband in rural markets and Suddenlink’s low service penetration rates creates a long-term growth opportunity.

Supino said another opportunity lies in the completion of its fiber buildout, which is expected by the end of 2023. 

“Assuming the project will be completed by year end 2023, 2024 capex should decline by over $300 million year-over-year to our $1 billion forecast, or 9% of revenue,” Supino wrote. “While this percentage may seem hopeful to experienced cable analysts, we point out that Altice's capex minus fiber investment benefits from best-in-class population density and penetration levels. ”

Cable operators across the south and southwest are currently assessing the damage to their systems caused by Hurricane Laura, the storm that raged through parts of Louisiana and south Texas earlier this week.

According to reports, Laura made landfall on Aug. 27 at about 1 a.m. near Cameron, La., 35 miles from the Texas border, leaving a path of destruction with winds of up to 150 mph, heavy rains and flooding. At least six lives were lost in Louisiana. Cities and towns in the path of the storm -- one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the area -- are still assessing the damage. Some reports have as many as one million residents in Texas and Louisiana are without power. 

While it could have been worse  -- initial predictions called for storm surges of more than 20 feet and flooding as far as 40 miles inland, which didn’t happen  -- cable operators and municipalities continue to dig out of the damage from the storm.

At Sparklight, formerly Cable One, systems in Jasper and Sour Lake, Texas and in Shreveport and Monroe, Louisiana were affected by the storm. Sparklight said it is still in the process of assessing the damage. “Thankfully, and most importantly – all of our associates are accounted for and safe,” the company said in an email message.

Altice USA’s Suddenlink Communications has operations in Louisiana and Texas -- including the heavily hit Lake Charles, La. area -- and CEO Dexter Goei told employees in a memo that the company is currently assessing the damage. He added that Altice USA began making preparations for the storm early, ensuring that employees had the resources necessary to stay safe and ready themselves for restoration efforts. That included encouraging local employees to heed mandatory evacuation warnings, closing down and boarding up its local retail stores and other buildings, fueling generators and vehicles, placing out-of-state field teams on standby to assist, and more.

“While we are still waiting to gain access to many of the hardest hit areas, we know that hurricane-force winds have caused extreme damage and there will likely be a long road of recovery ahead for many of the communities we serve,” Goei said in the memo.

Altice USA added that it has dispatched resources to ensure customers are educated on its restoration efforts, and is in close coordination with local utilities and authorities so it can address any issues with its network when the power comes back. 

For its employees who have been displaced, experienced destruction of property or are facing hardship resulting from the storm, Goei noted the Altice USA Employee Disaster Relief Fund is available to provide financial assistance to employees who have been impacted by natural disasters. The program is funded by employee contributions, which are matched by Altice USA up to $50,000 annually.

Cox Communications said the storm represented a significant power outage in its Acadiana, La., system where its retail stores remain closed, adding that it too is assessing damage.  

“Once power is restored and it is safe for our employees, we’ll be working in neighborhoods as needed to reconnect customers,” Cox said in an email.

Comcast also is assessing the damage from the storm, adding that so far it has had power outages in areas like Shreveport and Monroe, La. and Little Rock, Ark. 

“Our teams are out today assessing plant and drop damage today where it’s safe to do so,” Comcast said. 

Altice USA added more broadband customers in the second quarter than ever, spurred by stay at home orders throughout its service territory as the pandemic rages on, and prompting the company to reinstate guidance for the rest of the year.

Altice USA said it added 70,000 broadband customers in the period, more than five times the 13,000 it added in the prior year. Including complimentary Altice Advantage Internet customer net additions, residential broadband customers rose by 79,000 in the quarter. That growth fell to 53,000 additions when adjusted for customers receiving broadband via programs like the FCC Keep America Connected Pledge and a New Jersey order prohibiting companies from disconnecting broadband service for non-payment. But even with the lower number, Altice had its best broadband quarter ever.

At the same time, video subscribers fell by about 35,000 in the period, up from a loss of 21,000 customers in the same period last year.

Like its other cable peers, Altice USA attributed the broadband gains to the pandemic. The company added that internet usage in its service territories rose by 59% in the quarter, while video streaming was up 46% year-over-year. 

Total revenue was up 1% to $2.47 billion and EBITDA grew 2.5% to $1.1 billion.

“Our core cable business performed extremely well, and we remain committed to serving our broader community with the connectivity and news they need during this unprecedented time,” Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei said in a press release. “For the second consecutive quarter, we delivered best-ever customer net additions, driven by organic broadband growth, and increased revenue, net income and Adjusted EBITDA year-over-year. We saw resilience in our Business Services segment, where we grew revenue more than two percent, and began to see a recovery in our News and Advertising business as we exited the quarter. While the pandemic continues to pose some uncertainty in the back half of the year, we are encouraged by the strength and resilience of our business, and by the opportunity set presented.”

As a result, Altice USA has decided to reinstate guidance for the full year -- it withdrew guidance in Q1 because of the pandemic. Now the company said it projects revenue and EBITDA growth for the full year, capital expenditures of $1.3 billion and $1.7 billion in share repurchases. The company has set a year-end leverage target of 4.5 times to 5 times net debt/adjusted EBITDA.

Altice USA is seeking out construction and tech workers willing to sign up for voluntary layoffs that would begin on May 12, in an effort to cut costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a memo sent to employees, Altice USA Technical Services is asking for field service workers in New York state to volunteer for layoffs.

“As you know, earlier this week we shared that we’re seeing consumer behavior affecting field service expectations as well as local conditions and restrictions in our communities impacting some of our construction efforts such as FTTH [fiber-to-the-home] because of state restrictions, municipality closures impacting permitting, and availability from 3rd parties such as utilities due to resource constraints,” the memo stated. “This is causing us to have to make difficult decisions regarding our workforce which will require us to lay some employees off. As we are making these decisions we thought we would first seek to understand if there is anyone within FS [field services], OSP [outside plant], or on FTTH (Long Term Assignment from FS or OSP) who would like to volunteer for consideration to be laid off from the company. The layoff would be effective as of May 12, 2020."

Altice USA confirmed that its Altice Technical Service unit is offering a voluntary option for some techs, field service and outside plant workers to receive severance or remain in their current roles.

According to some former employees, Altice USA is offering those workers who agree to be laid off a severance package that includes two weeks of pay for every year of service and three months of health care coverage.

Like other cable operators during the pandemic, Altice USA has had to lay off workers as shelter-in-place and social distancing orders have taken hold. Altice hasn’t revealed how many workers it has had to let go, but has said it was a small percentage of its total workforce. According to its 10-K annual report, Altice USA has about 10,700 workers.

According to reports, Altice USA closed the Los Angeles studio for its Cheddar streaming news operations in April, resulting in some layoffs. 

 About 700 Altice USA workers are represented by two unions -- the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. CWA represents about 300 Altice USA workers in Brooklyn, N.Y., more than 100 workers in Westchester County, N.Y., and 52 workers in Beckley and Logan, W. Va. IBEW represents about 100 Altice USA workers in Oakland, N.J., and about 126 workers in Nassau County in New York. The CWA local in Westchester is currently in talks with the company to avoid laying off 16 workers at that facility and hopes to reach a deal soon.

“We are currently in negotiations to mitigate the layoffs with Altice and hope to have a workable solution in the near future,” CWA said.

According to some people familiar with the company, Altice USA has laid off about 200 workers in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut areas, which works out to be less than 2% of the total workforce. It couldn’t be determined how many, if any, were let go in its Suddenlink territories in the Midwest, Southeast and Western parts of the country.

In a statement, Altice USA said that it is “well positioned” in the current environment, given the increased reliance on its networks and services. In the first quarter, Altice USA lost about 42,000 video customers and gained 50,000 high-speed Internet subscribers, both ahead of analysts’ expectations.

“At the same time, the pandemic and its impact on society have prompted us to evaluate the way we do business, including how we are managing our workforce to best support the immediate needs of our customers while also preparing for how we will operate in the future as consumers’ needs evolve,” Altice USA said in a statement. In the past several weeks Altice US has offered premium pay to customer-facing, contact center and news field employees and created a $10 million community relief program to help assist local communities during the pandemic.

“Regretfully, we also made the difficult decision to lay off a small percentage of employees, and while these decisions are never made lightly, we are providing severance and our full support to impacted employees,” Altice continued in the statement. “We communicated to these employees in mid-April.”

Altice USA said it is offering a premium pay increase to employees in customer-facing field service and retail positions in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Effective immediately and retroactive to March 28, Altice USA employees in customer-facing roles will receive a 20% pay premium increase based on hours worked, the company said.

Related: Facing Up to COVID-19

Altice has taken several steps to battle the coronavirus outbreak. As of April 2, it said most of its employee base is now working remotely. To assist at-home connectivity for its workers, the company is increasing the complimentary data speed offering provided to its employees to 200 megabits per second. In addition, the company is:

• Offering paid administrative leave, in addition to sick, personal and vacation time, for employees who are quarantined or diagnosed with COVID-19.
  

• For the essential work that cannot be conducted from home, Altice USA has introduced a series of preventative measures including:
• Increasing the frequency and intensity of cleaning and disinfecting in locations that remain open;
• Adjusting practices in call centers and implementing zoning to ensure the recommended social distancing guidelines;
• Limiting the number of customers inside open retail stores; and
• Changing procedures for technicians entering customer homes, which includes, among other measures: taking daily temperature checks; making pre-calls to ensure a customer is not sick; providing nitrile gloves, hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes to be used during service visits; and having technicians use personal remote devices to avoid touching customer equipment.

Altice USA also has opened its Altice Advantage broadband service for free for 60 days to any households with K-12 and/or college students who do not currently have home internet access. The company also joined the Federal Communications Commission’s “Keep Americans Connected Pledge,” which provides relief to customers impacted by the pandemic.

Altice USA said it is making live and on demand content from several networks available to its Optimum and Suddenlink customers through April 22 in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Beginning March 27, Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Drama, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Cooking Channel, DIY Network, Science Channel, and Discovery Family will be available to its customers through April 22nd at no additional cost.

“We are pleased to provide our customers with an expanded selection of engaging family-friendly content during this unprecedented time,” Altice USA chief operating officer Hakim Boubazine said in a press release. “We hope our customers enjoy the wide variety of original programming as well as the live and on-demand content offered by these great networks.” 

In response to COVID-19, Altice USA has been active to ensure people within the communities it serves have reliable access to high-speed broadband connectivity and is providing its Altice Advantage offering to new households with students that don’t have internet access for free for 60 days. The company also signed the FCC’s ‘Keep Americans Connected’ pledge to provide relief to customers impacted by this pandemic.

Several cable and satellite TV distributors will be watching the clock New Year's Eve, in hopes they can avoid blackouts of local broadcast stations and cable networks as the New Year approaches.

The biggest of those deals is the negotiation between the National Cable Television Cooperative, a group of more than 700 small cable operators representing about 3 million viewers, and Fox Corp. Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, FS1 and FS2, Fox Soccer Plus and Fox Deportes were scheduled to go dark at midnight, and as of mid-day were apparently no closer to a deal. In addition, NCTC members will have to negotiate retrans deals for several Fox owned and operated TV stations whose deals expire at midnight separately from the co-op.  

Hearst Television’s 34 stations across the country were set to go dark to DirecTV and AT&T TV Now customers at midnight, and so far, there seems to be no indication a deal is imminent. UPDATE: Hearst said the agreement has been extended to Jan. 3 at 5 p.m. ET.

UPDATE2: Hearst stations went dark on Jan. 3, after a 7 p.m. extension passed with no deal.  

“Hearst has a long history of successfully concluding carriage agreements with cable companies and other satellite distributors with no disruption of service to subscribers,” Hearst said on its station websites.  “While we hope to conclude our negotiations before December 31st, so as not to deprive any of our respective viewers and customers of our programming, we want to advise our viewers and customers that the possibility of non-renewal of our current agreement exists.”

In a statement AT&T said it was "disappointed" that Hearst has decided to negotiate in public, but expressed some optimism that a deal could be reached.

"We want to keep Hearst’s local stations in our customers’ lineups but must have Hearst’s permission," AT&T said in its statement. "We remain on the side of consumer choice and value, whereas Hearst is known to often withhold its stations to try to increase its fees for free broadcast TV. Consumers deserve more choice over which channels they want to pay for – especially ones they can choose to get free – and the freedom to decide where, when and on what device they can watch any favorite programs. We hope to avoid a suspension of any Hearst stations and appreciate our customers’ patience while we work to settle this matter privately."

Mediacom Communications is still in talks with Nexstar Media Group for its stations in Iowa and elsewhere. Sources familiar with both companies said earlier that talks had slowed, but now that Nexstar has reached a retrans deal with the much larger Comcast Cable, perhaps those negotiations could accelerate. UPDATE: Mediacom and Nexstar cut a deal and averted a blackout.

Nexstar officials said they have reached retrans agreements with Comcast -- which Comcast also confirmed -- covering more than 90 of their stations across the country, and with Frontier Communications. Terms of those deals were not disclosed and Nexstar had no further comment. 

Related: Nexstar, Tegna Reach Retrans Deals With Comcast 

Tegna, which also reached a retransmission consent agreement with Comcast earlier, is still talking with Altice USA’s Suddenlink Communications unit and hopes to hammer out a deal by midnight. About 20 Tegna stations, including CBS affiliate KTHV in Little Rock, Ark.; NBC affiliate WKYC in Cleveland; ABC affiliate WFAA in Dallas; and Fox affiliate KIDY in Abilene, Texas are set to go dark at 10:59 p.m. (Central Time) if a deal can’t be reached. Another Tegna station -- Fox affiliate WTIC in Hartford, Connecticut is scheduled to go dark at midnight (Eastern Time) to Altice USA’s Optimum customers in that market at midnight, minus an agreement.

On their websites, the Tegna stations say they have reached agreements with other distributors and that its properties are “committed to reaching fair, market-based agreements with all the video service providers in our area. Our track record proves it. ...It has been disappointing that Suddenlink, so far, has refused to reach an agreement.”

UPDATE: Tegna and Suddenlink reached an agreement Tuesday night, avoiding a blackout of stations. 

"Tegna has reached a multi-year agreement with Suddenlink with no interruption of service to viewers," the broadcaster said in a statement. 

Altice USA may have unlocked the secret to making promotions and promotional pricing work for cable: never let them end.

While the rest of the industry tries to wean itself off promotional pricing, Altice USA began a “Price for Life” campaign in its Optimum and Suddenlink footprints this month, offering new customers more than 220 video channels and internet service at 200 Megabits per second for $64.99 per month (not including taxes, fees and other charges) for as long as they have service with the company.

For customers who need a little more video and internet, “Price for Life” has three other tiers. Select includes over 340 channels and 200 Mbps internet for $74.99; Core TV has more than 220 video channels and 400 Mbps for $84.99; and Premier TV has over 420 channels (including premium channels HBO and Showtime) and 200 Mbps for $94.99.

The price points are the same as previous offers, with an added “for life” component. New customers also get a $100 Amazon gift card, can add digital phone service for an additional $5 per month and all of the packages utilize the company’s Altice One wireless hub platform.

Altice USA said the “Price for Life” packages help solve one of the biggest problems of promotional periods: the sticker shock a consumer feels when that period rolls off. That traditionally leads to heavy churn, but with no contract and no pressure, customers stay longer. Eventually, usually around the two-year mark, customers will find that they want higher internet speeds and upgrade to larger packages.

“This essentially eliminates the pain point of promotional rolloffs,” an Altice spokesperson said.

While programming costs tend to rise over time, the idea is that, in two or three years, customers will likely feel the need for an internet upgrade. And when they do, most likely to a higher price point, it will be their choice.

Revenue rose 4% and cash flow was up nearly 8% in the fourth quarter at Altice USA, driven by stable growth in broadband and improved video performance.

Altice ended the quarter with 15,000 fewer video subscribers, an improvement over the loss of 25,000 pay TV customers in the prior year.Broadband gains at 22,000 in the period were on par with the prior year gain of 25,000 customers.

That performance helped drive revenue up by 4% to $2.45 billion and cash flow up 7.8% to $1.1 billion in the quarter. For the full year, revenue rose 2.1% to $9.6 billion and cash flow increased by 4.6% to $4.2 billion.

"Altice USA has once again delivered great financial performance, meeting all of our guidance targets for 2018, and hitting many more operational milestones,” Altice USA Chief Executive Officer Dexter Goei said in a press release. “Throughout the year, we drove improved subscriber trends and accelerated revenue growth, achieved our highest ever margins, and generated material growth in free cash flow. We enter 2019 continuing on our fast- paced journey defined by innovation and simplicity to deliver state-of-the-art connectivity services, advanced business solutions and high-quality content.”

Altice USA met its 2018 guidance expectations of 2.5% to 3% revenue growth for the full year. Capex at $1.15 billion was in line with guidance of capital expenditures of less than $1.3 billion.

For 2019, Altice USA said it expects revenue growth of 2.5% to 3% with capex expected to rise slightly to between $1.3 and $1.4 billion.

Newsmax TV said it has reached a carriage agreement with Altice US that will put the conservative news channel in front of the cable operator’s Optimum customers in the New York market initially, expanding to its mostly Midwestern Suddenlink subscribers within one year.

The network said it will be carried as part of Optimum’s expanded basic package in the New York metro area.

Newsmax TV says it is currently available in 65 million U.S. homes and is carried by all major Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (MVPDs), including DirecTV, Comcast/Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Verizon Fios, AT&T U-verse, Dish, Sling, TMO/Layer 3, plus more than two dozen other cable systems. The channel says it expects to reach as many as 80 million homes by the end of 2019.

“Altice USA is one of the most influential cable operators in the nation, and we’re proud they chose to make Newsmax part of their line-up,” Newsmax Media CEO Christopher Ruddy said in a press release.

"Newsmax is filling a growing demand for more independent perspectives on the news today, and we are pleased to add Altice USA to its growing list of distribution partners," added Cathy Rasenberger, President of Rasenberger Media, who handles Newsmax' distribution efforts in a press release.

Newsmax TV offers about 12 original hours of news and content each day and gives viewers the opportunity to engage in the shows via call-ins, Skype and social media video, and live chat feeds. The channel also provides practical health, finance, and lifestyle segments, as well as news documentaries during overnights and weekends.

After about five weeks in the dark, Altice USA customers will get access to the Starz premium channel, after the companies reached a long-term carriage deal that also allows the cable operator to sell the programmer’s standalone app to its customers.  

Starz went dark to Altice customers on Jan.1, mainly because of pricing. Altice USA was particularly peeved that the premium channel offered its standalone app to customers for $8.99 per month. Altice USA charged about $11.95 per month for the service. What followed was a sometimes contentious back and forth between the two companies, including filing petitions with the Federal Communications Commission to intervene.

Those differences appear to have been ironed out with the new deal, which includes the full suite of Starz and Starz Encore premium linear and HD channels, On-Demand, HD On-Demand and online services across the Optimum and Suddenlink cable systems. The agreement also allows for Altice USA to sell the Starz App to their customers on the new Altice One entertainment service, as well as broader digital rights including TV Everywhere. The deal also secures Starz's packaging position and expands its subscriber base.

“Our goal is to give customers the flexibility, choice and entertainment they want at a great value, and we appreciate their patience while we worked to reach a deal that was in their best interest,” said Hakim Boubazine, co-president and chief operating officer of Altice USA in a statement. “Through this new expanded arrangement, we are pleased to provide Starz’s wide array of programming on traditional and digital platforms, and look forward to working with Starz to continue to serve the diverse needs of our customer base across the U.S.”

Jeffrey Hirsch, Starz chief operating officer, said: “Starz is very pleased that both companies found a mutually beneficial way to expand our relationship over the next several years to offer the best content possible to millions of Altice USA subscribers. In addition to the thousands of blockbuster and library movies Starz offers, we believe Altice USA values our company’s programming commitment to create and deliver premium quality original series that serve traditionally underserved audiences. By working together, both companies are in a stronger position to provide the best content and products to our shared customers.”

For more information about channel line ups and timing, Optimum customers can visit Optimum.net/starz and Suddenlink customers can visit Suddenlink.com/starz.

(Photo credit: Howard Silk/Howard Prime.)

Altice USA has told the FCC to disregard Starz's petition for injunctive relief. The operator says the petition was procedurally defective, has no basis in law or fact or policy, and was simply an effort to manipulate the regulatory process for its business ends.

Those ends would be to get its programming back on the MSO's Optimum and Suddenlink cable systems. Starz asked the FCC earlier this month to intervene to get its networks back on Altice USA's Optimum systems in New York. The company had first filed a petition for declaratory ruling with the FCC, following that up last week with the emergency petition for injunctive relief.

Altice USA said it was an untimely petition because it was an emergency petition filed three weeks after the channels came off Jan. 1. Had it been an emergency, Altice argued, Starz would have filed the emergency petition before that.

The MSO also said Starz is engaging in a campaign to mislead customers and "disrupt" Altice USA call centers.

The cable operator also disputes Starz's assertion that it did not give its customers adequate notice of the blackout. "The FCC requires that cable operators provide customers notice of programming changes at least thirty days in advance of the change when the change is within the control of the cable operator," Altice said. "In this case, Altice did not know that an agreement for carriage would not be reached, despite its numerous offers, until December 31, 2017."

Related: 50 Cent Takes Starz-Optimum Feud Personally

Altice USA said its negotiations with Starz broke down not from any violation of FCC rules but because Starz wanted more than the MSO was willing to pay and pass along to its customers.

Starz wants Altice USA to "restore carriage of Starz, StarzEncore and Movieplex for the FCC-required 30-day notice period; correct Altice’s misleading and false disclosures regarding its deletions of Starz’s channels; and respond to consumer inquiries and complaints in compliance with FCC rules."

Related: New York Reps Push Altice, Starz to Reach Carriage Deal

Altice said Starz has not come close to meeting the threshold for an emergency stay, which is a showing of irreparable harm absent a stay (Altice said several million subs losing access to Starz is not such harm), the likelihood of success on the case's merits, that Altice would not be harmed by the stay, or that the public interest favors the requested stay.

Premium network Starz went dark to about 4.6 million Altice USA customers at midnight, with the cable operator suggesting that those that still want access to the service subscribe to the Starz standalone over-the-top product.

Starz had warned customers earlier this week that it could reach an impasse in its negotiations with Altice USA, which offers service in the New York metropolitan area under the Optimum brand and in the Midwest as Suddenlink. Starz had claimed Altice USA had refused to negotiate in good faith, while Altice chafed at what it claimed were pricing demands that would make the service more costly to its customers than if they just purchased the OTT product. In the end, Altice decided to let customers do just that, after Starz declined its offers, including one to extend its current agreement.

RELATED: Comcast Won't Authenticate Subs for Starz' New App

"We are focused on providing the best content experience for our customers and continually evaluate which channels meet their needs and preferences relative to the cost of the programming imposed by content owners,” Altice said in a statement. “Given that Starz is available to all consumers directly through Starz' own over-the-top streaming service, we don't believe it makes sense to charge all of our customers for Starz programming, particularly when their viewership is declining and the majority of our customers don't watch Starz. We believe it is in the best interest of all our customers to replace Starz and StarzEncore programming with alternative entertainment channels that will provide a robust content experience at a great value."

Starz’ streaming product is available for about $8.99 per month. Altice said customers seeking more information can do so by visiting Optimum.net/starz.

Starz stuck to its guns in a brief statement, adding that it is willing to continue to try to hammer out a deal.

"Altice has shown an unwillingness to negotiate in good faith to the detriment of our shared customers, and they have removed Starz from their platform," Starz said in a statement. "We remain available to discuss a fair and reasonable agreement that will serve the interests of our loyal subscribers."

While Altice said Optimum or Suddenlink customers can still access Starz through the OTT service, it is launching replacement channels for customers who previously received Starz or StarzEncore as part of a video package, including Hallmark Drama, Sony Movies, MGM HD, HD Net Movies, Flix, and Cowboy Channel. Certain customers will also receive a complimentary subscription to TMC.

Despite Altice’s claims that its viewership within its footprint is declining, Starz says it has the No. 2 and No. 4 top drama in premium television and its programming has resonated with African-Americans and the LGTBQ communities. Power is the No. 1 show among African-Americans on premium television and also ranks high (No. 2) in African-American households in Altice’s footprint. And Outlander continues to attract high ratings among female viewers – it was 2017’s No. 2 scripted series behind HBO’s Game of Thrones, per Starz.

Altice USA customers who previously purchased Starz a la carte will have the option to receive another premium service or they can purchase the Starz OTT service directly through Starz (for less, Altice claims, than what it would be able to charge if it agreed to the network’s demands). 

Charter Communications and Altice USA have agreed to carry their respective regional news networks, with Charter’s New York-centric Spectrum News NY1 channel available to Altice’s Optimum TV customers and Optimum’s i24NEWS Network debuting across Charter’s footprint today.

Spectrum News NY1 is available to Optimum TV customers in HD in Long Island, Westchester County and the Hudson Valley region in New York; Northern Bergen County and Morris County in New Jersey; and in Stamford and Bridgeport, Conn., as part of a multi-year agreement between the two providers. 

“We are excited about the partnership with Altice USA, and believe it is the perfect complement to NY1’s commitment to deliver news that is essential to the daily lives of all New Yorkers,” Spectrum Networks SVP of operations and integration Dan Ronayne said in a release. “By expanding our distribution, we are now able to deliver NY1’s hyper-local coverage of New York City news, politics and transit beyond the five boroughs.” 

With the deal NY1’s availability expands to more than 3 million Spectrum and Optimum TV households, on channel 98 in most areas. NY1 is also available in HD to Optimum TV customers in the Bronx and Brooklyn on channel 8.

As part of the agreement, Charter will launch Optimum’s i24NEWS across its footprint and News 12 Networks in its Western Connecticut systems. News 12 Networks is currently available to Spectrum TV customers in the New York area. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

MCN Flashback (2015): News12, NY1 Drive 70% of NY-Area News Tune-Ins

According to Altice USA, i24NEWS will initially be available to Charter’s Spectrum Silver customers and will expand across the footprint by Dec. 1.

“We are excited to bring our programming and in-depth news analysis from i24NEWS to Charter’s Spectrum customers,” said i24NEWS CEO Frank Melloul in a statement. “i24NEWS provides unique content that features localized news infused with global conversation and we look forward to becoming a go-to source for domestic and international news for Spectrum customers.”  

i24NEWS launched in the United States in January and is available on Altice USA’s Optimum and Suddenlink systems, Mediacom systems and now Charter’s Spectrum systems.

MoffettNathanson principal and senior analyst Craig Moffett initiated coverage of Altice USA with a “neutral” rating and a $28 per share price target on its stock, adding that despite its early success, the cable operator’s cost-cutting initiatives will get harder to achieve as time progresses.

Altice USA burst on the scene in 2015, first as a dark horse buyer for Time Warner Cable – it lost out to Charter Communications – and later as the purchaser of Suddenlink Communications and Cablevision Systems. Altice USA, led by European telecom guru and John Malone disciple Patrick Drahi, was going to bring European management techniques to the U.S. cable business, drastically cut costs and make the business more efficient. At the time of its Cablevision purchase – for a hefty $17.7 billion –  Altice said it would cut $900 million in costs out of that New York area business, which raised eyebrows.

Since then Altice said it has come closer to that goal and embarked on an ambitious five-year fiber-to-the-home buildout that it claims will bring even more efficiencies to the network. In the second quarter, cash flow increased 22%, more than double its peers, largely resulting from those cost cutting and efficiency efforts.

In his note, Moffett said that so far Altice USA has reduced its non-programming operating expenses per subscriber by almost 20%.

“But getting the rest will be much harder,” Moffett wrote, adding that the combination of continued cord-cutting pressure and an aggressive $80 per month 1-Gigabit per second broadband offering from rival Verizon may be too tough for the company to overcome.

“Verizon’s broadband offering steals the thunder from what would otherwise be Altice’s pressure release valve,” Moffett wrote, adding that he believes Altice will be able to raise profit margins but only at the expense of growth.

“There is no free lunch,” he continued.

Altice USA went public in June at $30 each and the stock rose quickly, mainly on deal speculation. But as that chatter has waned, so have the shares. Altice USA was priced at $25.97 each, down 3% (78 cents) in early trading Oct. 11. 

Moffett also was skeptical of the cost savings Altice could extract from it fully fibered network, and doubted that the operator would be able to significantly add to its scale via acquisition.

Altice USA was said to have been lining up bankers for a bid for Charter Communications earlier this year, although that speculation has died down considerably. Charter has made it clear it is not interested in a deal.

But Moffett thinks that Altice USA’s other perennial target – Cox Communications, which also has said repeatedly it is not for sale – isn’t any more feasible.

“There appears no realistic path by which Altice can achieve meaningful scale in the U.S.,” Moffett wrote. “A Charter acquisition is out of reach. Cox appears uninterested in selling especially to Altice. Comcast? Ha. That leaves only table scraps. Small acquisitions (of under 1 million subscribers each) are possible, but there aren’t many of those out there. Very small acquisitions (of under 200,000 subscribers) are plentiful, but too costly to integrate. The window on being big enough to ‘matter’ has already closed.”

Altice USA said it will provide customer support and employee assistance as part of the company’s Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.

As part of that, Altice USA said it’s making a $50,000 donation to the Red Cross of Texas, and is providing the Red Cross with free advertising time across its Optimum and Suddenlink systems nationwide.

Altice USA, which acquired Suddenlink in late 2015, said it’s also in contact with local officials to determine how donations made by its employees may be utilized to help the affected communities.

Related: Comcast Temporarily Suspends Operations in Houston

Altice USA said it has also implemented the following measures:

-Customer accounts for those who have lost service due to flooding will be credited for equipment and services dating back to August 25.

-Suddenlink customers will not be charged for lost or damaged equipment.

-An Employee Disaster Relief Fund has been established to assist employees directly affected by Hurricane Harvey, and the company will match the employee contributions.

-Altice USA employee volunteers from around the country are traveling to assist the Company and its employees with customer restoration and recovery efforts.

Related: More Cell Sites Out, Cable Outages From Harvey

The operator said its employees are “working around the clock” where physical access has been permitted, including Victoria, Texas, to assist affected Suddenlink customers, local communities and employees.

Additionally, the Suddenlink retail store in Victoria (105 Industrial Dr.) is open and will provide free WiFi and charging stations for all residents, the company said.

Viacom channels began returning to the lineups in Suddenlink systems across the country this week after a three-year drought, part of an earlier carriage renewal agreement with the cable company’s parent Altice USA.

Suddenlink dropped the Viacom channels in September 2014 when the distributor was an independent company, claiming the networks were too costly. They stayed off even after Suddenlink was acquired by European telecom company Altice N.V., in 2015 and its purchase of Cablevision Systems a year later. Cablevision, now Altice USA’s Optimum unit, already had a carriage deal with Viacom and offered the channels to its subscribers.

In May, Altice USA reached a comprehensive carriage renewal agreement with Viacom that returned the channels to Suddenlink. In July, CEO Dexter Goei said 16 Viacom channels would return to Suddenlink systems beginning in August, with the rollout complete to 90% of its footprint by the end of the year. Viacom offers about two-dozen networks, and Altice USA did not specify which channels would return.

An Altice USA spokesperson said the initial launch areas for the channels include markets in Texas and Oklahoma and the networks will continue to be rolled out across the footprint in the coming months. Suddenlink has about 1.1 million TV customers.

Altice USA said it has launched 1 Gbps broadband service to four more Suddenlink markets:  Batesville and El Dorado, Ark.; Maryville, Mo; and Conroe, Texas.

In addition to launching 1-Gig service there, broadband subs in those markets will also see speeds of certain other tiers rise. Those who have been getting downstream speeds up to 75 Mbps and  100 Mbps, will be automatically upgraded to speeds up to 100 Mbps and 200 Mbps, respectively.

Currently, the standard Suddenlink residential internet download speeds in each region are now up to 50, 100, 200, and 400 Mbps, along with the new up to 1 Gbps.

Altice acquired Suddenlink Communications in December 2015, and has been moving forward on a 1-Gig initiative announced by Suddenlink in 2014 that focused on DOCSIS 3.0 technology on its HFC plant. Altice USA is also pushing ahead with a major FTTP upgrade.

RELATED: Suddenlink Unveils ‘Operation GigaSpeed’

“Today’s announcement is the next step in Altice USA’s Operation GigaSpeed initiative to provide gigabit broadband service to our Suddenlink customers,” Altice USA co-president and COO Hakim Boubazine said in a statement.  “We are pleased that Suddenlink’s ultra-fast gigabit service is now available in all of the neighborhoods and to all of the households and businesses we serve throughout these four new ‘Gig Cities’.”

Boubazine noted that local businesses will also have access to the new gigabit service, along with customized services that deliver multi-gigabit speeds.

Two days after it cranked up the hype amplifier to eleven in announcing its new rebranding initiative, Altice USA said it has reached a comprehensive carriage and advanced advertising deal with Viacom that will include the return of the programmer’s channels to its Suddenlink systems in the Midwest.

Viacom and Altice were light on details of the agreement. The advanced ad portion sounds interesting – Altice is putting a lot of effort and resources into the targeted ad space, buying Audience Partners in March and using its set-top box data to help ad buyers and sellers focus their messages. Viacom has been an early proponent of advanced advertising, given that its youthful audience is what advertisers covet the most. But again, details were light. In a statement, Viacom and Altice said the two will form a partnership that marries Altice’s audience data and platforms with Viacom’s advanced ad offerings “to deliver local and national advertising across multiple screens, including TV, mobile, tablet and desktop.”

But for my money the most interesting part is the return, after almost three years, of Viacom’s cable channels to Suddenlink’s 1.1 million customers. It was in 2014 that Suddenlink followed Cable One in pushing Viacom out its respective cable door, claiming that the programmer was simply trying to force it to buy networks it didn't want. Cable One may have fired the first shot in the bundle wars, but Suddenlink, which today has more than twice the video customers of the Phoenix-based operator, fired the loudest.

Since then there has been a hue and cry for smaller, cheaper video packages and Viacom has been shut out of some deals for over-the-top providers – YouTube TV and Hulu Live TV. This month it was revealed that Charter Communications, the second largest cable operator in the country, was relegating Viacom’s six core networks to its priciest tier for new customers. Viacom has said it doesn’t believe Charter has the right to do that and is in discussions with the operator. On Monday Viacom’s new CEO Bob Bakish said the programmer was in “very advanced discussions” to create a streaming entertainment package that would retail for $10 to $20 per month. 

Before it was purchased by Altice in December 2015, Suddenlink said the loss of the Viacom networks had little effect, and beefed up its lineup with low-cost replacements like Revolt.TV, The Blaze and Comedy.TV. When Altice later purchased Cablevision Systems, which had a Viacom carriage deal, many were waiting to see how long it would be before the two operators would sync up their programming lineups.

When Altice launched its rebranding initiative on Tuesday under the concept of “One Brand, One Group,” it seemed to scream the logic behind similar channel lineups. 

But just how many Viacom channels Altice will carry is up in the air. In announcing the deal, Altice said that “a number” of the Viacom networks would return to Suddenlink. It also said that its former Cablevision systems, which operate under the Optimum name, renewed its carriage deal with the programmer’s "premier networks."

When asked to elaborate, neither side would offer details. An Altice spokesperson said the company would communicate to customers directly about changes to their programming lineups.

In a research note, Sanford Bernstein media analyst Todd Juenger wrote that the Optimum carriage deal was set to expire on Sept. 30, the end of Viacom’s fiscal year. But Juenger was intrigued by the wording of the joint company statement just like we were, and came to a similar conclusion – the Optimum deal probably is for fewer Viacom networks.

“We did expect Altice would insist on carrying fewer Viacom networks – which is exactly what has seemed to happen, based on this text from the press release,” Juenger wrote.

In February, Viacom said it would focus on six core channels – MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, Nick Jr. and Paramount. That led some to believe, including Juenger, that Viacom’s 19 other networks would eventually disappear.

Whether that means anything with this deal is unknown. We don’t know which networks will be included when the new deal kicks in until it does. Right now, according to the Optimum web site, about 16 Viacom networks are carried.

While Juenger expressed concern and has been an outspoken critic of Viacom in the past (he has an "underperform" rating on the stock), other analysts appeared to be more optimistic regarding carriage of the networks, with several saying the deal involves most of the programmer’s channels at healthy price increases.

Jeffries & Co. media analyst John Janedis, who has a “buy” rating on Viacom, estimated that the carriage deal would return “the flagship 6 and many other networks,” praising the advanced ad component of the agreement. Janedis estimated that while the deal is short on details, he figured it is similar to other pacts and falls within the framework allowed by Most Favored Nation clauses.

“With that framework, we assume annual escalators in the MSD [mid-single digit percentage] range and a five-year term,” he wrote.

Guggenheim Securities media analyst Michael Morris, who also has a “buy” rating on Viacom, was equally optimistic, estimating a five-year deal with annual price escalators in the mid-single digit range. Morris also estimated that in the nearly three years since it dropped the Viacom networks, Suddenlink has lost 150,000 video customers, a 12% decline compared to 3% for the cable industry and 4% for pay TV providers over the same period.

JP Morgan media analyst Alexia Quadrani – who rates Viacom “overweight” – joined the chorus in her report. Quadrani estimated that it may take a while for the full effect of the agreement to be realized.

 “Although we believe it may take a few months for the networks to be added to the Suddenlink service, suggesting a benefit only at the very end of the fiscal year, we also expect almost all except two very small networks (such as NickMusic) to be added to the platform,” Quadrani wrote. She too estimated mid-single price escalators, citing Bakish’s comments at the JP Morgan conference Monday.

Wunderlich Securities media analyst Matt Harrigan also saw positives in the deal, even if it doesn’t include all of Viacom’s networks.

"We do not look for any effect on near-term 2017 estimates given the lateness in the fiscal year, but we are very encouraged on the incremental afforded stability and potential template for agreements with other distributors -- even if not all Viacom networks are included, " Harrigan wrote. 

Bank of America Merrill Lynch media analyst Jessica Reif Cohen released a report Friday that was extremely detailed -- she wrote that all but two small digital networks were included in the deal and that it extends Viacom's carriage rates and escalators "well into" the next decade.  

"We believe the deal marks a significant positive for Viacom’s turnaround strategy, which has been focused in part on improving the company’s relations with its key distributors, returning affiliate fee growth rates to normalized rate escalator levels and delivering value to distributors for the good of the Pay TV ecosystem," Reif Cohen wrote. 

In the announcement, Altice said Viacom’s networks include “Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, Nick Jr., VH1, Spike (which will be rebranded as the Paramount Network in 2018), TV Land, and CMT, among others.” That’s more than the core six, but far short of the 25 networks in the company’s programming stable.

For his part, Juenger stands behind his past comments, adding in an e-mail message that he is simply basing his assumptions on Viacom’s own statements. And he wondered why Viacom didn’t just come out and say which networks were involved, like it has in the past.

Viacom, like other programmers has to be careful about the wording when announcing these deals so as not to violate non-disclosure agreements.

But most programmers, Viacom included, have had no problem in specifically delineating what networks are involved in carriage agreements. In the past year Viacom has announced two carriage renewals with Cox Communications and Dish Network that either specifically listed every network included or given the number of networks included in the deal. Granted, as part of the Dish renewal announcement, the satellite carrier's over-the-top service Sling TV agreed to carry Viacom networks "including Comedy Central, BET, Spike, MTV, Nick Jr. and many others." Specific packaging details were not announced for that service. But for Dish, Viacom said the deal included the 18 networks it was already carrying, "including Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, Spike, BET, CMT, TV Land, Nick Jr., and Nicktoons." And in a carriage deal with OTT service DirecTV Now reached last October, Viacom listed 11 networks -- Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, Spike, BET, CMT, TV Land, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., and Logo -- when the deal actually included 15 channels. DirecTV Now also carries Teen Nick, MTV2, MTV Classic, Centric and Nicktoons.  

Maybe Altice USA did decide to take all of Viacom's networks at healthy price increases. It as an IPO coming up by the end of the year -- it filed documents in April -- and maybe it didn't want to rock the boat with an extended carriage fight. But Altice has been extremely aggressive when it comes to seeking out cost efficiencies -- it said it shaved half of the expected $900 million in cost savings from the former Cablevision systems last year.   

And maybe it doesn't matter. So far investors took the announcement in stride – Viacom stock closed at $34.90 per share on Wednesday, up 16 cents. And Juenger said the deal is probably a wash – the good news is carriage has returned to Suddenlink, the bad news is that maybe Optimum is carrying fewer Viacom channels.

But if the number is low, there could be future implications for Viacom in other deals with other carriers, Juenger added in his research note. And depending on what the over-the-top “entertainment package” Bakish has touted actually looks like, it could influence what MVPDs are willing and able to pay for Viacom’s core channels.

And that could have broader implications for other programmers, who are struggling with lower ratings and a traditional distribution base that is increasingly chafing at high content costs. Analysts in the past liked to call Viacom the “canary in the coal mine,” mainly because its youthful audience adopted trends well before older-skewing networks. Let’s hope this one doesn’t end up being a trend that leaves other programmers gasping for air.

Altice USA and Viacom said they have signed a new distribution and advertising deal that returns Viacom’s cable networks to Suddenlink subscribers.

The deal also continues carriage of Viacom’s networks on Optimum systems and creates new advertising opportunities using Altice’s data and platforms combined with Viacom’s advanced advertising products.

Related: Altice USA Looks to Expand Content Reach

“We are pleased to establish a new partnership between Altice USA and Viacom,” said Michael Schreiber, chief content officer of Altice USA. “Our joint efforts to find flexible and creative solutions will benefit Altice USA's customers as we look to provide the best video experience in our markets, build on our innovative data-driven advertising capabilities, and provide our customers with access to Viacom’s marquee programming.”

Related: Viacom's Bakish Says Streaming ‘Entertainment Pack’ Talks Are ‘Advanced’

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Bethpage, N.Y. – Shortly after rallying the troops as part of a worldwide rebranding effort, Altice chairman Patrick Drahi told reporters that he was pleased with his company’s purchase of the former Cablevision Systems, and hinted at future moves to come.

Drahi was at Altice USA headquarters here with top executives at the firm as they announced a new logo and tagline “Together Has No Limits.” In addition to speeches by Altice USA chairman and CEO Dexter Goei and Altice CEO Michel Combes, the company beamed presentations by executives in Israel, France, Portugal and the Dominican Republic to its locations worldwide via satellite.

After the presentations, Drahi held court with several reporters representing all the company’s markets.

The U.S. is Altice’s newest market – it purchased Cablevision in June and Suddenlink Communications in December 2015 – and Drahi remembered the criticism he endured especially for the Cablevision purchase, which at $17.7 billion, many analysts believed was too costly.

“I like to prove to the outside world that I am right,” Drahi said of the Cablevision purchase. “When we announced the Cablevision purchase, Altice [stock] crashed. The results we have had and the potential we have are bigger than I thought. Everything we expected when we bought the company has been delivered. And I see more.”

Altice had originally said it would take about $900 million in costs out of the business over several years, a goal many analysts saw as overly ambitious. Recently the company said it had achieved about half of that goal in December.

Over the course of two days executives walked reporters through several of the company’s U.S. businesses, pointing to opportunities in advanced advertising through its cable systems and data analytics firms like Teads and Audience Partners, potential expansion of its hyper-local news channels News 12 Networks and its international news network i24, and its plan to build a state of the art fiber-to-the-home network via its project “Generation Gigaspeed.”

While Optimum has lost about 60,000 video customers between March 31, 2016 and March 31, 2017, it has added about 56,000 broadband subscribers.  At the same time revenue has increased about 6.8% from $1.44 billion to $1.55 billion and cash flow has increased 35% from $441.3 million to $596.8 million. And the company intends to commit “billions of dollars” to building out its fiber network over a period of years, Goei said.

While the initial public offering for its Altice USA business awaits approval, Drahi said he continues to look for intriguing assets. While he would not identify any specific targets, he said he looks everywhere.

“I have discussions with everybody because I am an open guy,” Drahi said. “I like different cultures, so I like to discuss with Israelis, Americans, The Dominican Republic, the French, everybody,” Drahi said. “But you cannot buy everything at the same time. So it depends on what is available, what is the price, what is the future, what do you think about interest rates, what do you think about economics, do you thin Europe is going to recover, do think the US  will grow like that, do you think Israel is better? This is a big part of my decision making”

Drahi mentioned that Altice USA is the fourth largest cable operator in the country and the eight largest telecom provider, ranks that fall short of his past comments that anything lower than third place in a market wasn’t worth being in.

Drahi acknowledged that is US ranking falls short, but added that could change.

“I said, ‘If we are not No. 1, or No. 2, or No. 3, it’s not very exciting,’” Drahi said. “How do you get there? I really don’t know. Or if I do I can’t say.”

But he later offered a hint at is blueprint for success in other markets.

“I have always been very clear, that first is fixed [networks], then mobile, then content,” Drahi said. “We started in the U.S. with cable. We are too small in cable to go mobile at the moment. But everything is open. We will see.” 

Altice USA, the domestic cable arm of European telecom giant Altice, is considering extending its cable news channels throughout its footprint in an effort to further differentiate the service.

Related: Altice Unveils New Global Brand, Logo

Altice operates News 12 channels in seven Optimum markets in the New York metropolitan area – Long Island, Westchester County, Brooklyn, Hudson Valley, the Bronx, and parts of Connecticut and New Jersey. In a briefing with reporters Tuesday, Altice USA chairman and CEO Dexter Goei said the company is considering expanding News 12’s reach to its Suddenlink markets in the U.S.

News 12 was the brainchild of Cablevision Systems, which Altice purchased in June for $17.7 billion. Altice purchased Suddenlink in December 2015 for $9.1 billion.

At the briefing, Goei said Altice is looking to content to differentiate it from the competition, but that it would most likely focus on its news content.

News 12 Networks president Patrick Dolan said that the idea of expanding News 12 throughout Suddenlink is still being considered, but he added that Suddenlink markets in Texas and Oklahoma, where high school sports is tremendously popular, could be potentially lucrative markets.

News 12’s hyper-local focus in suburban markets includes extensive coverage of high-school sports through its News 12 Varsity offering and its daily news programs.

“It’s beginning to be discussed,” Dolan said of the expansion. “A future version may be very sports oriented.”

As over-the-top, streaming video and skinny bundle packages proliferate, cable operators have scrambled to try to find unique ways to attract and retain subscribers. In April, Charter reached a deal with AMC Networks where the programmer would develop content that would be available exclusively to Charter customers for a time. “That’s not something we’re looking at today,” Goei said.

Altice hinted that its international news channel – i24 – could also gain wider distribution. The channel, which Altice developed in 2013 and with news operations in New York, Paris, Tel Aviv and Washington, D.C., offers news from the Middle East and the world 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The channel is currently available throughout the Optimum and Suddenlink footprint and via an online app.

Altice executives said Tuesday that targeting the widest audience possible for i24 is the ultimate goal.

Goei also touched briefly on Altice USA’s wireless strategy, adding that it is still being evaluated.

Related: Altice USA Open to MVNO Deal

Asked if he would consider partnering with other cable companies or providers to offer a wireless offering similar to a recent agreement between Comcast and Charter for their wireless product, the Altice USA chief seemed to back away from that path.

Part of the Comcast-Charter agreement is jointly procuring equipment and platforms, something Goei said is not a top priority for Altice, which already has an extensive mobile network in Europe and doesn’t need to “team-up” with other companies to obtain supply and technology discounts.

Observers expecting Amazon to explore deeper dives into streamed content distribution take note: Former Suddenlink Communications and Cox Communications programming executive Kathy Payne has joined the online retailer as head of content acquisition for pay TV offering Amazon Channels.

Payne is well-versed in the ways of negotiating carriage deals with programmers. She served in various capacities for more than 20 years at Cox — last as vice president of content acquisition — before moving to Suddenlink in 2014 as senior vice president and chief programming officer. She left Suddenlink in June, after its purchase by Altice N.V., now Altice USA.

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed Payne is an employee and her official title is head of content acquisition, but declined further comment. Payne did not respond to The Wire’s request for comment.

Payne’s experience dealing with the likes of The Walt Disney Co., 21st Century Fox and Time Warner Inc. could indicate Amazon is getting serious about beefing up the services available through Amazon Channels. Launched in 2015, Amazon Channels is an offshoot of the Amazon Prime Video service, selling premium channels like HBO, Showtime and Starz as well as about 100 specialized streaming channels like Seeso, Shudder and Acorn TV. Amazon Channels is part of the overall Amazon Prime Video subscription, but some channels carry an additional fee.

Wedbush Securities managing director, equity research Michael Pachter, who follows Amazon, told The Wire, “Payne’s skill set certainly lends itself more to linear programming than to on-demand reruns, and her hire by Amazon suggests that they might be considering getting into OTT services that include traditional pay TV.”

Amazon has said before it hopes to keep growing Amazon Channels, which grew from around 80 at its inception to more than 100 this year. Its a la carte menu includes HBO for $15 per month, Starz for $9, Shudder for $5 and Seeso for $4. It doesn’t offer live feeds of those services, or any broadcast or basic-cable networks, but Amazon has said over time it could consider packaging channels into bundles at a discount.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if Amazon became an OTT distributor of linear television programming, and given the company’s substantial investment in [cloud computing platform Amazon Web Services] and in licensed and original TV and movie content, it isn’t a big stretch for them to get into nationwide television service,” Pachter said.

Altice USA said it has spooled up a 1 Gbps (downstream) broadband tier in its Kinston, N.C., market, which includes the city itself, as well as Lenoir and Wayne Counties, and Lagrange and Walnut Creek.

In addition to launching the 1 Gigabit Internet service over its DOCSIS network, Suddenlink is also boosting the speeds of some existing broadband tiers, with its 75 Mbps and 100 Mbps offerings moving up to 100 Mbps and 200 Mbps, respectively.

The standard Suddenlink residential internet download speeds in Kinston are now up to 50, 100, 200, and 400 Mbps, along with the up to 1 Gig service, said Altice USA, which closed its acquisition of Suddenlink in late 2015.

Those upgrades follow some other similar, recent ones in several other Suddenlink systems serving Bastrop, La.; Fort Ord, Calif.: as well as Bullhead City, Ariz.; Nacogdoches and Collin and Denton counties in Texas, Branson, Mo.; and Truckee, Calif.

While Suddenlink systems have been targeting 1-Gig speeds with DOCSIS technology, Altice USA is pursuing an ambitious FTTP upgrade strategy in the Optimum (former Cablevision Systems) footprint.

Update: Altice USA also plans to deploy FTTP to most of its Suddenlink footprint during its five-year deployment timeframe. .

RELATED: Altice USA In a ‘Unique Spot’ For FTTP Upgrade

Cable One stock, the top performer in the distribution sector in 2016, took a slight dip out of the stratosphere after influential media analyst Craig Moffett lowered his rating on shares to “sell” — with a $408 target price. The cable operator, riding a wave of hefty price increases and plummeting programming costs, is about to hit a wall, in Moffett’s view.

Cable One shares declined about 5% ($33.22), going from $619.66 on Jan.3 to $586.44 on Jan. 5, the day after Moffett’s report came out.

It all underscores the stock’s remarkable rise. Cable One stock rose 43.4% in 2016 — or nearly $200 per share — ascending from $433.66 to $621.73 at year’s end, pumped up by speculation that it would be the next takeover target in the consolidation wave after Charter Communication’s $80 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable.

European telecom company Altice N.V., which spent more than $25 billion on purchasing Suddenlink Communications and Cablevision Systems in the past year, has been singled out as the most likely Cable One buyer, although private equity and other smaller players could enter the fray too.

IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE?

Moffett said that while it might seem strange to downgrade CableOne’s stock right around the time that Altice is expected to spin off a minority interest in its U.S. operations — Altice USA — to the public, he believes the takeover premium has been long baked into Cable One’s stock price.

What concerns Moffett and other analysts is how Cable One has been able to maintain its growth trajectory as customer growth has eroded rapidly.

Cable One embarked on a broadband-only strategy in 2012. The midsized operator has taken a hardline stance against rising programming costs, dropping Viacom’s networks in 2014, and instead has focused on high-speed data service, offering speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second in some markets.

But with lower costs — programming expenses dropped 10% in 2014, its first year without Viacom — have come heavy subscriber losses. Cable One shed 20% of its video customer base in 2015 (about 87,000 subscribers) and while those numbers have improved — it lost 13.5% of its video base in Q3 2016 — they are still well above those of the operator’s peers.

Overall, the pay TV market is losing video customers each year. But cable has been improving on its losses and could post its first positive growth year in a decade in 2016.

Cable One has said publicly that its strategy is unorthodox, but it believes it is on the right path.

“While this strategy runs contrary to conventional wisdom in the cable industry, which puts heavy emphasis on video customer counts and maximizing the number of PSUs [primary service units] per customer by bundling services, we believe it best positions us for long-term success,” Cable One said in its 2015 annual report. “For us, success in winning and retaining residential data and business services customers are far more important metrics than the number of triple-play customers we have.”

So far the approach appears to have paid off. Cable One has maintained steady revenue and double-digit percentage increases in cash flow in 2014 and 2015, and is expected to have another strong year in 2016. And though Moffett commended the company for its performance so far, he also said he believes that time may be running out.

Moffett said “more than all” of Cable One’s growth has been due to price increases; it imposed a hefty 10% hike to broadband charges in 2015 and it’s on the verge of having to increase fees again to a customer base that is, overall, the least affluent compared to the customer groups served by other top MSOs.

“We don’t project that Cable One’s EBITDA will actually decline in 2017, but we do project that EBITDA is about to hit a wall,” Moffett wrote, adding that the expected deceleration comes at a time when the stock is trading a premium multiple (11.7 times cash flow) to its competitors.

A PRICE TOO HIGH?

Moffett conceded the high multiple is largely due to takeout speculation, but he also noted that it is not only higher than the multiples of much bigger companies (Comcast trades at 7.6 times and Charter at 9.9 times) but outpaces the premiums paid for Cablevision (10.1 times) and Suddenlink (10 times) by more than a full turn of cash flow.

Cable One’s strategy also may throw a wrench into the one thing that most investors have bought the stock for: a potential acquisition. Moffett notes that falling subscriber rolls mean less opportunity for a potential buyer.

“Even if de-emphasizing video was the right decision for Cable One on a standalone basis, any potential acquirer would naturally view Cable One’s video subscribers through the lens of their own programming costs, not Cable One’s,” Moffett wrote. “By shedding so many video subscribers, Cable One has foregone a tremendous amount of potential synergy for an acquirer.”

European telecom company Altice N.V. said it is exploring the possibility of launching an initial public offering of a minority interest in Altice USA.

Altice USA is the domestic arm of the Dutch-based telecom company. Altice USA has about 4 million cable customers, through its purchases of Suddenlink Communications ($9.1 billion) in 2015 and Cablevision Systems ($17.8 billion) in June.

Speculation has been high that Altice USA would eventually go public ever since it was formed. An IPO would give the cable operator a deal currency to do more deals. But it is unclear as to what the IPO would entail and details were sketchy.

“No decisions have been taken at this point on the structure or timing of any IPO, and no assurance can be given that an IPO will be pursued,” Altic N.V. said in a statement.

Altice USA, the domestic cable arm of Dutch telecom company Altice N.V., is getting its ducks in order for a possible initial public offering next year, according to a Reuters report.

Altice USA was created after the telecom giant purchased Suddenlink Communications in December 2015 for about $9.1 billion.  The company made its biggest purchase about six months later, buying Cablevision Systems in an all-cash deal valued at $17.7 billion.

Altice has made no secret of its desire to add scale to its U.S. operations – it has openly lusted for Cox Communications, even as the Atlanta-based operator has insisted it is not for sale. Most analysts have expected Altice USA to be eventually spun off from the parent, primarily so it could use its newly issued stock as a deal currency.

Altice USA already has a separate corporate structure – its CEO is Dexter Goei, who also serves as Altice N.V. president. Other corporate executive include co-president and chief financial officer Charles Stewart and co-president and chief operating officer Hakim Boubazine.

According to the Reuters report, Altice USA is preparing to invite investment banks to make pitches to the company in the coming weeks about an IPO. While Altice USA could opt to remain private, it could make a decision on bankers by January, with an IPO launch later that year, according to Reuters.

While sources familiar with the company said the IPO talk is a little premature – the company has said it plans to spend the next two years focusing on execution and integrating its existing acquisitions – it is expected to eventually go public.

Altice USA declined to comment on the Reuters report.

Altice USA-owned Suddenlink has launched 1 Gbps (downstream) residential service in three more markets -- Clovis and Texico, N.M., and Farwell, Texas.

The addition of the 1-Gig tier is being accompanied by some free speed upgrades, with customers on 75-Meg and 100-Meg service being bumped up to 100-Meg and 200-Meg, respectively.

The standard Suddenlink residential download speeds in Clovis, Texico and Farwell are now 50 Mbps, 100 Mbps, and 200 Mbps, along with the new 1 Gbps service.

Suddenlink started to offer a DOCSIS 3.0-based 1-Gig service in July 2015 as part of a broader “Project GigaSpeed” initiative that envisioned offering gigabit speeds to 90% of Suddenlink's footprint by 2017. That initiative is continuing under Altice. Suddenlink has been pricing stand-alone 1-Gig at $99 per month.

“Today’s announcement is the next step in Operation GigaSpeed, the company-wide plan we announced in August of 2014,” Brian Borthwick, Altice USA’s VP of Suddenlink operations, said in a statement. “In sharp contrast to other large providers, which are offering a Gigabit service primarily to a few neighborhoods in large urban markets, we’re pleased to be making our Suddenlink Gigabit service available in all of the neighborhoods and to all of the households and businesses we serve throughout Clovis, Texico and Farwell.”

In April, Suddenlink added an unlimited data option for its two fastest tiers in a given market. Those complement the MSO's usage-based plans that charge extra ($10 for an additional bucket of 50 Gigabytes) when customers exceed their monthly limit a third time. 

Altice USA has tripled Internet speeds for residential and business customers in its Optimum New York metro area footprint to 300 Megabits per second and 350 Mbps, respectively, more than a year earlier than expected.

The highest data speeds for Optimum residential and business customers had previously been 101 Mbps.

Altice USA purchased Optimum (the former Cablevision Systems) in June for $17.7 billion. As part of the New York State Public Service Commission’s approval of the deal, Altice agreed to tick up data speeds to 300 Mbps by the end of 2017.

Altice USA’s Suddenlink operation, which offers service in about a dozen states, offers 1 Gigabit-per-second high-speed Internet service.

Pricing for the highest tier is $99.95 per month for new customers and $64.95 per month for a new 200-Mbps residential tier. Optimum will continue to offer a 60 Mpbs base service for $44.95 monthly and a 100 Mbps tier for $54.95 per month. Existing customers can call Optimum for pricing for the new tiers.

Business Optimum 60-Mbps high-speed Internet service starts at $59.95 for new customers, with 100 Mbps available for $30 more. A 250 Mbps tier is priced at $149.95 and 350 Mbps is available for $189.95 for new customers.

“Altice USA is excited to launch significantly faster speeds across the Optimum footprint, made possible by investment in our superior network and infrastructure,” said Altice USA chairman and CEO Dexter Goei in a statement. “We are particularly pleased to be able to meet our public interest commitments more than one year ahead of schedule. Across the globe, Altice’s business model is centered on delivering the most advanced technology and capabilities. Today’s accelerated introduction of faster Optimum broadband speeds marks only the beginning of the new products and service enhancements that we plan to bring to our customers in the U.S.”  

New York – Altice NV CEO Michel Combes told an industry audience Wednesday that the acquisitive Dutch telecom company won’t be flexing its M&A muscles in the U.S. for the near term, instead focusing its energies on executing the business plans of its existing assets.

Altice made a splash last year with the $9.1 billion purchase of mid-sized cable operator Suddenlink Communications, and further extended its U.S. aspirations with the June purchase of Cablevision Systems for $17.7 billion.

At the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference here, Combes said that significant U.S. M&A activity is “a bit over” for the time being as Altice focuses on execution and integrating its U.S operations.

Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei said that the transition is already happening. At the former Cablevision, investments made in customer service, the Optimum brand and quality products are already paying off in improved subscriber metrics. The New York area systems lost about 2,000 video customers in the second quarter – its best performance in four years – and Goei said that in 2017 the unit should continue to recapture market share. At the former Suddenlink, its Operation GigaSpeed high-speed data initiative has helped drive broadband growth, although tough competition from satellite TV service providers has eaten into video growth. Providing a better video experience could help reverse that trend, as other larger operators have shown, Goei added.

“We’d like to do that as well,” he said.

Altice USA is focusing on increasing broadband speeds in all of its markets – Goei mentioned that prior to the purchase, half of Optimum customers wanted 25 Megabits per second and the other half wanted 50 Mbps. Now, he said, Optimum is phasing out 25Mbps – it has a 5 Mbps low tier service and a 60 Mbps service – and about 40% of new customers want 100 Mbps speeds.

At Suddenlink, which has a 50 Mbps flagship service and 100 Mbps and greater tiers, Goei said that 40% to 45% of gross additions are in the higher tiers.

When Altice USA took control of Cablevision Systems, some top executives surprised the rank and file by sitting down for lunch in the staff canteen, a move that some reports said would never have occurred under previous management. But occasional mingling with the clock-punchers is just the start of what appears to be an attempt to transform the corporate culture of the entire company, which was formed after European telco Altice N.V. purchased Suddenlink Communications and Cablevision Systems for a combined $26.8 billion.

In a recent memo to employees, Altice USA chairman and CEO Dexter Goei calls it “Fearless Reinvention,” a program geared to create a culture that inspires and motivates workers to do their best work and deliver the best customer service.

Fearless Reinvention is part of the new Altice USA anthem – which can be viewed via video on the corporate intranet site – and the company has already started some aspects of the program. Through that intranet portal employees can access features like DirectLine, where company leaders ask for ideas and comments on specific topics. Workers also can get sneak peeks at new ads, check out progress on a workspace reinvention project and tune in to quarterly updates from management.

Other initiatives in the pipeline include a new more casual workplace dress code, the elimination of reserved executive parking, the creation of employee focus groups, wellness programs and opportunities to support charities through Altice USA Volunteer Day. 

“For many of us, we’re used to a culture that’s predictable – we were familiar with what was around the corner,” Goei wrote. “But when you’re building a new company and a new culture, we may not always know what the next step is or how it will evolve. That’s why it’s so important to participate and engage, and give feedback. Together we have a unique opportunity to build an amazing culture that we’re all proud to be a part of.”

Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei said the fourth largest cable operator in the country will take a hard look at programming costs, including replacing more expensive networks with cheaper channels if customers value them less.

Goei pointed to Suddenlink Communications, which Altice purchased in December for $9.1 billion. Suddenlink dropped the Viacom suite of channels almost two years ago, with “relatively minimal” subscriber impact on the company.

Suddenlink replaced many of the Viacom channels with less expensive fare like Comedy.TV and others.

Goei said what Altice USA is trying to do is “make sure we’re allocating capital appropriately relative to the customer experience and viewership of the channel.”

That includes evaluating and considering lower priced alternatives to some channels and paying high prices for those that are popular with viewers.

“Given that it’s such a large part of our cost structure and it continues to grow at a very rapid pace, where we think that there are alternatives for our customers, we will look at them or where we think there is great programming to be had and a price to be paid, we will do that for our customers.”

RELATED:Goei, after Altice closes on Cablevision, says cost-saving changes 'will take time.'

According to Altice, the U.S. cable businesses contributed about 31% of Altice’s total Q2 revenue and 41% of its total free cash flow. On an individual basis, the former Cablevision operations, now called Optimum, reported a revenue increase of 2% while improving basic video customer losses to 2,000 in the period. It was Optimum’s best video subscriber performance in four years.

On a conference call with analysts, Goei said that the seven-week long Verizon strike (Cablevision has the highest exposure to Verizon than any other operator) played a role, even without the work stoppage “it would have been a terrific quarter.”

At Suddenlink, revenue was up 5.7% and video losses improved to 23,000 in the period.

While it keeps its eye on programming costs, Altice said it is also saving money on salaries.

Goei said that about 120 former Cablevision workers submitted their resignations after its deal to purchase the company closed in June, including between 40 and 50 people in senior positions and the 10 most highly compensated executives. Losing those executives – which include members of the once-ruling Dolan family – will save the company about $50 million to $100 million on an annualized basis, Goei said.

That could help Altice’s plans to shed $900 million in costs from the company in the next four to five years. Altice founder Patrick Drahi has said in the past that he believed U.S. media executive were paid too much, while Goei noted that about 300 Cablevision executives were paid in excess of $300,000 per year. 

Altice and Paulson Co. are among the unannounced investors in Layer3 TV, the Denver-based, next-gen cable operator that has already raised about $100 million, according to Variety.

Layer3 TV declined to comment on its financing activities, but Variety noted that Altice’s investment comes way of its acquisition of Suddenlink Communications, though the publication said Altice and Layer3 TV  have “been quite cozy with each other for some time.” Altice, which closed its $17.7  billion purchase of Cablevision Systems last month, also declined to comment on its relationship with Layer3 TV.

Industry sources said there’s been some external interest in joining the investment mix at Layer3 TV, and that there could be some interest from those that bring strategic value to the emerging MVPD. Layer3 TV’s announced investors include Evolution Media Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners.

Layer3 TV has been tight-lipped about its specific go-to-market strategies, though it appears to have teamed up with Suddenlink for the trial of a service under the “Umio” brand in the MSO’s territories of Midland and Kingwood, Texas.

In addition to looking at deployments in which Layer3 TV could ride the distribution rights of another operator (such as it apparently did for the  Suddenlink trial), the emerging MVPD has also been developing its own pay TV service by locking in its own distribution deals with programmers and other content providers, per industry sources. Those multiple approaches would expand Layer3 TV’s deployment options.

Layer3 TV confirmed that it will “soon” launch service in the Chicago market, home to incumbent MVPDs Comcast, RCN and AT&T.

In addition to Chicago, Layer3 TV has been seeking “installation supervisor” positions in Houston, Denver and Alexandria, Va., which fuels speculation on other markets that Layer3 TV might be targeting for future service launches.

According to Variety, Layer3 TV intends to launch a service in Chicago under its own brand.

A lingering question is how Layer3 TV will get service into the home via the so-called “last mile.”

According to one industry source, one way Layer3 TV intends to do this is by securing capacity on the cable operator’s IP network paired with a revenue sharing agreement with that MSO. However, Layer3 TV, which has been marketing itself under “The New Cable” tagline, would in essence provide the market with a fresh, alternative pay TV provider to consider because Layer3 TV would be the one installing, operating and providing customer care for the service. Layer3 TV will use electric-powered BMW i3 vehicles in its service fleet.

Though Layer3 TV hasn’t said much about how it will price and market its services, its web site does shed some light on some of the features it will provide in its including no annual contracts, 4K-ready wireless set-tops, a lineup of more than 150 HD channels, personalized profiles for each viewer in the home, and a DVR that can record up to eight shows at once, with storage ranging from 1 terabyte to 3 TB. An image of the Layer3 TV remote also shows a button for a microphone, which suggests it will support voice navigation.

Layer3 TV CEO Jeffrey Binder told Wired earlier this year that Layer3 TV would be launching in Chicago and a “couple of other major cities on the East and West coasts.” The company also told the pub that it would forge deals with “large infrastructure companies” for the last mile links into customer homes.

Broadband data policies that place a soft cap on monthly usage and charge more for additional buckets of data are rapidly becoming the norm among the nation’s Internet-service providers.

Such policies are now commercially deployed by Suddenlink (now part of Altice USA), Mediacom Communications and AT&T, as well as smaller service providers such as GCI. Meanwhile, Comcast continues to expand its usage-based trials, while CenturyLink is slated to start kicking the tires on a new broadband data policy later this week.

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, confirmed that it recently notified customers in the Chicago market area that the MSO’s data plan trial will get underway Aug. 1. When that trial launches, it will become the largest market in Comcast’s footprint so far to test the MSO’s new policy. In addition to greater Chicago, Comcast is also poised to test usage-based policies in Quincy and Rockford, Ill., and in its Northern Indiana systems, also starting Aug. 1.

Comcast introduced a 1-TB plan in April, replacing a 300- GB plan it had been implementing in most of its trial markets.

If customers exceed the 1-TB limit, they have the option to purchase additional buckets of 50 GBs of data for $10 each (up to a maximum of $200), or move to a new unlimited data plan that runs an additional $50 per month.

Comcast has not announced if or when it will expand the policy to all markets. In addition to the new markets coming online Aug. 1, other trial markets include Huntsville, Mobile and Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Tucson, Ariz.; Little Rock, Ark.; Fort Lauderdale, the Keys and Miami, Fla.; Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah, Ga.; Central Kentucky; Houma, LaPlace and Shreveport, La.; Maine; Jackson and Tupelo, Miss.; Chattanooga, Greeneville, Johnson City/Gray, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.; Charleston, S.C.; and Galax, Va.

Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, the OTT giant and critic of usage-based policies, praised Comcast when it announced the new 1-TB plan, tweeting: “Huge for me as a Comcast customer. Now I’ll never be able to watch enough to hit my cap.”

Perhaps not too coincidentally, Comcast and Netflix announced a deal a few weeks later that calls for the MSO to integrate Netflix on Comcast’s X1 platform sometime this year.

GCI, the Alaska-based operator, also made some waves last week, announcing that it had raised the monthly limit of “Red,” its 1 Gigabit-per-second residential cable modem service, from 750 GBs to 1 TB. Customers on Red, which is paired with an upstream that maxes out at 50 Mbps, have the option to purchase additional 30-GB buckets of data for $10 when they exceed their monthly limit.

But GCI has added a different twist to the usage-based approach. Under a “No Worries” option launched in January 2015, customers can buy additional buckets of data, upgrade to a different plan, or shift temporarily to a “basic” level of service of less than 1 Mbps with no overages.

CenturyLink is the latest provider to jump on the usage-based bandwagon. It confirmed last week that it will launch a usage-based billing trial in Yakima, Wash., on Tuesday (July 26) that will charge $10 for a bucket of 50 GBs of data (up to a maximum of $50) when customers exceed their monthly limit.

Under the trial, subscribers of service plans with speeds up to 7 Mbps can consume up to 300 GBs per month, while those that have speeds of more than 7 Mbps will be capped at 600 GBs before the usage-based policy is applied.

CenturyLink has not announced the length of the Yakima trial or when it might look to expand it to other markets. “CenturyLink will analyze the data from this trial to determine next steps and make decisions regarding further rollout of usage-based billing,” a company official said.

Though usage-based broadband policies and overage charges are increasingly becoming part of ISP strategies, critics of them maintain that they are in place to increase revenue while keeping OTT video competition in check.

For its part, Comcast has argued that its trials “are based on principles of flexibility and fairness” and that more than 99% of its high-speed Internet subscribers don’t come within a whiff of using a terabyte.

One MSO that will be sitting on the sidelines with regard to usage-based broadband pricing for the foreseeable future is Charter Communications. Charter, per a condition of its acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, is prohibited from imposing data caps or implementing usage-based polices for a period of seven years.