Charter Communications Discussion

[wxntrafficfan]

Sad news, imo. Mike brought up in our nitely stream last night that Charter is undergoing serious bankruptcy. As of March 28th, 2009, Charter Communications is now in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Poor stocks in NasDaq, and horrible customer service have drove their customers away. As a result, revenue is falling sharply, and debt has consumed the corporation.

Here are a couple qoutes from the Charter Communcications Wikipedia page

On July 20, 2009, the sale to Apollo Management was rejected, and the pre-arranged plan was converted to a traditional Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, which means Charter will either have to sell a considerable amount of its assets or completely liquidate.

Comcast would be interested in the Northwest including all of Oregon (249,000 subs), Sierra Nevada including Reno/Tahoe and Redding (278,000 subs), Michigan (592,000 subs), and Louisiana/Tennessee (533,000 subs).

Charter has been criticized for poor customer support and frequent billing consistency issues, causing the Better Business Bureau to post a warning to consumers about the company:

"The Better Business Bureau has received numerous complaints regarding this cable, digital TV, and high speed internet access provider. Complainants primarily allege that the firm had improper billing practices, referred customer bills to collection agencies in error, provided poor customer service, used misleading advertising, provided defective internet or cable performance, used improper sales tactics or misrepresented the actual costs of installation and service, failed to properly install or maintain service, damaged customers' property, and failed to honor service appointments. "

Here is another interesting statistic, involving all legacy STARs (4000 and XL's)
Currently, there are 46 known 4000 units across the country.
5 are owned by Charter
Comcast also owns 5
Time Warner only owns 1

Currently, there are 51 known XL units across the country.
10 are owned by Charter
7 are owned by Comcast
Time Warner owns 6

While these are not the best facts to prove my point, Charter does own the most legacy STARs of any cable company.

Charter is much quieter with advertising than Comcast is, and serves a lot of rural areas as well (northern Michigan).

One thing many are concerned about is Comcast and TW updating the STARs in many locations to the Intellistar. This is an issue that bears watching, as Chapter 7 appears imminent.

Now, here's where my personal connection comes into it.
I have recorded 2 Charter legacy STARs (hopefully soon to be 3), and only one Comcast one.

Here are all the Charter STARs I have recorded:
-Asheville, NC
-Morristown/Newport, TN
-Alpena, MI
-Houghton Lake, MI
-Petoskey, MI
and soon to have Mackinaw City, I hope

I am also looking at Kalamazoo, MI and Traverse City, MI.


I have recorded Comcast STARs in:
Lansing, MI
East Lansing, MI
Romulus, MI
Grand Rapids, MI
Bad Axe, MI

I have only managed to record Time Warner in Cincinnati, OH.

So, this appears to be mixed on my end. But I have started this thread to open discussion on the concept of Charter failing, and to update the issue as news occurs. Unfortunately, another Adelphia style transaction appears quite possible.

[Mike M]

First Adelphia, now possibly Charter?  I really hope they survive, but won't be surprised if they end up liquidating in the coming months. You brought up a good point that Charter owns the majority of the known legacy STARs. I have a feeling they will remain in use, as there are still a lot of former Adelphia headends now owned by Comcast and Time Warner that still use legacy STARs, even after more than three years since Adelphia became defunct.

[Zach]

I guess I can expect an IntelliSTAR when I go back to Chincoteague possibly next year.

[twcfan68]

Aww, I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope they can bounce back.

[wxntrafficfan]

Aww, I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope they can bounce back.

I do as well; a lot of us do. At this point though, Chapter 7 unfortunately appears imminent. However, do remain optimistic

[TWCToday]

Im confused. The purpose of Charter going Chapter11 was only to reduce the amount of debt they had. They werent trying sell the company or anything.

St. Louis-based Charter Communications Inc. (Pink OTC: CHTRQ) filed for bankruptcy in March in an effort to cut $8 billion from its $21 billion in debt.

Apollo was talking about investing... not taking over.
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2009/07/27/daily40.html

In fact Charter is already reporting better earnings.
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2009/08/03/daily59.html?jst=b_ln_hl

I dont think this is the end of Charter yet

[texasstooge]

I also think that their recent dispute with Belo Corp. (which is now resolved) might've been another factor.

[TWCToday]

Looks like Charter is recovering nicely!

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100302-707005.html

[wxntrafficfan]

ugh, you have to subscribe. Nonetheless, that is certainly good news! I really was scared for a bit last summer

[TWCToday]

Odd I was able to see it earlier. Here ya go

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Charter Communications Inc. (CCMM) posted a $12.72 billion profit in the fourth quarter on gains related to its Nov. 30 emergence from bankruptcy protection. Meanwhile, operating results were stronger amid higher revenue per subscriber at the cable-television provider.

Charter recently lost Chief Executive Neil Smit, who left the company to run the cable operations at industry leader Comcast Corp. (CMCSA). He was replaced on an interim basis by Chief Operating Officer Michael Lovett. Smit had been chief executive of the St. Louis-based cable provider since 2005.

The company filed for bankruptcy to deal with its crush debt load. Charter shed $8 billion through that process, cutting annual interest costs by more than $800 million. It still has $13.5 billion of debt.

Charter swung to a profit of $12.72 billion from a year-earlier loss of $1.5 billion a year earlier. The company said adjusted earnings before income tax, depreciation and amortization rose 2.4% to $633 million as revenue jumped 3.3% to $1.71 billion.

Video revenue, which is the company's biggest revenue line, saw revenue decline 0.2%. High-speed Internet revenue rose 8.9%, while telephone revenue jumped 18% and commercial revenue rose 13%.

Average revenue per subscriber rose 8.1% as 57% of customers subscribed to a bundled package, up from 53% a year earlier. On subscriber basis, Internet and phone customers grew while television fell.

Shares closed at $30.30 on Monday and were inactive premarket. The stock has fallen more than 15% since leaving bankruptcy.

-By Nathan Becker, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2855; nathan.becker@dowjones.com

[Mike M]

Looks like they're doing better, but they still have a long way to go.

[Pop Light Brown]

If you haven't noticed, they've changed their logo just recently.

[Mike M]

That's a good sign I suppose...

[Jonathan]

That's a good sign I suppose...

 

Also, some failing companies think they have an amazing rebrand to save them, but it ends up being a total flop to consumers and the company sinks for good. And I'll leave it at that.

[TWCToday]

That's a good sign I suppose...

 

Also, some failing companies think they have an amazing rebrand to save them, but it ends up being a total flop to consumers and the company sinks for good. And I'll leave it at that.

Such as?