just wanted to say Happy Holidays, and Happy New Years! :)

Sometimes, a little information is worst than the real thing. If I read between the lines, I might conclude that TWC plans to take back BHN. Hopefully not. The difference in customer service is remarkable. Read the forums, TWC is not customer oriented, never has been and unfortunately, may never be. BHN, on the other hand, has been customer centered from day one and has only gotten better. I just hope my palm reading is really bad.

I agree with that as an employee I defintly noticed a focus change... They defeintly spend FAR more money on CS then TWC ever did...

That said you have nothing to fear on that note...

Ya know ive heard rumours outside of BHN that timewarner wants to consolidate its businesses to try to bring back value... It may even be selling some of its units.. it has a clear plan for 2007 to raise its value back to pre-AOL-merge times.... Look for TWX to be a hot stock in 2007...
 
Thats about the right time, employees are already able to sign up for the service, so it could even happen sooner then later, but i dont expect any major marketing till at EARLIEST feb....

and the info about any said dealings with bhn and other companies is somthing I cant give to much on atm, but i will inform you, that the cable industry as a whole will be working EXTREMELY close to each other and will not be competeing per say.. Expect cluster changes to give operaters areas more close together and not so spread out. Expect the cable company fighting tooth and nail againest the telcos as they enter video.. Unlike how the telcos did when cable entered internet/phone..


PS: the markets that ADvance/newhouse took from timewarner in their partnership change were some of timewarners largest and most profitable clusters.. Timewarner at the time was losing HUGE value because of the aol/tw dealings... BHN was split off because they needed a safe place to put that profit... Expect something in the near future to change but what? I dunno ill stop by the pet store and get some more seeds maybe the bird will tell me..

http://www.nypost.com/seven/0103200...t_business_peter_lauria_and_zachery_kouwe.htm

INTERCONNECT
MALONE LOOKING OVER DOLANS' RAINBOW MEDIA
By PETER LAURIA and ZACHERY KOUWE
CABLE BUYS: Liberty Media's John Malone (above) may be the new owner of the Dolans' Rainbow Media - home to cable TV channels WE, AMC and IFC.
January 3, 2007 -- Media maverick John Malone is reaching out to Cablevision's controlling Dolan family to gauge the family's interest in selling Rainbow Media, the unit that manages cable networks AMC, IFC and WE: Women's Entertainment, according to sources familiar with the matter.

While these people characterized the talks between Malone's Liberty Media and the Dolans as informal chatter between friendly moguls, they could easily become more serious as Cablevision's shareholders grow increasingly restless with the company's three-month silence regarding a decision on the family's $19.2 billion buyout proposal, sources said.

"Look, they have already done most of the analysis," said one shareholder, referring to a previous buyout proposal made by the Dolans in 2005. "All they have to do is plug in the new price and figure out what the company's fair value is."

Frustration over the foot-dragging has been compounded by the fact that two other companies, Clear Channel Communications and EMI Group, have already acted on offers to take them private that came well after the Dolans made their bid for Cablevision. Clear Channel agreed to a sale. EMI quickly said a takeover offer didn't reflect the company's full value.

Cablevision, meanwhile, has yet to act. The company set up a special committee, made up of board members Thomas Reifenheiser and John Ryan, but it has yet to publicly approve or reject the Dolans' offer and is unaware of a potential deal with Liberty, sources close to the committee said.

That suggests that any Rainbow talks haven't reached the point of Cablevision sharing confidential financial data, at which time the special committee would need to be notified.

Even so, it is widely believed that the Dolans will have to raise their $27 per-share offer to at least $30 in order to get a deal done. Cablevision's shares closed trading Friday at $28.48.

If the Dolans were to sweeten their bid, they'd either have to take on more debt or raise additional cash. Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch have agreed to provide up to $10.9 billion in debt financing, but Cablevision's existing lenders have capped the amount of debt the company can take on. Bear and Merrill recently extended the deadline for the Dolans to accept their funding commitments - already twice delayed - to Jan. 12. Enter Malone.

Representatives for Liberty, Cablevision and the Dolan family all declined comment for this story.

A deal for Rainbow's programming assets, which also include about 20 high-definition genre cable networks and a smattering of regional sports channels, could easily generate north of $2 billion.

For Malone, Rainbow's programming assets would solidify the foundation he now has with DirecTV, which last month he agreed to acquire as part of an asset exchange with News Corp., which publishes The Post.

"Now that he has DirecTV, Malone needs to build some synergies," said The Carmel Group's Jimmy Schaeffler. "QVC and Starz/Encore are good beginnings, but it sure would help if he had control of other content assets as well."
 
Ya know the orlando system used to be Cablevision... before TWC bought it from them... and those dam dolans have more money then god.. and btw optimum online, is by far the fastest cable broadband service... as far as what they give customers..
 
it was TCI in daytona before time warner bought them.....same thing in orlando?

you trying to give us another birdie hint, steve?

thank goodness, my bud is back from vacation thursday!!!!
 
Ya know the orlando system used to be Cablevision... before TWC bought it from them... and those dam dolans have more money then god.. and btw optimum online, is by far the fastest cable broadband service... as far as what they give customers..

i have to agree with you 100 percent...i so wish i had it!...i lived in nj and had it, but i moved to fl 2 years ago. so now they offer 30.o mbps down and 5.o up for the same price i pay for 15.o...and they customer service was great...i think bhn can do better...hope bhn upper their speeds again :)....thought i cannot complain on what i have now to be honest...
 
i think its that time of year when bright house will increase their prices and up the internet speed!!!

When we went from 1.5 to 3 then 3 to 5 in the same year their wasnt a price increase.. Cept the normal on in jan/feb the following year and it was a mere 4%,, you got 150% more speed for 4% price increase :) I do look forward to the speed upgrades this year as well... oops did that slip ?
 
My birdie says that Comcast has been interested in getting a couple big markets in Florida which are around some of their existing markets. Very curious about this to say the least.

Comcast has a very small footprint in orlando area after taking that part which used to be adeplhia... Orlando BHN has always been an extremely profitable divison for TWC and now BHN... Comcast has extremely deep pockets.... But I think it will be a slug fest between 2 giants to see who has what.
 
i guess because i have the digital combo, i haven't had a price increase in awhile!! but i would be shocked if bhn doesn't up their prices soon....its inevitable!
 
My birdie says that Comcast has been interested in getting a couple big markets in Florida which are around some of their existing markets. Very curious about this to say the least.


I was told the same thing.

However, the bad news seems to be that Comcast uses S/A and not Motorola up and down the West Coast of Florida :(
 
I was told the same thing.

However, the bad news seems to be that Comcast uses S/A and not Motorola up and down the West Coast of Florida :(

I'm being told that won't be an issue as both of these things will occur if Comcast takes these markets over. First they will continue to use the platforms in place and they will also be porting the Tivo software onto the SA and SARA platforms. I also believe they will use the existing guide software until that time comes. While this is being done Comcast will upgrade both markets with OCAP which will allow them to deploy the upcoming Java iGuide onto all SA, Moto and Panasonic boxes. The SA and Panasonic ports of Tivo will be Tivo OCAP complaint ports so the same port can be used on the SA DVR boxes as well as the Panasonic DVR boxes. They will also eventually offer the Panasonic boxes in both markets as well. This is again all based on if they do take over this area.
 
hmm, i might be retired, but reading between the lines tells me there's a lot more going on here.......just call it my journalistic instinct!! it hardly failed me in the 26 plus years i worked in the biz!!
 
hmm, i might be retired, but reading between the lines tells me there's a lot more going on here.......just call it my journalistic instinct!! it hardly failed me in the 26 plus years i worked in the biz!!

Oh yes quite a bit is going on behind the scenes and from what I'm hearing is that Comcast has the pockets and they want those two markets so badly that it seems that even Advance Newhouse can't turn down a very good offer. Again remember that both markets are very very good cable TV markets so from what I'm hearing if true the price would have to be quite high to convince BHN to sell two profitable markets. I'm also hearing that Comcast is considering buying all BHN markets but if they do this they also most likely will have to sell off a few other markets to avoid congress getting mad at them if you catch my drift. This is where I'm hearing the name Cablevision coming up but beyond that I honestly don't know anything more.

Either way this could endup becoming a very complex deal that could take a year maybe more but it just depends on many things at such an early stage of this process.
 
so for argument's sake, lets say comcast buys bright house......are there advantages to having comcast? don't they have espn2hd?
 
I'm being told that won't be an issue as both of these things will occur if Comcast takes these markets over. First they will continue to use the platforms in place and they will also be porting the Tivo software onto the SA and SARA platforms. I also believe they will use the existing guide software until that time comes. While this is being done Comcast will upgrade both markets with OCAP which will allow them to deploy the upcoming Java iGuide onto all SA, Moto and Panasonic boxes. The SA and Panasonic ports of Tivo will be Tivo OCAP complaint ports so the same port can be used on the SA DVR boxes as well as the Panasonic DVR boxes. They will also eventually offer the Panasonic boxes in both markets as well. This is again all based on if they do take over this area.

I understand - but I don't like the SA Platform. I like Motorola much better - thus, my comments. I have no issues with Comcast - but would prefer to be a Comcast Motorola Market.

Now, that said - both sets of equipment have bugs - as can be seen in countless thousand threads. CableCard works better with SA than Motorola etc which would end up being a negative in my case towards Motorola.

Both DVRs have their quirks.

But Motorola has several overriding factors that I like better - not the least of which is their outputs on their STBs seem to be of better quality circuits that do not produce as many errors so the final result on your screen is a better quality.
 
speaking of cablecards, i'm going to try one in my jvc. i understand i can use that and the hddvr, as they would be connected to different outputs......the lone advantage (for a buck 95 a month) is that i could watch a live hd program off the tuner and tape two hd programs off the dvr. it might also eliminate the need for me to have a dvr in the bedroom. i would substitue a regular hd box. or go through with my threat to add dish hd on one television!!
 
See this is the debate im having with myself.. Do I want to goto Comcast now, or wait for the transfer... Comcast has a HUGE differnce in tech pay, (they pay way better then BHN) or do I want to stick it out with BHN and will comcast bring us up to their levels? That my friend is my problem.
 

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