After Adelphia: The New Landscape of the Cable Industry
The Top 20 Cable Markets
By George Winslow -- Multichannel News, 7/30/2006 8:00:00 PM
The U.S. cable map has just changed. After 15 months of delays and regulatory wrangling, the $17 billion deal through which Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable will acquire Adelphia Communications Corp. and, at the conclusion, swap a number of systems, is expected to close today.
This is how the numbers now add up:
Time Warner Cable systems pass 27 million homes, up from about 19.8 million. The operator counts 14.5 million basic subscribers, up from 11 million. About 85% of those subscribers will be located in just five regions, or “clusters”: Southern California, where it will now serve 2.4 million households, up from 0.7 million; Texas, where it will serve 2.6 million, up from 2.0 million; the Carolinas, at 1.9 million, up from 1.7 million; Ohio, at 2.3 million, up from 1.5 million; and New York, at 3.1 million, up from 2.6 million.
Comcast, meanwhile, will expand its total number of subscribers to 23.3 million, up from about 21.5 million in the first quarter of this year. It strengthens its presence in markets such as Washington, D.C.; Boston; Minneapolis-St. Paul.; major Florida cities and Pittsburgh.
How will the industry now look, physically?
The map on these pages shows how the deal will transform the cable landscape in the top 20 markets in the United States.
The largest cable operator, Comcast, will continue to dominate the map with operations in 16 of the top 20 markets, serving nearly 14.4 million subscribers in them. Time Warner Cable, the second-largest operator and the third-largest multichannel television provider (after Comcast and DirecTV Inc.), will have systems in the top two markets and nine of the top 20 markets. It will now serve 5.7 million subscribers in those markets.
How will this change how they operate? See “Analysis” on page 8.
Seattle-Tacoma
Comcast
1,031,000
Charter
44,000
Time Warner
1,000
Boston
Comcast
1,938,000
Charter
161,000
Time Warner
16,000
Minneapolis-St. Paul
Comcast
539,000
Time Warner
210,000
Charter
152,000
Mediacom
28,000
Detroit
Comcast
982,000
Bright House
115,000
Charter
39,000
Denver
Comcast
666,000
Charter
16,000
Time Warner
5,000
New York
Cablevision
3,019,000
Time Warner
1,380,000
Comcast
721,000
Charter
70,000
Chicago
Comcast
1,761,0,000
Mediacom
10,000
Cleveland-Akron
Time Warner
855,000
Comcast
83,000
Cox
75,000
Philadelphia
Comcast
1,907,000
Charter
8,000
Washington, D.C.
Comcast
960,000
Cox
269,000
Charter
25,000
Atlanta
Comcast
600,000
Charter
239,000
Orlando
Bright House
550,000
Comcast
116,000
Sacramento
Comcast
535,000
Charter
67,000
Phoenix
Cox
607,000
Charter
1,000
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale
Comcast
740,000
Charter
50,000
Los Angeles
Time Warner
1,920,000
Cox
482,000
Charter
443,000
Mediacom
21,000
San Francisco & Bay Area
Comcast
1,609,000
Charter
17,000
Mediacom
17,000
Dallas-Ft. Worth
Time Warner
580,000
Charter
173,000
Cox
20,000
Houston
Time Warner
753,000
Charter
21,000
Cox
11,000
Tampa-St. Petersburg
Bright House
740,000
Comcast
204,000
Source: Oppenheimer & Co. Figures reflect the completion of the Adelphia acquisition and system swaps between Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Starting counts of subscribers, as of 12/31/2005, are based on company documents and Oppenheimer estimates.
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