Quick Hits
by Staff -- Multichannel News, 1/7/2008
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Gabelli Reports Broadcaster Stake
Rye, N.Y. — Funds controlled by cable investment guru Mario Gabelli have been beefing up on Young Broadcasting stock. according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week, adding roughly 600,000 shares of the TV broadcaster in the past few months.
According to SEC documents filed Dec. 31, several funds controlled by Gabelli — including Gamco Investors and Gabelli Funds — reported that they owned 4.1 million shares of Young Broadcasting, or 19.52% of its outstanding shares. That’s up from 3.5 million shares (17.3% of its outstanding stock) that the Gabelli funds owned as of June 13. Gabelli gave no reason for the increase in the Young stake in the SEC filing. Young owns about 10 TV stations in large and mid-sized markets.
Greenfield Upgrades Mediacom
New York — Pali Research media analyst Richard Greenfield raised his rating on Mediacom Communications to “neutral” from “sell,” as the downside that forced him to slap his earlier rating on the stock is already baked into the shares.
Greenfield originally put his “sell” rating on Mediacom on Oct. 15. Since then the stock price is down 35% ($2.47) and, at $4.59 on Dec. 31, currently 17% below his original $5.50 price target. Greenfield has since removed his price target on Mediacom.
While Greenfield still believes Mediacom will continue to struggle with subscriber losses, he added in a research note that the greatest damage has already been done.
Operators Keep Investing: In-Stat
Scottsdale, Ariz. — The research firm In-Stat said this week it sees evidence that cable operators, driven by increased competition, are continuing to invest in their networks and roll out new services.
In-Stat — owned by Multichannel News parent Reed Business Information — said survey results have found 84% of cable systems currently have 750 MHz or more capacity. Cable systems plan to keep their channel allocations for video services relatively static over the next 12 months, other than adding more high-definition channels.
Also, cable-modem service continues to grow, as systems report on average 42% of their cable subscribers buy high-speed Internet service. And only 26% of cable systems surveyed have deployed OCAP-enabled set-top boxes. Meanwhile, 54% of cable systems in the survey reported a phone company was already offering video service in their cable-TV service footprint.
