• More Time Warner Cable Subscriber Losses Expected
• Roberts Likes Comcast’s Chances
• Execs Say Cable Must Adapt to Diversity
• CTAM Cuts USPS Deal
• Fox Business Will Launch in HD
• CNBC Extends Kernen Contract
• Bresnan Tests Wi-Fi

• Telco Inks Deal For IPTV Via Co-Ops
• Big Ten Signs Worldlink
• Commisso, Lee to Chair The Cable Show
• MTV Tr3s Expands Distribution
• Voom Expands Family, Kids Fare
• NASCAR Targets Latinos
• Smallman Joins Waller Capital

• Outdoor Channel Docks in Manhattan
• Deportes Gains 1M Subs
• CN8 Wins Four Emmys

More Time Warner Cable Subscriber Losses Expected
Time Warner Cable chief operating officer Landel Hobbs tried to put a good face on the country’s second largest cable operator’s growth prospects, but warned that second quarter “seasonality” is bleeding into the third quarter, a fact that caused at least one cable analyst some concern. Hobbs, speaking at the Merrill Lynch Media and Entertainment conference in Marina Del Ray, Calif., said that Time Warner Cable is making progress in integrating systems it acquired as part of the $17.6 billion joint purchase of Adelphia Communications with Comcast last year. But he said that seasonality, normally a second quarter phenomenon associated with snowbirds and college students disconnecting service as they leave for summer residence, bleeds into the first weeks of the third quarter as well. Time Warner Cable lost about 57,000 basic subscribers in the second quarter, mainly in the former Adelphia systems. “We’ve seen those trends continue into the third quarter,” Hobbs said. That forced Pali Research media analyst Richard Greenfield, who has been critical of Time Warner Cable and its parent Time Warner Inc. in the past, to fire off a research note to clients that was doubtful that the cable giant will be able to turn things around in the coming quarter. “[Third quarter] seasonality is new to us and even harder to digest when one considers that last year’s [third quarter] was burdened by taking on Adelphia systems one month into the quarter, when there were few quick fixes that TWC could implement,” Greenfield said in the research note. click to read more...
Back to top

Roberts Likes Comcast’s Chances
Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts told an audience at an investor conference Monday that he believes that the nation’s largest cable operator is poised well for growth, fueled by its existing triple play bundle and in the future, by commercial phone service and interactive advertising. “In past cable hasn’t always been a value play, but in these bundles we really are,” Roberts said at the Merrill Lynch Media and Entertainment conference in Marina Del Ray, Calif. on Monday. “As long as have superior products, I think we’re well positioned.” Comcast’s existing product line continues to grow and capture market share, despite a slowdown in subscriber additions in the second quarter. Roberts said that 58% of Comcast’s high-speed data customer additions in the second quarter were former telco digital subscriber line subscribers. And he added that Comcast will continue to innovate with that product, working with CableLabs to roll out DOCSIS 3.0, a set of standards that would make 200 megabit per second speeds possible for cable modem service. click to read more...
Back to top

Execs Say Cable Must Adapt to Diversity
New York -- The industry’s corporate leaders will have to learn to be more flexible and more adaptable to a growing diverse marketplace if those companies are going to remain competitive in the 21st century, according to several industry executives speaking Monday at the opening session of NAMIC’s Conference. With the U.S. Census predicting that by 2050 the nation’s population of Asian, African and Hispanic-Americans will increase by 46%, Comcast Cable executive vice president Dave Cohen said it’s critical for telecommunications companies to hire, mentor and advance people of color within their companies. Referencing the “embrace diversity … embrace success” message on NAMIC wristbands being handed out to a conference record-setting 700 attendees -- Cohen said that if the industry’s success is predicated on its ability to effectively diversity its workforce. click to read more...
Back to top

CTAM Cuts USPS Deal
The Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing has successfully bid to advertise digital cable in the official national change of address program of the U.S. Postal Service. The program reaches the majority of the 44 million Americans who relocate each year. That is roughly 24% of the country’s total households. The two-year project, dubbed Cable Mover National Change of Address Program, launches January 2008. Advertising will appear in three USPS publications: its pre-moving change-of-address guide, an online address change site and in post-move welcome kits sent to everyone who files a change of address with the post office. click to read more...
Back to top

Fox Business Will Launch in HD
Fox Business Network will sport a high-definition look when it debuts next month. The enhanced feed will be available to all FBN affiliates when the service begins competing against CNBC and Bloomberg TV Oct. 15. DirecTV’s Web site lists FBN as one of the services it plans to launch shortly as part of its vastly expanded HD lineup. It was unclear at press time if and when the service’s other affiliates -- Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications -- would present FBN in HD. click to read more...
Back to top

CNBC Extends Kernen Contract
Joe Kernen will continue to work the morning shift for CNBC. The cable financial news leader signed Kerner, co-anchor of its signature morning program Squawk Box, to a multiyear contract extension. click to read more...
Back to top

Bresnan Tests Wi-Fi
Bresnan Communications has initiated a test of a Wi-Fi network covering a 1-square-mile area of downtown Billings, Mont., offering free wireless access to its local high-speed Internet customers. click to read more...
Back to top

Telco Inks Deal For IPTV Via Co-Ops
A small telephone company in Lafayette, Tenn. -- North Central Telephone Cooperative -- has signed the first non-beta contract to distribute Internet Protocol TV programming using SES Americom’s IP-PRIME solution, in a deal offered by the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association. click to read more...
Back to top

Big Ten Signs Worldlink
WorldLink entered into an exclusive agreement to become the exclusive rep firm for all short-form direct-response advertising sales for the Big Ten Network. BTN, which kicked off its rookie season on Aug. 30, is available to nearly 29 million customers via affiliate agreements with DirecTV, EchoStar Communications Corp.’s Dish Network and Insight Communications, as well as 140 other cable and municipal providers. click to read more...
Back to top

Commisso, Lee to Chair The Cable Show
BET Networks CEO Debra Lee and Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso will co-chair The Cable Show ’08 next May, which will return to New Orleans, convention organizers said Monday. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association originally planned to hold the 2006 convention – then known as The National Show – in New Orleans. But after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city, NCTA moved the convention to Atlanta. click to read more...
Back to top

MTV Tr3s Expands Distribution
Officials at MTV Tr3s have something to celebrate as the network approaches its first anniversary: its subscriber base has more than doubled and now reaches more than 50% of U.S. Hispanic households. Taking aim at bicultural Hispanics aged 12 to 34, MTV Tr3s relaunched Sept. 27, 2006 from MTV en Espanol, which largely had been a Latino-targeted music service. At that stage, the channel’s forebear counted some 2.8 million U.S. Latino homes. click to read more...
Back to top

Voom Expands Family, Kids Fare
Voom HD Networks has bolstered its programming lineup in the kids and family arenas via a trio of acquisitions. Voom’s Family Room HD bought 28 half-hour installments of RenegadePress.com from FilmOption International, which debuted on Sept. 15, plus 52 half-hour episodes of Animal Atlas from Midori that are slated to bow Oct. 2. click to read more...
Back to top

NASCAR Targets Latinos
NASCAR is now revving up online for Latinos. Tailored for the motor sports growing fan base, NASCAR.com has launched NASCAR.com en Espanol. The tailored Spanish-language Web site features all of the latest news, highlight and action that fans can find on its online progenitor. click to read more...
Back to top

Smallman Joins Waller Capital
New York-based cable investment banker Waller Capital said Monday that it has hired Cliff Smallman as a managing director. Prior to joining Waller Capital, Smallman worked in Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse First Boston’s Media & Telecom Groups, and for VALNIC Capital, a boutique advisory firm he co-founded in 2004. click to read more...
Back to top