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What to do when your cable company is heading towards bankruptcy!!!!
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Posted by: jlb

As many of you may be aware from the news lately, Adelphia is taking major hits to their stock price due to business practices that have not been the best (shades of Enron....maybe....). Today's paper says that they may be inching closer to bankruptcy, and the hope that maybe a buyer can be found.

As an Adelphia subscriber with TiVo, what should I do? I assume I need to just sit and wait. I cannot envision a situation where the provider went totally away. Someone would step in and make some form of offer.

My guess is that I am likely to have to deal with a lineup change down the road if they are bought. From past experience with situations like this, would a buyer likely purchase and operate as a separate entity, or would they merge them into the parent (thus forcing a likely lineup change TiVo-wise)?

I guess looking on the bright side, this is happening during the summer when most shows are in repeats, so if there were a day or two where things need to get straightened out, it wouldn't be too bad.....

Posted by: walters

I imagine either someone would buy them or your local franchising authority would grant access to another cable company (which sometimes happens even if the incumbent cable company doesn't go out of business).

Posted by: foo monkey

I live in an area "served" by Adelphia. After one month, I got DTV and now I laugh at them. Convince your neighbors to get DTV. Have a party. Laugh together. Works for me. 20 houses on my court and 16 have satellite TV. Two are new neighbors who will be converted soon enough.

Posted by: Pan Chun

I still have Adelphia's lowest tier service for locals, but it's DTiVo all the way for me, baby! If my locals were available, I'd completely kick 'em to the curb.

Posted by: Damian

quote:
Originally posted by jlb
I cannot envision a situation where the provider went totally away.

You weren't an @Home subscriber I take it. For a few franchises the service did indeed go totally away. Though I think in the case of TV you're better off, since it's actually regulated. Even if no one buys the Adelphia franchise itself, someone's going to buy franchise rights.

Posted by: genearch

In my market, I'd be hosed. Verizon Americast bailed, selling to Adelphia a couple of months ago. Currently Adelphia is the only option, there is no other cable provider.

Posted by: dbett

I second the DTv suggestion. Why worry. Get a DTivo, relax and enjoy dual tuner goodness.

Posted by: jlb

HFC! Yes, I would love to go the DirecTiVO route, but the added cost of the DirecTV service is one of the major things holding me up right now. We like paying $10 a month for basic cable. We'd love all the other content DTV would provide, mostly HBO, but I really don't want to pay ~$40/month right now.

Yes, I want my DirecTiVO, but can't do it right now.

Oh and the other thing holding me up is trying to find a good line of sight for the dish that locates the dish in a spot that my wife is ok with........

Posted by: SteveGardiner

I dropped Adelphia and went DTiVo in December 2000. Best thing I ever did. Your wife won't care where the dish is once she sees the difference. She will care if it disappears though...

I did just get Adelphia cable internet last week. They're turning it up now in my city, just in time to sell out to someone else. I'm happy with it so far.

Posted by: EricG

Someone WILL buy Adelphia. Cable in your are won't go away.
But who cares? I'm happy not giving them a dime!

DirecTiVo all the way!

Posted by: jsmeeker

Go DirecTV??

Seriously, as others say, someone will buy them up, or the contract for your area wil lgo to someone else, who will probably buy the assets of Adelphia in your area. you won't loose cable TV.

Posted by: JYoung

It's been reported that Paul Allen has been sniffing around Adelphia's Los Angeles property which is probably too valuble to let just lie around.
The funny thing is that I hear Adelphia advertising on the radio for their digital cable, first 6 months for free....

Posted by: pin87a

Comcast (or another cable giant) will buy them out in a second.

Posted by: genearch

quote:
Originally posted by EricG
Someone WILL buy Adelphia. Cable in your are won't go away.
But who cares? I'm happy not giving them a dime!

DirecTiVo all the way!

No doubt.. it will most likely be Comcast.. I'm not sure I want them as my provider.

In my area it was amazing. GTE Americast came in and rewired literally every street in the county with fiber. What a mess! When they were done, they became Verizon Americast, then they just bailed selling everything to the only other system in the market, Adelphia. Now Adelphia is seeking to overturn a court's injunction blocking Adelphia's takeover of Verizon's cable operations in Thousand Oaks (just over the hill from me) Apparently they had a deal with the city that their sale had to be approved and if they breached the deal, they would either have to remove their equipment (dig up lines) or give the system to the city.

DirecTV looks like the best option, but for now it won't be DirecTivo because I can't give up my Replay 4000's and the ability to share content throughout the house. Maybe when DirecTivo series/2 offers this functionality.. someday

Posted by: SteveGardiner

All the local articles say Charter is hot and heavy for the Adelphia So. Cal. systems and they're trying to come to an agreement by June 15, which is when Adelphia will be in default, unless they pay up first. Charter was the losing bidder to Adelphia in 1999 for the Century cable system in LA/OC area. It could end up being someone we never heard of, like Adelphia in '99, who in LA had heard of them then? Time will tell.

Posted by: robb

I'm about to move to Studio City, CA, which is also Adelphia.

I'm getting nervous as the apartment people suggested that nobody there has DirecTV, and I keep reading about all of Adelphia's problems. Even if they weren't having governance issues, I'm concerned that they'll be subpar simply because they never got their act together to offer cable modems.

If I do have to go with them, how bad are they ( a new provider wouldn't be able to revamp all that quickly)?

Posted by: SteveGardiner

For standard cable TV service, they're Ok. DTV is much better. Do a little homework first. I just checked up there (for a new retail location for my company) in Studio City this week for DSL and Cable Internet from Adelphia. No cable seeing as it's part of LA and that whole system is delayed. DSL is available, but not everywhere in Studio City. It's across the street from our new store, but we can't get it. Too far!!

Posted by: rasheed

quote:
Originally posted by JYoung
It's been reported that Paul Allen has been sniffing around Adelphia's Los Angeles property which is probably too valuble to let just lie around.
The funny thing is that I hear Adelphia advertising on the radio for their digital cable, first 6 months for free....

If you do live an area where they are offering free six months of digital cable (I do), go for it. Very nice service that for me is a much better deal than satellite.

The Adelphia thing is a non-issue right now to most cable tv customers. Why worry?

Let's say Adelphia goes bankrupt? What happens? Nothing. Your service continues under bankruptcy protection. Somebody buys up the franchise, and it takes them a few months to get things in order (transition). Worse case scenario: You can switch to DTV at anytime without problem. It only takes a few days to get DTV (or Dish). I plan to wait and see if the price deals are worse than what I have now.

Adelphia's broadband service works very well in the newer launched areas. If the service ends? No problem. Just go back to dial-up or get DSL.

These things will play themselves out anyway, so why worry as long as your cable and TiVo are working.

Rasheed

Posted by: trainman

quote:
Originally posted by SteveGardiner
For standard cable TV service, they're Ok. DTV is much better. Do a little homework first. I just checked up there (for a new retail location for my company) in Studio City this week for DSL and Cable Internet from Adelphia. No cable seeing as it's part of LA and that whole system is delayed. DSL is available, but not everywhere in Studio City. It's across the street from our new store, but we can't get it. Too far!!

I believe there are two different Adelphia systems serving Studio City, although I'm not sure where the dividing line is (Ventura Blvd., if I had to guess). One is a former Century system that's usually listed as "Adelphia Sherman Oaks," and the other is a former TCI system that's usually listed as "Adelphia East San Fernando Valley." I have the latter system here in North Hollywood, and could get cable modem service through it, although I have DSL instead.

Anyway, in my younger days, I went through a cable system bankruptcy (in Tampa, Florida) and lived to tell the tale. We didn't miss a minute of programming as the ownership changed, and later changed again, although there was a complete lineup change every two years.

Posted by: MannyL

I'm in New Jersey. Here we had Adelphia. Bell Atlantic tried to compete with video over telephone lines and put in all fiber. It failed so they bailed. Leaving us with Adelphia for cable TV. When Adelphia offered cable modems I jumped because DSL isn't available because of no copper just fiber here. Last year or was it the year before Comcast and Adelphia swapped some areas so I went from Adelphia to Comcast. So I guess I'm lucky in the regard that my cable company is stable.

Posted by: Kablemodem

quote:
Originally posted by robb
I'm about to move to Studio City, CA, which is also Adelphia.

Where in Studio City? I used to live in the Studio Colony apartments, which included cable in the rent. I even got all the premium channels for free. The buildings were pretty close together and I doubt many of the apartments could get a LOS for a dish.

I have DirecTV now, but Adelphia Powerlink as an ISP. Santa Monica is one of Adelphia Powerlink's shining stars as far as quality of service goes, so I am very lucky. Charter is rumored to be leading the pack to purchase the LA cable franchise and they are possibly the only cable ISP worse than Adelphia. They have half the download cap and twice the price as Adelphia. I sure hope Charter doesn't take over here. Unfortunately the phone company won't let me have DSL.

Posted by: robb

Kablemodem, you've got PM.

Posted by: foo monkey

Adelphia's being de-listed on Monday. Charter ain't buying.
Rumor has it there's a nation-wide work stoppage for all contractor work (line upgrades & new installations).

http://money.cnn.com/2002/05/31/new...arter/index.htm
Charter drops Adelphia talks

Charter Communications ends plan to buy California cable assets; bankruptcy looms closer.
May 31, 2002: 1:09 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Adelphia Communications Corp.'s troubles continued to mount Friday as negotiations to sell some assets to Charter Communications fell through, raising the prospects of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Nasdaq late Thursday decided to delist Adelphia, the nation's sixth-largest cable company, effective Monday for failing to file its annual report. Nasdaq requires companies to make timely financial reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission as a condition for being listed on its trading system.

Posted by: SteveGardiner

quote:
Originally posted by foo monkey
Adelphia's being de-listed on Monday. Charter ain't buying.
Rumor has it there's a nation-wide work stoppage for all contractor work (line upgrades & new installations).

A little birdie told me (last week) that Adelphia has eliminated all sub contractors and is doing the work themselves. They're now overloaded and understaffed. It's well known they've virtually stopped all new buildouts in So. Cal. They're pretty much in a holding (or sliding downhill) pattern now. I'm just lucky my city was done and Internet was turned up last week. It's probably back to dialup next week...

Posted by: rasheed

Still not worried. Charter's pull-out is a good thing for most Adelphia customers who already have good tv and broadband services. I hope this means a reorganization of assets and liabilities while still keeping the services within Adelphia's umbrella. And with the negative publicity, Adelphia will probably continue offering great deals for new, existing, and retention-based for digital cable and broadband.

Rasheed

Posted by: d_anders

quote:
Originally posted by MannyL
I'm in New Jersey. Here we had Adelphia. Bell Atlantic tried to compete with video over telephone lines and put in all fiber....

Fiber to the house?! What an untapped resource and opportunity!

I can't believe AT&T or someone else hasn't bought those assets and utilized that...

There are a few companies around the U.S. that are making this investment with high speed internet services, VOD, etc...

Someone will be offering something over that big fat pipe to house at some point...