Altice USA

Altice USA, Inc., commonly known as Altice, is an American cable television provider with headquarters in New York City. It delivers pay television, Internet access, telephone services, and original television content to approximately 4.9 million residential and business customers in 21 states.[1]

For this company's predecessor, see Cablevision.
Altice USA, Inc.
Public
Traded asNYSE: ATUS
Russell 1000 Index component
IndustryTelecommunications
Mass media
Predecessors
FoundedJune 21, 2016 (2016-06-21)
FounderCharles Dolan 
Headquarters
Long Island City, NY
,
United States
Key people
Patrick Drahi
(Chairman)
Lisa Rosenblum
(Vice Chairman)
Dexter Goei
(CEO)
ProductsCable
(Internet)
(VoIP Phone)
(Business)
BrandsOptimum by Altice, Optimum TV (Television)
Optimum Online (Internet)
Optimum Voice (VoIP Phone)
Altice Business
Suddenlink by Altice
News 12
News 12 Varsity
Number of employees
13,656 (September 2015) 
SubsidiariesCheddar
Websitewww.alticeusa.com

As a multiple-systems operator, the company operates the Optimum and Suddenlink brands, which it plans to rebrand under the Altice name.[2] The company also provides international news through the February 2017 U.S. launch of i24NEWS[3] and local news through News 12 Networks.

With its combined brands, Altice USA is the fourth-largest cable provider in the U.S.,[2] having customers residing in the New York City tri-state area, as well as several midwestern and southern states.[4]

In November 2016, Altice USA announced a five-year plan for fiber-to-the-home to build a network capable of delivering 10 Gbit/s broadband speed.[5] In August 2017, the company stated it was on track to reach one million homes by the end of 2018.[6]

In June 2017, Altice USA raised US$2.2 billion in an initial public stock offering.[7]

Altice USA is based at One Court Square in Long Island City, Queens with its operational center located at Cablevision's former headquarters in Bethpage, New York.

Products and services
Altice USA Call Center in Newark
  • Optimum Online, a DOCSIS Internet service that offers speeds up to 940 Mbit/s. As of April 2020, a Fiber-to-the home service is available to more than half of its service footprint.[8]
    • Subscribers also get access to Optimum Wi-Fi hotspots that are located within the Altice's service area. Additionally, they may also connect to hotspots provided by Charter Spectrum, Comcast and Cox nationwide.
  • Optimum Voice, a Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone service
  • Optimum TV, a digital cable service
  • Suddenlink Internet, an Internet service that offers speeds up to 940 Mbit/s
  • Suddenlink Home Phone, a Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone service
  • Suddenlink Television, a digital cable service
  • Altice Mobile, a wireless network offering unlimited text, talk, and data over a 4G LTE nationwide network;[9]

Other properties
  • Altice Business (Built of the former Lightpath, Optimum Business, and Suddenlink Business organizations[10]), an internet, telephone, and television service for businesses. Altice Business is currently available in 21 state and serves more than 375,000 businesses.[11]
  • News 12 Networks, a group of cable networks that provide news, weather, traffic and sports to cable subscribers in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut tri-state area through seven individual 24-hour local news channels and five traffic and weather channels.[12]
  • News 12 Varsity[13]
  • Audience Partners, a provider of audience-based digital advertising solutions, which Altice USA acquired in March 2017.[14]

History

On May 20, 2015, Netherlands-based Altice NV announced that it would enter the U.S. cable market by purchasing Suddenlink Communications, the country's 7th-largest cable provider, for $9.1 billion.[15] The acquisition closed on December 21, 2015.[16]

On September 17, 2015, Altice NV announced its intention to acquire Cablevision from the Dolan family and other public shareholders for $17.7 billion. The deal was approved by the FCC on May 3, 2016[17] and after approval from various regional regulators such as New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities and the New York Public Service Commission, closed on June 21, 2016.[18] Under the terms of the deal, Altice paid $34.90 in cash for each share in Cablevision and a 22% premium to the company's stock price; Altice also assumed Cablevision's debt.[19] Prior to this, Altice had already acquired St. Louis-based Suddenlink Communications, and both companies became subsidiaries of Altice USA.

In May 2017, Altice USA announced its intention to rebrand its Suddenlink and Cablevision properties under the Altice name by the end of the second quarter of 2018.[20]

In June 2017, Altice USA went public, raising $2.2 billion in its initial public offering.[7]

On January 8, 2018, Altice NV announced that it will spin-off Altice USA into a separate company. Patrick Drahi will maintain control of both companies, although they will be led by separate management teams.[21]

On April 30, 2019, it was announced Altice USA was buying Cheddar for $200 million in cash.[22]

On February 14, 2020, Altice USA announced that it has bought Service Electric Broadband Cable in New Jersey.[23][24] The deal closed in July.[25]

Carriage disputes

AMC Networks dispute

Altice engaged in a carriage dispute with the Dolan family (the former owners of Cablevision). Altice's contract to carry AMC Networks group of channels was to expire on December 31, 2016. On December 28 the two sides reached an agreement, three days before their contract with AMC expired.[26]

The Walt Disney Company dispute

Altice engaged in a dispute with The Walt Disney Company; the contract to carry the company's channels was set to expire on October 1, 2017.

On October 1, 2017, Disney and Altice reached a last-minute agreement to continue carrying the company's channels; this narrowly averted what would have been a blackout of ABC-owned stations WABC-TV and WPVI-TV, along with the ESPN family of networks and various other channels.[27] As part of the agreement, ESPN Classic was removed from the Altice lineup.

Starz dispute

On January 1, 2018, Altice dropped Starz, Starz Encore, and all of their channels from its channel lineup. The dispute came after the companies were unable to reach an agreement.[28] The dispute ended on February 13, 2018 after both companies reached a new multi-year agreement.[29]

21st Century Fox dispute

On September 22, 2018, 21st Century Fox announced that all of its entertainment and sports channels, including Fox owned-and-operated station WNYW and MyNetworkTV O&O WWOR-TV, would be removed from Altice on October 1 if a new retransmission agreement was not reached by that date.[30]

Dissatisfaction

Accusations of hidden fees were reported in the New York market late 2019.[31]

gollark: I don't want potato dishes, I'm into MELON™.
gollark: So does Pam's Harvestcraft.
gollark: I don't use Technic, it is heresy.
gollark: As soon as I work out how to update.
gollark: At last my evil plan can begin.

See also

References
  1. Keslassy, Elsa (2017-06-22). "Cable Operator Altice USA Raises $1.9 Billion in IPO". Variety. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  2. "Altice USA CEO Goei Thinks Ahead to M&A on First Day of Trading". Bloomberg.com. 2017-06-21. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  3. "Altice Launching News Network i24 in U.S. in February". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2017-10-01.
  4. "U.S. FCC approves Altice acquisition of cable firm Suddenlink". Reuters. 2015-12-18. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  5. "Altice USA to Skip DOCSIS 3.1, Roll Out All-Fiber Network | Multichannel". www.multichannel.com. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
  6. "Altice says it will reach 1M new homes with fiber by end of 2018 | FierceCable". www.fiercecable.com. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
  7. "Altice USA IPO raised $2.2 billion in final tally". News Day. June 27, 2017. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
  8. "One Gigabit Broadband Speeds Now Available to Millions of Optimum Customers Across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut". Altice USA. 2020-04-30. Retrieved 2020-08-02.
  9. Farrell, Mike (2019-09-05). "Altice USA Launches Wireless Service". Multichannel. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  10. "Altice USA Forms Business Unit". Multichannel. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
  11. "About Us: Ethernet Services & Solutions Provider - Lightpath". golightpath.com.
  12. "Patrick Dolan and Altice USA Enter into Agreement for Newsday Media Group". Businesswire.com. 2016-07-07. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  13. "Cablevision". 16 February 2010. Archived from the original on 16 February 2010.
  14. "Cable giant buys Philly ad targeter Audience Partners". Philly.com. 2017-03-08. Retrieved 2017-11-05.
  15. "Altice enters U.S. cable market with Suddenlink move". Reuters.com. 2015-05-20. Retrieved 2017-11-07.
  16. "ltice Closes Suddenlink Deal". Multichannel.com. 2015-12-21. Retrieved 2017-11-07.
  17. "Altice and Cablevision, WC Docket 15-257". Federal Communications Commission. 2015-12-04. Retrieved 2016-06-22.
  18. "Altice Completes Acquisition of Cablevision Systems Corporation" (PDF). Altice NV. June 21, 2016.
  19. Emily Steel; Mark Scott (September 17, 2015). "Expanding in U.S., Altice Plans to Buy Cablevision for $17.7 Billion". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
  20. "Suddenlink and Optimum brands to disappear amid Altice rebrand". Fierce Cable. May 24, 2017. Retrieved 2017-10-10.
  21. Rosemain, Mathieu; Athavaley, Anjali (8 January 2018). "Drahi hits Altice reset button to court wary investors". Reuters. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  22. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/altice-usa-buys-cheddar-200-million-1205959
  23. Farrell, Mike (February 12, 2020). "Altice to Buy Service Electric New Jersey Systems for $150M". Multichannel News. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  24. https://www.njherald.com/news/20200214/service-electric-to-be-acquired-by-nyc-based-altice-cable
  25. https://www.njherald.com/news/20200717/goodbye-service-electric-altice-usa-closes-acquisition-of-utility
  26. "Altice USA, AMC Networks Reach Carriage Deal | Multichannel". www.multichannel.com. Retrieved 2017-01-01.
  27. "David Faber on Twitter".
  28. "Starz goes dark on Altice in first big carriage battle of 2018 - FierceCable". www.fiercecable.com.
  30. Littleton, Cynthia (September 22, 2018). "Fox Networks Group, Altice USA Rattle Sabers in New York Carriage Fight". Variety. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
  31. Denis Slattery (December 23, 2019). "State lawmaker slams Optimum over hidden fee, demands refund for customers". New York Daily News.
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