Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and
Times-Mirror Cable) is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and
home automation
Home automation or domotics is building automation for a home, called a smart home or smart house. A home automation system will monitor and/or control home attributes such as lighting, climate, entertainment systems, and appliances. It ...
services. It is the third-largest cable television provider in the United States, serving approximately 6.5 million customers, including 2.9 million digital cable subscribers, 3.5 million Internet subscribers, and almost 3.2 million digital telephone subscribers, making it the seventh-largest telephone carrier in the country.
Cox is headquartered at 6205 Peachtree Dunwoody Rd in
Sandy Springs, Georgia
Sandy Springs is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia and an inner ring suburb of Atlanta. The city's population was 108,080 at the 2020 census, making it Georgia's seventh-largest city. It is the site of several corporate headquarters, i ...
, U.S., in the
Atlanta metropolitan area. It is a privately-owned subsidiary of
Cox Enterprises
Cox Enterprises, Inc. is a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately 55,000 employees and $21 billion in total revenue. Its major operating subsidiaries are Cox Communications and ...
.
History
Cox Enterprises expanded into the cable television industry in 1962 by purchasing a number of cable systems in
Lewistown,
Lock Haven and
Tyrone (all in Pennsylvania), followed by systems in California, Oregon and
Washington. The subsidiary company, Cox Broadcasting Corporation (unrelated to the
Cox Media Group, which focuses on
radio stations
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
and
television stations
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the eart ...
), was not officially formed until 1964, when it was established as a
public company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( l ...
traded on the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...
. The company was renamed to Cox Communications in 1982. It was taken private by
Cox Enterprises
Cox Enterprises, Inc. is a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately 55,000 employees and $21 billion in total revenue. Its major operating subsidiaries are Cox Communications and ...
in 1985.
In 1993, Cox began offering telecommunication services to businesses it was the first multiple system cable operator to do so. This eventually grew into Cox Business, which now represents $1 billion in annual revenue. In 1995, Cox acquired the
Times-Mirror cable properties and as a result became a publicly traded company once again.
In 1997, Cox became the first multiple system cable operator to offer phone services to customers following the 1996 Telecom Act. Two years later in 1999, Cox acquired the cable television assets of
Media General
Media General was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch ...
in Fairfax County and Fredericksburg, Virginia. The following year, Cox Communications acquired
Multimedia Cablevision with assets in Kansas, Oklahoma and North Carolina.
In 2004, the
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors found Cox Communications guilty of violating an agreement with the county which stated that all homes served by Cox within Fairfax County would be digital ready with the new fiber optic network by June 2003. When this term expired with less than 30% of the county having been completed, the Board of Supervisors decided to fine Cox $100 per day from the originally agreed completion date, until work was completed in January 2006. The Board also forbade Cox from raising rates to recover the cost of the fine for a period of 10 years from the actual completion date. The total fine was approximately $93,000. Also in 2004, Cox Communications announced plans to take the company private once again, expressing frustration in the shareholder's emphasis on short-term goals.
The company was taken private for the second time in 2005.
By November 1, 2005, Cox announced the sale of all of its Texas, Missouri, Mississippi and North Carolina properties, as well as some systems in Arkansas, California, Louisiana and Oklahoma to Cebridge Communications. The sale closed in 2006 and those systems were transitioned by their new owner from Cox branding to
Suddenlink Communications.
On May 14, 2007, Cox announced that they had sold their investment in
Discovery Communications
Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Channe ...
for the
Travel Channel
Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United ...
, related assets, and $1.3 billion.
In 2007, DiversityInc magazine named Cox Communications #25 in its Top 50 Companies for Diversity. Cox climbed to the sixth position on Diversity Inc.'s 2008 list. Also in 2008, Cox was named #8 on the Top 10 Companies for African Americans. Two years later, on November 19, 2010, Cox began offering wireless services in Orange County, California; Omaha, Nebraska; and, in Hampton Roads, Virginia.
In February 2011, Cox Communications completed its Alternative Energy Project which included two
fuel cell
A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...
installations at each of the company's San Diego, CA and Rancho Santa Margarita, CA headquarters. Two separate
PureCell System
The PureCell System is a stationary phosphoric acid fuel cell designed, manufactured and marketed by Doosan Fuel Cell America (formerly ClearEdge Power/ UTC Power) of South Windsor, Connecticut. Intended for distributed generation and micro ...
400 kilowatt installations will generate enough onsite power to reduce the company's dependence of the local power grid and decrease its
carbon footprint
A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, place or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Greenhouse gases, including the carbon-containing gases carb ...
.
In September 2011, Cox Home Security was added to their suite of products listed on their website. This new service uses advanced technologies similar to the home security products offered by other MSOs such as
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
.
In August 2013, Cox launched a new television platform known as Contour, which features recommendations and a user profile system across multiple devices. In 2015, Cox licensed
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
's
Xfinity X1 platform (which features more extensive integration of video streaming apps, and a voice control remote); it was deployed in 2016, maintaining the Contour naming. Cox stated that at least 1 million subscribers were on the X1-based Contour as of October 2017.
In 2016, Cox Business reached 3 billion in annual revenue.
Other business units
*Cox Business: Provides business level video, voice and Internet services.
Cox Media Advertising sales
*Travel Media, Inc. (Sold):
Travel Channel
Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United ...
and TravelChannel.com (35%; joint venture with
Scripps Networks).
Cox Charities
Cox Communications Virginia created the philanthropic Cox Charities to annually provide grants to nonprofits serving youth. The organizations must have education programs that focus on science and technology, literacy, mentoring and other areas. In the 2016-2017 program, 15 nonprofits received a total of $150,000. They were:
* An Achievable Dream
* ForKids
* Horizons Hampton Roads
* REACH
* The Salvation Army - Hampton Roads Area Command
* The UP Center
* Virginia Peninsula Foodbank
* Educacion Para Nuestro Futuro
* Main Street Child Development Center
* Hopecam
* Fairfax Futures
* Literary Council of Northern Virginia
* Boys and Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia
* Child Health Investment Partnership of Roanoke Valley
* Total Action for Progress
Other state branches of Cox Communications also donate money annually through a Community Investment Grant program. The money comes from employees and goes to 501(c)(3) organizations. The organizations will differ from state to state, and year to year, but usually also have a focus on education, technology, social issues, and the arts.
These programs can be found in Oklahoma (nearly $165,000 in 2017),
Arkansas (nearly $100,000 in 2017), Nebraska and Iowa (nearly $90,000 in 2017), and the Southeast region, including parts of Louisiana, Florida's Gulf Coast, Central Florida and Middle Georgia.
Privatization
In 2004, Cox Enterprises announced its intention to purchase those shares of Cox Communications which it did not already own. A $6.6 billion
tender offer was completed in December of that year, and Cox Communications has been a wholly owned subsidiary ever since. This was the second time Cox Communications was taken private by Cox Enterprises.
Residential services
Cox Cable TV
Cox distributes standard definition and high-definition cable television programming, including
Digital Cable
Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previo ...
. Cox launched Digital Cable on its Orange County system in 1997. In February 2008, Cox started to implement
switched digital video
Switched video or switched digital video (SDV), sometimes referred to as switched broadcast (SWB), is a telecommunications industry term for a network scheme for distributing digital video via a cable. Switched video sends the digital video more ...
(SDV) technology in some of their markets. In late 2014, Cox started notifying customers in their
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
market that they would be moving to an All Digital Video platform, requiring a small digital adapter (termed a ''Cox Mini-Box'') for televisions that were previously connected to an analog only signal.
This same notification was extended to all other major markets in 2016.
Digital video recorder
Cox offers
digital video recorder
A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to d ...
service, provided using
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorola ...
,
Scientific-Atlanta,
Cisco
Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...
, or previously
Moxi equipment depending on the local market.
On Demand
Cox offers
video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...
service in the majority of its markets under the name ''On Demand''. On Demand offerings are fairly standardized, portal-based, and carry VODnets like
The Ski Channel, and includes HD offerings and replays of major network series.
Cox High Speed Internet
As of 2013, Cox offers cable internet service to over 21.8 million people across 18 states, making it the 4th largest provider of cable internet service in the US (based on coverage area).
Cox offers five levels of high-speed Internet in all of its markets: Starter(10 mbps download/1 mbps upload), Essential(50 mbps download/3 mbps upload), Preferred(150 mbps download/10 mbps upload), Ultimate(300/500 mbps download/10 mbps upload), and Gigablast(900 mbps download/35 mbps upload via coax and 1000 mbps download/1000 mbps upload via fiber). In certain markets they also offer two financial assist plans one being Straight Up, and the other Connect 2 Compete. Cox initially launched high-speed Internet in 1996 in its Orange County infrastructure. Cox licensed the PowerBoost technology from
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
in 2007 and offers it on the Preferred, Premier, and Ultimate levels of service. Top service download speeds are between 15 and 300 Mbit/s.
*
"Soft" monthly bandwidth caps are listed for all four levels of service, and Cox does charge a considerable fee for exceeding data usage limits.
* In September 2011, Cox announced the availability of a data usage meter for customers to check their data usage.
* In 2011, the FCC released the "Measuring Broadband America" report where it was revealed that many broadband providers provided lower than advertised internet speeds to their consumers. Analysis of the report data showed that Cox Cable only delivered 83.4% of its advertised internet speed (on speeds above 3Mbit/s) to its customers.
* Cox blocks incoming traffic on port 80 for residential customers,
making it difficult for them to run web servers.
Cox High Speed Internet won the PC Magazine Readers' Choice Award for High Speed Internet in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2011. In 2014, Cox announced they would begin offering 1 Gbit/s internet speeds under the name "G1GABLAST" in
Phoenix,
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...
and
Omaha, with plans to begin offering it in the rest of their service areas by the end of 2016. They also announced that they would double internet speeds for all customers at no cost at the same time. They began rolling out the new speeds in Phoenix in early October of the same year.
In fall 2016, Cox first launched its Panoramic WiFi service in
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
,
Orange County and
Santa Barbara, and it became available nationwide on June 13, 2017.
Cox Digital Telephone
Cox offers telephone service in the majority of its services areas. Various technologies, including circuit switched and hybrid VoIP systems, are used depending on service areas. Cox has won multiple
J.D. Power and Associates awards for its telephone service.
Cox Homelife
In 2010 Cox started offering a range of
Home Automation
Home automation or domotics is building automation for a home, called a smart home or smart house. A home automation system will monitor and/or control home attributes such as lighting, climate, entertainment systems, and appliances. It ...
and Security service to customers in its
Tucson, Arizona
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive ...
market as a trial. In 2011, this product was expanded to Cox's entire Arizona market, and was rolled out to additional markets over the next couple of years; it was then renamed as Cox Homelife in all markets. In December 2014, Cox Launched Cox Homelife in Louisiana.
Cox Business
Cox Business provides voice, data and video services for more than 260,000 small and regional businesses, including health care providers, K-12 and higher education, financial institutions and federal, state and local government organizations. According to Vertical Systems Group,
Cox Business is the fourth-largest provider of business Ethernet services in the U.S.-based on customer ports and the company ranked highest among small and mid-size business data service providers in J.D. Power and Associates telecommunications studies in 2006, 2008 and 2010. In 2013, Cox Business had the third largest business-facing enterprise by revenue (of cable providers who provide business services), with $1.2 billion in revenue as of the third quarter of 2013.
Cox Business is an early adopter of
Voice over IP
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Interne ...
technology and, in 2007, Cox became the first cable provider in North America to deploy a fully owned and managed IP telephony service for businesses, Cox Business VoiceManager. Cox Business is expected to launch Managed IP PBX, SIP Trunking and IP Centrex services in 2011, allowing customers to more efficiently route voice traffic over Internet Protocol. Cox Business currently supports more than 800,000 business phone lines.
Defunct Cox Wireless
Cox previously offered
mobile phone
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive telephone call, calls over a radio freq ...
and wireless services in four United States markets including Orange County, California, Hampton Roads, Virginia, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Omaha, Nebraska. Cox marketed their wireless service as 'Unbelievably Fair' due to a wireless plan it offered which returned money for unused minutes which it called "Moneyback Minutes."
This allowed customers to receive up to $20 per month added back to their bill in the event that the customer had leftover minutes. Cox Wireless offered a full range of devices manufactured by
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorola ...
,
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
,
HTC,
Kyocera
is a Japanese multinational ceramics and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. It manufactures industrial ceramics, solar power generating systems, telecommunic ...
, and
LG.
Cox Wireless utilized
Sprint
Sprint may refer to:
Aerospace
*Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design
*Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile
Automotive and motorcycle
*Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989
*Chevrolet Sprint, ...
's voice and
3G networks and also had planned to build out their own
4G LTE
LTE may refer to:
Science and technology
* LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a telephone and mobile broadband standard
** LTE Advanced, an enhancement
*** LTE Advanced Pro
* Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers produced by Compaq
* ...
network.
On May 24, 2011, Cox Communications announced it would decommission its plans to build a 3G wireless network, and would instead offer Sprint service to half of its current footprint and operate as a Sprint
MVNO
A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobil ...
by the end of 2011.
On November 15, 2011, Cox Communications announced it would halt sales of all its wireless branded products and existing Cox branded wireless operations would be decommissioned by March 30, 2012. Cox eventually also retracted its plans to offer wireless services reselling Sprint service as an MVNO.
Carriage controversies
News Corporation Dispute
On January 1, 2000, Cox was involved in a retransmission consent dispute with
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...
(the parent company of the
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelv ...
broadcast network, now owned by
Fox Corporation), pulling four Fox owned-and-operated stations, after retransmission consent talks between News Corp. and Cox broke down, reportedly because Fox had denied permission for Cox to broadcast programming on its O&O stations unless Cox gave it two channel slots on its digital cable service. The affected stations were
WJW-TV in Cleveland, Ohio (now owned by
Nexstar Media Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 tele ...
),
KTBC in Austin, Texas,
KRIV in Houston, Texas, and
KDFW
KDFW (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Dallas, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by t ...
in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, off its cable systems in those areas; another Fox O&O
WHBQ-TV in Memphis (itself now owned by
Cox Media Group) was also pulled from its
Jonesboro, Arkansas
Jonesboro is a city located on Crowley's Ridge in the northeastern corner of the U.S. State of Arkansas. Jonesboro is one of two county seats of Craighead County. According to the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 78,576 and is the ...
, system (of the mentioned systems; only the
Cleveland metropolitan area
The Cleveland metropolitan area, or Greater Cleveland as it is more commonly known, is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Cleveland in Northeast Ohio, United States. According to the 2020 United States Census results, the five-county ...
continues to be served by Cox; the Texas systems were later bought out by
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
(now
Spectrum
A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of color ...
) and
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
; the Jonesboro system was sold to
Suddenlink Communications in May 2006). The removal of those stations, which were temporarily replaced with premium service
Starz! Family (which was made available to subscribers for free), blacked out Fox programming to 425,000 Cox customers. The blackout lasted six days as the two sides came to an agreement on January 6, and the Fox-owned stations were brought back to the systems. Cox gave $1 refunds of their January cable bill to roughly 90,000 subscribers in Texas and Arkansas as compensation.
LIN TV-Cox dispute
In a separate dispute (clumped with the above dispute by media outlets as the "Cox vs Fox" dispute) that occurred around the same time, customers in
Hampton Roads, Virginia
Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlanti ...
lost access to LIN TV-owned Fox affiliate
WVBT (channel 43) on January 1, 2000; retransmission talks between WVBT and Cox broke down, reportedly due to a demand by WVBT to be placed somewhere between channels 2 and 14 (it had been broadcast on channel 43). Cox refused to move WVBT to a lower channel number; the channel space was filled in the interim by pay channel
HBO Family. It was not until February 5 of that year that the station resumed on Cox's Hampton Roads system (remaining on channel 43), after an agreement was reached during a ten-hour arbitration session. Cox did not offer rebates to its 335,000 subscribers in Fairfax County, Virginia, and
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...
, Ohio, who also lost their Fox stations.
Nexstar dispute
On January 29, 2016, seventeen
Nexstar Broadcasting
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 tele ...
stations were dropped by Cox after failing to reach a new retransmission deal. The contract had expired on December 31, 2015, but the two companies allowed talks to continue until January 22, 2016. The channels were replaced by a screen which accused Nexstar of "demanding a significant fee increase". In Las Vegas, where the dispute threatened to black out
Super Bowl 50
Super Bowl 50 was an American football game to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2015 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos defeated the National Football Conference (NFC) ...
due to local CBS station
KLAS-TV
KLAS-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Channel 8 Drive near the northern portion of the Las Vegas Strip in the ...
being affected by the dispute, Cox announced on February 3, 2016, that it would offer a free preview of the game's Spanish-language broadcaster,
ESPN Deportes, over Super Bowl weekend. The next day, Cox reached a new deal with Nexstar, and the stations were restored.
Neighborhood-wide speed decreases
In 2020, Cox lowered the upstream bitrates of entire neighborhoods from 35Mb/s to 10Mb/s, because they determined that individual users within the neighborhoods had excessive usage.
Copyright lawsuits
BMG Rights Management
On December 17, 2015, Cox was held responsible for the copyright infringements of its subscribers according to a ruling from a federal jury in the
. The ISP was found guilty of willful contributory copyright infringement and ordered to pay music publisher
BMG BMG may refer to:
Organizations
* Music publishing companies:
** Bertelsmann Music Group, a 1987–2008 division of Bertelsmann that was purchased by Sony on October 1, 2008
*** Sony BMG, a 2004–2008 joint venture of Bertelsmann and Sony that wa ...
$25 million in damages.
This verdict was reaffirmed by the judge on August 8, 2016. On February 14, 2017, Cox was ordered to additionally pay $8.5 million in costs. On November 7, 2016, Cox appealed to the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (in case citations, 4th Cir.) is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:
*District of Maryland
...
and on February 1, 2018, the court overturned the $25 million verdict due to erroneous jury instructions but upheld its loss of safe harbor protections due to not having a meaningful repeat infringer policy. On August 27, 2018, before the case was scheduled to be tried for a second time, both parties agreed to a confidential settlement.
Sony Music, et al.
On July 31, 2018, a billion dollar lawsuit was filed against Cox in the same court, before the same judge that handled the BMG case, by 53 record labels, including
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
,
Universal, and
Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...
. On December 19, 2019, the jury ruled against Cox and awarded $1 billion to the record labels. On June 2, 2020, the judge ruled the jury's verdict is not excessive but also ruled that damages should be issued per work, not per copyright, as a single song, such as a
mashup
Mashup may refer to:
* Mashup (culture), the rearrangement of spliced parts of musical pieces as part of a subculture
* Mashup (education), combining various forms of data and media by a teacher or student in an instructional setting
* Mashup (mus ...
, may have multiple copyrights. However, on January 12, 2021, the court backtracked on this point because Cox did not raise it during the jury trial, and thus upheld the $1 billion verdict. The case was appealed to the Fourth Circuit on May 24, 2021. While pending, Cox filed an additional motion for relief with the district court on December 27, 2021, alleging concealed evidence that came to light in a separate lawsuit by the record labels against
Charter. This motion was denied on March 23, 2022. A ruling on the appeal to the Fourth Circuit is pending.
Marketing
One of Cox's marketing trademarks is a fictional animated "spokesman" character named "
Digital Max
Digital Max was the official mascot for Cox Communications from 2005 to 2008. He is a CGI human character, apparently intended to appeal to the adult demographic.
Digital Max was created in 2005 by ad agency Doner.
He appeared in all of Cox's m ...
", used from 2005 through 2008.
The phasing out of Digital Max in 2008 was followed by the introduction of the current Cox mascots, the "Digeez", little digital helpmates featured in many of Cox Communications' brand commercials.
Official sponsors
MLB
*
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. ...
*
San Diego Padres
The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...
NFL
*
Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division, an ...
*
New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...
*
Las Vegas Raiders
NBA
*
New Orleans Pelicans
*
Oklahoma City Thunder
The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team plays i ...
*
Phoenix Suns
The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference Pacific Division (NBA), P ...
NHL
*
Arizona Coyotes
The Arizona Coyotes are a professional ice hockey team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Coyotes compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and currently play at the Mul ...
*
Vegas Golden Knights
The Vegas Golden Knights are a professional ice hockey team based in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference. Founded in 2017 as an exp ...
College sports
*
Arizona Wildcats (
Pac-12
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...
)
*
Arizona State Sun Devils
The Arizona State Sun Devils are the athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of ...
(
Pac-12
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...
)
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Creighton Blue Jays
The Creighton Bluejays, or Jays, are the athletic teams that represent Creighton University, a Jesuit/Catholic University in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. They compete in NCAA Division I in the Big East Conference.
Sports sponsored
Baseb ...
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Big East)
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Florida Gators
The Florida Gators are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni and its sports fans are often collectively referred to as th ...
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SEC)
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Georgia Bulldogs
The Georgia Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The female athletic teams are sometimes referred to as Lady Bulldogs. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference ( ...
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SEC)
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Kansas State Wildcats (
Big 12
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...
)
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Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns are the athletic teams of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The college has been competing athletically since 1901. The Ragin' Cajuns compete in NCAA Division I, fielding 16 varsity teams.
Nickname
The un ...
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Sun Belt
The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel. Several climates can be found in the region — ...
)
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LSU Tigers
The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a ...
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SEC)
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Oklahoma Sooners
The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the " Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land R ...
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Big 12
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...
)
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Oklahoma State Cowboys
The Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cowgirls are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Oklahoma State University, located in Stillwater. The program's mascot is a cowboy named Pistol Pete. Oklahoma State participates at the National Col ...
(
Big 12
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...
)
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Mercer University
Mercer University is a private research university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the state and enrolls more than 9,00 ...
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Southern Conference
The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Southern Conference College football, football teams c ...
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Rhode Island Rams
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San Diego State Aztecs
The San Diego State Aztecs are the sport, athletic teams that represent San Diego State University (SDSU). San Diego State currently sponsors six men's and eleven women's sports at the varsity level.
The Aztecs compete in NCAA Division I (NCAA D ...
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Mountain West)
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Wichita State Shockers
The Wichita State Shockers are the athletic teams that represent Wichita State University, located in Wichita, Kansas, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the NCAA Division I ranks, primarily competing in the American Athletic Conference (A ...
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The American)
Esports
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Atlanta Reign
See also
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List of United States telephone companies
References
External links
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Cox HSI & CATV support forum VIA dslreports.com
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Cox Enterprises
Telecommunications companies of the United States
Cable television companies of the United States
Companies based in DeKalb County, Georgia
Telecommunications companies established in 1962
Mass media companies established in 1962
1962 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
Privately held companies of the United States
American companies established in 1962