Suddenlink Communications
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Suddenlink was an American
telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
subsidiary of
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 mill ...
trading in
cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...
,
broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...
,
IP telephony 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 Internet t ...
,
home security Home security includes both the security hardware placed on a property and individuals' personal security practices. Security hardware includes doors, locks, alarm systems, lighting, motion detectors, and security camera systems. Personal se ...
, and advertising. Prior to its acquisition by Altice, the company was the seventh largest cable operator with 1.5 million residential and 90,000 business subscribers. After Altice acquired
Cablevision Systems Corporation Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its ex ...
on November 30, 2016, Suddenlink was combined with Cablevision. Together with
Optimum Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criterion, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfi ...
- the name used by Cablevision for its products - Altice USA became the United States' fourth largest cable operator with 4.6 million subscribers, and the sixth largest
Pay TV Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...
service provider with 3.5 million subscribers. On August 1, 2022, Suddenlink rebranded into Optimum.


History

The predecessor to Suddenlink Communications was Cebridge Communications that was formed in September 2003 by its parent company Cequel III. Cequel III was formed in January 2002 by Jerry Kent, a former CEO for
Charter Communications Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 32 million customers in 41 states, it is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, ...
, Charter's co-founder Howard Wood and Dan Bergstein, a telecommunications lawyer. The company invested in Classic Communications on February 10, 2003 shortly after it emerged from bankruptcy. Classic Communications was founded in 1992 by Merritt Belisle and Steven Seach and the company was taken public on October 31, 1999 and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on November 14, 2001. Classic had a total of 325,000 subscribers when Cequel III assumed management of the cable provider on February 10, 2003. Shortly after Cequel III acquired cable systems located in Texas with 27,000 subscribers from Canadian telecommunications provider Shaw Communications. In August 2003 Cequel acquired 81,000 subscribers from Alliance Communications Partners. After this acquisition Cequel formed Cebridge Connections which consisted of all the cable systems Cequel acquired up to this point. The combined company had 450,000 subscribers by the time the news was announced on September 15, 2003. The company continued to acquire smaller cable systems after it became Cebridge including 78,000 from Thompson Cablevision on January 26, 2004 expanding the company into sixteen states. The company's coverage increased to twenty-three states when it closed its acquisitions of 19,000 customers from Tele-Media on June 3, 2004 and 40,000 customers from USA Media Systems on August 19, 2004. Cebridge Connections announced it would change its name to Suddenlink Communications in a soft launch on May 1, 2006 after the company completed its acquisition of 869,000 customers from
Cox Communications 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 services. It i ...
. The hard launch of the re-branding occurred in July after the company completed its acquisition of 250,000 customers from
Charter Communications Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 32 million customers in 41 states, it is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, ...
after these acquisitions the company increased its total size to 1.4 million. After Suddenlink completed its acquisition of the cable system from Charter, it focused on upgrading its existing infrastructure that was deemed "under-served" by previous owners. Suddenlink completed a $600 million debt offering on November 5, 2009 which allowed the company to make significant upgrades. The result of the upgrades allowed the company to expand its HD services and increase the number of HDTV channels while its broadband infrastructure was upgraded to
DOCSIS 3.0 Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) is an international telecommunications standard that permits the addition of high-bandwidth data transfer to an existing cable television (CATV) system. It is used by many cable televisio ...
technology allowing for faster broadband speeds across its footprint. In July 2013 Suddenlink was the first major cable provider that all technicians and installers with the company for 90 days or more had obtained at least one professional certifications from
Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers or SCTE is a non-profit professional association for the advancement of technology, standards and workforce education related to cable telecommunications engineering. Founded in 1969 as The Societ ...
. During the same month Suddenlink and TiVo announced that Suddenlink would distribute co-branded TiVo set top boxes to its subscriber base which allows the company to provide whole home DVR services and out of home streaming of recorded content. Four years after its last acquisition Suddenlink gained 8,000 subscribers it acquired from
Windjammer Communications Windjammer Cable is a small cable company formed by the sale of 25 systems that served 80,000 customers in rural areas that Time Warner Cable acquired from the bankrupt Adelphia. Windjammer was created specifically for this deal and consisted of ...
on August 1, 2010. On April 1, 2011 Suddenlink closed its acquisition of NPG Cable from the
News-Press & Gazette Company The News-Press & Gazette Company (NPG) is a media company based in St. Joseph, Missouri, wholly owned and operated by the Bradley family. It is presided by Brian Bradley and David R. Bradley, with Hank Bradley (retired), Eric Bradley and Kit Br ...
. Suddenlink would go on to complete two more acquisitions in 2014 the first was Northand Communications that closed on January 2 and New Wave Communications that closed on October 1. Actor Colin Price was selected and filmed over 100 commercials appearing as their spokesman from 2013-2016.


Acquisition by Altice

Suddenlink announced on July 18, 2012 that the company reached an agreement to be acquired for $6.6 billion by BC Partners, CPP Investment Board, and Suddenlink's management team - led by Chairman and CEO Jerry Kent. Prior to this, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Quadrangle, and Oaktree Capital Management were the majority holders of the company. Altice and Suddenlink announced on May 20, 2015 that Altice agreed to acquire 70% of Suddenlink in a deal valued at $9.1 billion. As part of the deal BC Partners will retain 15% voting share and 18.2% in equity while CPP Investment Board will retain 15% voting share and 11.8% in equity. At the time of the announcement Suddenlink was the seventh largest cable operator with 1.5 million residential and 90,000 business subscribers. The deal closed on December 21, 2015. Altice also announced on September 17 that year it would acquire
Cablevision Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its ex ...
for $17.7 billion and completed the deal on June 21, 2016. After both deals were completed Altice USA became the fourth largest cable operator in the country with 4.6 million subscribers and the sixth largest pay television operator with 3.50 million subscribers. Altice USA announced on April 11, 2017 the company has filed for an
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
. The company plans to raise up to $100 million with the IPO. Altice NV the parent company of Altice USA announced on May 24, 2017 that "all consumer-facing brands across the globe will change." Altice stated the re-branding would be complete by the second quarter in 2018. In April 2022, Altice USA announced that Suddenlink would be rebranded under the Optimum name. On August 1, Suddenlink was fully amalgamated into Optimum.


Markets

At time of merger with Optimum, Suddenlink operated services in twelve states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia.


Carriage disputes

Suddenlink has been involved with two high-profile carriage disputes over the years. The first was with
Sinclair Broadcasting Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland ...
over two local stations it operates in the Huntington-Charleston, West Virginia
designated market area A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...
. The dispute became public on June 30, 2006, and was resolved on August 8, 2006. The second involved
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
and its cable channels
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
,
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
,
Spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...
,
TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cla ...
, VH1, and various spin-off channels.


Sinclair Broadcasting Group

After Suddenlink completed its acquisition of cable systems from Charter Communications in 2006, the company entered into a public carriage dispute with Sinclair Broadcasting Group over two local television stations in the region. Sinclair owns and operates
WCHS-TV WCHS-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Charleston, West Virginia, United States, serving the Charleston– Huntington market as an affiliate of ABC and Fox. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain se ...
- the local
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
affiliate in the Huntington-Charleston, West Virginia DMA. Sinclair also operates the local
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''). Twelve sp ...
affiliate
WVAH-TV WVAH-TV (channel 11) is a television station licensed to Charleston, West Virginia, United States, serving the Charleston– Huntington market as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Decades. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, whi ...
, owned by
Cunningham Broadcasting Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation is an owner of broadcast television stations in the United States. The company currently owns fifteen stations – eight affiliated with Fox, three affiliated with The CW, two affiliated with ABC, and two affili ...
and operated through a
local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
by Sinclair. The dispute impacted a total of 240,000 Suddenlink subscribers, 200,000 of which were included in the Huntington-Charleston DMA proper. The dispute also impacted 40,000 subscribers in the nearby Bluefield-Beckley-Oak Hill and Parkersburg DMAs where Charter imported the signals of WCHS and WVAH because Beckley did not have a Fox affiliate and Parkersburg lacked an ABC affiliate at the time. The agreement between Charter and Sinclair had expired prior to Suddenlink's acquisition. Both parties began negotiations in May 2006 before the acquisition was completed. Sinclair announced on June 30, 2006 that it was unable to reach an agreement with Suddenlink. Sinclair argued that Suddenlink's proposals included no compensation and no response to their counteroffer. Without a
retransmission consent Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commer ...
agreement, Suddenlink would not be allowed to carry the two stations on any of its cable systems. During the dispute Sinclair posted a letter on the websites of the two stations and began to notify viewers with scrolling crawl messages on the bottom of the screen encouraging them to switch to another provider like
DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...
or
Dish Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...
. While this was a comparable solution for the Huntington-Charleston area the two satellite providers did not provide the two stations to viewers in Beckley or Parkersburg. Suddenlink subsequently filed an Emergency Retransmission Consent Complaint with the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) on July 5, 2006 claiming Sinclair failed to negotiate in good faith for the stations and demanded Suddenlink to stop carriage of the two stations during a Nielsen rating sweeps period. The following day Sinclair also submitted a filing with the FCC requesting the Commission order Suddenlink to cease carriage of its signals. Suddenlink claimed that Sinclair was originally asking for $4 million in fees over the three-year life of an agreement but changed the offer to a one time fee of $200 per subscriber ($40 million total) and $1 per month in subscriber fees ($2.4 million annually) in order to carry the stations after Sinclair found out how much Suddenlink paid Charter for the systems. Suddenlink claimed it was obliged to carry the stations until the end of the Nielsen sweeps, yet this was disputed with Sinclair claiming the rule was intended to benefit broadcasters, not distributors. On July 3, 2006 Sinclair withdrew the out-of-market signals, but left the stations on in Suddenlink's Huntington-Charleston systems. On July 27, 2006 both parties agreed to a temporary extension which kept the stations on Suddenlink's systems until August 7 if an agreement was not reached. Suddenlink and Sinclair reached an agreement on August 8, 2006 and withdrew their FCC petitions. While the terms of the agreement were not made public Pete Able, Suddenlink's vice president of government relations, stated the company "made it very clear" that the $40 million fee "was never something we could find mutually agreeable."


Viacom

Prior to October 1, 2014, Suddenlink carried cable channels from Viacom, including
BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...
, CMT,
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...
, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, TV Land, VH1 and various smaller spin-off networks. The two companies were able to reach an agreement at the end of 2010 for continued carriage of Viacom's channels that was to end on September 30, 2014. Viacom had been involved in notable contract discussion in the past including a media battle with satellite provider
DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...
in 2012 which resulted in their channels being unavailable for nine days before reaching an agreement. After Viacom's channels were pulled from smaller provider
Cable ONE Cable One, Inc. is an American broadband communications provider. Under the Sparklight brand, it provides service to 21 states and 900,000 residential and business customers. It is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, though it does not serve that ...
on April 1, 2014, the cable provider replaced them with other channels. The contract negotiations became public on September 25, 2014 after five months of talks broke down between both companies. Suddenlink claimed Viacom wanted a 50% increase in fees for its programming despite its ratings decreasing. Viacom rebutted stating it attracts the greatest share of viewing of any cable provider. Suddenlink noted the majority of its customer base "do not want the Viacom channels" and did not want to pay more for Viacom's channels and wanted others instead. After the deadline passed, all Viacom channels were pulled from Suddenlink's lineup on October 1, 2014. Viacom claimed that Suddenlink rejected one of its own proposals and informed them they would drop the channels. Suddenlink maintained that Viacom rejected every proposal the company made to continue carrying Viacom's channels. Suddenlink reorganized their channel lineups to replace the Viacom channels; some of the replacements were already available to Suddenlink while some were not previously available. Suddenlink replaced Viacom's channels with twenty other channels including
FXX FXX is an American basic cable channel owned by the Walt Disney Television unit of The Walt Disney Company through FX Networks, LLC. It is the partner channel of FX, with its programming focusing on original and acquired comedy series and fe ...
,
Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Hallmark Movies & Mysteries (formerly known as Hallmark Movie Channel, and also known as HMM) is an American digital cable and satellite television channel owned by Crown Media Holdings. The channel was spun off from sister network Hallmark Chan ...
,
Investigation Discovery Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Ameri ...
,
OWN Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...
,
Universal Kids Universal Kids is an American children's television Specialty channel, channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The channel launched on September 26, 2005, as PBS Kids Sprout, a preschool-oriented ...
,
TheBlaze Blaze Media is an American conservative media company. It was founded in 2018 as a result of a merger between TheBlaze and CRTV LLC. The company's leadership consists of CEO Tyler Cardon and president Gaston Mooney. It is based in Irving, Tex ...
,
Pivot Pivot may refer to: *Pivot, the point of rotation in a lever system *More generally, the center point of any rotational system *Pivot joint, a kind of joint between bones in the body *Pivot turn, a dance move Companies *Incitec Pivot, an Austra ...
and Up. Due to Suddenlink's size the company received positive reception in the media saying the decision could inspire other mid-small size operators. Six months after dropping Viacom's channels Suddenlink's then-CEO Jerry Kent stated 2%–2.5% of its video subscribers dropped their service. He also noted that some of the replacement channels were viewed more than some of the dropped channels. Despite losing some video subscribers, Kent also stated "meeting the programmer’s demands would have been more costly. When Pivot ceased operations, Suddenlink started carried i24 News." Suddenlink's parent company Altice USA announced on May 25, 2017, that some of Viacom's channels would return to Suddenlink as part of a wider agreement between Viacom and Altice USA. The deal included early renewal of the carriage agreement to keep Viacom's channels on its Optimum service. Viacom and Altice USA did not announce which Viacom channels or the date they would return to Suddenlink systems. Suddenlink has reached an agreement to bring back Viacom channels in Texas and Oklahoma.


Controversial practices

Starting in 2011 Suddenlink began to implement data usage limits, also known as data caps, on its broadband services on all its service plans. After exceeding the data allowance for a particular service plan an overage charge of $10 per 50 GB block is billed to the customer. Shortly after data usage limits began to roll out across Suddenlink's territory customers began to report the meter used was inaccurate. One example highlighted one user's router measured that 2.22 GB of data was used in one day while Suddenlink's meter showed 23 GB of data was used in the same period. Another user questioned a customer service representative how her equipment logged 12 GB of data used when electricity was out. By August 27, 2012, the company temporarily suspended its data usage policy while a third party was hired to validate the accuracy of its metering systems. By June 3, 2013, Suddenlink had resumed its data usage limits policy and began charging overages. After Altice completed its acquisition of Suddenlink the company added back unlimited usage plans for its top two tiers only on April 1, 2016. Altice USA and its Optimum branded services have been criticized for a policy change in where if a subscriber cancels one or all of their services before the end of their billing cycle they do not receive a refund. Altice USA has implemented this policy change for both its Suddenlink and Optimum branded services. This policy went into effect for Suddenlink subscribers on June 1, 2016 and for Optimum on October 10, 2016. On May 30, 2017, a class action lawsuit was filed against Altice USA claiming that the company illegally changed the terms and conditions of its cancellation policy and did not provide adequate notice to customers. The lawsuit also claims the company broke New York's General Business Law for deceptive practices and unjust enrichment. Altice has stated subscribers were given advance notice of the new policy and that customer service representatives are trained to tell departing customers billing continues until the end of the billing cycle so they can choose to disconnect at that time.


References


External links


Official website
{{CATV USA Companies based in St. Louis Economy of the Southeastern United States Economy of the Southwestern United States Cable television companies of the United States Telecommunications companies established in 1992 2016 mergers and acquisitions Altice USA