markopoleo
join:2003-04-02
Bonne Terre, MO
 ·Charter Pipeline
| The outcome is not uncertain..
Its not like all that equipment charter owns will cease to exist one morning.
Customers won't be effected in any way. The only thing that might change is a name on a bill in certain areas.
Besides, what does DirectTV expect..all the phone and HSI customers to flock to them, that's the best thing going for Charter and something directTV does not offer. |
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footballdude
Premium
join:2002-08-13
Imperial, MO
| said by markopoleo  :Customers won't be effected in any way. That's most likely true but not certain. It's still possible that the bankruptcy court will allow creditors to sieze Charter's assets and sell them off. It's up to Charter's execs to create a bankruptcy plan that it's creditors and the court will go along with. Early indications were that no one was real happy with what Charter first proposed.
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markopoleo
join:2003-04-02
Bonne Terre, MO
·Charter Pipeline
| said by footballdude :said by markopoleo :Customers won't be effected in any way. That's most likely true but not certain. It's still possible that the bankruptcy court will allow creditors to sieze Charter's assets and sell them off. It's up to Charter's execs to create a bankruptcy plan that it's creditors and the court will go along with. Early indications were that no one was real happy with what Charter first proposed. Well like it said, it is certain. Creditors loose both ways, they would rather have Charter in business paying something back than nothing at all. They can't sell assets, when they can't make money back from its sell fast enough. Its not like some cable company has the money to just buy up all that infrastructure laying around. 
Charter went into debt to acquire it to begin with. No one else is going to put a cork in that hull. |
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quetwo
That VoIP Guy
Premium
join:2004-09-04
East Lansing, MI
| reply to markopoleo
Sure, the equipment may not stop one morning, but the agreements that Charter has with their content providers (vendors) may stop, leading to stoppage of service.
When Voom went away, they didn't take the bird out of the sky, but they stopped serving their customers with content. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| said by quetwo :Sure, the equipment may not stop one morning, but the agreements that Charter has with their content providers (vendors) may stop, leading to stoppage of service. When Voom went away, they didn't take the bird out of the sky, but they stopped serving their customers with content. There has never been a bankruptcy in the US for a cable provider that resulted in dark service.
No bankruptcy court will order the liquidation of the company in pieces. They will not sell of the dishes to one buyer, head end equipment to another, and amps, boxes, vehicles to another.
The systems, however, would likely get sold off to other buyers as has happened in the past. That's how it works.
These anti-cable cheer-leader posts get thicket all the time. These services will not be allowed to go dark, or does anyone not remember Adelphia's bankruptcy?
The content providers, so you know, are likely getting paid now. And besides, even if they didn't, they'd take what they could get and continue to provide services under re-org. There's too much to risk losing when it comes to simply allowing a company the size of Charter to simply stop selling their content.
To compare VOOM to cable is no where near the same ballpark as far as an argument goes. Voom was a joke of a company to begin with.. the content was unique to the provider.. it's not like they were carrying a full line up networks like Cable or existing Satellite carriers do. |
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RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
 ·AT&T Midwest
| said by fiberguy :There has never been a bankruptcy in the US for a cable provider that resulted in dark service. There has never been an economic environment like the one Charter finds itself in for the last 80 years, either. The days of easy DIP financing and handshake bankruptcy deals are over. Advertising revenue is way down and Charter's chances of emerging as a viable company are very low. |
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marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO
| reply to fiberguy
To add to this, people have to remember that the cable customers have extra protections too. If creditors did try to liquid Charter's infrastructure, the cities can cancel the sale and seize the plant. They have to pay the market value of the infrastructure, which would be dirt cheap by the time creditors are trying to liquidate. And, on top of that, the content providers have to honor the existing contracts with the cities. The cities meanwhile can turn around and sell the seized plant and provider contracts to a new company, which then assumes the existing franchise.
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to RadioDoc
I'm not saying that the company is guaranteed to remain in operation.. I'm saying that the "cable plant" or "system" will not go dark. As marigolds said below, it will remain operating, it just may not be under the name "Charter" any long.. it could be "XYY Municipal Cable" or "Cox" or someone else that may chose to buy the plant, in tact, for pennies on the dollar.
Personally, I don't think Charter is going to survive and will go the way of Adelphia. They're like the Federal Government and many states.. when they started bleeding, they're answer was to go after their remaining customer base and take more from them. Problem is that their prices were too high and the multiple increases was enough to push people to the satellite companies. The bled more, they continue to lose more. They could have cleaned up their act, face wise, lowered prices, and instead of trying to survive on quality (ie: larger bills from fewer customers) they could have gone after quantity (more customers, less $ per sub) Like I said.. same as the government. |
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