Charter kicks off phase three of TWC integration
Details
Michelle Clancy
| 25 January 2017

Charter Communications has begun a third phase of integration arising from its acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Network in May 2016.

The cable MSO has been converting its holding to the Spectrum brand over the course of the last few months, starting with Southern California and Texas in September. Then, in November, it completed the rebranding in New York City, Lincoln and all Bright House operations in Florida and California.

Now, the company will introduce the Spectrum brand, packaging and pricing throughout several former TWC markets, including Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus in Ohio; Lexington and Louisville in Kentucky; Green Bay and Milwaukee; Kansas City; Erie; and various small networks in Indiana and West Virginia.

According to Charter VP of field communications Rich Ruggiero, new Spectrum markets will see their Internet base speed will automatically increase to 60Mbps with no usage caps or modem fees. Charter is also informing customers that their pay-TV services will assume Spectrum pricing after their TWC promotional pricing expires.

"The same introduction of Spectrum applies: the fastest starting Internet with no modem fees, data caps or contracts; crystal-clear HD; and reliable, fully featured voice service with all the required taxes and regulatory fees included in one low monthly price," Ruggiero said in a media statement.

The transition to Spectrum is an important post-merger business goal for Charter.

“Until our Spectrum pricing and packaging is launched across the newly acquired service areas, we continue to expect higher levels of churn and downgrades where Time Warner Cable was the operator,” said company chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge, during Charter’s third-quarter earnings call in early November.

Charter also reached a carriage deal with NBCUniversal this past week, ending a standoff and the threat of blackout. It’s the latest in a series of retransmission consent discussions underway in this first half of the year.

More than two weeks after the network granted an extension to the cableco, the two worked out a deal covering about 28 owned-and-operated NBC and Telemundo TV stations and more than a dozen cable networks, including MSNBC, Syfy, USA Network, Bravo and CNBC.