Word: mso
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...MSOs bid for franchises from local governments to service a city or town, and in support of their bids line up stations whose programming will be transmitted by cable. The MSO that promises the most interesting programming often gets the franchise...
Teleprompter, the biggest MSO, with 1.2 million subscribers and revenues of $147 million last year, has had a yo-yo history. Founded in 1967 by Cable Visionary Irving Kahn, it expanded furiously by acquisition. Then, in 1971, Kahn went to prison, convicted of bribing officials in Johnstown, Pa., in order to get a franchise. Overexpansion and overborrowing from banks at high interest caught up with the company; in 1973 it lost $31 million. A new management team headed by Karp, a former treasurer of Columbia Pictures, has brought the company solidly back into the black. Last year it earned...
American Television and Communications, the No. 2 MSO, with nearly 1 million subscribers, has been growing continuously since Rifkin put it together in 1968. During the last fiscal year, it increased revenues 34%, to $71 million, and profit 65%, to $10 million. At the end of 1978, Time Inc. completed a buyout of A.T.C. for a total price of $179.6 million. Among other things the acquisition added to A.T.C. the 100,000 subscribers of Manhattan Cable, which Time Inc. had bought earlier. Unlike Teleprompter, which is concentrating largely on adding subscribers in areas where it already operates, A.T.C. is eagerly...
...ranks of the other MSOs are being shaken up by mergers prompted by the industry's growth. General Electric Cable, a subsidiary of GE, is about to acquire Cox Broadcasting for roughly $560 million if shareholders and the FCC approve. The merge would create the third biggest MSO, with 745,000 subscribers. Tele-Communications, Inc. (700,000 subscribers) would be pushed down to fourth, and Warner (620,000 subscribers) to fifth. Times-Mirror Corp., the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, has just bought Communications Properties Inc. for $128 million. Consequently, Times-Mirror has jumped from 26th to sixth...