Comcast Ponders Maine Sell-Off

May 22, 2008

FREEPORT — Two years after the Mid-coast area's cable provider changed from SusCom to Philadelphia-based Comcast, Comcast is exploring the sale of its Maine-based holdings as part of 46 properties nationwide, according to municipal officials. Comcast serves Bath, Brunswick, Bowdoinham, Bowdoin, Topsham, Durham, Freeport, Harpswell, Phippsburg, Woolwich and West Bath. Comcast serves 24.7 million cable customers, 14.1 million high-speed Internet customers and 5.2 million voice customers nationally.

Comcast Corp. spokesman John Demming wouldn't confirm possible sales of any systems. "We can't comment on potential transactions,"
" he said. "But municipal officials in several towns said they were contacted Friday by Comcast's Jay Somers, senior manager for government and community relations, who said Comcast was looking at selling its Maine-based holdings.
News of the pending transaction leaves the 11 Maine towns served by the cable provider wondering if their cable system will be sold and who
will buy it, two factors that would determine the implications of a sale.

John Goran, Brunswick Cable TV director and Freeport's Cable TV Regulatory Board chairman, guesses that Time Warner would be the likeliest buyer if the system is sold." They already own 85 percent of the cable operations in the state of Maine," Goran said. " I would be hard-pressed to come up with another buyer. A larger buyer like Time Warner could mean new services like Internet phone service and video on demand, whereas changes resulting from the purchase by a small company would depend on the company's capabilities.
When Comcast assumed ownership of Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff Co.'s operations in 2006, customers saw changes in the lineup of some channels and dealt with a large corporation instead of a smaller company.

But a potential sale of Comcast's Maine holdings could also affect the cable franchise agreements in towns like Freeport, whose agreement expired on March 8 and Harpswell, whose agreement expires in October. A cable franchise agreement allows a town to command up to 5 percent of gross cable revenue in that particular town, including, for instance, sales of items from cable shopping networks, for allowing the cable company to run wires over municipal rights-of-way to customers' homes.

 

In Brunswick, the agreement amounts to a projected $214,000 in revenue this year. Harpswell's agreement generated more than $53,000 in 2007, according to Town Administrator Kristi Eiane. "We'd like to have a new long-term agreement and we'd like to have more favorable terms," Freeport Town Manager Dale Olmstead said.
Olmstead isn't sure if another agreement would be negotiated before or after a potential sale, but Comcast has asked town councilors to extend the expired agreement until November. Goran said franchise agreements could be further complicated by pending legislation challenging the way the fee system operates.