Bright House Networks

For the UK retailer BrightHouse, see BrightHouse (retailer).

Bright House Networks, LLC.

Type	Private
Industry	Communications
Founded	1993
Headquarters	Syracuse, New York, United States
Key people	Robert Miron, Chairman and CEO Steve Miron, CEO Nomi Bergman, President Kashif Haq, SEO Bill Futera, EVP and CFO
Products	Digital Cable Home Phone Service Business Phone Service High Speed Internet Business Data Solutions
Revenue	$14.8 Million (2007)
Website	http://www.mybrighthouse.com

Bright House Networks is a cable television company, the seventh largest cable (video) operator and the sixth largest traditional multiple system operator in the United States owned by Advance/Newhouse, headquartered in Syracuse, New York. The company provides service to cities including Indianapolis, Central Florida (Orlando/Daytona Beach areas), Tampa Bay area, Lakeland, Birmingham-Hoover area, west suburban Detroit, and Bakersfield. Most of its business is concentrated in Central Florida, where Bright House is the dominant cable system in the Tampa and Orlando TV markets.

History

Prior to 1994, some of the systems were fully owned by A/N under the names Vision Cable and Cable Vision (no relation to Cablevision Systems), while in other areas, Bright House is the successor to Teleprompter Cable TV, Group W Cable, Strategic Cable, Paragon Cable and the Tampa Bay / Orlando Time Warner Cable systems in Florida.

All of the systems now owned by Bright House were owned by the Time Warner Entertainment - Advance/Newhouse Partnership but, under a deal struck in 2003, Advance/Newhouse took direct management and operational responsibility for portion of the partnership cable systems roughly equal to their equity. Ostensibly, this was due to A/N's dissatisfaction with Time Warner Cable's strategic direction. Bright House Networks provides customers in Indianapolis, Central Florida, Michigan, Tampa Bay and Alabama with Digital Services.

Bright House Networks currently offers TV Service (analog, digital and HD), high speed internet, wireless home networking, and digital phone in most areas. In addition, Bright House operates two regional local news channels -- Bay News 9 in the Tampa Bay market, and Central Florida News 13 in the Orlando market. Bright House has an extensive fiber optic network in Central Florida and leverages it to provide commercial services including dedicated Internet access, VPN services, and private network transport as well as telecom facilities such as SIP trunking and PRI service.

Naming rights

Bright House Networks owns the naming rights to UCF's Bright House Networks Stadium in Orlando, Florida; Bright House Field in Clearwater, Florida, the spring training home of the Phillies; and the Bright House Networks Amphitheatre in Bakersfield, California. There is also a sporting event, the Bright House Networks Open golf tournament, held in Lakeland, Florida.

Carriage controversies

All controversies below primarily involve Time Warner Cable; however, Bright House is also involved in most disputes involving Time Warner Cable, as they also handle negotiations on behalf of Bright House.

• In July 2010, ABC's Parent company, Disney, announced that it is involved in a carriage dispute with Disney for the first time with Time Warner Cable since 2000 (Time Warner Cable was affected in that carriage dispute back in 2000). In Bright House-served areas, the dispute involves the Disney Channel, Disney XD, ABC Family, and all the networks of ESPN. Despite word of an early agreement on August 30, 2010, it was not until the evening of the September 2 deadline when an agreement was reached between Disney and Time Warner Cable.

• In December 2009, the Fox Broadcasting Company announced that a dispute with Time Warner Cable could lead to Fox's owned and operated affiliates to be pulled from Bright House systems in the Detroit, Tampa Bay, Orlando and Gainesville markets, along with Fox's cable and sports channels in all markets served by Bright House. The carriage protests were announced shortly before Fox was to carry the Bowl Championship Series, which included the Florida Gators in the Sugar Bowl. The dispute excluded Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network and some regional sports channels, which are on separate contracts. Shortly before the 12 Midnight ET deadline on December 31, 2009, Fox granted Time Warner Cable and Bright House a brief extension during New Year's Day as talks continue, so that viewers would not miss the Sugar Bowl, though the other bowl games and the NFL lineup remained at risk. A settlement between the two parties was reached the evening of January 1, 2010, though no terms were disclosed; during the discussions that day, none of Fox's channels or stations were blacked out.
• On September 15, 2008 Bright House temporarily dropped stations owned by the LIN TV Corporation on its Pensacola, DeFuniak Springs and Indiana systems. Affected stations were WALA-TV in Mobile, Alabama, WISH-TV/WNDY-TV/WIIH-CA in Indianapolis and WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Even though the controversy was focused on Time Warner Cable systems, Bright House was included in the dispute, in areas where they were formerly owned by Time Warner. With both companies factored in, a total of 15 markets were affected.
• On December 31, 2008, Time Warner Cable and Viacom's MTV Networks had not agreed to renew any Viacom channel beyond the end of year. Therefore, Time Warner and Bright House Networks would have lost all 19 Viacom channels (including Comedy Central and Nickelodeon) starting on January 1, 2009. This blackout was narrowly avoided when a zero-hour deal was reached shortly after 12 Midnight ET on January 1, 2009.

See also

• Pivot Wireless

External links

• Bright House Networks
• Bright House Networks Business Solutions
• Bright House Networks On Demand