September 19, 2008

Dolan Says—No Private Plans, Asset Sales Unlikely Now and DSL Stinks

Don't look for a Cablevision asset sale anytime soon. "My answer probably is different than even a month and a half ago," CVC chief Jim Dolan said at Goldman Sachs investor confab Thurs. "The shutdown of the credit markets makes the purchase of assets and... the sale of assets less likely." Like many others, Dolan identified Cablevision's "well-developed, mature" programming channels as the core businesses that would make the most sense to sell because they have "the toughest road in front of them." CVC announced in late July it was considering strategic options, including asset sales, but the market's been through a lot since then. Will the Dolans attempt to take the company private again? "I would never completely rule it out, but at this time it's not really on our radar," he said. Meanwhile, CVC brass continued to scoff at the notion that Verizon will take away significant market share. When asked about the telco's aggressive promo that includes 6 months of free DSL, Dolan quipped that "DSL is sort of like dial-up. It really should be illegal to call it broadband. Even if you gave it to someone, why would they want it?" Dolan and COO Tom Rutledge painted Verizon as nothing more than a typical overbuilder. Rutledge provided some color on CVC's recent Newsday acquisition, saying Cablevision already has an interactive Newsday channel running that takes orders for newspaper subscriptions from cable subs. CVC's also working on integrating advertising opportunities and "finally, and most importantly, develop electronic distribution of the newspaper in a way that preserves the CPM of the newspaper and not create Internet-like CPMs with the kinds of advertisers that we've historically served," said Rutledge, adding that their developing "hyper-local" products that are Web-like in approach but part of the subscriber relationship that CVC and Newsday enjoys.