Mayor John Woods says he was “favorably impressed” with what he saw and heard Thursday during a visit to the Bristol, Va., offices of the company hired to manage the MI-Connection cable TV and internet system. The mayor said the system, which is owned by the towns of Davidson and Mooresville, is “very, very sound.”
Mayor Woods, town board members and the town manager spent a day in Bristol meeting with officials from BVU Focus. The visit followed BVU’s completion of a badly needed $20 million upgrade of the network, which serves Davidson, Mooresville, Cornelius and surrounding areas in Mecklenburg and Iredell counties. Davidson and Mooresville bought the system in December 2007 following the bankruptcy of former operator Adelphia Communications.
“We had a good trip, with a good explanation of the completion of the system upgrade,” Mayor Woods said. “I am very favorably impressed with work accomplished, although the upgrade took longer than we hoped.”
“The system itself is very, very sound, and I have growing confidence in the network operators (BVU), the more I get to know them , and marketing plans,” Mayor Woods said.
MI-Connection, under general manager Junior Miller, spent 18 months replacing and adding equipment and cable lines. The work has allowed the system to expand its TV channel lineup, add video-on-demand, increase internet speeds and add telephone service to its list of products. Officials hope the new capabilities and package deals will attract new customers and encourage existing ones to add second or third products.
Town Board member Laurie Venzon, who joined the board after the town voted to buy the system, called the visit “very encouraging.” She said she got a good look “at where we are with the system,” in particular its state-of-the-art service offerings and competitive pricing plans. She said MI-Connection’s products are “better than any of the competitors” and it now has a marketing plan to sell its expanded and more reliable offerings.
Marketing will be a key to MI-Connection’s success, the mayor said. Since the towns bought the network, it has had difficulty holding on to customers – TV subscribers are down about 5.7 percent. Officials have attributed the losses to the weak economy and competition, particularly from satellite providers.
Town officials are still waiting for a key report – final financial results from the 2008-9 budget year, which ended just two weeks ago. Those figures won’t be available until August, town and MI-Connection officials say.
System officials have said they expect a loss of about $7.65 million for the year. For now, the system’s cash flow is enough to cover day-to-day operating expenses. Losses (after interest, taxes and other non-operating expenses) are being paid through reserves. Town officials are hoping for a clearer picture of when the system will break even.
When the towns bought the system, officials projected it would grow along with the rest of the region. But that was before the economy soured. Some residents are skeptical about the system’s prospects, fearing that it eventually will cost the towns money. (See recent comments posted along with our preview of the board’s trip, “Town officials head to Va. to meet cable operator.”)
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See previous coverage of MI-Connection on DavidsonNews.net under category “Cable TV”
“Since the towns bought the network, it has had difficulty holding on to customers – TV subscribers are down about 5.7 percent.”
“Town officials are hoping for a clearer picture of when the system will break even.” — The answer, sadly, is NEVER!
“System officials have said they expect a loss of about $7.65 million for the year.” — Taxpayers, that’s YOUR MONEY!
Current economic conditions are not to blame for the system’s massive losses. The ill fated cable venture was doomed to failure from the start. The poor economy has only accelerated the timetable of the system’s inevitable demise.
Failure was baked in from the beginning. Our town’s board approved the $50 million purchase of a nearly dead franchise in a moribund industry and then recklessly dumped another $22.5 million into it as life support. Talk about ill fated ventures!
I’m curious. If it was such a hopeless investment, why was Time Warner so anxious to buy it?
I was certainly among the skeptical when the idea was proposed. In general, I prefer for government to stay out of just about everything it can. But I know enough about the sorry history of the cable franchises in this area and can understand why the long-suffering folk here would seek a better solution.
I’ve had a second home here for several years, and recently moved here full time. My primary residence was in Cramerton, and during the two years I lived there, Time Warner raised my cable rates by 20%. Cable service rates here just recently went up for the first time in several years, and it was a rather moderate increase. Before Cramerton, I used DirecTV in Catawba Co. It was fine, but didn’t have a signal when it rained, and I had to replace the receiver several times because of storm damage.
Time Warner would have had to invest considerable sums to bring the current system up to date, also. There’s no free lunch. Sorry. They wouldn’t have made an instant profit, either, even if they raised rates as fast as they did on me the last couple of years.
I’ve been pleased with the results since the upgrade was recently completed. I measure about 7.88 Mbps internet download speeds, and 1 Mbps up. The high-definition channels look great. I know people who have the new service from AT&T, and they are pleased. It is good that there are options and competition.