City set to finalize cable TV transfer

Early worries about the financial health of a proposed local cable television provider seem to be waning and the city appears ready to sign an agreement to transfer services.

Cox Communications, which operates the cable television service in this area, is asking Kinston to approve transferring its franchise to Cebridge Acquisition, of St. Louis, Mo. Cox announced last year it would sell its cable operation in North Carolina, and several other states, to Cebridge.

The Missouri-based company has been expanding rapidly in the past couple of years. Its acquisition of Cox is expected to make Cebridge the eighth largest cable provider in the nation, with more than 1.3 million subscribers.

“Business will be as usual,” said Mike Ederington, system manager for Cox, when the sale was announced.

Ederington said Cebridge intends to keep local offices and people and hopes to add additional employees.

“They will take Cox technology and build on it,” he said. In early 2005, Cox went from private shares to public and was forced to pay shareholders, which increased the company’s debt, said Maryce Cunningham, public affairs manager for Cox. To pay the debt, Cox was forced to sell some assets, including the Arkansas area as well as part of California, Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina.

The city’s concern is that Cebridge have sufficient financial resources to “meet any future franchise renewal related requirements, including any rebuild, access equipment and facilities and/or institutional network,” Deputy City Manager Phil Robey told City Council members this week.

Kinston collects $175,000 annually in franchise fees from Cox, or 5 percent of the company’s annual revenue from Kinston subscribers.

Robey and Rice Williams Associates, consultants who have worked with previous cable agreements between the city and its cable provider, have been working with Cebridge since December to hammer out a deal. The city needs to know that Cebridge will be able to meet all the financial obligations involved with the franchise and continue the level of service Cox provides, Robey said.

“The negotiations on these issues were finalized (March 29) with Cebring, and their attorneys are drafting the documents that we have requested,” Robey said in a memo to the council.

Robey said he does not expect cable fees to increase because of the transfer.