Deals

Comcast and Insight struck a deal to divvy up their Insight Midwest partnership (a 50-50 venture). The pact would give Comcast 100% control of systems serving IL subs in Rockford/Dixon, Quincy/Macomb, Springfield, Peoria and Champaign/Urbana, and IN customers in Bloomington, Anderson, and Lafayette/Kokomo. Insight would take 100% of the cable systems serving KY customers in Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green and Covington, and customers in Evansville, IN, and Columbus, OH. Comcast’s systems would pass approx 1.2mln homes and generate some $290mln in cashflow, while Insight’s systems would pass 1.3mln homes. Meanwhile, Comcast and Insight would take on $1.34bln and $1.26bln of partnership debt, respectively. The transaction is expected to close by year-end. Sanford Bernstein’s Craig Moffett called the definitive agreement a "clear positive" for both sides, noting its accretive nature, the "high quality" systems involved, and the properties’ nice fit into each MSO’s respective clusters. He also said that because of the way the FCC calculates cable subscribers, one added bonus of the deal for Comcast is that it lowers the MSO’s sub count by 640K subs in the FCC’s eyes—just as the agency mulls imposing a 30% subscriber cap.