Adelphia Cable
It’s no coincidence Adelphia’s name was fashioned after the Greek word for brothers; not only was the company run (and bankrupted) by brothers, its cable television shares were purchased by the top two cable providers in the United States: Comcast and Time Warner.
Adelphia Cable was founded in 1952 in the small town of Coudersport, Pennsylvania and was fifth largest cable company in the U.S. before filing for bankruptcy in 2002. With drama that rivaled some of its programming (and the Enron scandal), rumors of Adelphia’s internal corruption were later proven by convictions and a $2.3 billion deficit that was too large to hide. A few years later, on July 31, 2006, the cable, internet and telephone provider sold its largest cable assets to Comcast and Time Warner. Its telephone and long-distance services, which reached 110,000 customers in 27 states, were sold to Pioneer Telephone.
Adelphia Cable’s five million customers were welcomed into Comcast and Time Warner families, whose customers number 21.5 million and 10.9 million respectively. Since most of the Adelphia customers had been without system upgrades while the company sorted out its troubles, they were ready for the chance to see what the two companies had to offer.
Both Comcast and Time Warner stepped to the plate by committing to make much-needed upgrades to the cable system, as well as more programming choices. Time Warner immediately started work on increasing internet connection speeds by 33% and deploying advanced services to technology-starved Adelphia customers.
While the FCC was nervous about a joint venture between the two largest cable providers in the country, it approved the $17.6 billion sale with a vote of 4-1. It was able to do so with a long list of conditions, including the requirement to share local sport broadcasts with competing satellite companies. Comcast and Time Warner also negotiated a complicated list of stock trades and subscriber swaps. As a result of the acquisition, Time Warner now serves as the largest cable provider in both New York City and Los Angeles; Comcast solidified its presence in Washington, D.C., West Palm Beach, Pittsburgh, and Boston.
Long story short, Adelphia cable is no longer a cable provider. A small portion of the company now exists in Greenwood Village, Colorado to handle the remains of its bankruptcy and litigation issues. Former Adelphia customers are encouraged to visit the websites of Comcast Cable and Time Warner Cable for more specific account and region information.