Cable begins to coalesce after period of growth

After three decades of rapid growth, the cable industry is
beginning to streamline its operations on a massive scale. And as
usual, the effort is being led by industry giant TCI, the world's
largest cable operator.
TCI's president, Leo J. Hindery Jr., confirmed in a recent
interview with a trade publication that he expected the Overland Park
system's 93,000 subscribers to be folded into American Cablevision's
206,000-subscriber system. The resulting "cluster" would cover
nearly 60 percent of the area's cable market and serve 53
communities. American Cablevision, a unit of Time Warner, would split
ownership 50-50 with TCI but would manage the system.
Across the country, TCI is forming a dozen or more such
partnerships that will allow the company to move $ 4 billion of debt
off its books. That should improve its reputation on Wall Street,
where TCI stock has languished in recent months. The Kansas City deal
alone is expected to reduce TCI's debt load by $ 210 million.
And when the dust finally settles on these various deals, TCI
will become the No. 2 cable operator behind Time Warner with about 10
million subscribers, although it will have minority interests in
systems serving 9 million more. This lower profile is expected to
ease federal regulators' concerns about TCI's power within the
industry.