Cable Providers Down for Count
Posted on: Wednesday, 7 July 2004, 06:00 CDT
Treasure Coast cable provider Comcast Cable Corp. and Cox Communications Inc. said Friday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has asked the companies for information about how they count subscribers.
Philadelphia-based Comcast (NYSE: CMST, $27.96), the nation's largest cable provider, has 65,000 subscribers in parts of St. Lucie and Indian River counties. Comcast and Atlanta-based Cox, a division of Palm Beach Post owner Cox Enterprises Inc., received letters from the SEC in June, according to Comcast spokeswoman D'Arcy Rudnay and Cox spokesman Bobby Amirshahi.
They declined to comment further.
Comcast said in April that it has 21.5 million customers nationally for its basic cable TV service and 1.25 million phone customers. Cox said at the end of March that it had 6.4 million basic cable customers and 1.1 million phone customers.
Investors have scrutinized customer figures at cable companies after Adelphia Communications Corp.'s founders were accused of inflating the company's numbers. Adelphia, Palm Beach County's dominant cable provider with 550,000 customers, is in the middle of restructuring after an accounting scandal forced the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Adelphia founder John Rigas and his sons are accused of looting the Greenwood Village, Colo.-based company of millions. A jury began deliberating the case this week in New York.
The SEC has asked more than 20 telephone, wireless and cable TV companies for information about how they count their subscribers.
Atlanta-based local phone giant BellSouth Corp. (NYSE: BLS, $26.04), Florida's dominant local phone company, has been contacted, along with Baby Bell companies SBC Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. Verizon, which provides local phone service to part of Florida, said Thursday it had overstated long-distance customer lines by 1.5 million, or 9 percent, because of a database error.
Cingular Wireless, a joint venture of BellSouth and SBC, and AT&T Communications Corp. also have been contacted by the agency.
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