Meet the System: Northwest Pa

Cable World,  Nov 7, 2005  

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

A local boy made good oversees Coudersport and uses a dish buyback and strong customer service to polish another Adelphia system whose future is cloudy.

By Simon Applebaum

After spending just a few minutes with Thomas Carey you realize he's a veritable walking encyclopedia of anything and everything Erie County.

From the hospital where he was born to a riverboat moored along the Lake Erie waterfront, Adelphia Communications' Northwest Pennsylvania general manager seems never at a loss for local facts or anecdotes. "I'm flattered that you noticed," he says after we visit his Erie County system. "I take it personally to know about what's going on here. In this business, you need to know a lot more than cable, starting with knowing your customers and how they think about everything before you sell them product. Being a local from birth, I hope I'm well-suited to the job."

Carey marked 12 years of running the Erie County system last month, but he's been in cable a lot longer. He started as an installer at another system close to home, and has seen the Erie County system grow to nearly 38,000 customers, change hands (moving from Tele-Communications Inc. to Adelphia in 1998) and endure the Rigas family's fiscal chicanery that led to bankruptcy several years ago. [Carey has a direct connection to the Rigas saga. See sidebar.]

Now Carey and his system face a transition: Time Warner Cable will inherit Erie County once the acquisition of Adelphia is complete. Time Warner likely will merge that system with one it owns in the city of Erie.

Seeking New Business With An Aging Plant

Yet Carey won't let Erie County go into a holding pattern as the system waits for Time Warner to take over, Adelphia VP Tom Haywood promises. "He's always been Mr. Consistency. He works with a great staff, has the experience and makes the budgets," he says. "What's always in his focus is the customer, and he'll see to it that a smooth transition happens."

But Carey faces some challenges. He needs to attract customers despite an outmoded 550 MHz plant. Channel capacity is nearly maxed out. Earlier this year, NFL Network and College Sports Television were added to the system's lineup. They may be the last for some time.

The small bit of reserve capacity is earmarked for HDTV signals of Erie broadcast stations, ready to go if and when transmission agreements are completed. The capacity crunch also is holding back deployment of video-on- demand, telephony and interactive services.

Time Warner will decide how Erie County will boost capacity, Haywood says. "We're not looking to upgrade now," he adds.

Another hurdle Carey and his Adelphia system face is uncertainty. There's been no consultation with Time Warner at any level-local, regional or corporate- on merging the system with the Time Warner property nearby. Haywood and Carey offer no date on when Time Warner management will huddle with Erie County on strategy. "When the time is right, we'll have those meetings," Carey says. And there's been a temporary pause in joint marketing and promotion campaigns between the two systems, which usually combined on 2-3 campaigns each year.

Using Cash to Lure DBS Subs

Despite the odds, Carey's doing what he can to increase his customer universe and dissipate impressions that the system is standing pat. His methods: an aggressive DBS buyback and improved customer service.

Since July, people who switch from DBS to Adelphia Erie County cable receive $300 in cash-half just after they order the switch and turn in their satellite dish, the rest after three months of cable service.

Competition with DBS is not insubstantial. Some portions of Erie County have 25% DBS penetration, according to Media Business Corp. That compares with roughly 10% penetration in the city of Erie.

The good news is that at least 40 people per month are accepting the offer-the best result since Adelphia launched DBS buyback campaigns a few years ago. The record success is linked to the all-cash lure, different from previous offers, which mixed cash ($100) with credits for basic or digital service tiers. There's also some bad blood toward DBS resulting from a snowstorm in April. "Everyone with a dish had their service out and it took a while to get it restored," April Benke, Adelphia Northwest PA sales and marketing manager says.

Radioing The Cable Message

In addition, Adelphia put more promotional effort into this buyback campaign, using radio testimonials from Erie disk jockeys. Six stations were used, with a morning or afternoon drive time DJ at each station taking part. The catch: each DJ was an Adelphia sub, and the DBS buyback pitch was made after talking up digital, high-speed access and other services. The DJs were compensated with free DVRs or high-speed service.

The buyback campaign also is promoted inside Adelphia's Erie County front office, located behind a branch campus of Penn State University. Visitors to the office's payment window and help desk see a "Dirt On Dish" poster. For that marketing campaign and others, Benke's staff uses local radio extensively, as well as cross-channel promos and local newspaper ads. Bundle offers emphasizing digital, HDTV, DVRs and Web access will be the focus for the rest of the year.