Road Runner's Insight

Cable World, Jan 31, 2000

Road Runner is planning to roll out its high-speed online service on up to 13 more cable systems by late spring, including Time Warner Cable systems in Raleigh, NC, Minneapolis, western Ohio and Waco, Texas.

Road Runner, serving some 551,000 subs, is even venturing onto turf seemingly owned by its archrival, Excite[R] Home Corp. In a novel more last week, Road Runner announced a distribution deal with Insight Communications Co. for the MSO's system in Columbus, Ohio.

Despite Insight's nationwide affiliation contract with Ex--me, Insight chose Road Runner for Columbus because of Time Warner Inc.'s heavy presence in the market. TW, counting 380,000 homes passed in the market, introduced Road Runner in Columbus years ago and has 25,000 cable-modem subscribers there.

"They're already rocking and rolling in Columbus," said Insight president Michael Willner. "Road Runner is well-known in the marketplace."

Insight, which bas 85,000 customers and passes 170,000 homes in Columbus, won't roll out Road Runner in markets other than Columbus, Willner said.