Mediacom CEO visits Gulf Breeze
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com

Commisso

In an uncommon visit to the Gulf Coast, Mediacom founder and CEO Rocco Commisso paused for an interview with Gulf Breeze News. Commisso touted technological improvements made by his company in recent months and visited with the 308 Mediacom employees working at their offices on Nantahala Beach Road.

"Right now we have the most advanced network that a company has to offer anywhere in America. We [upgraded] not because we were forced to, but because it was the right thing to do for the customers in this area," Commisso said.

Commisso was also proud to announce that 15,000 Gulf Coast households now use Mediacom's phone service, and two-thirds of those customers added it as part of a triple-play bundle that includes high-speed Internet and video cable services. Mediacom uses its secure, fiber-optic network to carry digital voice signals out to the publicly-switched telephone network used by the major facilities based phone companies.

By connecting 15,000 phone customers in the Gulf Coast, Commisso said Mediacom is delivering on its promise of offering a full array of advanced telecommunications services to the more than 100 Gulf Coast communities reached by Mediacom's fiber-optic network.

"There's been a lot of talk about bringing competition to the marketplace, and Mediacom has been the competitor that delivers more telecommunications products to communities on the Gulf Coast more than any other company. We have provided Gulf Coast consumers with a phone service alternative that substantially lowers the price they have traditionally paid for wire-line phone service," Commisso said.

Mediacom's Florida-based senior vice president, Jim Carey, said the annual $1.8 million consumer savings is derived from comparisons using the pricing of Mediacom's phone service, which is available for as low as $29.95 per month, and the advertised monthly prices of other phone service providers in the area.

During the interview, Commisso defended his battle with Sinclair Broadcast Group over contract negotiations.

"There's no law that prevents anybody from going into the cable business. But there's a law that prevents us from getting ABC programming if we don't like what Sinclair wants to charge us," Commisso said during an exclusive interview at Mediacom's Gulf Breeze office. "That's not fair. That's not right and I've always spoken up on this issue but there are more powerful people in the world than me."

The climax of the confrontation left Mediacom subscribers without ABC programming after Sinclair stopped negotiations in September of 2006 and sent a written notice prohibiting Mediacom from carrying any of Sinclair's stations beyond Jan. 5. Mediacom branches began offering free TV antennas so affected customers could still watch the local ABC affiliate. The two parties eventually came to an agreement after officials with the Federal Communications Commission sided with Sinclair Broadcasting. Mediacom began broadcasting Sinclair programming again on Feb. 2.

"I think it's wrong for the local ABC station to get access to exclusive programming out of New York because they're an ABC affiliate and I don't have the ability to get the same," said Commisso. "We have to deal with our customers day in and day out because we send a bill to your home and we have to deal with you. [Sinclair doesn't] send a bill to the home. There's a major difference. They sign the contract, they extract whatever they can from me and then they go to the next deal."

Mediacom began as the vision of Commisso and at the time of its first acquisition in March 1996, Mediacom consisted of a four-member management team with significant successful business experience in acquiring, financing and operating cable television systems.

Mediacom ended the last year of the 20th century on a high note by acquiring Triax Midwest Associates LP and Zylstra Communications Corporation.

On February 4, 2000, Mediacom became a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ exchange.

These are some of the transactions that made Mediacom the eighth largest cable television company in the United States.