Altice USA, Inc., commonly known as Altice, is an American

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

provider with

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, owned by the Franco-Israeli businessman Patrick Drahi. The company delivers pay television,

Internet access Internet access is a facility or service that provides connectivity for a computer, a computer network, or other network device to the Internet, and for individuals or organizations to access or use applications such as email and the World Wide ...

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

services, and original television content to approximately 4.9 million residential and business customers in 21 U.S. states. Altice USA is based at One Court Square in Long Island City,

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

, New York City. The company's operational center is located at Cablevision's former headquarters in Bethpage, Nassau County, New York, on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. With its combined brands, Altice USA is the fourth-largest cable provider in the U.S., serving customers residing in the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also called the Tri-State area and sometimes referred to as Greater New York, is the List of cities by GDP, largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a List of U.S. metropolitan areas by GDP, gross metropo ...

as well as in several Midwestern and Southern U.S. states. As a multiple-systems operator, the company operates the Optimum brand. The company also provides international news through the February 2017 U.S. launch of i24NEWS and local news through News 12 Networks. In November 2016, Altice USA announced a five-year plan for fiber-to-the-home service to build a network capable of delivering 10 Gbit/s broadband speed. In August 2017, the company stated it was on track to reach one million homes by the end of 2018. In June 2017, Altice USA raised US$2.2 billion in an initial public stock offering. In April 2022, Altice USA announced that the company would be rebranding its former Suddenlink brand under the Optimum name.

Products and services

* Optimum Online, a DOCSIS Internet service that offers speeds up to 940 Mbit/s. As of April 2020, a Fiber-to-the home service has been available to more than half of its service footprint. ** Subscribers also get access to Optimum Wi-Fi hotspots that are located within the Altice's service area. Additionally, they may also connect to hotspots provided by Charter Spectrum,

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

, and Cox nationwide. * Optimum Voice, a

Voice over IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

(VoIP) telephone service * Optimum TV, a digital cable service * Altice Mobile, a wireless network offering unlimited text, talk, and data over a 4G LTE nationwide network;

Other properties

* Altice Business, built of the former Lightpath, Optimum Business, and Suddenlink Business organizations,), an internet, telephone, and television service for businesses. Altice Business is currently available in 21 state and serves more than 375,000 businesses. * News 12 Networks, a group of cable networks that provide news, weather, traffic and sports to cable subscribers in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut tri-state area through seven individual 24-hour local news channels and five traffic and weather channels. * News 12 Varsity, A high school sports network dedicated to providing live games of local varsity games. * Audience Partners, a provider of audience-based digital advertising solutions, which Altice USA acquired in March 2017. * Cheddar, a live-streaming financial news network, which was acquired in 2019 and sold to media company Archetype in 2023.

History

On May 20, 2015,

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

-based French company Altice NV announced that it would enter the U.S. cable market by purchasing Suddenlink Communications, the country's 7th-largest cable provider, for $9.1 billion. The acquisition closed on December 21, 2015. On September 17, 2015, Altice NV announced its intention to acquire Cablevision from the Dolan family and other public shareholders for $17.7 billion. The deal was approved by the FCC on May 3, 2016 and after approval from various regional regulators such as New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities and the New York Public Service Commission, closed on June 21, 2016. Under the terms of the deal, Altice paid $34.90 in cash for each share in Cablevision and a 22% premium to the company's stock price; Altice also assumed Cablevision's debt. In May 2017, Altice USA announced its intention to rebrand its Suddenlink and Cablevision properties under the Altice name by the end of the second quarter of 2018. In June 2017, Altice USA went public, raising $2.2 billion in its initial public offering. On January 8, 2018, Altice NV announced that it will spin-off Altice USA into a separate company. Patrick Drahi will maintain control of both companies, although they will be led by separate management teams. On April 30, 2019, it was announced Altice USA was buying Cheddar for $200 million in cash. On February 14, 2020, Altice USA announced that it has bought Service Electric Broadband Cable in New Jersey. The deal closed in July. On March 1, 2021, Altice USA announced that it would acquire Morris Broadband in North Carolina for $310 million which was later closed on April 6, 2021. Altice later announced that Morris Broadband would be rebranded into the Optimum name.

Markets

The company provides service in 22 states:

Carriage disputes

AMC Networks dispute

Altice engaged in a carriage dispute with the Dolan family (the former owners of Cablevision). Altice's contract to carry AMC Networks group of channels was to expire on December 31, 2016. On December 28 the two sides reached an agreement, three days before their contract with AMC expired.

The Walt Disney Company dispute

Altice engaged in a dispute with

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

; the contract to carry the company's channels was set to expire on October 1, 2017. On October 1, 2017, Disney and Altice reached a last-minute agreement to continue carrying the company's channels; this narrowly averted what would have been a blackout of ABC-owned stations WABC-TV and WPVI-TV, along with the

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

family of networks and various other channels. As part of the agreement, ESPN Classic was removed from the Altice lineup.

Starz dispute

On January 1, 2018, Altice dropped Starz, Starz Encore, and all of their channels from its channel lineup. The dispute came after the companies were unable to reach an agreement. The dispute ended on February 13, 2018, after both companies reached a new multi-year agreement.

21st Century Fox dispute

On September 22, 2018, 21st Century Fox announced that all of its entertainment and sports channels, including Fox owned-and-operated station WNYW and

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...

O&O WWOR-TV, would be removed from Altice on October 1 if a new retransmission agreement was not reached by that date.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Companies based in Nassau County, New York Economy of the Northeastern United States Cable television companies of the United States Corporate spin-offs Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange American companies established in 2016 Telecommunications companies established in 2016 2017 initial public offerings