Altice is closing in on its acquisition of Cablevision, which will newly mint the European communications giant as a certified player in the U.S. cable broadband market with a significant footprint. But it's what Altice does after that which will determine how the competitive landscape will be disrupted.
Altice will need to make good on its cost-cutting pledge for Cablevision, but there are many other options on the table for the company to prioritize following the integration of its newly acquired U.S. cable entities. Natasha Rybak, an analyst for Current Analysis in Europe, has seen firsthand Altice's playbook in action through SFR-Numericable, Altice's cable-wireless operation in France. The efforts with those companies suggest Altice could use the same cost-cutting/reinvest strategy in the U.S., and Altice has already displayed that behavior in its push to expand Suddenlink's Operation GigaSpeed broadband plan.
But Altice's European playbook also suggests the company could aggressively go after a U.S. wireless operation in order to complete a quad-play offering and potentially pursue original and exclusive content to compete in the OTT market. Or Altice could just keep buying U.S. MSOs. There are lots of possibilities for Altice to bring some exciting disruptions to the cable broadband market, and we'll explore them further in FierceCable's latest special report. --Ben