Reuters and other news wires report tonight that the $17 billion acquisition of Adelphia’s assets by Time Warner and Comcast has been completed.
That paves the way for Time Warner to take over the Cleveland-based Adelphia system effective at midnight tonight. Along with the area’s Adelphia customers, Time Warner also takes in Comcast systems in the Cleveland market in a complicated system swap with that operator. In turn, Comcast takes over some Time Warner systems in other markets.
We can’t speak for Comcast, since the palatial OMW World Headquarters in northwest Akron is on the Adelphia side.
But Adelphia’s been running what presumably is the last edition (under that title, at least) of “Ask Adelphia”, its local questions-and-answers show on cable channel 15. We missed most of it, but this month’s edition concentrates on the merger, with an assurance that not much will change when TWC takes over tomorrow.
One thing that does appear likely to change is the presence of NFL Network on the cable lineup. Time Warner has given prior notice that it could drop the NFL-run cable channel when it takes over the new systems, and that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the folks at the network.
Not only has NFL Network been running an advertising blitz aimed at Time Warner’s non-carriage of the channel, it’s running a regular crawl tonight telling TWC customers that the channel could go away at midnight, and asking them to call an NFL Network toll-free line to register their complaints.
Other channels could go away for ex-Adelphia and ex-Comcast customers locally as well, as ESPNU and the HD version of ESPN2 are reportedly on the “we don’t have the rights” chopping block.
But other channels could be new to people formerly on those systems, including the HD version of TNT and the HD feed of local UPN -> My Network TV outlet WUAB/43 “My 43″…
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