Altice USA (NYSE: ATUS), one of the largest broadband communications and
video services providers in the U.S., today announces that it has closed
the previously announced acquisition of Cheddar, the digital-first news
company.
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With this acquisition, Altice broadens its portfolio of high-quality
news businesses by adding Cheddar’s innovative, digital-first, live
business, general news and college network focused on young professional
and millennial audiences. Cheddar joins the Altice News division,
complementing Altice’s hyperlocal and global news offerings that include
the most watched news channel in the Optimum footprint News 12 Networks,
and international and current affairs news network i24NEWS.
Cheddar founder and CEO Jon Steinberg joins Altice USA as president of
Altice News, leading Cheddar, News 12 and i24NEWS.
Dexter Goei, Altice USA CEO said: “Today’s closing represents an
important milestone towards our goal of making Altice a news leader by
offering a full range of hyperlocal, national, business and
international news across digital, mobile and linear TV formats through
Cheddar, News 12 and i24NEWS. We’re pleased to welcome Jon and the
entrepreneurial Cheddar team to Altice, and we look forward to growing
our news audiences, delivering high-quality journalism and creating more
value for our advertisers.”
Summary of Altice News
The combination of News 12 and i24NEWS’ expertise in linear content and
distribution plus Cheddar’s expertise in digital-first content and
distribution provides several benefits:
-
With the acquisition of Cheddar, Altice’s full suite of news offerings
now covers hyperlocal, national, business and international content,
reaching broader and more diverse audiences on both digital and linear
formats. -
Cheddar brings a strong news team with an engaged young professional
and millennial audience, providing a significant opportunity to
advance Altice News from a content, distribution and audience reach
perspective, as well as creating more value for advertisers. -
Altice News already partners with Cheddar on relevant programming:
News 12 airs on its seven stations in the NY tri-state area the daily
Cheddar Tech Report, and i24NEWS runs top stories from Cheddar as part
of its global news coverage. This combination will provide more
opportunities for collaborative and complementary programming. -
Cheddar will continue to expand its fast-growing live advertising
products that currently serve large national brands and bring
additional scale and local targeting to these offerings via dynamic ad
insertion into News 12 and i24NEWS inventory. -
Cheddar anticipates developing and deploying additional advertising
products across the Altice footprint, namely on its advanced Altice
One and a4 advertising platform.
Background on Cheddar
The Cheddar networks are available in approximately 40 million pay tv
homes through MVPDs, all virtual MVPDS (YouTube TV, Sling, Hulu Live,
DIRECTV NOW, etc.), leading free tv systems (Pluto, Roku Channel, etc.),
and a campus network of 1,600 owned and operated screens on 600
campuses. Cheddar recently expanded distribution to millions of homes
through various cable systems, reaching carriage agreements with
Comcast, Charter and Altice USA. Cheddar is available on nearly all
over-the-top subscription Pay TV services in the U.S., and has large
social distribution across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter,
LinkedIn, Snapchat and other platforms generating over 400 million video
views a month.
Cheddar currently broadcasts 19 hours a day of live news through two
networks: Cheddar Business, a business news network covering the most
innovative executives, founders, products, and technologies transforming
our lives and economy; and Cheddar News, a fast-paced, young,
non-partisan general news and headline news network.
The company owns the CheddarU network of 1,600 screens in the public
spaces (gyms, cafeterias, student unions) of 600 college campuses.
Cheddar also owns and operated the site RateMyProfessors.com, where over
5 million students go to rate and review their professors each month.
Cheddar’s OTT viewership is most concentrated in ages 25 to 34, and its
campus network has the largest out of home reach of any 18 to
24-year-old network.
This transaction does not materially impact Altice USA’s leverage ratio
and has no impact on its planned share repurchases for 2019. Altice USA
began its partnership with Cheddar in 2017 as an investor in the company.
About Altice USA
Altice USA (NYSE: ATUS) is one of the largest broadband communications
and video services providers in the United States, delivering broadband,
pay television, telephony services, Wi-Fi hotspot access, proprietary
content and advertising services to approximately 4.9 million
residential and business customers across 21 states through its Optimum
and Suddenlink brands. The company operates a4, an advanced advertising
and data business, which provides audience-based, multiscreen
advertising solutions to local, regional and national businesses and
advertising clients. Altice also operates hyperlocal news network News
12 Networks and international news and current affairs network i24NEWS.
About Cheddar
Cheddar is the leading post-cable networks company. Its programming is
available on Sling TV, DirecTV NOW, Hulu, YouTube TV, Comcast X1,
Charter Spectrum, Sony PlayStation Vue, Snapchat, fuboTV, Philo, Amazon,
Twitch, Twitter, 60% of smart TVs in the U.S., and Facebook. Cheddar
currently broadcasts two live video news networks: Cheddar Business,
which covers the most innovative executives, founders, products, and
technologies transforming our lives and economy, and Cheddar News, a
fast-paced, young, non-partisan general and headline news network. The
company broadcasts from the trading floor of the New York Stock
Exchange, its street-level studio in the glass corner of the Sprint
Store in the Flatiron Building, WeWork in Los Angeles, and the White
House. Cheddar was founded by Jon Steinberg, President and Chief
Operating Officer of BuzzFeed from 2010 to 2014. Its investors include
Lightspeed Venture Partners, Raine Ventures, Altice USA, Comcast
Ventures, AT&T, Ribbit Capital, The New York Stock Exchange, Goldman
Sachs, Liberty Global, Amazon, Homebrew, WGI Group, 7 Global Capital,
Antenna Group, and Dentsu Ventures.
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