Bright House Networks (Mo Willems's vision)

**Bright House Networks, LLC** also simply known as **Bright House**, is an American telecom company. It is the tenth-largest multichannel video service provider and the 6th largest cable internet provider (based on coverage) in the United States. The company served more than 2.2 million customers.

Bright House Networks' primary service offerings included digital television, high-speed internet, home security and automation and voice services.

Bright House Networks also owned and operated three 24-hour local news operations; Central Florida News 13 (now Bright House News 13) serving the Orlando area, Bay News 9 (now Bright House News 9) serving the Tampa Bay area, and Bright House News Indiana in Indianapolis area.

Bright House Netwroks is owned by Nexstar Media Group and also serves Bright House Sports in Arizona, Florida, and Indiana.

## History

Prior to 1994, some of the systems were fully owned by Advance Publications under the names Vision Cable and Cable Vision (no relation to Cablevision in the New York City metro area). In other areas, Bright House Networks was the successor to TelePrompTer Cable TV, Group W Cable, Strategic Cable, Paragon Cable and Shaw Communications. In Florida, Bright House succeeded Time Warner Cable's Tampa Bay and Orlando systems.

All of the systems that eventually came to be owned by Bright House Networks were previously owned by the Time Warner Entertainment–Advance/Newhouse Partnership. Bright House Networks, LLC was formerly known as TWEAN Subsidiary, LLC and changed its name to Bright House Networks, LLC on April 1, 2003. Under a deal struck in 2003, Advance/Newhouse took direct management and operational responsibility for a portion of the partnership cable systems roughly equal to their equity. Bright House Networks offers video, high-speed data, home security and automation and voice services. In addition, Bright House Networks operated two regional local news channels – Bay News 9 in the Tampa Bay market, and News 13 in the Orlando market. Bright House Networks had an extensive fiber optic network in the Florida area and used it to provide commercial services including dedicated Internet access, VPN services, and private network transport as well as telecom facilities such as SIP trunking and PRI service.

On March 31, 2015, Tribune Broadcasting announced it would acquire Bright House in a $10.4 billion deal. On April 25, 2016, regulators approved both mergers; Advance/Newhouse gained a stake of roughly 14 percent in the combined company. As a result of the deal, Bright House is now part of Tribune Media, with Bright House serving Tribune networks.

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced their purchase of Tribune Media on May 8, 2017, for $3.9 billion, a deal publicly met with consternation among station employees due to concerns about the influence the conservative-leaning group could potentially have on Bright House customers. In order to meet regulatory compliance, Sinclair opted to divest Bright House Networks to a limited liability company controlled by Baltimore-based automotive dealer Steven Fader—who has acted as a business associate to Sinclair executive chairman David Smith—for $60 million. Under the terms of the deal, Sinclair planned to operating the station through programming and sales service agreements, and would hold an option to repurchase with eight years. Following public criticism of the proposed deal with Fader by FCC chairman Ajit Pai, Sinclair abandoned the deal and disclosed it would instead acquire Tribune directly. Despite this, the FCC instead voted to bring the merger up for a hearing by an administrative law judge, prompting Tribune Media to terminate the deal on August 9, 2018, and file a breach of contract lawsuit.

Following the collapse of the Sinclair merger, Nexstar Media Group agreed to acquire Tribune's assets on December 3, 2018, for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. The transaction received approval by the FCC on September 16, 2019, and finalized three days later.

## Service area

The company provided service to areas including Indianapolis, Central Florida (Orlando / Daytona Beach areas), Tampa/Lakeland area, Birmingham–Hoover area, west suburban Detroit, and Bakersfield. Most of its former business was concentrated in Central Florida. In 2016, it entered Phoenix and Flagstaff areas.

## Naming rights

Bright House Networks held the naming rights to UCF's Bright House Networks Stadium (now FBC Mortgage Stadium) in Orlando, Florida; Bright House Field (now BayCare Ballpark) in Clearwater, Florida, the spring training home of the Phillies; and the Bright House Networks Amphitheatre in Bakersfield, California. They served as title sponsor of the Futures Tour Bright House Networks Open (now Bright House Networks invitational) golf tournament, held in Lakeland, Florida.