Liberty's modest movement
Company to take its time upgrading Teuton cable
The new owners of the German cable -- Denver-based Callahan Associates (which covers North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden Wurttemberg), U.K. company Klesch (which covers Hessen) and Liberty (the rest of Germany) -- wanted to update the aging analog cable systems to offer goodies like high-speed Internet access, cinema-on-demand and telephony.
While Callahan and Klesch said they will invest several billion dollars in their regions, Liberty its taking a more modest, approach with planned investments of $425 million a year in its holdings.
Media experts said that amount will not finance a large technical upgrade offering multimedia services, but only buy a few more digital channels to carry Liberty content.
Liberty has said it plans to broaden existing 460 MHz bandwidths to only 500 MHz. For high-speed multimedia services, pricey fiber-optic enhanced cable with a bandwidth of at least 865 MHz is necessary.
Media watchers said it's logical for Liberty to be pickier with its investments in rural areas, however. Liberty's prime areas -- Berlin, Hamburg and Munich -- are likely to get the deluxe treatment.
The Callahan- and Klesch-owned systems cover much more densely populated areas. Callahan is looking at spending $7.6 billion in North Rhine-Westphalia alone.
