Bresnan Communications leading the way to improved services throughout Montana

Low-key corporate executive expands holdings while boosting charities and civic organizations

By JO DEE BLACK
Tribune Staff Writer

Ask Bill Bresnan how it feels to be back in the cable business and the president and chief executive of Bresnan Communications will say his company was never out of the industry.

"We just didn’t have any customers for a couple of years," he says witha smile.

That changed when Bresnan Communications bought four cable systems in Montana and three other states this spring.

Since then Bill Bresnan, the leader of one of Montana’s newest corporate players, has been introducing himself across the Treasure State.

During a tour of southern Montana last week aboard the C-Span School Bus, Bill Bresnan greeted high school students with the same warmth as he did top state political officials.

Without much fanfare, Bresnan Communications signed on as a sponsor for Omega Television, the cable channel that airs college and high school sporting matches in the state. The Helena-based channel struggled after the philanthropic capabilities of its former main sponsor, Touch America, dried up.

In Billings this spring, David Gibson, Montana’s Director of Economic Development, remarked on the low-key attitude of Bill Bresnan and his brother Pat, the company’s senior vice president.

"I’ve been at events where they’ve been major donors and they just kind of stand back with their arms crossed, smiling," he said. "They don’t draw a lot of attention to themselves. They just seem to stand back and watch what’s going on. Pat and Bill are real gentlemen, they are really nice people."

Getting involved in the communities Bresnan serves, especially by writing checks for charity and civic causes, is a corporate obligation, but it’s also a useful business practice, says Bill Bresnan.

"We can use our system for civic good, we have unique capabilities," he said. "We can use these opportunities to show people how cable systems can impact their quality of life."

Three and a half years ago, Bresnan Communications sold its operations in the Midwest to Charter Communications. At one time, Bresnan also owned cable businesses in Poland and Chile.

Bill Bresnan and a core of about 25 employees continued to operate out of the White Plains, N.Y., looking for new opportunities.

That opportunity ended up being AT&T Broadband’s cable business in Montana, Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. By the time the deal was sealed in March, mergers had taken place and Comcast Corp. was the final seller.

Bresnan paid $525 million for systems serving 314,000 subscribers, including those in Great Falls and in the bulk of towns along the Hi-Line, as well as Fort Benton, Conrad and Choteau.

Bresnan Communications has about 330 employees in Montana. The company is also planning to develop a network operations center in the state that could add 80 jobs, officials say.

Billings and Butte are competing for the center and each city has put together financing packages with hope of landing the jobs.

"We haven’t finalized the location yet," Bill Bresnan told a Lee Newspaper reporter, "but it will probably be in Billings."

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Bresnan Communications

One Manhattanville Road

Purchase, New York 10577-2596

Phone: 914.641.3300

Fax: 914.641.3301

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Brian Lamb, the president of C-Span, says he’s thrilled that Bresnan Communications has returned to the cable industry.

Bill Bresnan was one of Lamb’s biggest supporters 25 years ago when he launched the nonprofit cable channel that airs proceeding and hearings from the floor of the U.S. House and Senate.

The pair teamed up for a two-week three-state tour of communities Bresnan now serves, showing off C-Span’s public affairs programming at colleges, schools and government offices along the way.

"This is unprecedented, to have the CEO of a cable company out on the road in the C-span bus, but Bill’s unusual," Lamb said. "We don’t make cable companies any money, we just take up space on their system. He’s a leader in the industry when it comes to supporting our programming."

At the onset, Bresnan said it would upgrade the overall system to the tune of $300 million over the next five years.

About half the systems need upgrading to increase channel capacity and allow broadband Internet, Bill Bresnan said.

Right now, systems in Bozeman, Butte, Glendive and in Colorado and Wyoming are being beefed up.

The Great Falls system was already upgraded by AT&T and includes high-speed cable Internet access services, but plans for new features are being formulated now.

Video on demand, a cable service that allows customers to order and play movies when they want from the cable company, is in the works.

There’s no timeline yet, but the plan is to test the service in one area before rolling it out system wide, Bresnan said.

High definition broadcasts, already available in Montana to satellite dish subscribers, will also be available to cable customers.

"The consumer electronic industry is pushing that now, you can buy a high-definition television set for under $1,000," Bresnan said. "I think those prices will keep coming down. As more people own those televisions, more programming will become available."

Advance technology allows cable television to bring more to communities today than MTV and home shopping networks.

When Bresnan Communications owned a system in Rochester, Minn. the Mayo Clinic signed up for a private network in the hospital and in physician’s homes.

"That allows a specialist at home to look at test results or review X-rays on their computer," Bill Bresnan said. "If you are patient in the emergency room, that means you don’t have to wait until that specialist arrives at the hospital before treatment begins. Those are the things that can make a difference it people’s quality of life."

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20031012/localnews/442178.html