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Chorus is bankrupt.

  • 29-01-2004 4:45pm
    #1
    MDR
    Registered Users Posts: 1,532 ✭✭✭MDR


    but there is hope.

    from rte.ie

    Indo exits as Chorus examiner appointed

    (15:20)
    The High Court has appointed an examiner to Princes Holdings, which trades as the cable television company Chorus. The court heard that the company had debts of €385m.

    The news followed an announcement earlier that Independent News & Media had agreed to sell its 50% stake in the company to current 50% owner Liberty Media for an undisclosed sum.

    Independent had previously said that it did not intend to hold onto its stake in Princes Holdings, the holding company for Chorus, in the long-term.
    Chorus employs 550 people and has a customer base of 200,000. Its chief executive Phil Freedman said it would continue to provide services to customers as usual.

    In court today, Justice Peter Kelly appointed John McStay as examiner. The court was told that Chorus was confident of its future viability as Liberty Media intended to invest in the company when the examinership process was completed and was in talks with bankers to settle Chorus's debts.

    Liberty, controlled by tycoon John Malone, has holdings in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia, including in home shopping channel QVC and the cable channels Discovery.

    Last week Liberty snapped up a 9% voting interest in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire.


Comments

  • #2
    sceptre
    Registered Users Posts: 19,608 ✭✭✭✭sceptre


    Originally posted by MDR
    an announcement earlier that Independent News & Media had agreed to sell its 50% stake in the company to current 50% owner Liberty Media for an undisclosed sum.
    What's the bet that it was a pound?

    I'm sorry if I come across as churlish but my heart skipped a happy beat when I saw the subject line of this thread. Chorus have shown themselves up to be incompetent idiots more than once, sitting on telco licences for no particular reason other than acting as a dog in the manger, in breach of Comreg directives (not that they are alone there) and generally a company most people want to have little to do with. On the TV front for various reasons it was more trouble for me to go with Sky initially but I rejoiced when I finally got to tell Chorus to sod off. Poor billing (they probably still reckon I owe them money even though it's probably the other way around), poor service and a poor commitment to fulfilling customer needs (I used to go out with the person responsible for dispatching install and repair crews and monitoring their progress - she had dreadful things to say about the idiots she was supervising, including dishonesty, laziness and a general lack of any copon[1]. Obviously she left. The smart rats usually do)

    Wouldn't miss them if they went on fire, though I've sympathy for the 20 to 200-odd who are probably competent.

    John Malone might make a difference. Gavin O'Reilly and Phil Freedman obviously didn't.


    [1] The day she was getting her own cable installed after moving house she put explicit instructions on the docket that the householder wasn't there but that keys were available at the Chorus office and included the phone number for contact. Installer swore blind there was no answer on either number supplied. Even the more incompetent among us would usually recognise the number printed on the side of his own van. This is just the handiest example, I've got plenty.


  • #3
    Lex_Diamonds
    Registered Users Posts: 2,468 ✭✭✭Lex_Diamonds


    I guess I should stop holding out for PowerNet then...:dunno: :dunno: :dunno:


  • #4
    MDR
    Registered Users Posts: 1,532 ✭✭✭MDR


    ray idly wonders why his signature isn't working anymore ...


  • #5
    MDR
    Registered Users Posts: 1,532 ✭✭✭MDR


    and then suddenly understands ...


  • #6
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭dahamsta


    All true sceptre. I'm sure I've mentioned this here before, but I did two weeks work experience with Chorus (née De Multi) "engineers" in Cork many moons ago, and I cringe when I think back to it. First task of the day was to listen to customer complaints on the answering machine while suppin' cups o' cha; laughing at most of them, and deleting the lot when the tae was finished.

    Out in the field, it was obvious that they were pretty much making it up as they went along, very much akin to the cowboys you see on programmes like Watchdog these days. The (contracted) engineers these days seem a lot more clued in, but the company will never be praiseworthy without competition. I'm not even sure that would be enough.

    I'll reserve judgement on Malone for the moment. I've read commentary that praises him in the past, but the Publishers Weekly review of this book about him struck a very familiar note with me, as I'm sure it will with most Chorus customers. I'll still move to Sky first chance I get.

    adam


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  • #7
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭dahamsta


    Chorus is out in much of Cork at the moment. I hope this is just a coinkadink.


  • #8
    spongebob
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,143 ✭✭✭spongebob


    The ESB probably pulled the plug on them :D

    M


  • #9
    Ryaner
    Registered Users Posts: 1,714 ✭✭✭Ryaner


    The quickier chorus go the better. I have to say I would so like to get ntl. or even sky. Chorus's digital box. What a joke. But please do go so the areas get unbundled and we can choose who we want to provide our tv


  • #10
    tuxy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,983 ✭✭✭✭tuxy


    Originally posted by Lex_Diamonds
    I guess I should stop holding out for PowerNet then...:dunno: :dunno: :dunno:

    chorus asured me i would have powernet a few months into 2001... any day now :D


  • #11
    SkepticOne
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,718 ✭✭✭SkepticOne


    Originally posted by Ryaner
    The quickier chorus go the better. I have to say I would so like to get ntl. or even sky.
    But you can get sky now.


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  • #12
    Ryaner
    Registered Users Posts: 1,714 ✭✭✭Ryaner


    we could get sky but the biggest problem with that is that fact that they dont have Ch4 or utv. Cant remember which on but My rents watch those two mainly so cant scrap chorus yet.


  • #13
    sceptre
    Registered Users Posts: 19,608 ✭✭✭✭sceptre


    Originally posted by Ryaner
    we could get sky but the biggest problem with that is that fact that they dont have Ch4 or utv. Cant remember which on but My rents watch those two mainly so cant scrap chorus yet.
    More a specific TV issue so look at this thread on the satellite forum.


  • #14
    crawler
    Registered Users Posts: 1,660 ✭✭✭crawler


    Right....

    Firstly - appointing an examiner is not actually bankrupt - It's the same as a Chapter 11 filing in the US and more or less protects you from your Creditors while you get your house in order...

    Secondly - Breaking the link with NNM is a good thing from what I can see - they never let any real investment happen in the Company ( apart from an inspired waste of money for a pile of useless krap Lucent kit a few years ago !! ) - they tried and tried to bleed the asset but to no avail - Telcos need to constantly evolve , if they are stopped form doing that then they die...

    Thirdly - they employ 500 people in Ireland - regardless of what they are like or what they do that's a hell of a lot more than Sky ( The ariel installer bud is a mute arguement - both Chorus and NTL use 3rd party contracts ,as do Sky )

    Next - they are regulated and pay regulation fees - unlike Sky.

    Next - Sky want to extract £400 STERLING per annum from each subscriber - if there is no decent competition , do you think prices will go down?? Remember Sky are NOT regulated and can do what they want. Actually we should lobby the Department of Fish and Telly on this very point as this could become VERY serious.

    Dont get me wrong - it's not because I dislike Sky ( I have Sky installed - well just about and Chorus ) I dislike Murdoch and his greedy greedy overpriced SImpsons and naked drunk people being exploited attitude :)

    I think Chorus will change - no one knows that they need to more so that the GOOD people in Chorus themselves - they are one of the few Companies that offer any choice at the moment to eircom's Local loop monolopy and in many regions the ONLY competition to Sky.

    Folks competition is good , 500 lost jobs is bad - The Company needs to change and will but I think it's support thats needed along with guidance in the right direction...

    Not popular opinion here probably and maybe I'm too close to the subject to be more objective , but that's how I see it.


  • #15
    Bruno Alive Frame
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,155 ✭✭✭ Bruno Alive Frame


    I got my mother to get the sky, phone and cable in kilkenny under chorus.. never any problems...

    Shame to see that go for her


  • #16
    wexfordman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 490 ✭✭wexfordman


    I remember a couple of years ago Chorus were streaming ahead to get digital tv, wireless phone services and wireless BB (powernet) in our area. They even signed up a few people to the CPS service with free line renatal if I remember correctly as a temp measure till they had the wireless service up and running (which never happened in the end)

    Now I cant remember when all this exactly went down the tubes, and what were the main factors, but methinks it may have been somewhere around the time that Orreilly got his hands on Eircom!!!!

    If I was to mull on this for a while, I'd be thinking, we were looking at a situation where Chorus were going to compete with Oreillycom, or to put it another way O'Reillyvision V Oreillycom:confused:

    Why would he plough money into one of his own companies to compete against the other ?

    Looks to me like a good thing the INN are out (that is what has happened is'nt it)

    I'd be with crawler on this one, and gunning for the rebirth of Chorus!!!

    I say this in the full knowledge that I have hated them as much if not more than eircom, if not for their incompetence, then for the fact that I was weak enough to go to SKY. I'd still be willing to give them a go, if they showed any sign of get up and go, and I'd forgive a lot to get rid of the likes of eircom, never mind SKY, and support local jobs with a local company.



    Wexfordmman


  • #17
    Fionn
    Registered Users Posts: 2,368 ✭✭✭Fionn


    I have no idea about the TV end of things with Chorus but cablenet is still going along quite well they even reduced the price here about two months or so back!!!
    I've had perhaps 3 / 4 times when the line went down and a call to service support had contract engineers out checking the cable very quick indeed, they certainly couldn't be faulted in that area. I've been with them for over 2 years now.
    Still a better deal than Eircom or the others.

    I do think there are valid points about Irish jobs going as regards the sky network who only really take money from this country and provide very little in return.
    It would appear that Irish workers in this sector do need an attitude change, it's probably a throwback from the time this sector was controlled by bureaucrats answerable to no one. I still have nightmares from the time of the "no Limits" debacle.

    I don't work for nor have any commercial interest in Chorus but it would be a retrograde step IMO if they were to cease providing their cable service in my area!

    I hope i don't have to go back to any of the really crap services thats out there!!!


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