D.C. Memo: Astound to Name New CEO Early Next Year, While Cable One CEO Search Drags On
Astound CEO Jim Holanda Stepping Aside for New Leader in Early 2026. Meanwhile, Cable One Reports 'Significant Progress' in CEO Search as ISP Reels from Broadband Sub Losses
▪️BREAKING: Gray TV Reports 6% Decline in Retrans Revenue in Q3▪️Struggling Cable One Drops about 21,200 Broadband Subs in Q3 ▪️Nexstar-TEGNA to File Deal with FCC after Shutdown Ends▪️Ookla: Starlink ‘No Longer a Fringe Technology’▪️British Airways to Roll Out Free Starlink in 2026 ▪️CEI Fellow: FCC Can’t be First Amendment Referee▪️Elon Musk Gets His $1 Trillion Pay Package▪️Ziply Fiber Adds 4,685 Broadband Subs in Q3▪️Steve Weed Named a Director of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada▪️Biden FTC Chair Lina Khan to Help Lead Mamdani’s NYC Transition▪️Cantwell, Schatz Concerned about $1 Billion in Tribal Broadband Funds
Retrans: Gray TV reported third quarter earnings Friday that included a 6% sequential drop in retransmission consent revenue, or the fees TV stations collect from pay-TV providers like Comcast and DIRECTV. Retrans revenue in the third quarter of 2025 was $346 million, compared to $369 million in the second quarter last year. Gray said the decline was “primarily attributable to the transition of WANF, in Atlanta, to an independent station.” WANF ended its 31-year affiliation with CBS on Aug. 16.
CEO: Broadband ISP Astound announced Thursday a leadership transition, saying it has hired a new chief executive who will be named and take the role in the first quarter of 2026. As part of the shift, EVP and CFO John Feehan was appointed interim CEO, effective immediately, and will serve until the new leader arrives next year. He succeeds Jim Holanda, who will remain on the Astound board through 2026 to help with the transition. Holanda, who was inducted into the 2021 Class of the Cable TV Pioneers, is a non-voting director of the National Content & Technology Cooperative in Overland Park, Kan. Privately held Astound, a regional ISP based in Princeton, N.J., said the CEO search focused on candidates with deep residential and enterprise broadband experience across large, diverse metropolitan markets nationwide. (More after paywall.)
