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Source: Alaska Journal of Commerce, AnchorageNov.儲存 14--General Communication Inc. posted strong financials for the third quarter, but other issues remain at the forefront of the company's work.After closing on the purchase of three television stations in early November, GCI couldn't reach an agreement with KTUU about transmitting the broadcaster's programming in rural Alaska by a Nov. 8 deadline. Instead, transmission has ended to 22 communities for the time being.The Anchorage-based telecom ended the third quarter with net income of $8.9 million, or 22 cents per share, for the quarter, and $16 million for the year-to-date. The yearly net income is an increase of $7 million compared to the first nine months of 2012.GCI's revenue and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, were also up sequentially and year-over-year.The Alaska Wireless Network, or AWN, transaction played into the third quarter numbers. GCI and Alaska Communications Systems Group Inc. closed on AWN, which merged the two companies infrastructure, in July. Each telecom will continue to market and sell its own retail product."The transition is going well and we are quite pleased with the quarterly and year-to-date results," said GCI Chief Financial Officer John Lowber during a Nov. 7 investor call about the quarterly earnings.Lowber said there is work left on integrating the two networks, but it is off to a good start. AWN is also continuing to improve its network, and Lowber said the network will likely expand the fastest service in Alaska, 4G LTE, or long term evolution, to Fairbanks by the end of the year.GCI's third quarter results were driven by increases in wireless revenue, and wireline performance for the consumer, business and managed broadband sector.Wireless revenue more than doubled compared to the third quarter of 2012, at $68 million for the third quarter, with data a major factor in that, Lowber said.GCI also added 2,400 non-Lifeline wireless subscribers, including business services, Lowber said.Consumer wireline revenue also increased, although by a lesser amount, 4 percent year-over-year.Business wireline revenue increased 3 percent year-over-year, while the adjusted EBITDA and the sequential revenue were down.Lowber said that was partially the result of fluctuating needs for oil and gas support activity.Managed broadband revenue was up 6 percent year-over-year, although the adjusted EBITDA was down for the same period.The company also increased its debt by about $100 million, largely from the purchase of certain ACS assets to contribute to AWN, Lowber said.Despite sharing a network, GCI and ACS have not had identical focuses since combining infrastructure.GCI is more aggressively marketing some options, and offered free iPhones this fall to entice subscribers, and is also pushing the Turbozone internet.Lowber said the two companies have different strategies because they have different needs."It's also worth noting that the economics between us and ACS are substantially different," Lowber said.ACS receives preferential distributions from the new network initially, but GCI is the majority two-thirds partner and will take on more of the short-term risk, and longer-term reward, from the deal.KTUU-GCI dispute weighing on operationsDuring the Nov. 7 call, the KTUU issue had not yet been resolved and GCI's Lowber described it as a "highly contentious dispute."By Nov. 8, the two parties did not reach an agreement and GCI stopped broadcasting KTUU's programm迷你倉ng.GCI spokesperson David Morris said Nov. 12 that the company would continue to negotiate, but for now, programming has stopped in nearly two dozen communities."The agreement that was in place expired Sept. 30, and we are just so far apart on the terms," Morris said.GCI has stopped transmitting KTUU's signal to Adak, Akutan, Anaktuvak Pass, Barrow, Bethel, Cordova, Galena, Kaktovik, King Salmon, McGrath, Kodiak, Kotzebue, Kuparuk, Nikolski, Nome, North Slope BP, Shemya, Skagway, Tanana, Unalaska, Valdez and Whittier.KTUU is an NBC affiliate, and those communities will also no longer receive other NBC programming via GCI.The contract dispute revolved around the terms of the agreement for January 2015 and beyond. KTUU had asked for payment for its signal rather than the exchange-of-services the two companies have operated under for the past decade.GCI has maintained that it needed a new agreement to continue broadcasting past the deadline, while KTUU has said that the two could have operated as-is until 2015."GCI has chosen to unnecessarily put Alaskans in the middle of a complex negotiation that only impacts 2015 and beyond," wrote KTUU Marketing Director Brad Hilwig in a Nov. 9 press release. "We offered our signal for free through 2014 and GCI chose to reject that offer. We're disappointed because it limits choice in rural Alaska."Morris said there's nothing free about carriage to rural Alaska, that GCI provides services in exchange for the transmission rights, and that it must have those rights to continue.Certain Southcentral communities will continue to see KTUU on GCI cable, however. Transmission in Anchorage, Girdwood, Homer, Kenai, Seward, Soldotna and Matanuska-Susitna Borough will continue under a must-carry agreement, according to a GCI statement.Programming on other stations is still up in the air.GCI subsidiary Denali Media Southeast recently bought the NBC affiliates in Juneau and Sitka, which previously broadcast KTUU's programming, including both news and national NBC content.The two companies agreed to extend the deadline for hammering out a deal about transmission of KTUU's signal for those stations until Nov. 22, Morris said.GCI's Denali Media Anchorage also purchased KTVA, in Anchorage, at the same time.Lowber said the company was working on its own news programming and a plan to consolidate cable and over-the-air advertising in the coming weeks.Those changes will likely show up on air beginning Dec. 1, and in the company's fourth quarter results.GCI also made progress on another major endeavor recently, finishing its TERRA-NW extension to Nome."All three of the necessary mountaintops sites have now been completed, with an antenna and radio installed at the new Nome hospital," Lowber said. "The new link between Shaktoolik and Nome has undergone radio testing since Oct. 4, and we're now redirecting satellite traffic onto the network well ahead of schedule."The TERRA network is a terrestrial broadband connection, with faster speeds for rural Alaska users along the route through much of Southwest and Northwest Alaska. Next, the company will expand the network to Kotzebue by the end of 2014, Lowber said.GCI's stock closed at $9.77 Nov. 12, a bit less than the 52-week high of $10.08Molly Dischner can be reached at molly.dischner@alaskajournal.com.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Alaska Journal of Commerce (Anchorage, Alaska) Visit the Alaska Journal of Commerce (Anchorage, Alaska) at .alaskajournal.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesself storage