Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/31501
SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS APRIL 2011 www.securitysystemsnews.com Where’s the media in Ascent Media? Company has cable/media connections, but it’s all about security now By Martha Entwistle PALM BEACH, Fla.—The media in Ascent Media—the new owner of Monitronics—is really limited to the company name. That was one of the messages from Bill Fitzgerald, chair- man of the board of Ascent Media Corporation, at the Barnes Buchanan conference here in February. He got some laughs from the con- ference crowd when he said: “You’re looking at me and thinking, ‘Here come the cable guys again.’” In some ways, Fitzgerald said, the crowd was right to think that. After all, Fitzgerald came to Ascent Media from AT&T Broadband, formerly known as TeleCommunications, Inc. (TCI). He also still holds the post of SVP of Liberty Media Corporation, whose chairman is cable industry pioneer John Malone. Cable “is a business model I feel very comfortable with,” he said. However, Fitzgerald was quick to point out that Ascent Media was divesting its media holdings. In fact, Ascent on Feb. 28 announced the sale of its Content Distribution business to Encompass Digital Media, Inc. That sale now leaves Monitronics as Ascent’s sole operating subsidiary, Dynamark Continued from page 1 them back. We got a combined total of $130,000 in grants for the creation of these central station jobs. We expect to hire approxi- mately 100 people over the next several years.” Dynamark Monitoring is a sister company to First Action Security Team, which supplies security products as well as training to its customers. Alter purchased First Action upon his return to the security industry in 2009, when he began planning for the central station and dealer program. “It costs nothing to join and dealers can pick and choose which products and services [they want],” Alter said. “The key is choice.” Alter said Dynamark is slated to monitor about 40,000 accounts in a 70/30 resi/commercial mix when the central station opens this summer with a focus on the East Coast. Alter says nationwide expansion will follow. Alter said right now, before the central station is even open, 75 of First Action Security Team’s more than 250 independent alarm customers have signed up for the Dynamark Authorized Dealer program. “We’re CSAA members now and will seek Five Diamond Certification as well,” Alter’s son, Dynamark president Trey Alter said. “Our dealers will get a higher tier of service. SSN except for a small, immaterial por- tion of one of AMG’s previous hold- ings, Systems Integration. Ascent is currently “pursuing strategic initiatives” for that piece, according to the company. In addition, while Fitzgerald does still work for Malone, and Malone is the largest stockholder of Ascent (with four percent interest), Malone no longer owns cable companies in the U.S. One of Fitzgerald’s first tasks back in 1996 when he was at TCI was to take a look at home security as a pos- sible new line of service. “After three or four months of study we decided it probably didn’t make sense,” he said. Home security “was a different enough technology, and from a ful- fillment perspective that could lead to more challenges. But now it’s 15 years later and the challenges aren’t as great.” Wireless solutions make things easier, and clearly Verizon, Time Warner, and others are testing the waters, he said. “My view is that [the so- called telco incursion] is great. It ... will bring awareness Bill Fitzgerald at the consumer level and it will bring benefits across the board to the security industry.” SSN MONITORING 35