Cable TV Industry Is Poised For a Spate of Big Deals: The outlook for growth of new services, financial pressures, and the sale of Adelphia are expected to drive consolidation of key operators.(deals 2004 to 2005)

In the process of becoming nearly all things to all consumers, the cable TV industry is poised for a 2004-2005 m&a deals wave.

"We're going to see more consolidation among the cable operators. It's just a matter of matching prices with opportunities," says Rich Hanley, director of graduate programs for the Quinnipiac University communications program in Hamden, Conn.

The combinations would be driven by desires to create larger companies with the resources to finance myriad services, such as telephony, Internet, financial, e-commerce, in addition to TV over existing cable lines.

But the first assets to be moved will likely be those of scandal-scarred Adelphia Communications Corp., the Coudersport, Pa.-based cable giant built by John J. Rigas.

A jury convicted …