• by Wayne Friedman , April 30, 2019

Cable/broadband company Altice USA has bought Cheddar, a young-skewing digital news company, for $200 million.

The deal expands news programming holdings under Altice USA News unit, which include its News 12 Networks, and international and current affairs news network i24NEWS.

Jon Steinberg, CEO-founder of Cheddar, will take a senior position in leading Altice USA News. Altice USA was an early investor in Cheddar.

Altice intends to expand Cheddar’s advertiser offerings -- using its advanced Altice One and a4 advertising platform.

Cheddar broadcasts 19 hours a day of live news through two networks: Cheddar Business and Cheddar News.

Cheddar networks are available in 40 million pay TV homes through cable, satellite and telco systems, digital pay TV providers  -- YouTube TV, Sling, Hulu Live, DirecTV Now -- and ad-supported digital TV services, Pluto, Roku Channel.

It also has a campus network of 1,600 owned-and-operated screens on 600 campuses.

Altice says Cheddar recently expanded distribution on cable systems, including those owned by Comcast, Charter and Altice USA.

Early Tuesday morning trading of Altice USA stock was down 1.4% to $23.33.