Can you believe what's happening? After several years of working so hard to improve their relations with the real estate industry, local franchise cable companies have dramatically altered their course.

Their behavior has been a real surprise. The perception of the local cable company has dropped more quickly than NASDAQ over the past twelve months. This is incredible when you think about the progress that they had been making.

I've heard stories from property owners recently that have proven this point. One owner told me that the local cable company "abandoned his project in the middle of construction, " and another one indicated that they "presented him with one deal - take it or leave it." So he left it, and they didn't care.

It's quite obvious why this is happening. While the franchise operators are fighting tooth and nail in the single-family environment with DBS providers and overbuilders, they have experienced very little competition recently in the multi-family marketplace. And without significant competition, they have loosened up their tie, relaxed their finger on the pistol, and fallen asleep at the wheel.

Wake up guys! I think this means that they're not afraid of us right now.

With no one giving them a hard run at MDU subscribers, they are showing the real estate community their true colors. "You were important when I needed to fight for your business, but now that there's no fight, I'm not so sure you're important anymore." This type of thinking will eventually get them into real trouble.

No more tailored packages. No more site visits. No more deals designed to work together as a partnership. It's obvious that they don't care about property owners, developers or on-site managers. At least, until the next wave of real competition. I recognize that this may not be the case everywhere, but it certainly is in most places.

It reminds me of what's happened to Coca-Cola over the past few years with their battle against Pepsi. The previous chairman of Coke, Roberto Goizuetta, told a popular business magazine in 1996 that as "Pepsi becomes less relevant, I don't need to look at them very much anymore."

But guess what happened when Coke took their eye off Pepsi? The number two beverage company quietly jumped ahead of them in every category - sport drinks, juice drinks, bottled water, and they're gaining on Coke in the soft drink category too. Ouch!

I like this story because I think about franchise cable acting very much like Coca-Cola right now. They believe that the private operators who focus on MDUs are less relevant, less important, and have less impact in this particular market segment, so they have stopped paying attention to us.

And that's why now is such a good time for us to re-tool our army, and attack our sleeping enemy. He is currently treating his clients and customers like it's a one-horse town. And there is a ground-swell of negative sentiment toward the franchise operator for displaying such arrogance. The real estate industry is clearly not happy, and is willing to find a second horse, a second player, a second operator to fight in this battle.

I have seen this personally. We have received a number of calls from property owners to finish the work started by their local cable company, or to take on a new property because the owner will never again work with a company that treats them that way.

I guess the franchise guys think that they won the war. And without a war, there is no point in keeping their arsenal around. But in my mind, they have turned a winning opportunity into a losing effort.

I am sure that many owners think it's a shame. The franchise guys were finally getting it, and putting resources in place to do an effective job in the MDU arena. But then it got ugly so quickly.

So we need to seize this opportunity. This is a great chance to pull ahead like Pepsi did by attacking a complacent, unconcerned Coke. After all, isn't this the "private broadband" generation?