US cablecos abandon own TV choices
May 23, 2023
By Chris Forrester
Wilkes Communications and River Street Networks has joined a growing number of cable operators who are switching off TV services for their subscribers. Wilkes and River Street are joining Frontier, WOW!, Sparklight Cable/Cable One and CenturyLink, all of which have instead adopted broadband-based entertainment in place of their curated TV options.
For example, Wilkes/River Street, based in rural North Carolina and Virginia, with some 30,000 customers, say that instead of their own TV service, they are partnering with DirecTV and will supply DirecTV’s DBS bouquet or via the Internet to their customers.
Sparklight/Cable One also says it will be shutting down its traditional cable TV service. Customers will need to use the new Sparklight TV service, a streaming-only service that needs a device similar to an Apple TV or Fire Stick to work.