Another one bites the dust!

[lukesams]

It looks like Sparklight's TV service is going the way of the dinosaur. FYI, Sparklight was known as Cable One until recently.

One More Cable TV Company Plans to Shut Down Its TV Service As Cord Cutting Grows | Cord Cutters News

Yesterday Cable One, which is now known to the public as Sparklight cable TV, reported its 3rd quarter earnings, where it reported that its residential video subscribers dropped to just 140,500 residential customers and 8,400 business customers. This comes as the company earlier this year said...

cordcuttersnews.com

 

[exdjted]

Not surprising. We're moving to a town served by Sparklight and were planning on using their internet but had no interest at all in their TV offerings.

 

[anotherguyTN]

Sparklight is in Dyersburg, TN, where I grew up and my brother still lives, and he had dropped TV with them several months ago.

 

[davideduardo]

It looks like Sparklight's TV service is going the way of the dinosaur. FYI, Sparklight was known as Cable One until recently.

One More Cable TV Company Plans to Shut Down Its TV Service As Cord Cutting Grows | Cord Cutters News

Yesterday Cable One, which is now known to the public as Sparklight cable TV, reported its 3rd quarter earnings, where it reported that its residential video subscribers dropped to just 140,500 residential customers and 8,400 business customers. This comes as the company earlier this year said...

cordcuttersnews.com

Of course, this has implications in the area of OTA commercial TV in those markets. Most smaller market TV stations get over half their revenue from "Must Carry" fees.

 

[exdjted]

Sparklight is in Dyersburg, TN, where I grew up and my brother still lives, and he had dropped TV with them several months ago.

We'll be residents there in December. Their TV service is ridiculously overpriced and has the most pitiful choice of programming.

 

[TexasTom]

Of course, this has implications in the area of OTA commercial TV in those markets. Most smaller market TV stations get over half their revenue from "Must Carry" fees.

I would think that the implications go past just those markets. My understanding is that much of the retrans money ultimately gets turned over to the network by those affiliates as part of the "reverse compensation" deals that are now normal in the industry. So as retrans fees go down, I would expect that the money the big four networks get from their affiliates will also start to shrink.

So I would expect this to ultimately impact the big four networks. And since a huge portion of that "reverse compensation" money goes towards sports rights agreements, this may eventually ripple all the way to the NFL, NBA, MLB, and college sports. Yeah, they're now cutting deals with streaming services, but the bread and butter still comes from broadcast and basic cable networks, both of which will likely have less money to pay for rights in the future.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

So is Sparklight eliminating their traditional linear cable only?

Because they are still advertising "Sparklight TV" which I assume is one that's IP provided (similar to Comcast/Xfinity X1). And requiring the necessary internet connections and TV adapters. Or are they dropping that entirely as well?

Here's the lineup for both regular cable and Sparklight TV for the closest Sparklight community to my home (Auburn, IL, about 20 miles southwest of downtown Springfield). The Sparklight TV lineup to me looks more like a National lineup (outside of locals and limited basic), similar to that of Comcast (but without the 4di channel numbers).

Channel Lineup

Explore new shows with the Sparklight Channel Guide. Find out what channel your favorite networks appear on for your local area. Discover channels included with each Sparklight TV package.

www.sparklight.com

 

[crainbebo]

That's big news for Boise and the Treasure Valley. Cable One/Sparklight has served that area for many, many years. In fact it's the only cable provider in the growing city.

 

[desertaire]

Sparklight is the only cable provider for a large part of Arizona, like Prescott, the Verde Valley, and the White Mountains. The alternative is the dish or the translators.