Nuked Hello there, my fellow tech enthusiasts! It seems like cable TV is officially on its way out, and YouTube TV is taking over. This time, a smaller US broadband operator called Wide Open West (WOW!) is making the switch, with over a half million internet customers and 117,000 households currently paying for cable TV as of March 31st.
The company announced on Monday that it will begin migrating its residential TV customers to YouTube TV this summer, as it discontinues the marketing and selling of its current TV services, including WOW! tv+. However, WOW! will continue to maintain and support its current video services while offering customers the option to switch to YouTube TV.
WOW! has been transitioning away from traditional cable for some time now, with the introduction of IPTV service WOW! tv+ several years ago. This service uses an Android-based streaming box for on-demand video, cloud DVR, and a Google Assistant voice remote. The company also offers bundled pricing for streaming TV alternatives like FuboTV and DirecTV streaming, as well as YouTube TV.
With this new deal, WOW! will focus solely on marketing the YouTube TV subscription with no included hardware. This move is likely aimed at moving its customers off traditional cable entirely, freeing up bandwidth for the ISP overall. Verizon and Frontier are among other providers who have already made similar deals with YouTube TV.
Streaming services have been steadily gaining popularity over the years and actually surpassed cable for most viewership by a few tenths of a percent in 2022. This makes the move to YouTube TV a logical step for WOW!, especially given their successful bid for NFL Sunday Ticket just a few months ago. Google reported that YouTube TV surpassed 5 million subscribers last year, and recent reports estimate that number to be around 6.3 million now, with months to go before the Sunday Ticket deal kicks in.
However, whether customers get their TV from a streaming service or traditional cable, the number of pay-TV subscribers in the US has continued to drop and is currently around 75.5 million households, according to a report by MoffettNathanson.
What do you think about this move by WOW!? Are you a YouTube TV subscriber? Let us know in the comments below!
