Spectrum is set to purchase a small cable TV company in Kentucky as it looks for ways to bolster its shrinking base of customers.
On Tuesday, the city council voted in agreement to sell Bardstown Connect along with its customer base and infrastructure to Charter Communications, Spectrum’s parent company.
No timeline has been set for the changeover, but the city’s mayor, Dick Heaton, said a contract formalizing the sale would be signed at a future council meeting, according to the Nelson County Gazette.
As cord cutting grows, smaller cable companies have been struggling to stay afloat, leading some to shut down. At the same time, larger cable companies have been purchasing smaller cable providers to add customers quickly despite their own financial struggles. More customers help the companies spread their costs, from employees to equipment, across a wider base.
Bardstown City Administrator and Chief Financial Officer Aaron Boles talked about the sale on the Bradford & Brooks radio show on the city’s AM-FM station WBRT.
“We don’t see cable and internet service as being a viable option for a municipality of our size,” Boles said in the interview, which was reported on by Policyband’s Ted Hearn. “We’re a little fish in a big pond, and we’re getting eaten up by the big fish.”
Boles said the sale was a “business decision” amid falling revenue due to competition and the climbing expense of running fiber.
Over the last year, Spectrum has been snapping up smaller cable businesses. The Bardstown Connect sale is one of the latest deals.
So far, Spectrum has purchased smaller providers like Astrea, which operates in several Wisconsin and Michigan towns, Norway in Michigan, and Maine’s Bee Line Cable.
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