Cord cutting and streaming have been taking off recently. Inflation is driving many to look for cheaper ways to watch TV. It is also driving cable TV companies to look for ways to save money on also save money.
Now to help address cord cutting and help cut costs, Sparklight Cable (also known as Cable One) will be shutting down its traditional cable TV service. Instead, customers will need to use the new Sparklight TV service, a streaming-only service that needs a device like an Apple TV or Fire Stick to work. (Sadly no Roku support at this time.)
“We will be transitioning all Sparklight markets to Sparklight TV on a market-by-market basis, at which time we will no longer be offering traditional linear cable TV service which requires a cable box. Existing Cable TV customers will be contacted directly when Sparklight TV service is available for their home.” Sparklight said in a statement on their website.
Sparklight, as of Q2 2022, had about 1.1 million residential and business customers across 24 states. In 2021 Sparklight stopped selling new traditional cable TV subscriptions. Now current customers are being moved over to streaming only.
The main downside to Sparklight TV vs YouTube TV, for example, is it only works inside your home network. You can’t take SParklight TV with you on the road. Instead, you will need to use a second app called Sparklight’s TV Everywhere app to access content outside of your home.
This move to streaming only will allow Sparklight to dedicate 100% of its network to internet service. This move should help increase speeds as Sparklight can now dedicate 100% of its network to the internet instead of sharing it with TV.
The question now is not if but when other cable TV companies will follow Sparklight TV’s example and ditch traditional cable TV.