Count Wide Open West (WOW) as the latest cable company to cede the video business to the OTT ranks.
The Englewood, Colo.-based operator has reached an agreement with San Francisco-based start-up virtual MVPD Philo to resell the OTT service to its broadband-only customers.
This is only the latest example of small and midsized carriers repacking vMVPDs. The National Cable TV Cooperative, for example, has similar agreements with Philo and fuboTV, for example.
Philo, which recently tweaked its pricing and packaging, offers 58 channels—with no live sports or news—for an industry-low $20 a month.
WOW lost 8,100 more video customers in the first quarter and now has just around 398,000 left spread across the Midwest and Southeast.
“We are excited to partner with Philo to offer yet another option to WOW! customers,” said Roger Seiken, senior VP of programming for WOW, in a statement. “Philo’s video streaming service offers big name entertainment networks, with a smart easy-to-use interface, all at a very compelling price. WOW recognizes today’s video consumers want to choose from a variety of entertainment options and our goal is to help our customers access and enjoy those services. Combining Philo TV and WOW!HSD is a winning proposition for our customers.”
Added Philo CEO Andrew McCollum: “Philo is always looking for great partners to work with in order to bring our service to TV lovers, wherever they are,”“Our new partnership with WOW will offer a new entertainment-television experience to layer on top of WOW!’s super fast 1-Gig high speed data network.”
