U.S. cable operator WOW! has signed two separate deals to sell its Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, service areas and its Chicago, Evansville, Indiana, and Anne Arundel, Maryland, service areas. Atlantic Broadband, a fellow U.S. cable operator and subsidiary of Cogeco Communications, has agreed to acquire the Cleveland and Columbus markets for $1.125 billion. Astound Broadband, a telecommunications holding company, has agreed to acquire WOW!’s Chicago, Evansville and Anne Arundel service areas for $661 million.
New carriage contracts with FiOS, Atlantic Broadband and Google Fiber cover more than 3.6 million subscribers.
WBOC, Atlantic Broadband Set Retrans Deal
Atlantic Broadband, the local cable provider serving viewers in Talbot, Queen Anne’s and Kent counties in Maryland, has returned CBS affiliate WBOC Salisbury, Md., TV to its channel lineup after reaching a long-term retrans agreement. The station has been off the cable system since late December.
The lines between internet and traditional TV continue to blur as Netflix makes its video library available to about 700,000 cable subscribers in the U.S. starting Monday. The streaming service has entered into agreements with pay-TV operators Atlantic Broadband, RCN Telecom Services and Grande Communications that give Netflix a channel on the TiVO set-top box, which people pay a monthly fee to access. Customers do still have to have a Netflix subscription to use the Netflix app, in addition to their sub to the DVR service for one of those providers.
