WOW! tv+ adoption still small, CEO says

WOW! tv+, WideOpenWest’s IP-based video product launched last year, has yet to gain a lot of traction with the cable operator’s subscribers.

During today’s earnings call, CEO Teresa Elder said that the vast majority of new customers that WOW is bringing in are broadband-only or broadband plus one of the third-party streaming services that the cable operator directly sells.

“In terms of new customer take up [of WOW! tv+], it is small but it is an alternative for customers who like that curated video product and we’re happy to provide it,” she said.

WOW! has just recently begun to reactively move its customers away from the traditional video product toward WOW! tv+ and Elder said her company will continue to do that more in the future.

RELATED: WideOpenWest launches WOW! tv+ in three new markets

WOW!, like most other operators, has continued to see its video business decline and has shifted its focus primarily to connectivity. The company’s first quarter video revenues fell 9.8% to approximately $93 million.

WOW! tv+, which launched last year in Columbus, Ohio, now reaches nearly 95% of homes across the company's service footprint with markets including Auburn, Huntsville and Montgomery, Alabama; Augusta, Columbus and Fort Gordon, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio; Evansville, Indiana; Knoxville, Tennessee; Mid-Michigan and Southeast Michigan; and Pinellas and Panama City, Florida.

WOW! tv+ includes cloud DVR functionality, voice control through Google Assistant and access to third-party streaming apps like Netflix through the Google Play store. WOW! said the service recently launched on Amazon's Fire TV stick.

WOW ended the first quarter of 2021 with approximately 291,000 video subscribers, down from about 366,000 one year ago. The company does not break out how many of those subscribe to WOW! tv+.

In February 2020, WOW began a trial in Charleston, South Carolina to offer its broadband customers there a choice between Sling TV, fuboTV, YouTube TV and Philo. Now those options are available in all the operator’s 19 markets which include cities in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia.