GCI will shut down TV cable and streaming businesses by mid-2025

GCI is pulling the plug on its cable TV and streaming services, just as its customers have been cutting the cable cord for years.

The company announced Nov. 11 that it will shut down its TV services by mid-2025; it did not provide a more specific date.

“Over the past few years, we have … seen our customers increasingly choose online video streaming as their preferred way to watch their favorite programming.  In light of these factors, we will sunset our TV offerings by mid-2025,” the prepared statement said.

GCI has been in the cable TV business in Alaska for several decades, adding the streaming service, Yukon TV, in 2020.

The company said its departure from TV will not affect its internet or cellphone services, which are offered across Alaska. Consumers can use GCI internet, or the services of other internet providers, to download whatever streaming services they choose.

Alaskan-owned GCI got into the long-distance phone business in 1979 and grew into the state’s largest telecommunications provider. It later was purchased and is now a subsidiary of Colorado-based Liberty Broadband.

“While we do not disclose customer data, I can say that we have seen a decline in our TV subscribers over the years as more customers choose online video streaming options and they represent a very small percentage of our overall customer base,” Josh Edge, GCI’s corporate communications manager, said in an email Nov. 13, declining to provide the number of Wrangell customers still on cable.

As streaming has become the preference for more consumers, that portion of GCI’s business has continued to shrink, he said.

The company stopped providing cable TV in Anchorage more than a decade ago, though it retained the service in other communities across Alaska. In 2021, GCI announced it would discontinue cable service in the majority of its markets in Alaska in favor of its own streaming service, Yukon TV, which requires a subscription to GCI internet.

GCI is not the first cable provider in Alaska to quit the business. Ketchikan Public Utilities, which is owned by the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, shut down its cable services this year. The utility said subscribers had gone down and operation costs had gone up as people turn toward streaming services. It was the last cable provider in the borough.