GCI says it will shutter its TV services by mid-2025

Internet and telecom provider GCI said Monday that it plans to stop providing its TV services by mid-2025.

In an email to customers, the Anchorage-based company said the decision to halt its decades-long cable TV service was due in part to the popularity of streaming.

GCI spokesperson Josh Edge said that as streaming has become the preference for more consumers, that portion of GCI’s business model has continued to shrink.

”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,” he said.

The email to customers read in part: “Over the past few years, we have listened to customer feedback on our TV offerings (including Yukon TV and Choice TV) and have seen our customers increasingly choose online video streaming as their preferred way to watch their favorite programming. In light of these factors, we plan to sunset our TV offerings by mid-2025.”

[From 2021: GCI says to get with the times, it needs to drop its cable TV platform in favor of streaming. Some customers aren’t pleased.]

The company said it would continue to support video options by focusing on internet and mobile data.

The service change will not happen until next summer, according to the email.

In addition to TV, GCI has been a major provider of internet and phone services in Alaska. In 2023, GCI announced it was shuttering its email service, but reversed course and decided to maintain the around 40,000 gci.net accounts.