Valley Cable Company Sees Resurgence

by srvobser Uncategorized

by Ima Phibber

The Valley Cable Company (VCC) has been around for 42 years, but they have really struggled recently. Just about everyone has cut the cord and gone to streaming, and it has really hurt VCC. Even though it seems everyone is cutting the cord and streaming these day, it’s not without some issues. The main issues with streaming and cutting the cord are the cost and fragmentation. We were told it was going to be much cheaper and better. Now, it seems we all pay for 5 plus streaming platforms, and it has gotten expensive. And, we have difficulties being able to watch what we want to watch.

VCC CEO Larry Kabelgye said, “We were about to shut the doors of VCC for good. We’ve been struggling for a while now; we were down to just a couple hundred subscribers. Most of them are old folks that don’t know anything about streaming. We were running with a skeleton crew of only 3 loyal employees. But, these streaming companies got greedy. People are now spending much more on multiple streaming platforms than they were spending on cable 15 years ago. Family budgets are tight, and they’re looking to save money. We ran a last-ditch ad campaign to try to attract more subscribers, and it worked. It saved our company.”

VCC’s ad campaign is called “Reconnect the Cord.” They ran the ads on Facebook, Instagram, Roku TV, the radio, and the local newspaper. Kabelgye said, “Facebook messages and calls started coming in immediately after the ad campaign started. We knew that we were onto something. It’s like people had forgotten about cable, but I guess some young folks have never had cable. The price of $54.99 per month is the main draw; it’s not our lineup of 33 channels.”

The recent uptick in business has forced to VCC to have to hire three new technicians and one new office worker, and the company now has positive cash flow. It’s amazing to see a dead-in-the-water old company to have a resurgence like they have. They think they can continue this growth for months to come as streaming gets more costly and fragmented.

VCC only has one basic package for $54.99 per month, and it includes all the local channels and the major channels like ESPN, FoxNews, and more. The simplicity and low cost is a big draw.

One new customer said, “I didn’t know that I was paying for 9 streaming services, and I really only watch a couple- Netflix and Hulu. All these streaming services were costing me $155 per month. I’m gonna keep Netflix, but I’m gonna get rid of all the others. I’m gonna be able to save about $85 per month by going back to cable. Plus, I only watch FoxNews and ESPN anyway. I gotta watch my ball games, Laura, and Sean, so I really don’t need all the other channels.”

Kabelgye added, “This growth is crazy. I thought we were done; I thought you could stick a fork in us. I was looking into getting a job with Doordash or Wal-Mart, but now we’ve been able to increase my pay some with all the new business. We’re looking forward to the continued growth.”

This is a great turnaround story, but it unfortunately it ends on a sour note. Starting next month, VCC will be increasing their monthly rate to $59.99. Kabelgye said he hates to do it, but it needed to be done. He promised subscribers won’t see another increase in 2026.