Midco (known as Midcontinent Communications until 2016) is a regional cable provider, providing a triple play service of

Cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

and

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

service for both

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, ...

and

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large po ...

, along with much of

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...

, and several communities in

Kansas Kansas () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its Capital city, capital is Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebras ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. The company's business-class service also provides direct

fiber-optic communication Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of infrared light through an optical fiber. The light is a form of carrier wave that is modulated to carry information. Fiber is pr ...

s services via leased data circuits for larger companies. Headquartered in

Sioux Falls, South Dakota Sioux Falls () is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the 130th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha County and also extends into Lincoln County to the south, which continues up ...

and operated as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

between Midcontinent Media and

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

, Midco provides service to 200 communities both urban and rural, serving an area that covers over 1.2 million people.

History

Midcontinent Media was founded in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origi ...

in 1931 as the Welworth Theater Company, an operator of movie theaters. The company remained in that business until the 1990s, when it sold its theaters to various chains, including

Carmike Carmike Cinemas was a motion picture exhibitor headquartered in Columbus, Georgia. As of March 2016, the company had 276 theaters with 2,954 screens in 41 states, and was the fourth largest movie theater chain in the United States. The company b ...

. In 1952, it bought the Midcontinent Broadcasting Company, owner of KELO-AM- FM in Sioux Falls; the company name changed to Midcontinent Media. The company also bought the construction permit for South Dakota's first television station, KELO-TV, which took to the air in 1953. Midcontinent purchased several other radio and television stations, but began exiting broadcasting in the 1990s (with KELO-TV and its satellites sold off to Young Broadcasting, currently owned by Nexstar), selling off the last of their radio holdings in 2004. Midco diversified and extended its reach into other areas of the

Upper Midwest The Upper Midwest is a region in the northern portion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. It is largely a sub-region of the Midwest. Although the exact boundaries are not uniformly agreed-upon, the region is defined as referring ...

, providing telephone and cable TV in rural parts of its service area, starting in the 1960s. In 1999, Midcontinent Media and

AT&T Broadband AT&T Broadband was AT&T's cable operations division. It was formed in 1999 when AT&T acquired the assets of TCI and renamed it to AT&T Broadband. The next year, AT&T Broadband acquired MediaOne as well and became the largest cable operations com ...

(formerly known as TCI) merged their cable operations in the Dakotas,

and

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

into Midcontinent Communications, a joint venture between both companies. The partnership continued after Comcast's purchase of AT&T Broadband. In the fall of 2008, Charter Communications announced their filing for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

protection and the sale of some assets in non-critical areas. On October 14, 2008, an article appeared in the Fairmont, Minnesota ''Sentinel'', reporting that

Charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the re ...

was selling parts of their system to Midcontinent Communications, including its Bemidji and International Falls headends. Starting February 1, 2009 Midcontinent Communications took over some Charter's cable systems in Minnesota including

Balaton Lake Balaton is a lake in Hungary, the largest lake in Central Europe Balaton may also refer to: * 2242 Balaton, a main-belt asteroid * Balaton (car), a Hungarian microcar * Balaton (village), in Heves county, Hungary * Balaton, Minnesota, a c ...

, Bemidji, Canby, Ely, Fairmont, International Falls, Littlefork, Sherburn, and surrounding communities. Other areas in Minnesota were sold off to

. In June 2011, Midcontinent Communications acquired 33,000 Minnesota and Wisconsin subscribers from

US Cable The US Cable Group was a cable television provider that at its peak served over 240,000 subscribers in twelve states. It was among the top 35 cable providers in the nation and had cable systems in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, M ...

. Midco previously provided paging service, starting in 1985, but sold its paging services to another South Dakota company, Vantek Communications, in 2004. The former paging service was renamed Midco Connections. On January 12, 2016, the company officially adopted the shortened Midco name across all of their operations, rendering it in all-caps as "MIDCO", with the new tagline of "Let's Go". In October 2016, Midco acquired the assets of the cable system serving

Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas River, Kansas and Waka ...

from Wide Open West.

Midco Sports Network

Midco offers a

regional sports network In the United States and Canada, a regional sports network (RSN) is a cable television channel (many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services) that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region ...

called MidcoSN (formerly MC23 until August 2010) which carries coverage of NCAA Division I athletics in the Summit League, Missouri Valley Football Conference, and

National Collegiate Hockey Conference The National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) is an NCAA men's Division I hockey conference formed on July 9, 2011. The league began playing for the 2013–14 season, the same season that the Big Ten Conference began competition, as a combina ...

with a specific focus on member schools South Dakota, South Dakota State University, North Dakota, and North Dakota State University. Additionally, MidcoSN is the primary broadcast partner for the NCAA Division II

Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the western Midwestern United States. Nine of its ...

providing coverage of football, basketball, and volleyball events. Each school in the 18-team conference is guaranteed a minimum number of appearances on the network each season. MidcoSN's signature coverage comes each February and March with full coverage of the NSIC Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments from the

Sanford Pentagon The Sanford Pentagon (colloquially known as The Pentagon) is an indoor arena located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Pentagon opened in September 2013 and has a seating capacity of 3,250 spectators. It hosts the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the NBA G ...

in Sioux Falls. The network broadcasts each game from the quarterfinals on to the championships in its entirety. That's followed by coverage of the Summit League Men's and Women's tournament quarterfinals and semifinals from the

Denny Sanford Premier Center The Denny Sanford Premier Center is an indoor arena in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The building is located at 1201 North West Avenue, and is connected to the Sioux Falls Arena and Sioux Falls Convention Center. The Arena's naming rights partners ...

. The network does not carry the championship games for those tournaments, as those rights are held by ESPN. All MidcoSN Summit League and Missouri Valley Football Conference coverage is syndicated to

ESPN3 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications ( ...

as well. In addition to coverage of college events, MidcoSN also carries select high school sporting events in both North and South Dakota, including the prestigious Howard Wood Dakota Relays held each year in Sioux Falls. MidcoSN and its overflow channels, MidcoSN2 and MidcoSN3, are available on to all MIDCO cable customers along with other cable systems in the region through distribution deals. MidcoSN employs over 30 full-time on-air talent and behind-the-scenes staffers. The success of MidcoSN in the Dakotas has led to the development of a similar network in Kansas, Midco Sports Kansas, in Lawrence. The network broadcasts high school sports and college games in the northeastern Kansas area.

References

External links

*
Midco Connections website

Midco Sports Network website
{{Comcast American companies established in 1931 1931 establishments in Minnesota Cable television companies of the United States Communications in South Dakota Companies based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota Economy of the Midwestern United States Joint ventures Internet service providers of the United States Streaming television Comcast subsidiaries