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 network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

and

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables 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 ...

service for both

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

and

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

, along with much of

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, and several communities in

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

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

fiber-optic communication Fiber-optic communication is a form of optical communication for transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of infrared or visible light through an optical fiber. The light is a form of carrier wave that is modul ...

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

Sioux Falls, South Dakota Sioux Falls ( ) is the List of cities in South Dakota, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the List of United States cities by population, 117th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha Coun ...

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 acce ...

between Midcontinent Media and

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

, 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 a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

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. 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 KELO-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States, affiliated with CBS, MyNetworkTV, and The CW Plus (as an owned-and-operated station). The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios o ...

, 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 northern subregion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. Although the exact boundaries are not uniformly agreed upon, the region is usually defined to include the states of Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wi ...

, 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 LLC was an American digital cable television and telecommunications provider that served as the cable operations division of AT&T. It was founded in March 1999 when AT&T acquired the assets of TCI and renamed it to AT&T Broadband. ...

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

and

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

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, w ...

protection and the sale of some assets in non-critical areas. On October 14, 2008, an article appeared in the

Fairmont, Minnesota Fairmont is a city in and the county seat of Martin County, Minnesota, Martin County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 10,487 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History Fairmont was platted in 1857. The city was so name ...

''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 ...

was selling parts of their system to Midcontinent Communications, including its

Bemidji Bemidji ( ) is a city and the county seat of Beltrami County, in northern Minnesota, United States. The population was 14,574 at the 2020 census. According to 2022 census estimates, the city is estimated to have a population of 15,946, makin ...

and International Falls headends. Starting February 1, 2009 Midcontinent Communications took over some Charter's cable systems in Minnesota including Balaton,

, 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. Midco previously provided

paging In computer operating systems, memory paging is a memory management scheme that allows the physical Computer memory, memory used by a program to be non-contiguous. This also helps avoid the problem of memory fragmentation and requiring compact ...

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 a city in and the county seat of 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 in Kansas, Interstate 70, between the Kansas River ...

from

Wide Open West WideOpenWest, Inc. (doing business as WOW!) is the eighth largest cable operator in the United States with their network passing 1.9 million homes and businesses. The company offers landline telephone, cable television, and broadband Internet s ...

Midco Sports

Midco offers a

regional sports network A regional sports network (RSN) in the United States and Canada is a television channel that presents sports programming to a local media market or geographical region. Such channels often focus on one or a few teams who currently play in Major L ...

called Midco Sports (formerly MC23 and Midco Sports Network (MidcoSN)) which carries coverage of NCAA Division I athletics in the Summit League,

Missouri Valley Football Conference The Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC), formerly the Gateway Football Conference, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the National Collegiate A ...

, and Central Collegiate Hockey Association with a specific focus on member schools South Dakota, South Dakota State University, North Dakota, and Augustana University. Additionally, Midco Sports is the primary broadcast partner for the NCAA Division II Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference providing coverage of conference tournament basketball events. Midco Sports'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 ...

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 network does not carry the championship games for those tournaments, as those rights are held by CBS Sports. Midco Sports and its overflow channel, Midco Sports 2, are available on to all MIDCO cable customers along with other cable systems in the region through distribution deals. Midco Sports employs over 30 full-time on-air talent and behind-the-scenes staffers. On Friday, April 21, 2023, a Minnesota Twins game aired on the network due to a conflict on Bally Sports North.

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 in the United States Comcast subsidiaries