Could Spectrum News Be Coming To Northern Virginia?

Charter Communications completed its purchase of Cox Communications yesterday. The deal has a local connection: Cox Communications owns the cable system in Fairfax County.

There may be an interesting angle for the DC TV market. Charter is a major producer of local TV news with Spectrum Networks. The network operates in more than 35 markets. That includes some big markets like Spectrum News NY1 in New York City and Spectrum News 1 SoCal in Los Angeles. But, they also operate in many markets smaller than Fairfax County.

The company says Spectrum Networks will expand into the former Cox footprint in the coming months. With Cox already having a substantial presence in Fairfax County, it isn’t hard to imagine Spectrum eventually establishing a Northern Virginia newsroom or perhaps launching a local news service covering Washington. Local news Is also a great value-add to subscribers. It may stop some cord cutting. Some subscribers might see value in keeping cable for the access to the local news broadcast. Nothing has been announced yet, but with Spectrum now moving into Fairfax and Charter openly saying it plans to expand its local news operation into former Cox markets, it’s something worth watching.