Dawson City, Yukon’s publicly-owned TV service to shut down in May

Service just isn’t viable anymore, says one municipal official

The town of Dawson City, Yukon, has finally decided to get out of the television business, and has set a date to pull the plug on its publicly-owned Dawson Cable TV, established in 2001.

At a meeting last week, the town council decided to end the service on May 31, 2026, to allow the municipality to redirect resources and focus on essential municipal services and infrastructure.

Dave Henderson, the town’s chief administrative officer, told CBC News the service’s subscriber base has been in steady decline over the past decade, as customers move to other service providers and internet-based streaming options such as Netflix.

He said the service just isn’t as viable as it once was.

“You tend to have to invest heavily into capital in the system, and with the reducing or declining subscriber base, we just don’t have that capital to invest in it,” he said.

Henderson says keeping the service up and running costs the municipality between $30,000 and $40,000 a year.

The town initially announced a year ago that it was going to shut the service down in December 2024, but ultimately had to wait for the new council to pass a resolution on the issue and set a new date for the shutdown.

Trying to identify alternatives 

The system now serves 94 residential subscribers, and eight non-residential customers in the peak summer season. That’s down from 284 residential subscribers, and 14 non-residential customers in 2014.

Residential subscribers declined by 13 households in the first six months of 2025.

Ongoing annual capital costs were expected to be in the $20,000 to $50,000 range. Shutting the system down is expected to cost approximately $150,000, to remove cable lines from Yukon Energy poles in town.

Henderson said the May 31 date was chosen to give subscribers time to make alternative arrangements. He said the municipality is also putting out a request for proposals [RFP] to anyone to help people do that.

“Northwestel has offered again to work with us to try and identify alternatives that they have,” Henderson said.

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