Cable One is the latest cable operator to freshen up its image with a brand change, recently announcing that the company will be known as Sparklight starting next summer. (See Cable One to Rebrand as 'Sparklight'.)

Cable One Inc. will remain the company's corporate name, but the consumer-facing brand change is a marketing play that has also been run by some of its US peers -- Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) with "Xfinity," Charter Communications Inc. with "Spectrum" and Cablevision Systems (now part of Altice USA) with "Optimum."

More broadband and (a lot) less video

But Cable One's brand change also centers on the ongoing shift of the operator's services strategy -- to focus heavily on high-margin broadband, and to greatly de-emphasize (shun?) efforts tied to a declining (and much less profitable) pay-TV business.

That pipes-over-programming strategy also ties into how Cable One is portraying the new brand, holding that Sparklight "illustrates the speed and connectivity the company is known for."