Coming Soon: A Streaming TV Bundle For People Who Don’t Like Sports
Discovery, Viacom, A+E Networks, AMC Networks, Scripps band together for new service.
By Amol Sharma
The Wall Street Journal
September 12, 2017
People who are tired of paying for TV sports channels they don’t watch will soon have a new option.
Cable channels owned by Discovery Communications , DISCB -3.83%Viacom Inc., VIAB -0.29% AMC Networks , AMCX -0.72% A+E Networks and Scripps Networks Interactive SNI -0.27% will be part of a new streaming service expected to have a “soft launch” in coming weeks, people familiar with the situation say. Subscriptions will cost less than $20 a month.
The entertainment-focused service is meant to appeal to consumers who want a collection of nonsports programming. They will get a bundle of networks with nonfiction and lifestyle programming, children’s fare and scripted dramas.
The precise list of networks to be carried isn’t clear, though the media companies are expecting all their core channels to be part of it, the people said. Discovery, in addition to its namesake channel, owns ID, TLC and Animal Planet, among others. Scripps, which Discovery is in the process of acquiring, is the parent of such channels as HGTV and Food Network. Viacom’s list includes Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and BET; and AMC and A+E each have their own suites of networks.
Left out will be major sports networks, including Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, 21st Century Fox’s FS1 and a host of league-oriented and regional channels. But there is also plenty of high-profile entertainment programming that isn’t part of the mix. To get it, cord-cutters would need an antenna to receive broadcast signals from ABC, CBS , Fox and NBC, and perhaps a subscription to another web TV bundle for additional channels.
People who are tired of paying for TV sports channels they don’t watch will soon have a new option.
Cable channels owned by Discovery Communications , DISCB -3.83%Viacom Inc., VIAB -0.29% AMC Networks , AMCX -0.72% A+E Networks and Scripps Networks Interactive SNI -0.27% will be part of a new streaming service expected to have a “soft launch” in coming weeks, people familiar with the situation say. Subscriptions will cost less than $20 a month.
The entertainment-focused service is meant to appeal to consumers who want a collection of nonsports programming. They will get a bundle of networks with nonfiction and lifestyle programming, children’s fare and scripted dramas.
The precise list of networks to be carried isn’t clear, though the media companies are expecting all their core channels to be part of it, the people said. Discovery, in addition to its namesake channel, owns ID, TLC and Animal Planet, among others. Scripps, which Discovery is in the process of acquiring, is the parent of such channels as HGTV and Food Network. Viacom’s list includes Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and BET; and AMC and A+E each have their own suites of networks.
Left out will be major sports networks, including Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, 21st Century Fox’s FS1 and a host of league-oriented and regional channels. But there is also plenty of high-profile entertainment programming that isn’t part of the mix. To get it, cord-cutters would need an antenna to receive broadcast signals from ABC, CBS , Fox and NBC, and perhaps a subscription to another web TV bundle for additional channels.
Sports programming has been the subject of intense debate in the media world, in part because those channels make up a big chunk of the average cable bill, with ESPN leading the way. Given how the pay-television business is structured, it has been tough for consumers to avoid paying for sports channels. But the streaming business offers new possibilities. Still, leaving out sports risks excluding a significant audience—many pay-TV executives say the prices of sports channels are a reflection of the zeal fans have for their teams.
The new service will be powered by a company called Philo that has specialized in streaming TV for college campuses and will also be branded “Philo,” the people familiar with the situation say. The name is a reference to Philo Farnsworth, the inventor who developed the first all-electronic television system. It will start out as a direct-to-consumer streaming service, but the goal is to eventually get established pay-TV providers to offer similar packages.
That could require delicate negotiations with cable and satellite providers as TV programmers’ contracts come up for renewal periodically. Pay-TV providers will have to account for agreements they have with certain big media companies, such as Disney and Time Warner , requiring that certain channels are available to a large percentage of the subscriber base, making it difficult to exclude them from packages.
Bloomberg reported in April that media companies were in talks with pay-TV distributors to create online TV services for consumers who don’t want to pay for sports.
For the media companies, banding together to offer a streaming TV bundle makes sense. The streaming marketplace is buzzing with new services from the likes of YouTube and Hulu offering packages of channels for $40 a month or less. But not all networks are being carried in these “skinny” bundles, posing a risk for the ones that are left out. Some of the companies planning the nonsports bundle have been left out of the skinny bundles.
Some TV networks have stand-alone streaming apps, like CBS’s “All Access” and HBO’s “HBO Now.” But smaller cable-TV brands might have a harder time attracting subscribers on their own. And there is a limit to how many individual services customers can purchase before the costs become overwhelming and negate the benefits of cutting the cable-TV cord in the first place.
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