A post-Venu pay-TV landscape is beginning to take shape, with Comcast Xfinity launching a new skinny (or at least skinnier) streaming bundle of channels focused on sports and news programming.
The offering, Sports & News TV, is available to Xfinity internet customers for $70 per month, and includes all the major broadcast networks, as well as most (but not all) cable sports and news channels. it also includes a subscription to NBCUniversal’s Peacock, 300 hours of cloud DVR storage, and access to FAST channels directly in the app.
So what’s included? ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Univision, Telemundo, and all the other local broadcast channels, as well as sports channels like ESPN, Fox Spots 1, Big Ten Network, Golf Channel, and SEC Network. What’s missing? The most glaring example is the Warner Bros. Discovery Channels of TNT, TBS, and TruTV, though NBCU’s USA Network is also absent.
It also includes every major cable news channel, including Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, NewsNation, and somewhat perplexingly, CNN, which appears to be the only WBD channel represented in the package.
The untimely death of Venu earlier this month has led to a new world order in pay-TV, with Disney (whose ESPN channels form the bedrock of sports TV programming) now open to selling them in smaller more targeted bundles.
DirecTV was first out of the gate with MySports, which also costs $70 per month, and has many of the same channels (though it does not have cable news channels, but does have the TNT, TBS, and USA). Sources in the cable business say that they expect other pay-TV providers to follow suit with their own twists on it.
Still, $70 per month is a steep price compared to Venu’s sub-$45 target, and is not much of a savings to the likes of YouTube TV or Hulu with Live TV, which cost about $83 per month. But with consumers seemingly desiring skinnier options, Comcast is following DirecTV into the fray with something a bit more targeted: Get your entertainment elsewhere, but come to us for what’s live.
“With Sports & News TV, we’ve brought together top networks for live sports and news and Peacock, the
best streaming service for sports fans, to create a new video bundle packed with the best content at an
unbeatable price, all accessible within a premium viewing experience that makes it easy for customers to
find the content they care about most.” said John Dixon, senior VP of entertainment for Comcast.
“Sports & News TV is a terrific option for customers looking for a great value in entertainment without
sacrificing their favorite live sports and news channels.”
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