You asked for it! Or did you?
Truthfully, we all did.
Recently, I fielded a question from a member that asked:
“Why don’t cable companies work together to force the NFL Network to lower their fees so cable companies can show games on their basic tiers?”
This is a legitimate question from a consumer outside of this industry. To anyone in this industry who goes through the painful negotiations with network programmers and tries to keep both the company’s bottom line and their customer’s wallets in mind, it is a painful one.
As we pointed out in an earlier HTC Blog, local providers have become a simple pass through of your dollars to the large broadcast companies who own the channels you watch. Stand up to them and try to force them to lower prices and the screen goes dark. It happens more and more. Last fall a major cable provider lost ESPN/Disney for more than a month.
We all asked for it.
For the past 10 to 15 years, we’ve all either said or heard someone say ‘why can’t I just pay for the channels I watch? I only watch a handful, why should I pay for the rest?’ Sound familiar? The industry heard you, and as the cable model began to change, it is now becoming a reality. But…the new model isn’t exactly what we had asked for.
Streaming has quickly become the backbone of video consumption.
Video consumption.
Notice I didn’t say watching TV? What does ‘watching TV’ even mean anymore? Watching TV used to mean sitting down and viewing a broadcast channel or maybe a cable network. Today, video is consumed (watched) in much broader terms. Is it network TV? A YouTube video? A streaming series on Netflix?
Over the past three plus years alone, more than 21 million Americans have “cut the cord”. Cord cutting means cancelling cable to watch just what YOU want to watch. Just like we asked for. Many people are very happy with Netflix or Prime Video, maybe another streaming platform or two. This is, of course depending on the channels they prefer to watch.
Like CBS? Subscribe to Paramount+ for as little as $7.99/month and get all your CBS content along with Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, Smithsonian and more. Prefer NBC programming, Peacock is for you. All the NBC Universal channels, Bravo, Hallmark Channels and more also for as little as $7.99 per month.
So, it’s here. It’s really, really here! TV, just like we asked for. However along with it there are a few other things we may not have considered before this genie was let out of the bottle.
Sports.
You want to watch your favorite local (or non-local) teams? They are spread across the regional sports networks, many of which are not yet sold direct to consumer (DTC).
ESPN? You remember that little sports network. You’ll need to subscribe to the Disney/ESPN/Hulu bundle for that. Or, for the sports enthusiast, there will be (pending court approval) the VENU sports programming app, which will include BC, ESPN, ESPN+, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, Fox, FS1, FS2, The ACC Network, The SEC Network, Big Ten Network, TNT, TBS, and truTV. Venu will broadcast live linear feeds of networks such as ABC and TBS, so subscribers will get programming beyond sports, too. All for just $43 per month.
But wait, there’s more! I know it can be hard to keep up, but again… stay with me here.
TV on the go.
Are you one of the folks that likes to pull up your favorite networks while out of the home? HTC has historically offered that through our TV Everywhere app. Just use your login credentials and you could watch TV on the providers app out of home. Now that DTC offerings are available from many of these networks, they are discontinuing many of their TV everywhere apps in favor of, you guessed it, their own streaming app. To watch it, you’ll need to subscribe.
Just this week, the Walt Disney Company has announced that they will be discontinuing the following TV Everywhere apps effective September 24:
- ABC App
- DisneyNow App
- Freeform App
- FXNow App
- Nat Geo TV App
This is nothing new, as earlier this year Paramount Networks shut down many of their mobile apps in favor of driving consumers to their streaming platform. These included:
- CBS
- Nickelodeon
- MTV
- BET
- Comedy Central
- Smithsonian Channel
To answer the question posed by our member on the NFL Network’s pricing; the honest answer is, no we cannot. Cable operators have tried over the years to stand up to programmers and networks and the outcome is rarely one that benefits the consumer.
We’ve gotten what we’ve asked for, it just may not be exactly what we thought it would be.
And now, a word from our sponsor, HTC.
