Discovery Channel and Comedy Central were the basic cable networks cord-cutters were most interested in, according to a study by Beta Research.

Also high on the list of cable channels cord-cutters are interested in were Food Network, FX, ID, History, National Geographic and Disney Channel.

Among heavy streaming network viewers, FX was on top, followed by Discovery, Comedy Central, Syfy, Food Network, History and National Geographic.

These days, the content from channels such as Discovery, Food Network, FX and Disney Channel are available via subscription streaming services like Discovery Plus and the Disney streaming bundle. Andrew Klein, president of Beta’s cable TV division, told Broadcasting+Cable that popularity among cord cutters could still benefit cable operators.

“We feel that the networks with the highest interest scores still have potential to re-attract some cord cutters or former cable subscribers in the marketing of the legacy basic cable packages,” Klein said.

Klein said that most cord cutters indicated viewing Netflix, but not other specific streaming networks. For example, about 40% indicated viewing Hulu, less than 20% indicated viewing Paramount Plus, less than 10% indicated viewing Discovery Plus.

In other research studies, many respondents indicated difficulty knowing which programs are on which streaming networks, he added.

At the same time, some consumers are canceling streaming subscription services because the cost of multiple services matches or exceeds the cost of cable.

The survey is part of the Beta Research Cable Network Interest Study. It was conducted in March 2022 with 1,390 multichannel subscribers in the sample and 610 non-subscribers to cable, including cord cutters. ■

Discovery Channel was the most in-demand cable network among people who can’t get it because they are either non-cable TV subscribers or cord cutters, according to a new survey by Beta Research.

Discovery was also the top-ranked basic cable network among non-cable TV subscribers who are heavy viewers of streaming networks.

In the Beta study, 37% of non cable TV subscribers and cord cutters said they were interested in Discovery.

Other networks scoring high included History and National Geographic with 34%; HGTV, Animal Planet and FX with 31%; and Food Network, ID and Comedy Central with 29%.

Discovery, HGTV, Animal Planet, Food Network and ID are all part of Discovery, which in January launched Discovery Plus, a streaming service featuring programming from its cable cable networks plus original shows.

Also Read: Discovery’s David Zaslav on Upfront: ‘We Need Pricing’

Beta found that 42% of cable subscribers were extremely or very interested in dropping cable TV and watching only the TV programming available on their tablets or computers.

Among those non-cable subscribers who are heavy viewers of streaming networks, 48% expressed interest in Discovery. 

They also showed interest in Animal Planet (45%), National Geographic (45%), History (44%), FX (43%) and Food Network (41%).

Beta’s Cable Network Interest Study was conducted in March, with a national sample of 1,418 multichannel subscribers and a sub-sample of 582 non-subscribers to cable TV, including cord cutters.

A new survey conducted by Roku finds that 32% of U.S. households do not have a traditional pay TV service.

The study said that 25% of households identified as cord shavers cut back on their pay TV service, with 45% of cord shavers saying they’re likely to cut the cord entirely in the next six months.

Only 17% of recent cord cutters said they would re-subscribe to traditional pay TV in order to watch live sports when they return this year. If sports don’t return, 52% of traditional and cord-shaver households are likely to reduce their package if live sports don’t return to TV. Meanwhile 31% said they would subscribe to a live sports streaming service.

The study points to the rise of streaming as the way more people are getting their video entertainment.

“While we entered 2020 with significant momentum around cord cutting, we’re now seeing that the COVID-19 pandemic and the pause of live sports has caused consumers to rethink how they access home entertainment and what they are willing to pay,” said Roku chief marketing officer Matthew Anderson. “It’s clear that value matters more than ever and the abundance of free content, free trials to premium streaming services and the savings that consumers achieve are fueling the shift to streaming.”

In terms of value, most cord cutters said that reducing entertainment expenses was their No. 1 reason for dropping pay-TV.

Roku users who cut the cord said they saved about $75 a month. That number was higher than for cord-cutters who said they use other streaming devices.

Nearly half of all U.S. households said they’re watching more free ad-supported TV during the pandemic than they were before and 40% of recent cord cutters said that free trials offered by streaming services helped convince them to drop their traditional pay services.

Roku’s study was conducted by MACRO Consulting, which interviewed 7,000 Americans over 18 in March, followed by 2,000 more Americans in May.

Roku stock is back in free-fall mode today, dropping nearly 14% following Comcast's announcement that it’s offering free Xfinity Flex streaming boxes to the more than 7 million broadband customers that don't already take video.

Regardless, Roku claims to still own the cord cutting market, releasing the results from a survey of 7,000 customers suggesting that 45% of all U.S. cord cutters use its OTT ecosystem.

By Roku’s estimation, there are 23.8 million former pay TV subscribers in the U.S. representing about 21% of TV households.

According to the Roku report, titled “A New Generation of Cord Cutters,” 82% of U.S. cord cutters describe themselves as “very” or “extremely” satisfied with their decision to ditch pay TV. And 81% say they have not intention of every going back to a cable, satellite or telco provider. Two-thirds of cord cutters say they wish they’d made the decision to ditch sooner, Roku added.

The company said that nearly half of its users (48%) are former pay TV denizens. 

Disproving perhaps once and for all the notion that virtual pay TV services are niche products targeted to broadband-only users, Leichtman Research Group says 43% of vMVPD users switched directly over from traditional cable, satellite or telco services.

LRG found that 17% switched to their current vMVPD platform from another virtual service, while 25% also have a linear platform. Only 15% of current live-streamed pay TV services were previously non-subscribers of any pay-TV product.

LRG based its “Internet-Delivered Pay-TV 2019” report based on online surveys with 6,715 U.S. households.

The research company also found that 71% of U.S. vMVPD consumers are in the 18-44 demographic. Overall, 16% of U.S. adults ages 18-44 subscribe to a live-streamed service like Sling TV, DirecTV Now, Hulu+ Live TV, YouTube TV or Sony PlayStation Vue. Only 6% of U.S. consumers 45 or older subscribe to a vMVPD.

Around 42% of vMVPD users are ages 18-34 vs. 26% for linear pay TV, LRG said.

Among all U.S. vMVPD customers, 73% describe themselves as very satisfied wi their service.

Around 93% of with vMVPD service also subscribe to one of the major SVOD platforms, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and/or Hulu, compared to just 71% for traditional pay TV homes.

Notably, vMVPD users tend to be more mobile centric than customers of major SVOD platforms.

According to LRG, vMVPD users watch their service in their home 78% of the time, compared to 82% for HBO Now and 88% for Netflix.

“vMVPD services were first introduced about four years ago, and the market for these lower-cost/lower-channel pay-TV services is still growing and evolving,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. “Consumers continue to experiment with the various vMVPD services, along with other traditional and streaming options, to find the best combinations of video content and cost.”

IPTV surpassed direct-to-home distribution as the second largest multichannel platform in the world in 2018 after cable TV, helping to boost overall multichannel subscribers by 3.1% globally, according to Kagan, a unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

According to Kagan, IPTV accounted for 23.4% of the total market of 1.07 billion homes globally. In addition, Kagan predicts that IPTV will report a 7% compound annual growth rate over the next five years, second only to pay digital terrestrial television, which will grow at an 8.5% CAGR over the same period.

While cable TV is expected to remain the largest multichannel platform over the next five years, Kagan estimates its subscribers will decline at an 0.3% rate by 2023, largely because of customer migration to IPTV in Asia Pacific and Western Europe.

Kagan added that the global multichannel market grew by 3.1% year-over-year in 2018, with China, India and the U.S. remaining the largest regions. Those three countries collectively accounted for 57% of the global subscriber total in 2018. China and India alone are expected to account for 50% of the global market by 2023, Kagan said.

Global multichannel household growth will continue to slow with most markets across Europe, North America and advanced multichannel markets in Asia reaching saturation, but Kagan also predicted that the number of multichannel subscribers worldwide will rise 2.4% annually over the next five years, reaching 1.21 billion. Other highlights from the Kagan report include:

• The global multichannel economy generated $230.06 billion in video service revenues in 2018, projected to increase to $245.41 by 2023;

• Multichannel penetration crossed 60% in 2018 and should rise to 61.2% over the next five years;

• The effects of cord cutting are only observed in North America where multichannel subscribers, revenue and penetration are projected to decline in the foreseeable future;

• Cord cutting also impacted a handful of oversaturated markets, including Singapore and Hong Kong, which led to subscriber losses and household penetration declines;

• In Europe, the biggest threat to traditional multichannel posed by DTT platforms lies in the integration of OTT and catch-up TV services, as well as the ability to stream channel packages via hybrid boxes.

As cable stocks have hit new 52-week lows over the past few weeks as investors fear that cord-cutting is accelerating in the pay TV distribution arena, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson told an industry audience Monday that its stance towards video hasn’t changed.

Cable stocks have fallen out of favor in the past few months, some say driven by fears that Comcast has lost its faith in the business and is instead turing its attention to international assets – like its March bid for British satellite giant Sky – and rumors that it is also interested in acquiring Fox assets currently pledged to The Walt Disney Co.

At the MoffettNathanson Fifth Annual Media & Communications Summit, Watson said that the only thing that has changed in the past several months is that a scaled media investment – Sky – came up for sale.

“We didn’t anticipate it,” Watson said of the Sky sale. “We have a very good track record in M&A, but by no means does the fact that we look at an opportunity mean we’ve lost confidence in our core business. Cable is a great business.”

Watson added that while Comcast tries to keep customers through a variety of programming and broadband packages, but added that when a customer leaves as a result of price, the impact is actually favorable to the company.

“We segment the marketplace,” Watson said, adding that when a low-end customer drops video service over price, but keeps their broadband service – at a higher monthly charge – the company makes out better.

“It’s actually accretive when that happens,” Watson said. “It’s a manageable transition.”

And while broadband customer growth has slowed down over the years, Watson said there is still runway, particularly with homes that have slower-speed services like DSL.

Watson said about 75% of Comcast’s broadband customers take service at 100 Mbps or higher and he estimated that there are about 4 million DSL customers.

As more and more apps demand higher and higher bandwidth, he added that Comcast is “positioned very well to be competitive.”   

Nuvvyo has introduced the Tablo Dual Lite, an over-the-air TV/DVR tailored for cord-cutters that takes a “bring your own storage” approach and represents a lower-cost variant of the Tablo Dual, a product with integrated storage that was introduced in May 2017.

Both products integrate two tuners, but the new Tablo Dual Lite sells for $139.99, undercutting the cost of the recently price-reduced Tablo Dual (currently at $219.99).

RELATED: Nuvyyo Cuts Price on Tablo Dual 

The Tablo Dual Lite, which includes dual-band 802.11ac WiFi and works with Tablo apps for iOS and Android smart phones, Roku players and Roku TVs, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV devices, Apple TV boxes, Xbox One consoles, smart TVs from Samsung (Tizen-based) and LG Electronics (WebOS 2.0+), and Chromecast streaming adapters.

The Tablo Dual Lite will be available in the U.S. starting April 1 at Best Buy stores and at BestBuy.com.

While the more expensive version of the Tablo Dual integrates 64 gigabytes of storage (with the option to add more via external USB storage), the Lite option works in tandem only with external USB storage (up to 8 terabytes).

“The Tablo DUAL 64GB quickly became one of our most popular OTA DVRs, but some TV fans still prefer the ‘bring your own storage’ approach of our original 2-Tuner model,” Grant Hall, CEO of Nuvyyo, said in a statement.

RELATED: Channel Master Targets Cord-Cutters With ‘Stream+’

Tablo owners must also purchase an OTA antenna, and have the option to subscribe to Nuvvyo’s TV guide data service for $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year, or $149.99 for a one-time lifetime subscription.

The Tablo product family is one of product options that are tailored for cord-cutters. TiVo, Channel Master and AirTV (a unit of Dish) have also developed products geared to support that market.

RELATED: AirTV Tests 'Local Channels DVR' Option for Android TV-Powered Player

In findings that highlight the growing cord-cutting trend, Parks Associates said that about 20% of U.S. broadband homes used digital, over-the-air antennas to access live TV near the end of 2017

That’s up from about 16% in early 2015, Parks Associates said, noting that the growth rate coincides with a steady decline of pay TV subscriptions against the backdrop of an increase in OTT video subscriptions.

RELATED: Top U.S. Pay TV Providers Lost 1.49M Subs in 2017: LRG

Findings from the study – 360 View: Access and Entertainment Services in U.S. Broadband Households – were based on survey of 10,000 heads-of broadband households in the U.S. in Q3 2017.

“Increasingly, consumers are cobbling together their own bundles of content sources. Digital antennas are experiencing a resurgence as consumers consider over-the-air TV and OTT video services as alternatives to pay TV,” Brett Sappington, senior director of research at Parks Associates, said in a release. “The percentage of ‘Never’ households (households that have never subscribed to pay-TV services) has held steady, and the percentage of households actually cutting the cord has increased between 2015 and 2017. Antennas are an affordable source for local channels to these households.”

In a study released earlier this week, TiVo found that about 44.8% of homes without pay TV service use an antenna to watch over-the-air TV, noting that the percentage has been hovering in the 44% to 45% range for the past six quarters. 

Parks Associates, meanwhile, said the onus is on pay TV providers to address the value perception gap in the market, noting that more than 50% of homes that have switched, shaved or cut the cord believe that the service is simply not worth the cost.

“Opportunities are available. Only 46% of pay-TV subscribers are aware that they can access video-on-demand content from their operator, including free programming. Many indicate that they want to purchase online video services through their pay-TV provider and to access the service through their channel guide,” Sappington added.

Among other findings, 17% of those surveyed who canceled pay TV would have stayed if the provider did not charge monthly fees for set-top boxes, and that the average fees for standalone broadband have increased nearly 25% since 2010.

Parks Associates also said that 20% of WiFi homes experience problems with coverage, opening the door for a growing array of premium whole-home WiFi products that cable operators and other ISPs have been adding to their arsenals.

RELATED: Whole-Home WiFi Heats Up

Cord cutters say they are saving an average of $115 per month, according to a new survey, which also found that within five years more than half of current cable customers doubt they’ll still subscribe to traditional pay TV.

At a time when pay-TV subscribers are eroding, the poll, conducted by personal finance website LendEdu, indicates things may not be getting any easier for the traditional TV business.

In the poll, 58% of cord-cutters said they cut the cord because their TV cable subscription was too expensive; 21.2% said they used their cable subscription less because of streaming services; and 11.8% said their cable subscription didn’t provide the content they wanted. 

The survey puts the average cost of traditional pay TV services at $116.93 per month.

A smaller number of cord-cutters, 4%, said the resented the “greed” of cable companies.

The vast majority of cord cutters, 71.6%, said they used streaming services before dropping cable. The average cord cutter in the survey had 2.77 streaming subscriptions before cancelling traditional pay TV.

The cord-cutters said they paid $33.74 per month on streaming before cutting the cord. After cutting the cord, they spent $35.33 on streaming services.

Read more at B&C.

Nuvyyo said it is rolling out a slate of “advanced recording” features for its line of Tablo-branded DVRs that integrate free, over-the-air TV broadcasts.

The enhancements, delivered in a staged firmware update, include a set of features that allow for more precise DVR scheduling tools and management options, including:

-Adjust Start/Top Time: Allows users to start recordings up to 10 minutes early and end up to three hours after the scheduled time of a TV program.

-Keep X Recordings: Lets users retain all episodes or only a select number of airings.

-Recording Channel Selector: Users can tap this feature to select which channel to record from, if multiple channels happen to be airing a favorite program.

Those new features can be applied to single airings or to a series for Tablo users with an active subscription. The optional TV guide data subscription for Tablo devices sell for $4.99 per month, $49.99 annually, or for $149.99 for a lifetime subscription.

The update (firmware version 2.2.18) is being rolled out to the following models: Tablo 2-Tuner, Tablo 4-Tuner and the recently introduced Tablo Dual, and can be accessed via the advanced recording settings via the Tablo Channel on Roku devices, and Tablo apps for Amazon Fire TV boxes, Apple TV devices, the Android TV-powered Nvidia Shield TV, web browsers and mobile devices.

RELATED: Nuvyyo Cuts Price on Tablo Dual

Those features will also made available on additional Tablo-supported devices and Tablo platforms including the Tablo DVR Engine for the Nvidia Shield TV in the coming months, the company said.

Those Tablo boxes OTA signals and send them wirelessly to supported devices that are connected to the user’s home network.

“With these powerful advanced recording features, we believe Tablo now offers best mix of feature set, ease-of-use, and cross-device support of any antenna DVR solution,” Grant Hall, CEO of Nuvyyo, said in a statement.

Philo, the new entertainment-focused OTT TV service, is “open” to the idea of adding local broadcast channels to its mix, so long as a deal allows Philo to retain the flexibility of its pay TV model, company CEO Andrew McCollum said in an Ask Me Anything session today on Reddit.

“We've spoken to them [the broadcasters] many times, and we're definitely open to adding them to the service, but we aren't going to do it if we can't preserve the flexibility and value that we think consumers,” McCollum wrote.

Those comments come about a month after Philo moved ahead with the national launch of a sports-free OTT TV service that starts at $16 per month and features channels from programmers such as A+E Networks, AMC, Discovery Communications, Scripps Networks Interactive and Viacom.

RELATED: Philo Unleashes Entertainment-Focused OTT TV Service

He later added that most Philo subs are leaning toward the baseline offering of 37 channels, but has seen some opt for its 46-channel package, which sells for $20 per month.

“We were surprised at the split being closer than we expected,” McCollum said.

Several Reddit users pressed the company on when it would extend its service to platforms such as Fire TV, Android TV and Google Chromecast (its service is currently offered on web browsers, Roku players, iOS devices, and via Chrome on Android devices, with a native Android app in the wings.).

McCollum declined to discuss specific timeframes. “We are a small team, and we really wanted to get the product in people's hands so we had to prioritize for the launch. I can't promise a date but soon!” he explained with respect to support for more platforms.

He did note that Apple TV “is a little easier” for Philo because “it’s a shorter jump from iOS, where we already have a native app.”

McCollum also opened the door to the idea of offering sports and news packages through add-ons. “[If we can do it in a way that gives people flexibility, we're very open to it. Of course, some of these options are already available to stream directly from the leagues,” he said.

One of Philo’s early hallmarks is a friction-free way for customers to sign up for the service, as they only need to provide their mobile phone number to get started. As part of other efforts to provide more payment options, Philo, he said, recently started to accept prepaid debit cards.

On the TV Everywhere front, McCollum said Philo is also testing a system that will let its subscribers log in and use the apps of programming partners, with plans to launch that capability “early next year.”

Channel Master has formally introduced Stream+, a device powered by Android TV that aims to cater to cord-cutters by integrating support for both OTT apps and TV channels that can be captured for free, over-the-air.

Stream+, a successor to Channel Master’s DVR+ platform, is being offered for the introductory price of $99.

RELATED: Channel Master Nearing Debut of Stream+

And, like that predecessor, Stream+ will not require any subscription fees for its optional DVR capability or integrated program guide.

Stream+ includes two tuners, a USB 3.0 port (for future applications), integrated voice search, Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital+ audio support, and 802.11ac WiFi and Ethernet.

Channel Master posted a promotional video for Stream+ that provides a brief walk-through:

Channel Master will announce its full retail price in January, but it’s not expected to be significantly higher than the pre-order price, according to Joe Bingochea, Channel Master’s executive vice president of product development. According to CNET, the final price will be in the neighborhood of $150. 

With Stream+, a 4K/HDR-capable device developed in partnership with Technicolor, Channel Master intends to overcome some hurdles it had encountered with DVR+, as the new platform will support a much richer set of applications and carry a lower price.

DVR+ (Channel Master has sold out inventory for DVR+) had started at $249 for a 16 GB model, and had limited access to OTT apps such as Pandora, Vudu and YouTube. Notably, Sling TV pulled app support for DVR+ just last week.

By comparison, Stream+ will have rights to all apps available via the Google Play store. The exception early on will be Netflix and Amazon Video, which require separate approval from those companies.

“We’re pushing hard to get those done,” Bingochea.

Channel Master’s new offering will also include the Google Live Channels app for integration into the guide of channels that are captured over-the-air, and will support Chromecast built-in functionality and Google Home.

Stream+ users will also be able to add DVR capabilities by installing a MicroSD storage card that works with the Live Channels app (Channel Master worked with EchoStar on that piece for DVR+).  

The device itself will be “headed,” as it connects to the user’s TV via an HDMI cable. Among examples of similar products that target cord-cutters, TiVo’s pricier Roamio OTA is also headed, but the new Tablo Dual is not, as it works in tandem with separate TV-connected devices such as Roku players, Apple TV and Fire TV boxes, Xbox and Nvidia Shield consoles, or with certain smart TVs (including those from LG running WebOS 2.0 or 3.0).

Among other competitors in this arena, Dish Network last week soft-launched a new cord-cutting device under the AirTV brand that doesn’t support a DVR (yet), but does let users access and stream OTA channels in and out of the home he chute. AirTV, another headless device, has developed apps for iOS, tvOS, Android (mobile and TV), Roku players and Amazon Fire TV streamers.

RELATED: Nuvyyo Cuts Price on Tablo Dual

Channel Master is initially offering Stream+ for pre-orders on via its online store and expects to product to be in stock by mid-January. It will also sell product through retail partners.

Didja, the company behind a new OTT service that provides access to local broadcast networks, said it has landed a $12 million round of funding led by Vestech Partners as it aims to reach new markets, add features to its platforms, and broaden its business model.

Didja, which has raised $22 million so far,  has introduced its service/app with certain local broadcast TV networks in two markets -- Phoenix, Ariz. (branded as PhoenixBTV), and in the San Francisco Bay Area (marketed as BayAreaBTV).

In the Bay Area, for example, Didja offers OTT access to 35 broadcast channels, including TV Azteca (Spanish), Skylink and U Channel (Chinese), DiyaTV (South Asian), Viet Bay and Net V (Vietnamese), and KPOP (South Korean music videos), and hopes to eventually score distribution deals that will enable it to offer the local feeds of majors like ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.

Early on, Didja is focusing on bilingual homes and offering its apps on a localized basis for free, and pitching an optional cloud DVR service for $4.99 per month for 1 terabyte of storage. Didja obtains rights to carry broadcast TV channels on its apps; it captures the over-the-air TV feeds from partner programmers at a local data center and prepares them for streaming on supported devices in the local region.

RELATED: Didja Takes Dozens of TV Stations Over-the-Top in the Bay Area 

The fresh funds will be used in part for expansion, including plans to enter Los Angeles in early 2018.

The new round will also be used to try out some new concepts and to bump marketing and try to expand channel counts in San Francisco, according to Jim Long, Didja’s CEO.

Some of that work involves a feature that drives viewers to download network apps and direct-to-consumer apps from other programmers and networks. Didja is starting to test that out with some stations in Phoenix.

Didja, Long added, also plans to experiment with some ideas that will enable its apps to support broadcasters in smaller markets.

Looking ahead, Didja is also noodling on a longer-term business model by which it would offer a package of local broadcast networks for about $15 per month – with about two-thirds of that going to the network partners.

Didja has generally focused on millennials and other younger audiences that tend to consume video on their mobile phones and to capture consumers who might be cord-cutters or have otherwise fallen out of the pay TV ecosystem.

Long believes Didja’s model will help local broadcasters broaden their viewership base and reach consumers they have trouble reaching today who, for example, are interested in watching  broadcast TV channels but aren’t keen to using an antenna.

He said Didja will also be pursuing a larger “growth round” that would aim to include participation from large corporations, media companies and other investors.

RELATED: Didja Loses Set of Digi-Nets for Local OTT TV Offering

Didja’s approach hasn’t been without hiccups. Last month, for instance, its apps dropped Katz Broadcasting digi-nets -- Bounce, Escape and Grit – with the hope that their absence would be temporary.

“We’re working through that,” Long said, believing that what it will take to restore those networks on Didja’s platforms is “nothing that we think is insurmountable.”

In its latest stab at cord-cutters,  Dish Network has soft-launched a new device under the AirTV brand that lets users access and stream over-the-air TV channels in and out of the home.

The new AirTV product, a follow-on to the launch of the AirTV Player and AirTV Adapter early this year, is being offered online for $119.99, plus $8.99 for shipping, according to a live web page about the product. Dish is offering a 30-day money back guarantee and one-year warranty on parts for AirTV. The device is also integrated with Sling TV, Dish’s OTT TV service.  

RELATED: AirTV Firmware Update Stitches Over-the-Air Channels to Guide

A Dish official said the new OTA solution is currently available in limited release and soft-launched it to evaluate consumer interest. The company said it expects to share more detail in early 2018 following the soft-launch, making a formal announcement during next month’s CES 2018 likely.

In a different twist, the new AirTV apparently bakes in Sling Media’s place-shifting technology, as the new device, as ZatzNotFunny’s Dave Zatz points out, appears to be a repurposing of the original Slingbox M1 hardware.

That’s key because the new AirTV will allow users to access and stream local OTAs in and outside the home. Notably, viewing OTA signals outside the home is limited to one stream at a time, the AirTV web site points out.

Additionally, users need only one OTA antenna to stream local channels wirelessly to all TVs and devices that are on the home’s WiFi network.

Out of the chute, AirTV works with Sling TV, and has developed apps for iOS, tvOS, Android (mobile and TV), Roku devices, and Amazon Fire TV devices.

AirTV users will still need to obtain a separate OTA antenna and coaxial cable.

Per the specs, the device is outfitted with 802.11a 2x2 dual-band WiFi, 512 megabytes of memory, and two OTA tuners.

Nuvyyo has reduced the price on its latest Tablo DVR for cord-cutters by $30 in the U.S. amid a wider retail launch.

Introduced in May, the Tablo Dual, a two-tuner OTA DVR with 64GB of integrated storage, originally sold for $249.99. That price has been chopped to $219.99. In Canada, the price on the model has been dropped to C$289.99, from C$329.99

RELATED: Nuvyyo Forges New Cord-Cutting Tool

That price reduction also comes with a wider retail distribution that includes several online storefronts (BestBuy.com, Amazon.com, Wallmart.com, NewEgg.com, Frys.com, and TabloTV.com), complemented by availability at a set of brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S. – Best Buy, Micro Center and Fry’s Electronics.

Though a price cut on the product makes sense amid the holiday buying season, Nuvyyo said other elements factored into the decision.

"As we scale distribution of Tablo DUAL and the company overall, we are able to pass savings from efficiencies along to customers and match the commoditization we're seeing in the cord cutting device market overall,” the company said in a statement to Multichannel News.

In addition to providing integrated storage, the Tablo Dual is about 20% smaller than its predecessor. Earlier-generation Tablo products don’t have onboard storage, but do allow users to add storage by attaching a USB-connected storage device.

Tablo Dual users also have the option to add storage (up to eight terabytes) using a separate storage.

The Tablo Dual also includes a 30-day free trial to an optional TV guide data subscription that regularly sells for $4.99 per month, $49.99 annually, or for $149.99 for a lifetime subscription.

Most Tablo users are cord-cutters that connect the device to a TV antenna to receive the local over-the-air broadcast channels. The device captures those signals and sends them wirelessly to other devices on the home network. Tablo today supports platforms such as Roku players, Xbox and Nvidia Shield consoles, Apple TV boxes, Chromecast streaming adapters, Amazon Fire TV devices, web browsers, smart TVs from LG (WebOS 2.0 and 3.0), and iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. 

Following an earlier trial in Phoenix, Didja has teamed with a group of broadcast TV stations in the Bay Area to deliver live, local signals over-the-top to web browsers and mobile devices alongside with an optional DVR service.

RELATED: ‘PhoenixBTV’ Streams Batch of Local Broadcast Nets to Mobile Devices

Didja’s LocalBTV offering, branded as BayAreaBTV in the local area, is a free app that also supports an optional cloud DVR service that costs $4.95 per month for 1 terabyte of storage (under the default setting, recordings will auto-expire after 28 days, but users have the option to keep individual recordings longer).

BayAreaBTV is initially supported on web browsers and apps for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. The service is also accessible via Chromecast streaming adapters and Apple TV boxes (via AirPlay). Didja plans to extend support to other TV-connected platforms.

Didja believes that the offering will be particularly appealing to millennials and other younger audiences that like to watch TV on mobile screens, as well as bilingual households in the region. 

On a more general basis, Didja is trying to capture cord-cutters who have fallen out of the pay TV ecosystem, as well as consumers who have never taken a traditional pay TV service. It also views itself as a service that could complement a growing crop of virtual MVPDs such as YouTube TV, while also giving local broadcasters another, easily accessible distribution outlet in their local markets.

BayAreaBTV is launching with a lineup of more than 35 channels that include a mix of non-English speaking channels offered in the area, some local English-language stations, as well as a batch of national “diginets.”

A representative list of channels available via the service in the Bay Area includes TV Azteca (Spanish), Skylink and U Channel (Chinese), DiyaTV (South Asian), Viet Bay and Net V (Vietnamese), KPOP (South Korean music videos), Blues Television Network, Bounce, GetTV, and Escape.

BayAreaBTV as well as the Phoenix-area version – a service called PhoenixBTV that has a lineup of about 25 channels -- currently do not deliver live local feeds from major broadcasters such as ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS, though the company’s intention is to add them to its local OTT lineups, eventually, according to Jim Long, Didja’s CEO.

Long said the aim is to offer a lineup of between 60 to 70 channels at some point. Didja likewise plans to expand coverage to 40 metro areas in the U.S., with Los Angeles being its next target market.

Unlike the model that the now-defunct Aereo used for a short-lived OTT TV service that attempted to deliver local broadcast TV feeds without carriage agreements, Didja’s service carries only the broadcast networks via its OTT service that have offered consent, and access to those lineups are limited to the consumers if they are currently in the local area.

For example, Didja estimates that BayAreaBTV is available to about 2.6 million households in an eleven-county that covers Santa Clara County to the south, Mendocino County to the north, Contra Costa County to the east, and every geographic area in between.

Didja’s platform, currently limited to its first two DMAs, captures over-the-air TV feeds from partner programmers at a local data center, where that feed is then prepared for streaming to supported devices in the local region. 

BayAreaBTV and its OTT distribution model is appealing to KPOP in part because a portion of its audience doesn’t have a TV or an antenna to receive the signal.

“But they always have their phone, and they are always on their phone,” Kelly Quan, KPOP’s CEO, said in an interview, estimating that about 70% of KPOP’s audience consists of English-only speakers. 

Quan also believes the service will also deliver new audiences to KPOP. “I see this as a perfect time for this kind of app,” he said.

“The Launch of LocalBTV is a great avenue for independent content creators and networks to expand their reach and engage new audiences. It also addresses an audience that is loyal consumer of broadcast stations that are over the air but can’t watch their favorite programming on the go via mobile,” Eric Ratchman, EVP of content distribution for Univision, said in a statement. 

More about Didja’s offering and how it appeals to broadcasters such as KPOP will be featured in the October 30 issue of Multichannel News.

Plex said it has launched its Live TV feature on Roku devices. The addition lets Plex users watch live TV (via an integration with broadcast TV antennas and tuners) and use trick-play features like pause, rewind and fast-forward.

RELATED: Plex Brings Live TV to Apple TV

Out of the chute, Plex users on Roku are not yet able to schedule recordings through the Plex DVR, but can watch recordings from Plex’s other platforms, such as web browsers, Amazon Fire TV devices, Apple TV boxes, and IoS and Android smartphones and tablets.

Plex said the beta release for Roku is out today, with a release for all Plex Pass subscribers expected in about a week.

Plex’s offering is largely targeted to cord-cutters, and competes in that arena with companies and products such as Nuvvyo (the Tablo and the just-launched Tablo Dual), Dish Network (AirTV Player), TiVo (Roamio OTA), and ChannelMaster (DVR+), among others.

MVPDs such as Comcast are also starting to introduce skinny-bundle packages for broadband subscribers that center on the local major broadcast TV stations, plus the ability to buy add-on programming packages.

RELATED: Comcast Rolls Out ‘Xfinity Instant TV’ Beta

Nuvyyo is getting ready to turn the page on the original Tablo 2-Tuner OTA DVR, as it will end production on that model for cord-cutters and amplify its focus on its new Tablo DUAL device, which also comes with two tuners, plus integrated storage.

Related: Nuvyyo Forges New Cord-Cutting Tool

Though production on that original model (pictured)  is ending, Nuvyyo stressed that it will continue to support existing Tablo 2-Tuner OTA DVRs with firmware and app updates. Additionally, existing Tablo TV guide data subscriptions will continue to work with those products, the company said.

Production on the 4-Tuner Tablo OTA DVR will continue, the company said.

It’s also blowing out some inventory, offering refurbished 2-Tuner TAblo OTA DVRs for $99.99, along with a 30-day trial if a guide data subscription and covered by a 12-month warranty. But those refurbished devices aren’t eligible for the company’s 30-day return policy, standard on new units.

The Tablo Dual, about 20% smaller than its predecessor, went on sale in June, and includes 64 gigabytes of onboard DVR storage, about enough to hold about 50 hours of HD programming. By comparison, the original two-tuner Tablo product requires users to bring their own storage device by tethering the Tablo to a hard drive with a USB cable.  

With the finish line in sight, British long distance runner and Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah made one final sprint at the IAAF Diamond League finals in Zurich, Switzerland, last month. It was the last race of his long and distinguished track and field career and, coming up from behind, he won the last title in his storied career to wild applause.

NBC Sports Group televised Farah’s triumph to track and field fans live via its Track and Field Pass service, a $69.99-per-year, direct-to-consumer service that’s part of an emerging category of digital streaming sports subscription offerings that could threaten to sprint past traditional linear cable sports services to super-serve sports fans across the country.

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Traditionally, live sports programming lived in cable bundles that featured national sports networks like ESPN and FS1, as well as regional sports networks and a handful of general entertainment services.

But now, subscription digital sports services can showcase a huge roster — whether it’s NBC Sports Group offering packages with sports ranging from track and field to cycling to rugby; or Turner Sports kicking up a proposed OTT service geared to UEFA Champions League European football; or ESPN planning a direct-to-consumer service featuring 10,000 live Major League Baseball, National Hockey League and Major League Soccer games.

Getting Cord-Cutters in the Game
The new services seek to provide additional revenue to help sports programmers offset the high cost of rights while giving younger cord-cutting fans an opportunity to access content that’s not typically offered on linear sports channels.

“Before, if you were a cord-cutter or cord-never, you effectively said sports aren’t important to you because the only way to access U.S. pro sports content was through the pay TV network ecosystem,” fuboTV chief financial officer Joel Armijo said. “Now, in the [internet protocol] world, we’re moving toward completely personalizing that experience for a sports fans looking for that lean-forward kind of immersive experience.”

The sports industry has already taken several swings at the multiplatform, direct-to-consumer digital subscription model — all of the major pro sports leagues offer out-of-market packages of live games — while national and regional networks have offered marquee sports via TV everywhere platforms to authenticated viewers subscribing to the traditional cable bundle. As a result, audiences are increasingly viewing live sports content on phones, laptops and computers.

At the same time, younger viewers in particular are increasingly cutting the cable cord or choosing not to subscribe to cable at all, decreasing the pool of potential viewers who watch linear sports content. Pay TV providers lost about 976,000 net video subscribers in the second quarter of 2017, continuing a disturbing trend for cable networks, according to Kagan.

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The realities of the changing marketplace have pushed several linear sports channels, which are heavily reliant on distributor license fees and advertising dollars to offset high sports-content fees, to look for opportunities to generate revenue on alternative platforms. Last month alone, three major sports-media players committed to stepping onto the direct-to-consumer field within the next year:

● ESPN, which has recently suffered subscriber losses — its subscriber total was down 3.5% in its recent third-quarter earnings report — will launch a new service in 2018 that will mostly offer content not currently available on the linear channel. Offerings would include MLB and NHL content from BAMTech, which provides the technological backbone for the two leagues’ out-of-market streaming packages, and which is now majority-owned by ESPN parent The Walt Disney Co. While details of the service are vague, Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger said during the earnings report that the launch of the direct-to-consumer service marks “an entirely new growth strategy for the company.”
● CBS Sports will launch a new OTT service later this year. It also launched a Showtime PPV app on Apple TV devices for the Aug. 26 Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor pay-per-view boxing match.
● Turner Sports — which distributes National Basketball Association games on TNT and Major League Baseball games on TBS — will launch a new streaming service based on its recent acquisition of UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League rights in 2018.

Sports media consultant Lee Berke said the recent OTT sports service announcements mark a shift in the traditional cable bundle’s virtual stranglehold on the category as viewers migrate to more multiplatform viewing.

“I don’t think the bundle or traditional cable is going away, but it’s shrinking, and the days of 80% to 90% penetration of cable services in homes are gone,” said Berke. “The key is that [sports networks] need to be in [the digital] space in an aggressive way and take a new look at their programming rights to see how best to divvy them up in an innovative range of approaches that meet the needs of new generations of viewers that may think their televisions are their phone, laptop or tablet.”

NBC’s Niche Play
Still, cable sports networks have to walk a fine line in trying to generate new digital revenue streams with direct-to-consumer services while not syphoning away cable subscribers from its linear cable channel offerings. NBC Sports Group has tried to have the best of both worlds by launching several direct-to-consumer services under its NBC Sports Gold service featuring niche content and international sports.

The company’s Cycling Pass, Pro Motocross Pass, Track and Field Pass, Rugby Pass and Premier League Pass all offer content that isn’t available on broadcaster NBC or cable sports network NBCSN, said Rick Cordella, executive vice president and general manager for Digital Media for NBC Sports Group.

While NBC Sports Group remains a big supporter of the existing cable ecosystem, the advent of new digital technology, combined with viewers’ willingness to watch content on multiple platforms (NBC’s Sunday Night Football drew an average of 600,000 unique digital viewers to NBCSports.com last year), represents a chance to deliver content to underserved groups of fans, Cordella said.

“What I think has happened is, the technology is now available to deliver these products, and the acceptance of that technology allows you create offerings like NBC Gold that weren’t possible years ago,” Cordella said. ”People are willing and open to watch content this way.”

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A huge question looming over this shift is whether enough underserved sports fans would be willing to pay anywhere from $10 to $70 to watch live sports fare on their phones and laptops. Cordella wouldn’t provide specific subscriber numbers for any of the five OTT sports services, but he said the numbers have “exceeded expectations.”

OTT provider fuboTV is one player that’s skeptical that sports alone will draw enough subscribers to change the game in a video-streaming marketplace dominated by entertainment services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. A mix of quality sports content and entertainment-based fare will attract a broader audience and score more revenue dollars, CFO Armijo argued.

FuboTV’s 70-plus channel Fubo Premier bundle sells for $34.95 and includes 35 channels that feature sports content, including soccer-heavy beIN Sports, fuboTV Network, Eleven Sports and most recently, Pac-12 Network, to go along with FS1, Golf Channel, Olympic Channel, NBCSN, CBS Sports Network and NBA TV. Also part of the bundle are a number of news and entertainment-based channels including Lifetime, Fox News Channel, USA Network, Univision, El Rey Network, HGTV, Hallmark Channel and History.

“We will continue to work to really super-serve sports fans and that’s very core to what we do,” Ben Grad, fuboTV’s North American head of content strategy and acquisition, said. “At the same time, there’s no one-size-fits-all model out here. We’re confident with our approach of being able to very well serve a number of customers in the marketplace with both sports and entertainment programming.”

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Still, NBC’s Cordella said a sports-only OTT service is an easy sell to fans hungry to watch their favorite sport. “One of the good things about sports is the fact that this is a known entity — you’re tapping into a built-in fan base that already exists,” he said. “When you take a particular soccer game and say, ‘It’s this team versus that team,’ you know exactly what you are getting, as opposed to entertainment services where you have to explain what the content is and why it’s different and better than what your cable subscription already has.”

It could be a while before standalone OTT services replace pay TV providers, Berke said, but companies that don’t explore the direct-to-consumer marketplace do so at their own risk.

“I don’t know if it’s the end game, but it is a necessary step,” Berke said. “It doesn’t mean that that’s the only way consumers will be watching sports in the future, but it means that you need to have a substantial presence there if you’re going to keep yourself relevant for new viewing options. You have to be able to reinvent yourself for each new generation.”

The second quarter is usually rough on pay TV providers, and 2017’s Q2 was the roughest one on record, according to a new analysis from MoffetNathanson’s Craig Moffett.

Traditional pay TV distributors lost about 941,000 subscribers in Q2, the worst quarterly loss ever, Moffett noted in the firm’s latest  Cord-Cutting Monitor report.

The rate of pay TV subscriber erosion also increased from 2.5% last quarter, to 2.7% in Q2, making it the “fastest rate of decline on record,” Moffett wrote.

Analyst: The Cord-Cutting Future Has Arrived

Notably, the ratio of subscribers lost by pay TV providers that were recaptured by virtual MVPDs remained essentially unchanged at 50%.

Recognizing that data on vMVPDs “is very sketchy” since most of them don’t report numbers, Moffett estimated that Sling TV added 89,000 subs in Q2, while DirecTV added 80,000 (excluding free trials), while PlayStation Vue, Hulu Live and YouTube TV brought in about 300,000 between them. fuboTV, a sports-oriented service, is also in the OTT TV mix.

Related: Virtual MVPDs Creating a New Narrative for Pay TV

When combining Q2 sub losses by traditional pay TV providers (941,000) along gains from the group of vMVPDs (469,000), Moffett estimates that the total net loss for Q2 was about 472,000 subs.

Among traditional pay TV providers, cable operators lost 221,000 video subs in Q2 (a 1.1% year-on-year loss), while satellite TV providers lost 441,000 (2.3%), and the telcos shed 279,000 (11.6%).

Including distribution by vMVPDs, pay TV programmers lost 472,000 subs in Q2 2017, improved from a year-ago loss of 630,000, the report found.

Looking ahead, Moffett expects losses to accelerate in Q3 among traditional pay TV providers, but acknowledged that this continues to be uncharted territory for the industry, making it harder to know what the long-term impact will be and raising many questions.  

For example, will the rate of decline for distributors stabilize at around 3% per year losses, as Moffett’s predicting, or will they rise to as much as 6% per year? And will the recapture rate for vMVPDs continue to hover around 50%, or rise or fall?

 “There is, unfortunately, no roadmap,” Moffett wrote.

Plex is adding more platforms to the mix about two months after the company introduced a free live TV component that’s available to consumers who subscribe to its Plex Pass service.

RELATED: Plex Flexes Live TV Muscles

Plex said Live TV is now supported on Apple TV (requires version 1.4) and is adding Live TV and DVR support to Android mobile devices, joining iOS, and Android TV. Its own Plex web app is currently DVR-only. Plex also said its new platform has exited the beta phase and also enables trick-play functions (pause/play, rewind, and fast forward).

Plex’s new Live TV element links the Plex app to a video source such as a digital OTA TV antenna or a digital tuner.

The company said it’s also working on app updates for other platforms, including Roku, Amazon’s Fire TV and a range of smart TVs.

Plex’s offering is largely targeted to cord-cutters, and competes in that arena with companies and products such as Nuvvyo (the Tablo and the just-launched Tablo Dual), Dish Network (AirTV Player), TiVo (Roamio OTA), and ChannelMaster (DVR+), among others.

Nuvyyo is complementing its line of over-the-air/DVR hardware with a new, software-based offering that will initially target the Nvidia Shield and eventually reach other Android TV devices.

That new app, the Tablo Engine, turns the Shield into a cord-cutting device when paired with a new, USB-connected Tablo Tuner, which integrates two tuners and allows users to capture free over-the-air signals from local broadcast stations. Using the Tablo Engine, recordings are saved to Nvidia Shield’s internal storage in MPEG-2 format.

The Tablo Engine app is free on Google Play, and includes a free, 30-day trial of the platform’s guide data subscription, which Nuvyyo is selling for $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year. Nuvyyo’s approach with the Tablo Engine is new in that it provides an option to consumers who prefer an “HDMI-connected OTA DVR experience,” the company said. By comparison, its recently launched Tablo Dual OTA DVR integrates two tuners and 64 Gigabytes of on-board DVR storage, and shuttles broadcast TV signals wirelessly to other devices on the home network, rather than connecting via an HDMI cable.

The Tablo Engine and tuner also provide a new way for consumers to use the company’s cord-cutting platform without having to purchase separate Tablo OTA DVR hardware.

Nuvyyo’s latest batch of products expand others that are tailored for cord-cutters, such as the TiVo Roamio OTA, Dish Network AirTV Player and Adapter, and Channel Master DVR+, which does not require a subscription for guide data.

Cord-cutters and others who don’t subscribe to cable TV say the networks they’re most interested in include Discovery Channel, History, Food Network and National Geographic, according to a new study by Beta Research.

Also high on cord-cutters' lists are Comedy Central, FX and AMC.

A number of virtual MVPDs are offering skinny bundles, but some of those channels, notably those not owned by media companies that also own a broadcast network, are not included in some of them.

RELATED: Analyst: The Cord-Cutting Future Has Arrived

Beta said 34% of cable subscribers were extremely or very interested in dropping cable TV and watching only the TV programming available on their tablet/computer, such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.

Read more at B&C.

Amplifying a small but growing trend, the rate of cord-cutting continues to rise, according to TiVo’s Q1 2017 Video Trends Report.

The study, based on a survey of 3,081 adults in the U.S. and Canada, found that 84.8% of respondents had a pay TV service. However, of the 15.2% of those who did not take a pay TV service, 21.8% said they cut the cord within the last 12 months, an increase of 4.4% year-over-year, the report found.

RELATED: Analyst: The Cord-Cutting Future Has Arrived

Almost 46% of the group without pay TV use an antenna to get basic broadcast TV networks, the study found. 

Price, at 79.7%, remained the top reason why consumers cut pay TV service, though other reasons are starting to encroach. About 58% said OTT options are a top reason for cutting the cord, up 9.3% quarter-over-quarter, followed by the use of an antenna for TV (32.5%, up 5.3% q/q), and the desire to binge-watch a TV series through a streaming service (26.7%, up 8.2% q/q).

The survey also found that most consumers (77.3%) remain in favor of an a la carte option with respect to TV channels. The average price U.S. consumers would be willing to pay for their 20 top channels is $28.31, a slight decrease versus findings in the prior quarter, and down 14% over a two-quarter period. TiVo suggested that the prices for new OTT TV options such as Sling TV, PlayStation Vue and Hulu could be causing consumers to rethink what they are paying for TV service.

The top five channels across all respondents were ABC (58.4%), Discovery Channel (56.6%), CBS (54.1%), History (52.5%), and NBC (52%).

Regarding general TV viewing habits, the survey found that 85.4% of respondents watch live TV on a daily basis, and 39.1% watch 30 minutes to two hours of live TV each day. Almost 72% watch recorded shows and movies each day, with 36.% of that group watching between 30 minutes to two hours of recorded content daily.

Some 67.8% said they view content on an OTT/streaming service each day, up 3.1% compared to the prior quarter.

It seems the industry is inundated with study after study that implies a battle of good versus evil has developed between traditional linear cable viewers and young, cost conscious cord-cutters and cord-nevers.

There’s no denying that fewer viewers are subscribing to cable packages -- the U.S. pay TV industry just had its worst-ever Q1, losing 762,000 video subs during the first quarter, according to research company MoffettNathanson -- and that viewers are streaming more than ever. A recent Horowitz Research "State of Pay TV, OTT and SVOD 2017" report said seven out of every 10 TV viewers stream at least some of their content through digital subscription video-on-demand services.

Nonetheless, viewers' growing penchant for streaming content doesn’t necessarily equate to a full-blown rejection of the traditional cable bundle. Rather, Horowitz Research senior vice president of insights and strategy Adriana Waterston said, services such as Netflix and Hulu are giving viewers a more seamless and user-friendly way to view programming.

A majority of viewers still want access to the live news and sports programming that the traditional cable bundle provides, along with the binge viewing-friendly digital services: 57% of consumers have both an SVOD service and a pay TV subscription, according to Horowitz’s report, which was presented during the Annual Cultural Insights Forum June 6 in New York.

Waterston pointed to growing interest in new virtual MVPDs such as Sling TV, DirecTV Now and YouTube TV that offer consumers the best of both worlds – bundles of live TV channels at various price points that can be accessed on mobile phones, tablets and computers, as well as the big screen TV.

Three in 10 TV viewers – and 40% of millennials -- would consider subscribing to one of the new vMVPDs, according to the Horowitz report.

“A new narrative is emerging – one that doesn’t pit people who are willing to pay for pay TV against those who cord-cut,” Waterston said. “The new narrative is about those who choose to stay with a traditional provider against those who might choose to go with a new provider offering comparable services in a new way. They all want the perks of traditional providers, but on their own terms.”

Offering another technology option for a small but growing group of cord-cutters, Plex has added a free Live TV component that’s available to all customers who subscribe to its Plex Pass service.

That live TV component, accessible by tying the Plex app to a video source such as a digital over-the-air TV antenna or a digital tuner, is now capable of integrating local HD broadcast channels that can be played back on iOS devices and Android TV devices, starting with the Nvidia Shield. Plex plans to add Android mobile devices and Apple TV boxes soon, followed by other streaming platforms. Outside the new live TV scope,

At launch, Plex’s live TV service, which includes an integrated programming guide, is compatible with several antenna and digital tuners, including the WinTV-dualHD, WinTV-HVR-955Q, Digital TV for the Xbox One and all SiliconDust HDHR models for North America, as well as several for Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia, including the TVButler 100TC, SiliconDust HDHR, and Freeview HD TV for Xbox One, among others.

Plex also views its new feature as a solid successor to Microsoft’s discontinued Windows Media Center product and as a complement to SVOD services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Notably, Plex’s system also supports digital tuners with CableCARDs, such as HDHomeRun Prime from SiliconDust, for customers who do get a pay TV service from a cable operator.

According to Keith Valory, Plex’s CEO, the addition of a live TV component has been the most asked for feature among subscribers, a service that costs $4.99 a month, $39.99 a year, or $119.99 for a lifetime pass, and includes access to a DVR service with remote access of recordings that is currently being offered in beta, as well as offline playback. Plex users can set recordings from the TV as well as its app.

About 55% of Plex users are based outside the U.S., hence the reason to have broad tuner support, Valory said.

Plex, a privately held company that enables users to organize and stream content on multiple devices, won’t reveal its subscriber numbers, but the company has more than 13 million registered users.

Plex is also expanding into its own content following the recent acquisition of Watchup, an ad-based streaming news service that aggregates content from a wide range of sources.

RELATED: Plex Makes a Content Play

With the addition of live TV, Plex puts itself into a category that is being targeted by other suppliers of devices that bring local TV to an array of screen types, including Nuvvyo (Tablo and the just-launched Tablo Dual), Dish Network (AirTV Player), TiVo (Roamio OTA), and ChannelMaster (DVR+), among others.

Looking to bring more simplicity to a DVR that captures over-the-air TV signals and is targeted at cord-cutters, Nuvyyo has added integrated video storage with the launch of a new product called the Tablo Dual.

About 20% smaller than its predecessor, the Tablo Dual integrates two tuners and bakes in 64 gigabytes of onboard DVR storage, about enough to hold about 50 hours of HD programming.

The earlier-generation Tablo doesn’t have onboard storage, but does let users add storage by attaching a USB-connected storage device. Tablo Dual users also have the option to add storage (up to eight terabytes) using a separate storage.

Grant Hall, CEO of Nuvyyo, said onboard storage with the Tablo Dual will reduce friction and reduce the total cost of ownership for consumers.

The Tablo Dual, available in the U.S. on June 4, carries an MSRP of $249.99. It’ll be available at select Best Buy stores and Best Buy’s web site. Nuvyyo is also selling it direct via its site to consumers in Canada for C$329.99. 

The previous-generation two-tuner Tablo DVR sells for $219.99, and a four-tuner version fetches almost $300. Hall said most Tablo users implement attached storage.

The Tablo Dual also includes a 30-day free trial to an optional TV guide data subscription that regularly sells for $4.99 per month, $49.99 annually, or for $149.99 for a lifetime subscription.

Hall said there’s a “very high take rate” on the optional subscription, noting that the price also includes remote access features and 14 days of guide data.

Hall said a two-tuner version helped to get the Tablo Dual to an “accessible price point,” and allowed that a four-tuner version would be the next logical step, though the company has yet to announce what’s coming after the Tablo Dual.

Most Tablo users are cord-cutters that connect the device to a TV antenna to receive the local over-the-air broadcast channels. The device captures those signals and sends them wirelessly to other devices on the home network. Tablo today supports Roku player, Xbox and Nvidia Shield consoles, Apple TV boxes, Chromecast streaming adapters, Amazon Fire TV devices, web browsers, smart TVs from LG (WebOS 2.0 and 3.0), and iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.

“We’re really just another app,” Hall said.

RELATED: Tablo Launches Apple TV App

That approach differs than some other vendors that also have built OTA-OTT combination products tailored for cord-cutters, such as the TiVo with the Roamio OTA, Dish Network’s AirTV Player and Adapter, and Channel Master’s subscription-free DVR+. TiVo has been working on the “Mavrik,” an OTA device that will work with a cloud DVR, but ZatzNotFunny reported this week that TiVo has scrapped plans to launch it and weighing the future of its larger retail product strategy. 

RELATED: AirTV Firmware Update Stitches Over-the-Air Channels to Guide

At CES in January, the company introduced the Tablo DROID, a software version of a Tablo DVR that initially runs on the Android TV-powered Nvidia Shield. That product is in beta now and is expected to ship soon, Hall said, adding that the product will also support other Android TV devices.

Ottawa, Canada-based Nuvyyo has not announced shipment numbers for its Tablo products, but the privately held company announced last month that it had achieved a three-year growth rate of 288%.

As if there were any lingering doubts, the two largest cable-network groups confirmed what many analysts have been saying for months (and years): Cord-cutting is real, pay TV subscribers are declining at a faster pace than expected and content providers aren’t really sure what to do about it.

21st Century Fox was the last major programmer to release results last week, and they showed that having the most-watched network in the country — perennial ratings winner Fox News Channel — isn’t enough to stop the bleeding.

Fox is losing about 1.5% of its pay TV subscriber base to cord-cutters, cord-nevers and skinny bundles, compared to about 3% for peers such as The Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc.

Overall, pay TV networks had been losing about 2% of their subscriber base in past quarters.

Fox echoed what other big programmers have said in the recent past: the losses could have been worse if not for deals with over-the-top providers like DirecTV Now, Sony PlayStation Vue and Sling TV, which (depending on who you listen to) have either already taken over the pay TV distribution business or are about to.

The reality lies somewhere in between. 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch told analysts the impact of over-the-top providers such as DirecTV Now and Sling TV has been small so far, mainly because they have only been in existence for a short period of time. As other OTT services emerge — Hulu Live has just launched and YouTube TV debuted in April — Fox believes they could have a broader impact going forward.

Murdoch was light on details, though, saying it’s still “early days” for OTT carriage and that Fox’s success with new distributors can be tied to continued investment in its brands.

FOX’S HIDDEN EDGE
Not every analyst was convinced Fox had the solution to subscriber declines. In a research note, Sanford Bernstein media analyst Todd Juenger said it was more likely that minimum subscriber clauses in its distribution agreements are propping up Fox’s numbers.

“It’s a head-scratcher how Fox claims to have lost only -1.5% subs from their fully distributed cable networks, about 125 [basis points] better than Disney — unless Fox is benefitting from minimum guarantees that Disney is not,” Juenger wrote. “But minimum guarantees aren’t sustainable without subs.”

In a client note, Morgan Stanley media analyst Ben Swinburne said Fox’s younger-skewing networks such as FX, national sports channels FS1 and FS2 and its regional sports networks, “which have very high carriage minimums,” helped to temper losses.

Juenger said ratings at the Fox networks outside of Fox News are nothing to cheer. Overall, household rating were up 6% in the period but ratings among persons 2-plus rose 5% almost solely on the back of Fox News.

On the analyst call to discuss fiscal third-quarter results, Fox chief financial officer John Nallen said the most interesting aspect of the new OTT providers is that they are finding different segments of the audience to serve.

“So between DirecTV Now and Sling TV, YouTube obviously Hulu, and PlayStation Vue they all very different services and we think this is incredibly important because … many of them are designed to replace traditional MVPDs’ subscriber numbers and losses, but they’re targeting entirely new segments of U.S. households, segments that have broadband now but potentially don’t have traditional MVPDs,” Nallen said, adding that inspires confidence that the services will help stem declines and “will actually grow the universe quite significantly over time.”

At Disney, where the falloff in subscribers was first evident at flagship sports network ESPN in 2015, chairman and CEO Bob Iger also said OTT has helped temper customer losses, emphasizing again that it was still early on that front.

Iger was encouraged by the trend — ESPN plans to launch its own direct-to-consumer offering later this year, using content and rights currently not being exploited on the ESPN linear networks — but stopped short of saying the solution lies in bypassing traditional distributors all together.

RISKY SPENDING ON SPORTS RIGHTS?
On the Disney earnings call, Iger pointed to Disney’s direct- to-consumer offering — which some analysts have said is too narrowly focused to make a meaningful dent in sub losses — and its foresight in identifying the problem two years ago.

BTIG media analyst Rich Greenfield, a frequent critic of Disney and ESPN, said just identifying the problem isn’t enough. Despite the declines, he said, “their seemingly reckless spending on long-term sports rights” does not seem to be in sync with those comments.

Greenfield blogged that Iger’s apparent dismissal of emerging skinny bundles that exclude sports — the Disney chief said launching a new platform without ESPN would be “very challenged” — could be a dangerous move.

Greenfield noted that the fastest-growing package in the largest virtual MVPD (Sling TV with an estimated 1.3 million total customers) is one without live sports. And more are expected to come.

“With ESPN sub losses increasing and without meaningful rate increases, it is not hard to see ESPN’s revenues entering secular decline in the not too distant future,” Greenfield wrote. “On top of accelerating sub losses, it will be hard for ESPN to maintain high-single-digit rate increases as existing distribution deals come up for renewal given the rapidly deteriorating MVPD landscape, unless they enable far greater packaging/tiering flexibility (which we do not see happening).”

AirTV, the new OTA/OTT combo device for cord-cutters, has filled a gap in its functionality with the release of a firmware update that enables the guide to integrate local channels received over-the-air.

The update, spotted this week by CordCutterNews, is confirmed by the current AirTV FAQ, which notes that “OTA channels are now fully integrated into your My TV homescreen and Guide.”

Per the FAQ, AirTV Players should upgrade their firmware stacks automatically, but also points to a way for customers to do the update manually.

The Android TV-based AirTV Player and Adapter were introduced at CES in January, where it demonstrated the beta version of a full antenna integration capability that combined Sling TV’s OTT service with over-the-air TV channels on a unified interface.

RELATED: AirTV Still Lacks Complete Guide Integration 

However, that level of integration, viewed by some as a key selling point for AirTV, was absent when the product started to ship to customers. That firmware update was originally expected to become available by mid-February.

Mirroring other recent findings, the number of consumers who are cutting the cord for traditional pay TV services is on the rise, according to a new quarterly report from TiVo.

Of the 17% of consumers without a pay TV provider, 19.8% of that group said they cut the cord in the past year, up 1.9% on a quarter-to-quarter, and up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis, the company found it its Q4 2016 Video Trends Report, based on a survey of 3,079 adults in the U.S. and Canada.

RELATED: YouTube TV Emerging Amid Accelerating Cord-Cutting Trend

“At nearly twenty percent, this is the highest percentage of cord-cutters in a single quarter since TiVo began tracking them in the Q4 2015 survey,” the company noted.

RELATED: TiVo: Consumers Want to Pay Less for Top Networks

Price of pay TV services, at 80.1%, was the top reason for cord-cutting, followed by the use of a streaming service such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Video (48.3%), while 27.2% said they use an antenna to get basic broadcast TV channels, the survey found.

With respect to churn, 10% of respondents with pay TV service said they have switched providers in the last three months, the highest result since TiVo started asking that question in Q2 2013.

When asked if they were planning to change providers in the next six months, 7.6% of respondents said they were planning to cut their pay TV service (up 2% on a quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year basis), and up 5% from results of three years ago. About 6.8% said they plan to change to another pay TV provider, and 3.2% said they intended to switch to an online service or app. About 29.6% were on the fence about making some sort of a change.

With those potential churn numbers factored together, 47.2% said they could leave their current pay TV provider in the next six months. The size of this “at risk” group rose 2.3% q/q and 2.5% y/y, TiVo found.  

When asked what would keep them from churning, the top vote-getters were a more flexible package structure (63.7%), and a service that does a better job integrating video from sources like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon (45.1%) via a unified interface.

At the same time, TV Everywhere services, which provide pay TV subs with streaming access to their subscriptions on a wide array of connected devices, also appears to be gaining ground.

Some 49.1% of survey respondents said they are aware of their pay TV provider’s app, up 2% quarter-on-quarter, and up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis.  It also marks the highest rate of TVE awareness since the study started to monitor it in Q4 2012, TiVo said.

About 30% said they access their pay TV provider’s TVE app, which rose 2.8% q/q and 9.4% y/y – another high water mark for this part of the quarterly study.

Roughly 61% of those who use their pay TV provider’s app also use it on a weekly basis, a 16.1% climb on a year-on-year basis.

Among TV network apps, ABC’s was the most downloaded (5.5%), followed by CNN (5.3%), HBO Go (4.7%), Watches (4.5%), CBS (4.4%), and NBC (4.1%).

Just over 28% said they use one or more apps from individual programmers.

The headline was too good not to reuse, but Dave Zatz has a few more details about a DVR with integrated over-the-air TV capabilities that TiVo and Philips are developing.

 HD Guru first came across this development at CES last month, but Zatz notes that a two-tuner prototype shown at CES appeared to be reusing an old Philips form-factor,  and that the interface presented there “looks nothing like the current or upcoming TiVo UI,” so it’s not clear whether this was merely a “placeholder” for what will grace the final product.

But the combo marks a reunion of sorts as Philips and TiVo got together to build and market an original retail TiVo PVR, a monstrosity that was standard-def-only and used a telco return to obtain data for the guide, as well as TiVo-powered receivers for DirecTV. 

HD Guru reported that the new Philips-TiVo combo will be coming out in the fall, with pricing to be announced on what was being referred to at CES as the “Philips HD Personal Video Recorder Powered by TiVo.”

TiVo, which still sells the cord-cutter-focused Roamio OTA and coming off merger with Rovi last year, is still mum on any additional details about the new Philips hook-up, but offered this statement:

“While we do not comment on our customers' product plans, TiVo does continuously work with companies to develop new products and features to create innovative user experiences and enable viewers to stay connected to their favorite entertainment.”

Elsewhere in TiVo-land, The Donohue Report uncovered documents revealing some details about a new 4K DVR IP video gateway called the DCX905 that Arris has developed in partnership with TiVo and appears to be tagged for cable MSO partners. That product seemingly stems from a deal announced by TiVo and Arris in 2015.

RELATED: Arris Ties in TiVo

A new study on the viewing habits of millennials has yielded the same results that most industry observers already know and fear: 18-to-34-year-olds are very comfortable accessing video content in a cord-free world.

Market research company GfK MRI’s Survey of the American Consumer shows that one-third of millennials either have never paid for a cable, satellite or fiber-optic TV service or have cut the cord after initially subscribing to cable, nearly twice the 16% of baby boomers who are cord-cutters or cord-nevers.

OTT services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon will most likely welcome the news that a sizable portion of millennials aren’t in the habit of paying a monthly cable bill, thinking that those eyeballs — and subscription fees — will migrate to streaming services. Indeed, the GfK MRI survey reported that untethered millennials spend 65% of their viewing time streaming content via a TV set or other device.

But as the old axiom goes, be careful what you wish for. The same millennials who don’t want to pay for cable may also find ways to not pay for the streaming SVOD services they watch.

A spring 2016 IBM Cloud Video survey reported that nearly half of millennials have used another person’s password to access an online video platform like Sling TV or Netflix, while 42% said they’ve shared their own personal password with a family member. While the numbers may not be catastrophic for the streaming services — Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said during CES that he has no problems with the service’s subscribers sharing their passwords — OTT players shouldn’t ignore the behavior either.

With most streaming services providing few limits on the number of users per account, a generation that has no experience with paying for video content on any platform could be emerging — one both cable distributors and OTT services will depend on for revenue in the near future.

Sling TV, the OTT-TV service from Dish Network, has launched a pair of French programming packages.

Sling TV’s new “French Bouquet” pack, which sells for $15 per month, aims for viewers that want a wide range of channels involving from news, lifestyle, movies, kids, sports and general entertainment.  That package, which sells for $15 per month, consists of 34 French and English language channels, including TV5MONDE Info, TV5MONDE Cinema on Demand, TV5MONDE Style, France 24, TiVi5MONDE, beIN SPORTS (which carries Ligue 1), Euronews, Eurochannel, Trace Urban, Trace Sport Stars, and more.

The new “Français Extra” pack is designed for viewers that want to supplement their core, English “Best of Live TV” packages (Sling Orange, Sling Blue or Sling Orange + Blue) with French programming.  Français Extra costs an additional $5 per month and includes TV5MONDE Cinema on Demand (SVOD), France 24, TiVi5MONDE and Trace Urban.

“Rather than just offer a one-size-fits-all French package, we created two options so that consumers can select the one that best fits their viewing needs and preferences,” Izabela Slowikowska, Sling TV’s VP of international programming, said in this blog post.

She said the French packages are the fourth European language group offered on the service, complementing German, Italian and Polish packages.

Sling TV’s international programming is the focus of Comcast’s  plan to integrate the OTT service on the cable operator’s X1 platform.

RELATED: Sling TV to Stream to Comcast’s X1 Platform

AirTV LLC is catching up.

Soon after the products were introduced on Jan. 3, the AirTV Player and AirTV Adapter were taking about two weeks to ship following the initial order due to an “overwhelming initial response.”  That’s been reduced to about five business days, the company confirmed.

RELATED: AirTV Appears Off to Hot Start 

The AirTV Player and AirTV Adapter “are in stock and available to consumers today,” an official said. “Once purchased on airtv.net, these products typically reach the customer’s home within five business days.”

RELATED: Dish Unit Pitches Android TV-Powered AirTV Box for $99

Aimed at cord-cutters, the AirTV product set (the $99 Android TV-powered player and the $39.99 adapter, or $129.99 in a bundle) is designed to support and integrate OTT (including the Sling TV service) and over-the-air TV.

The initial product that's shipping doesn’t provide the full OTT-OTA guide integration shown in beta form at CES, but will be enabled via a software update that will be rolled out automatically to all AirTV boxes by mid-February.

RELATED: AirTV Still Lacks Complete Guide Integration 

AirTV LLC, a subsidiary of Dish DBS Corp., has tapped Technicolor to make the player and  Universal Electronics Inc. to make the AirTV’s voice remote. 

Some consumers are a bit miffed that the initial version of the new AirTV Player/Adapter combo lacks a tight guide integration of local over-the-air TV channels and over-the-top channels from AirTV’s corporate cousin, Sling TV.

RELATED: Dish Unit Pitches Android TV-Powered AirTV Box for $99

At CES, AirTV demonstrated “full antenna integration” that combines Sling TV and OTA on a unified interface, but the product being shipped today requires users to press a button for “Over the Air and Internet Channels” and that the those channels – apparently linked to Android TV’s “Live Channels” app – uses a separate interface that doesn’t display the Sling TV lineup, TechHive reported, noting that AirTV expects to release an update that supports that promised, tighter integration sometime in “early 2017.”  Multichannel News has asked AirTV for further clarification on the timing of that.

Gadget blog ZatzNotFunny also made note that AirTV “shipped without its primary selling point enabled,” and also noticed that the topic came up on Twitter from an AirTV customer, followed by a  response from Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch confirming that the CES demo was based on a beta software and that full integration would be arriving soon.

@markreaume The version shown at CES had beta software where the locals are integrated. That feature will be rolled out soon.

— Roger Lynch (@RogerLynch) January 13, 2017

Update: AirTV confirmed that its fully-integrated OTA experience demonstrated in beta form at CES will be coming way of a software update, currently undergoing testing, that will automatically be rolled out to all AirTV boxes sometime in February.

In the meantime, the OTA channels are accessible from Sling TV’s full channel guide, the company added. “Customers select the “Guide” tab, then click the over-the-air icon (TV with antenna) in the channel ribbon. This allows customers to view all available local channels prior to an upcoming software release.”

AirTV also mentioned that it has a standard return policy in place and that it’s happy to issue refunds to customers who aren’t fully satisfied with the product. Additionally, AirTV’s FAQ has been updated to communicate that the software update is scheduled to be distributed by mid-February.

AirTV hasn’t announced shipment figures since the product launched earlier this month, but the product (the baseline AirTV Player and AirTV Adapter) are still shipping two weeks after orders are placed because of “overwhelming demand.”

RELATED: AirTV Appears Off to Hot Start

Via TechHive, an AirTV customer likened the initial version of the product as the “equivalent to a Nexus Player,” a reference to the first OTT device that was powered by Android TV (Google stopped selling the Nexus Player last year, though a growing mix of OTT devices and smart TVs currently support Android TV). Early adopters of AirTV also complained that the product also lacked integration with Netflix queues and personal recommendations.

Update 2: The Netflix integration is live on AirTV, as a Netflix ribbon appears on Sling TV’s “My TV” tab.

The percentage of U.S. broadband homes that use only antennas to receive TV has risen steadily in recent years, according to a new study from Parks Associates.

That number has climbed to about 15% amid a trend that has seen a drop in pay TV subscriptions paired with an increase in Internet-only video subscriptions, the research found in the study, 360 View: Entertainment Services in U.S. Broadband Households.

Those numbers could bode well for OTA-OTT combo products, such as the new Air TV Player and Adapter from a subsidiary from Dish Network, that cater to cord-nevers and cord-cutters.

RELATED: AirTV Appears Off to Hot Start

Per the study, 81% of U.S. broadband homes still have a pay TV subscription, but only one-third of them are “very satisfied” with the service. Notably, 31% of U.S. broadband homes take multiple OTT service subscriptions, Parks Associates said.

Additionally, twice as many subs downgraded their pay TV service (12%) than upgraded it (6%) in 2016, and only half as many cord-nevers adopted pay TV in 2016 (2%) versus 2015 (4%).

“Pay-TV subscriptions have dropped each year since 2014, falling to 81% of U.S. broadband households in Q3 2016,” Brett Sappington, senior director of research at Parks Associates, said in a statement. “Several factors have played a part in this decline, including growth in the OTT video market, increasing costs for pay-TV services, and consumer awareness of available online alternatives.”

But pay TV players are adapting, he said, adding that it’s still a challenge for consumers to aggregate and discover their favorite content and view it on their preferred screen.

The AirTV Player, a device targeted to cord-cutters from EchoStar, is sporting a new look along with some additional details about the technologies that will power it, according to new information discovered by gadget blog ZatzNotFunny.

EchoStar hasn’t announced a launch date for the product (an announcement around next month’s CES seems a likely possibility), but a Web page that is hiding out in the open about the AirTV Player reiterates that it will support over-the-air broadcast TV channels (when paired with an AirTV adapter and an OTA antenna that are sold separately), and will integrate Sling TV, Dish Network’s OTT-TV service.

RELATED: Dish-EchoStar ‘Sling AirTV’ Nears Retail Debut: Report

EchoStar, Charlie Ergen’s tech and set-top spin-off, also notes on the web site that AirTV Player will tie in access to Netflix and will come with a remote control with voice support.

Other documentation found by ZatzNotFunny also shows that the AirTV Player will run the Android 6.0.1 operating system and is made by Technicolor.

“With the AirTV Player, cut the cord and keep the TV experience,” the site explains. “You’ll have a single platform for watching Sling TV, Netflix, local channels, and more.”

Per the AirTV Player FAQ, the device connects to the TV via HDMI and comes with a 12-month warranty and no monthly fee (save for the subscription fee of the individual apps it provides access to).

The redesign is notable because earlier version of the product that surfaced showed the AirTV Player to be based on the Slingbox M1/M2 form factor.  Previous data on the device indicated that the AirTV Player would sell for $149.99.

Though EchoStar hasn’t said when the AirTV Player will go on sale, it got a step closer earlier this month when the FCC recently cleared the company to import, market and sell it after granting a waiver on an analog tuner requirement.

RELATED: FCC Gives EchoStar's 'AirTV' a Lift 

Billing it as “antenna TV for the mobile age,” Didja Inc. is testing a service in the Phoenix area that captures the over-the-air TV signals of select local broadcasters and streams them to Web browsers as well as market-branded apps for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets.

The offering, called PhoenixBTV, is starting as a free, consumer beta that streams in more than 20 channels. Didja, which has a cloud DVR feature on its product roadmap, said it also has plans to offer a paid premium version of the service that will deliver more than 50 channels of local TV.

Users will also be able to watch the service on TVs using a Google Chromecast streaming adapter or via the Apple TV using AirPlay.  PhoenixBTV’s apps for iOS and Android went live over the weekend.

The service is only for Phoenix metro residents and won’t work for people outside that TV market, the company said.

Per the FAQ, PhoenixBTV currently offers a mix of local stations and broadcast diginets such as AZTV, MeTV, TuffTV, This TV, Retro TV, Rev’n, Azteca and Estrella, among others. However, it does not yet offer access to local feeds of majors such as ABC, NBC, CBS or Fox.

The beta launch follows an alpha version of the service that’s been live for a couple of months, according to Jim Long, Didja’s CEO, who said his company is also trying to negotiate for more channels to be part of PhoenixBTV. Also on board for the initiative is TV industry vet and former co-founder of Net2TV Jim Monroe, who is serving as GM of broadcast at Didja.

RELATED: Net2TV Seeks Buyer

Didja’s offering may remind some of Aereo, the now-defunct OTT TV service for cord-cutters that captured and redistributed local broadcast TV channels to broadband-connected devices that lost big in the courts in its battle against several broadcasters, which argued that Aereo violated copyright laws by delivering TV station signals remotely over the Internet without compensating content providers.

RELATED: Supremes Rule Against Aereo

Didja, a company that also developed Clippit, a mobile phone app that lets users create and share digital clips of live TV shows, says PhoenixBTV is different (and legal), as it has obtained approval to offer its channels for the beta offering, and intends to secure similar blessings for any additional channels that are added for the service’s eventual commercial debut.

Though Didja’s technical approach does involve the capturing of local over-the-air TV signals, Long declined to discuss the architecture of PhoenixBTV in much detail. Long also would not get into the business relationship his company has with local broadcasters.

“We have a philosophy that we want a service that is simple, fast and of high quality,” he said, noting that “fast channel-change” is one area of technical focus.

As for the beta trial, Long said it will be available to anyone locally who qualifies to receive it, though the company might decide to pause and un-pause how many people it allows access to the app during the test period.

“We’re prepared to do the test for as long as it takes, Long said, noting that the hope is that PhoenixBTV will offer a commercial product sometime in 2017.

In addition to the technology, PhoenixBTV will also use the trials to help it determine its audience.

But PhoenixBTV will largely target cord-cutters and cord-nevers, people who want broadcast TV while they are on the go in the market, or simply can’t get local broadcast TV with a regular digital antenna. It also views itself differently than a virtual MVPD skinny-bundle service like Sling TV, because Didja’s focus is on local broadcast.

Long said Didja is also hopeful that its product will also be attractive to millennial audiences and perhaps get them to watch more local broadcast TV. 

“We think people are more interested in local TV than some people realize,” Long said.

PhoenixBTV isn’t the only company or service focused on TV station streaming to arise since the fall of Aereo.

For example, Telletopia Foundation, a San Diego-based company, is also looking to offer a legal OTT service that offers local broadcast TV fare and relies on retrans payments and an exemption from the compulsory license for nonprofits, with original aims to go wide with a national service in 2016.

TabletTV, a joint venture of Granite Broadcasting and U.K.-based Motive Television, is taking a different tack by enabling users to capture OTA signals on a small device called the TPod and feed them to nearby connected mobile device.

RELATED: TabletTV Lets Viewers Mix, Match (subscription required)

The Pay TV model remains far from an a la carte model despite the introduction of slimmer bundles, but a fresh study from TiVo offers a sense on which channels would be the most popular and how much consumers would be willing to pay for them in a bundle-free world.

ABC, at 70.7%, would be the most-desired channel and consumers would be willing, on average, to pay $1.52 per month for it, according to TiVo’s Q3 2016 Video Trends Report, based on a survey of 3,100 adult consumers.

CBS was next (70.1%/$1.55), followed by NBC (65.5%/$1.54), Discovery (62.1%/$1.53), and History (59.7%)/$1.54).

About 78% said they’d be interested in an a la carte packaging option.

For packaging, consumers said they’d be willing to pay $15.30 per month for the top 10 channels, and $32.92 per month for their 20 favorites.

The study also looked at broader pay TV trends, and found that 17.9% had cut cable or satellite TV service in the past year, with the three top factors being price (82.9%), reliance on OTT services (59.5%), and use of an OTA antenna to get broadcast TV channels (28.1%).

Of those who still get a cable or satellite TV service, 9.1% said they switched providers in the past three months, up slightly versus the prior quarter and year TiVo conducted the survey.

Of those that intended to change providers in the next six months, 5.6% said they plan to cut service altogether, versus 7.1% who will switch to another provider, and 2.5% who will go to an online service or app. Almost 30% are on the fence as a “maybe.”

“While this is a large portion of the respondents, the positive news for pay-TV providers is that this group of “at risk” respondents decreased 4.8% q/q,” TiVo said.

The data also shined the light on what would make consumers reconsider, with 65% saying they’d stay if a more flexible package structure was offered, and 43.5% saying they’d want an integrated solution that ties in access to OTT services such as Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Video.

With respect to OTT, 61.9% said they use a monthly SVOD service, down 2% versus TiVo’s Q2 survey results. Similar to Q2 numbers, 10% of respondents said they share an SVOD account without paying.

Traditional MVPDs are using authenticated TV Everywhere services to fight cord-cutting while also delivering multiscreen options. The Q3 survey found that 47.1% were aware that their provider offers TVE apps, up 4% year-over-year, and up 12.5 over a three-year span.

About 28.1% said they use their pay TV provider’s TVE app, up 4.4% year-on-year.

In terms of usage, the top programmer apps were CNN (5.6%), ABC, HBO Go and WatchESPN (4.8% each), CBS (3.8%), NBC (3.4%), Fox (3%), HBO Now (2.8%) and Fox News (2.7%). 

In its latest effort to connect with the cord-cutting crowd, Nuvyyo has launched an app for the Xbox One that hooks up with Tablo, its over-the-air HD-DVR.

The combo enables Tablo users to record and stream live broadcast TV on the Microsoft gaming console.

Notably, Tablo is bringing the app to market about five months after Microsoft announced that it was putting development of a DVR for over-the-air TV on hold to focus on other game-focused features. In April 2015, Microsoft added an over-the-air capability for the Xbox One that can pull down free broadcast TV channels in the U.S. and Canada using a Hauppauge-made TV Tuner for the console.

RELATED: Xbox One to Offer Subscription-Free DVR

Nuvyyo said the free app is available today via the Xbox App Store. The 1.0 version of the app supports most Tablo features, including playback of live TV and recordings, a “Netflix-style” guide for content discovery and search, as well as a commercial-skipping component, the company said.

The new app can also run on PCs equipped with the Windows 10 Anniversary Edition OS.

Tablo’s support for Xbox One follows the June introduction of a free app for fourth-gen Apple TV devices. Tablo also supports iOS and Android mobile devices, certain Amazon tablets, Amazon Fire TV boxes and sticks, Android TV, a channel for the Roku platform,  and LG smart TVs that run webOS.

The Tablo two-tuner OTA DVR currently sells for $219, and the four-tuner version fetches $299.99. A guide data service/subscription for Tablo costs $4.99 per month.

“Many cord cutters were left without an OTA DVR option for their gaming system of choice when Microsoft put their project plans on hold,” Grant Hall, CEO at Nuvyyo, said in a statement. “We are excited to provide the gaming community with a Tablo App for Xbox One, bringing us even closer to our goal of becoming the universal app for live TV and recorded broadcast programs on all your favorite devices.”

From a cord-cutting standpoint, Tablo’s competitors include Channel Master, maker of a subscription-free OTA-DVR, and the TiVo Roamio OTA.

Noting that the overall cord-cutting trends “simply weren’t all that interesting” in Q3, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said traditional U.S. pay TV providers posted a net sub loss of about 455,000 in the quarter, relatively flat from the 432,000 lost in the year-ago period.

The overall rate of decline, at 1.3%, was also about the same year-over-year.

And despite the “bombast” over DirecTV Now, to launch later this month, and Hulu’s virtual MVPD service coming in Q1 2017, Q3 was otherwise “relatively quiet,” Moffett explained in his Q3 2016 Cord-Cutting Monitor report.

RELATED: Moffett: DirecTV ‘Playing a Dangerous Game’ With OTT-TV Service

“With new household formation also almost the same as last year, there simply aren’t a lot of big takeaways in this quarter’s data,” he added, but noted that there’s a “bit of trepidation about what lies ahead.”

DirecTV Now, if it sticks with a proposed $35 per month base price, could mean there’s “very significant acceleration ahead”  with respect to cord-cutting trends

“AT&T is taking its content partners for a dance on the edge of a cliff,” wrote Moffett.  “It is next quarter, and the quarter after, than will matter.”

He also said the cord-cutting trend is as much about supply as it is about demand.  

RELATED: YouTube Signs CBS to OTT Service

“There is no question that there are an awful lot of Americas who would gladly switch to OTT if they could pay less for their video entertainment than they do today (what a revelation, no?). But the real question, as ever, is when will be see services offerings that oblige?...DirecTV Now might just be that service offering. And if it’s not, there are seemingly a list of others waiting to try on the role.”

Survey: Consumers Want Cheap OTT

The 11 largest pay TV providers in the U.S., representing about 95% of the market, lost about 665,000 net video subs in Q2 2016, widened from a loss of 545,000 subs in the year-ago period, Leichtman Research Group (LRG) found in its latest market tally.

Among individual providers, the top six cable MSOs shed about 225,000 video subscribers in Q2, narrowed from a year-ago loss of 340,000, marking the fewest MSO losses in any Q2 since 2006, LRG said.

Led by DirecTV’s net adds of 342,000, the nation’s satellite TV providers added 61,000 subs in Q2 (including gains from Dish’s Sling TV OTT service), versus a loss of 214,000 a year earlier.

The top U.S.  telcos lost 500,000 video subs in Q2 2016, versus a gain of 10,000 in Q2 2015. AT&T U-verse’s 391,000 net losses in Q2 were the most ever in a quarter by any provider, LRG noted.

The top six cable MSOs ended Q2 with 48.9 million video subs, compares to 34 million for satellite TV (including Sling TV), and 10.8 million among the telcos.

“The top pay-TV providers lost about 665,000 subscribers in the traditionally weak second quarter, with net losses in 2Q 2016 surpassing the previous quarterly low set in last year’s second quarter,” Bruce Leichtman, LRG’s president and principal analyst, said in a statement. “Over the past year, the top pay-TV providers (including DISH’s Sling TV) lost about 705,000 subscribers – compared to a loss of about 380,000 over the prior year.”

Following a sneak peek at CES in January, Tablo has unleashed a new tool for cord-cutters in the form of a native app for fourth-gen Apple TV devices that works in tandem with Tablo’s over-the-air HDTV DVR.

Update: The company reached out Friday to note that its new app is under approval with Apple and that Nuvyyo will be pushing the app live as soon as it gets the green light.

And updates and discussions around the unexpected delay were playing out on Twitter on Friday afternoon:

@majikp3@thebauminator Sorry guys... Ran into some logistical issues with the App Store... Working on it & will be there soon.

— TabloTV (@TabloTV) June 17, 2016

Update 2: The company said the app went live Friday night:

@jazzynaturist Rolling out now! Keep hitting refresh :)

— TabloTV (@TabloTV) June 18, 2016

Nuvyyo, the Ottawa-based maker of Tablo’s product line, said the new 1.0 version of the app is free, and enables users to discover, record and stream live TV and playback recorded shows and movies via the Apple TV, which also features an integrated voice navigation system.

According to Nuvyyo, Tablo users can also skip commercials simply by asking Siri to jump ahead in the stream.

Tablo won’t say how many consumers have its product, but said most of its customer base is made up of cord-cutters.

Its HD DVR connects to digital OTA antennas to bring in free, local HDTV broadcast signals, and connects to the home network over WiFi or Ethernet to stream to supported devices, including the new Apple TV (and through AirPlay on previous-gen Apple TV boxes), Roku (as a channel), via Google’s Chromecast streaming adapter (on Android devices and Chrome browsers with a Chromecast extention), and by using the Tablo web app with an HDMI-enabled computer linked to a TV. 

Its two-tuner OTA HDTV DVR sells for $219.99, while the four-tuner runs $299.99 (the set-up also requires a USB-connected hard drive for watching live TV and recording programming). Tablo also recommends that its users subscribe to its optional guide data service, which runs $4.99 per month, $49.99 per year, or $149.99 for a lifetime membership. The company is currently promoting free antenna bundles for its two- and four-tuner DVR products.

“Cord cutters and cord nevers have a plethora of choices when it comes to set-top-boxes and our goal is to offer Tablo support for as many as we can,” Grant Hall, Nuvyyo’s CEO said, in a statement. “Now that Apple has expanded its App Store to the living room with the latest generation Apple TV, we can deliver Tablo’s easy-to-use live TV and recordings interface on all four industry-leading streaming media devices.”

Tablo’s competitors include Channel Master, which makes a subscription-free DVR that’s also tailored for cord-cutters, and TiVo, which recently added storage and eliminated monthly subscription service fees for the Roamio OTA.

Here’s now  Tablo promotes and positions its product for cord-cutters:

[embed]https://vimeo.com/100905776[/embed]

The amount of time TV viewers spend on mobile devices while they’re watching continues to broaden, further fragmenting the attention of the audience, according to a new study from eMarketer.

Nearly 85% of Internet users surf the Web on a mobile device while they’re watching TV at least once per month, up from 80.3% in 2015 and 75.6% in 2014, eMarketer found in its latest study on the topic. The research firm also predicts that the number will rise to about 88% in 2017, and almost 92% in 2018.

Among other findings, eMarketer said smartphones are now the device of choice for this group of multitaskers, with 146.9 million Americans poised this year to browse the web or use internet-connected apps on their phone (including chat apps) while they watch TV.

Notably, just 25.5% of simultaneous media users are consuming related content online while watching TV, according to the study.

eMarketer said this multitasking trend is also growing amid a small but increasing market of cord-cutters. This year, the firm expects to see cord-cutters grow 15.7%, causing the number of total pay TV viewers to drop 0.6%, or by 1.3 million, from last year.

Related:INTX 2016: AT&T Strives for 'Digital Bundle'

Some 10 months after closing its $48.5 billion purchase of DirecTV, AT&T has introduced a flurry of products aimed at exploiting its position as the largest pay TV service provider and the second-largest wireless communications company in the U.S. It’s combining video, broadband and wireless offerings in a variety of packages, including deep discounts for wireless service, mobile video and unlimited data plans. It has also raised some eyebrows with a plan to migrate U-verse TV subscribers to DirecTV, a move some see as a factor in the steep subscriber declines in its wireline business.

Most recently, AT&T formed a joint venture with former Fox chief Peter Chernin called Otter Media for long- and short-form content with three over-the-top services — DirecTV Now, DirecTV Mobile and DirecTV Preview — expected to debut later this year. It’s beginning to seem like investors will need a scorecard just to keep track of the latest movements in the phone company’s lineup.

AT&T Entertainment Services senior vice president of strategy and business development Tony Goncalves spoke with Multichannel News senior finance editor Mike Farrell about AT&T’s strategic direction and plans to navigate the evolving world of voice, video and data. Edited highlights follow.

MCN:It seems that DirecTV’s role in AT&T Entertainment has changed even in the short time since the merger was completed. Can you talk about that?

Tony Goncalves: I think, at a macro level, there are shifts in the value chain happening. The definition of a distributor is changing, but at the macro level our video strategy is pretty much intact. We were pretty overt, we were moving rather aggressively from a satellite-only and an IPTV-only video provider to one that would provide high-quality video to consumers, regardless of the connection. The OTT announcement we made earlier last month — ubiquitous delivery of video content across managed and unmanaged networks is our approach. One thing we bring to the table for both the consumer and the industry is the fact that we’re a network and connectivity company at heart. So we should be able to move the bits pretty efficiently between the origination and the end point for the consumer.

MCN:Right after the deal closed, there was some really deep discounting for handsets and a push toward pairing video service with cellphone service. Now, you’re moving toward an OTT product. Was that always the intention or is it more of a reaction to market forces?

TG: The intention had always been to build from what we had as a unified company and create points of differentiation wherever you possibly could, with mobility clearly being an area where we could employ some differentiation. What you saw was an out of the gate, highly promotional kind of approach. And what you subsequently saw earlier this year was [combining] unlimited data when you combine AT&T mobility on DirecTV. The third prong was the announcements on OTT. Underlying all of that is a video platform that will ultimately be delivery-agnostic — managed and unmanaged networks, WiFi or LTE, IP or satellite. The intent has always been, you get to a point where the platform is flexible and nimble and expands beyond the 26 million households we’re in today.

MCN:Millennials supposedly don’t watch TV, they watch shows on whatever device they happen to have nearby. Is that what you’re doing with the OTT service? Is it the first step in a series of products that consumers will use as their life situations change?

TG: Our OTT strategy is two-pronged. On one side, it’s a catch-all type of product. There are folks that are leaving the ecosystem that really still value the bundle, and the bundle has just gotten a bit out of reach. Our DirecTV Now product is intended to be a product that folks who are leaving the ecosystem, yet still value the premium content, can subscribe to rather easily. It’s pay TV as an app. They can subscribe rather quickly and cancel rather quickly. But we’re investing less into those consumers because we’re not rolling trucks or putting set-top boxes into their homes. On the other side of what we announced on OTT, which is DirecTV Preview and the mobile-specific products, it is trying to pull in some of those “cord nevers” that tend to be younger and present them with premium content from the more premium services. Over time, yeah, we do believe that at a certain life stage, cord-nevers will make a decision to buy more. And we’re in a unique position if we do this right to be able to establish a relationship with those customers.

Related:AT&T Deals for Quickplay

MCN:You have been migrating U-verse TV customers over to DirecTV. Once that is complete, will you still have a wire into the home? Will U-verse wireline broadband still be important, or do you see that eventually moving to fixed wireless?

TG: Fixed-line broadband is very, very important to us. We’ve committed as part of the conditions of the merger to build 12.5 million fiber households. There is a tremendous amount of investment that is traveling down the fixed-line broadband path. As far as fixed wireless, we are deploying some fixed wireless, largely in rural areas. As mobile networks evolve and we get into this IP era, there will be an opportunity to unify the broadband approach. We haven’t been overly specific as to what our plans are there. But to answer your question very directly, fixed line is very, very important. We’re putting a lot of fiber in the ground and we don’t intend to pull back at all.

MCN:So there will always be a line into the house?

TG: Yeah. How that line gets there is definitely evolving. It used to be twisted-pair copper that went through a central office and got distributed, then it became fiber to the neighborhood and now we’re at fiber into the home. There will be what I call a collision of wireless and wireline at some point. It’s hard to predict when [and] to what extent we’ll use it. We’re going to do whatever is more cost-efficient and delivers the best experience to the consumer.

SIDEBAR: Streaming Meemies

Beginning in the fourth quarter of this year, AT&T will make streaming video available in three separate packages for consumers:

DirecTV Now: On-demand and live programming from most of the networks available on DirecTV, plus premium and add-on options

DirecTV Mobile: Mobile-first experience for premium video and made-for-digital content for smartphones, regardless of wireless service provider

DirecTV Preview: Free, ad-supported service featuring some of the quality programming available on DirecTV, including the AT&T Audience Network and millennial-focused content from Otter Media

Source: AT&T

SIDEBAR: Sub-Traction

DirecTV net new-subscriber growth has been on the rise in the past few quarters, just as AT&T’s U-verse customer base has declined sharply. (In thousands)

Q1 2015           Q2 2015             Q3 2015         Q4 2015        Q1 2016

DirecTV . . . . . . . . . .  60 . . . . . . . . (133) . . . . . . . . . 26 . . . . . . . . . 214 . . . . . . . . 328

AT&T U-Verse . . . . . 49 . . . . . . . . (23) . . . . . . . . . (92) . . . . . . . .(240) . . . . . .  (382)

Source: Company reports

Old set-tops like the crusty DCT-2000 might make for a good door stop or bookend, but Mohu has discovered a new, more resourceful use for them – mash them into bits and turn that recycled material into antennas that can easily capture free, digital over-the-air TV signals.

Mohu, the TV antenna maker and courter of cord-cutters, has developed the ReLeaf, a “green” HD antenna made from set-tops that have been long been put out to pasture. They’re not talking about which specific models have been crushed into “MohoGrind” pellets that form the recycled TV antennas, but noted that the boxes are locally sourced from the company’s home state of North Carolina.

But Mohu sent me a ReLeaf to try out, and the box it came in clearly shows bits from a Scientific-Atlanta Explorer 3100, and a DCT-class Motorola digital set-top. To give you a sense on the age of that set-top matter, realize that Cisco Systems bought S-A in 2005 (and subsequently sold its CPE biz to Technicolor last year); and Arris nabbed Motorola Home in 2014. DCT boxes are pretty much the Model T of the digital cable era. 

In recognition of International Recycling Day (May 17), Mohu will be offering the ReLeaf for $49.99, a price that includes a 10-foot coax cable to connect the antenna to the TV. Mohu claims that the ReLeaf has a 30-mile digital UHF signal range, and a 10-mile digital VHF signal range.

According to the company, one pound of plastic from a cable box can be used to create 40 ReLeaf antenna “clamshells” – the plastic, flat portion of the antenna that covers the inner foil that receives the OTA signals.  

And I can say that this thing actually works, and works really well.

It took me all of ten minutes to remove the antenna from the box, connect it to a TV, and start scanning for local OTA channels. It found more than 40, and most were coming in crystal clear.

Channels that were coming in pixelated were quickly remedied by a quick adjustment of the antenna. And this was for a TV in my basement that isn’t placed near a window.

TiVo has added storage and eliminated monthly subscription service fees for the Roamio OTA, an HD-DVR wth OTT capabilities targeted at cord-cutters that also crosses swords with Channel Master’s subscription-less OTA-OTT DVR combo.

TiVo new Roamio OTA, which goes on sale on May 2 at TiVo.com, BestBuy.com, Amazon.com and some Best Buy brick and mortar stores, will feature a 1 terabyte hard drive and sell for $399.99, which covers lifetime access to the underlying TiVo service.  It's also integrated with OTT apps from partners such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and YouTube.

After unveiling a “limited edition” of the Roamio OTA in the fall of 2014, TiVo went national with the product in January 2015. That version sold for $49.99, came equipped with a 500 Gigabyte hard drive (but with no CableCARD slot), and required users to pay $14.99 per month for the TiVo service.

The new model will also sport four tuners as well as some relatively new TiVo features such as the controversial SkipMode as well as QuickMode – elements that were originally offered on the 4K-capable TiVo Bolt but were recently extended to its Roamio product family.

The Roamio OTA is also compatible with the TiVo Mini (for multi-room set-ups) as well as TiVo Stream, the company’s Slingbox-like place-shifting device.

Removing the monthly subscription fee will put the Roamio OTA on better completive footing with Channel Master’s DVR+,  which in January added Sling TV, Dish Network’s OTT-TV streaming platform, to its app mix, and sells its comparable 1 TB model for $399.

TiVo’s new OTA offering also emerges amid reports that Dish Network corporate cousins Sling Media and EchoStar are nearing the launch of AirTV, a device that will purportedly also support Sling TV’s service as well as an digital OTA tuner.

TiVo, naturally, believes that it’s got a superior product for the category.

"The TiVo Roamio OTA 1TB is in a class of its own," Ira Bahr, TiVo's chief marketing and retail sales officer, said in a statement. "It delivers the unparalleled TiVo DVR experience, as well as an intuitive integration between free over-the-air HD channels and major streaming services. No other device brings everything you watch together into one single, easy-to-use interface."

Though targeted at a small but growing group of cord-cutters, the Roamio OTA could help to expand TiVo’s retail customer base. It ended its fiscal Q4 with 6.8 million subs – 5.47 million via MSO partnerships and 971,000 that are retail/“TiVo-owned,” and just announced that its aggregate subscriber base has eclipsed 7 million.

TiVo has yet to announce plans to offer an OTA/OTT-only version of the  Bolt. The current Bolt can handle OTA signals, but also comes with a CableCARD slot.

Chipmaker ViXS Systems is using this week’s confab in Las Vegas to demo the CordCutter TV streaming stick a device that converts over-the-air TV signals to IP format, enabling a variety of connected video devices to receive, decode and display free HDTV content.

ViXS said it has developed the device, a “while labeled” product for original equipment manufacturers, in partnership with Geniatch, a free-to-air TV tech specialist, and Nuvyyo, which designed the CordCutter TV’s interface, which will support platforms such as the Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV (via AirPlay), Google Chromecast adapter, iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, and Web browsers.

Nuvyyo is also the company behind the Tablo OTA DVR for cord-cutters.

The product bakes in ViXS’s XCode 5505 hardware transcoding platform, sports single-tuner support for ATSC OTA reception, a real-time OTA streaming server, and Ethernet or WiFi streaming to video devices.

ViXS said the CordCutter TV platform is available for orders today, with samples to become available in May, and production set for June 2016. 

As expected, Starz has become the latest premium network to go over-the-top with the launch of a standalone retail app/service that will sell for $8.99 per month and make its debut on iOS and Android tablets and smartphones and Apple TV devices.

Starz’s new OTT offering, also accessible to subscribers via Web browsers and primarily targeted to broadband-only U.S. households, is starting off with a library of more than 2,400 on-demand titles, including network originals such as Outlander and Power and a slate of movies, including, later this year, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Starz estimates that the app is booting up with about 1,600 series episodes and 850 movies.

Under this is approach, Starz will sell the new OTT service via the Apple App Store and Google Play, which will carry the customer relationship in terms of billing and customer care. Amazon also sells Starz subscriptions as an add-on, for $8.99 per month, to Amazon Prime members.

Starz’s standalone, OTT offering, which allows subs to access up to four simultaneous streams, follows last April’s launch of HBO Now ($14.99 per month) and the July 2015 debut of Showtime’s OTT service, which sells for $10.99 per month on an a la carte basis.

In a different twist, Starz’s OTT offering will also let subscribers download most of the titles in its library for later offline viewing. About 2,200 of the 2,400 assets offered on the new OTT product will have download rights out of the chute, Jeff Hirsch, Starz’s president of global marketing and product planning, said.

Update: Starz currently offers a live stream via Starz.com to customers who access it via their TV Everywhere credentials or the new digital standalone offering. 

To help drive further interest in the new offering, Starz said the second installment premiere episode of Outlander will be made available on April 7 for streaming and downloading ahead of its official premiere on the Starz linear channel on April 9 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

In addition to supporting the new standalone OTT offering, the new Starz app will also be used to support the premium network’s authenticated TV Everywhere service offered through its mix of MVPD partners, including cable operators and telco TV and satellite TV service providers. Adding another layer of uniformity, the new app will also deliver content (for streaming and downloading) from the Starz sister networks, Movieplex and the newly-rebranded Starz Encore.

With the new app, Starz will seek new ways to expand its sub base. Starz, the flagship offering, ended 2015 with about 23.6 million subs, with 32.2 million coming way of Starz Encore.

Hirsch said the new, all-in-one Starz app will eventually support a wide range of other platforms, but didn’t pinpoint what those will be in the early phases of its availably.

However, Starz Play, Starz’s legacy TVE app  that will eventually be phased out, currently runs on several platforms, including iOS and Android mobile devices, the Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles, the Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire tablets, Roku players and Roku TVs, the Google Chromecast streaming adapter, and Android TV-powered products such as the Nvidia Shield, Razer Forge TV, and Nexus Player. Those would all seem to be likely candidates for Starz’s new app.

Hirsch said a key challenge early on for Starz is to embed a retail mentality into a business that has traditionally relied on MVPD partnerships.

“It’s a different skillset than I think we’ve grown up with,” he said.  “Trying to find the consumer who’s not in the MVPD video landscape…is a challenge I’ve been focused on.”

“Starz has entered the market today with an enormous value proposition for consumers,” Starz CEO Chris Albrecht said, in a statement. “Our programing will now be more widely available to the 20 million broadband only homes of cord nevers, cord cutters and cord shavers, including Millennials and other underserved consumers who need other viable subscription service options.”

The new standalone service, he added, "will also help fortify the broadband business of many of our traditional distributors and be even more appealing for inclusion in future video bundles.”

In some respects, this is Starz’s second shot at a standalone, OTT-delivered subscription offering. Starz previously tested those waters with a Web browser-focused service called Vongo that came to be before the rise of an apps-driven market driven by faster broadband speeds and the widespread availability of smartphones, tablets and TV-connected devices. The short-lived Vongo service was launched by Starz in January 2006, and shut it down in the second half of 2008 as the premium programmer moved ahead with the Starz Play offering.