Benefield honchoes T-Mobile’s latest effort to disrupt an industry: a low-cost, no-contract OTT skinny bundle that notably expands the wireless carrier’s services.

TVision is a suite of offerings priced between $10 and $60 a month, targeting different TV-watching audiences, with optional Android TV-based hardware, a free year of Apple TV Plus, and even a $99 deal on the Apple TV 4K. Benefield calls the various tiers “right-sized lineups featuring the content they love most,” backed by support from “real humans” in thousands of T-Mobile retail outlets, online and on the phone. 

TVision launched Nov. 1 for T-Mobile customers, with more tranches to come, and the promise that prices would stay low, tech support human and contracts non-existent. A licensed pilot since he was 16, Benefield must navigate those sometimes conflicting promises and make TVision a sustainable part of the T-Mobile portfolio. That’s proved difficult for competitors, including Benefield’s former employer, Sony, where he presided for five years over its skinny bundle, PlayStation Vue, which shuttered in January.

Benefield joined T-Mobile just as it wrapped up a transformative merger with Sprint, adjusted to new CEO Mike Sievert, and accelerated buildout of its hugely important 5G network.

According to Benefield, “5G has the potential to change the mobile-viewing experience by allowing even faster load times, faster download speeds, seamless playback, and reduced playback delays. As 5G evolves, it will deliver lower latency for a better interactive experience and more efficiency through multicasting.”

A Wharton grad, Benefield worked at Disney and Google before Sony. Now, he’s charged with helping T-Mobile navigate a fast-changing sector far from its carrier, or even “un-carrier” roots. 

“As people return to work, we expect the time spent watching TV to continue to exceed pre-pandemic levels, and the manner in which they watch, including more mobile and interactive viewing, to forever change,” he added.

Just ahead, TVision’s part in delivering another Sievert promise, 5G-based wireless home internet, to rival the cable powerhouses and deliver to areas they can’t reach. T-Mobile plans to have in-home internet in more than half of U.S. households by 2026. 

Dwayne Benefield, who captained the pioneering Sony PlayStation Vue virtual pay TV service until its shuttering in January, has resurfaced at T-Mobile, under of the title of VP of entertainment.

Benefield made somewhat of a surprise appearance Tuesday morning, when T-Mobile posted a prerecorded video presentation for press of its revamped TVision pay TV platform. Benefield made an appearance, alongside T-Mobile CEO Mike Seivert and several other executives involved in the video launch. 

Also read: T-Mobile Unveils Revamped TVision Pay-TV Service

On his LinkedIn profile, Benefield says he’s been with T-Mobile since March, “Leading strategy, growth and customer engagement for Entertainment products and services.”

The services he helps create, Benefield adds, “Will leverage T-Mobile’s national wireless network, retail footprint and award-winning customer care to deliver uncarrier entertainment experiences to consumers rapidly moving to streaming media.”

Las Vegas -- The origins of PlayStation Vue, initially launched to a set of U.S. markets about three years ago, are rooted to PlayStation 3 and 4 consoles, but adoption of Sony’s OTT TV service has rapidly expanded to other supported streaming platforms.  

In fact, about 70% of streaming of the PS Vue service now takes place on non-PlayStation devices, Dwayne Benefield, VP and head of PlayStation Vue (pictured), said here Wednesday (April 11) at the NAB Show’s inaugural Streaming Summit. 

In addition to the PS3 and PS4, PlayStation Vue, considered a whole-home offering because it allows for up to five simultaneous streams per account, is supported on Android TV devices, Apple TV boxes, Amazon Fire TV devices, Roku players and Roku TVs, Chromecast streaming adapters, web browsers, and Android and iOS mobile devices.  

Among other stats, Benefield said PS Vue subs average five hours plus per session, with live TV making up 80% of viewing time on the streaming service.  

Looking back, Benefield recalled that PS Vue started in select cities where it could offer access to certain local TV broadcasts, but later launched a version of the service under the “Slim” moniker that provided PS Vue a national reach (and included next day VOD access to certain broadcast TV shows) and way to enter markets where PS Vue didn’t offer live locals.  

Slim, which cost $10 less per month, was “surprisingly successful,” Benefield said.  

Local TV is “valuable, but it’s not a make-or-break…I think [OTT TV] services can succeed without broadcast,” he added, noting that many consumers still have the option to get those channels with an antenna.  

PS Vue offers four pay TV packages, but also tries to differentiate with its cloud DVR service, multi-view capability (allowing viewers to watch up to three linear channels at once), and by offering a la carte access to services such as HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Fox Soccer Plus, and Epix Hits.  

“There is value in the bundle,” Benefield said in a keynote conversation with Dan Rayburn, conference chairman of the NAB Streaming Summit. “As it does fray, you’ll see us add more a la cartes.”  

Benefield was also asked about the challenges ahead as PS Vue faces off with a growing number of virtual MVPDs that today includes DirecTV Now, Hulu, YouTube TV, fuboTV, with a couple more on deck from T-Mobile (via its acquisition of Layer3 TV) and Vidgo.  

RELATED: Vidgo IDs Two OTT Tech Partners  

While the addition of new players raises awareness that consumers have live TV streaming options, he likewise he doesn’t expect many more to jump into the game.  

“This is not a faint-of-heart business,” Benefield said.  

RELATED: PlayStation Vue Mobilizes More Features 

He said PS Vue, which continues to add more live local TV feeds in various markets, has plans to bring more enhancements and features to the service, but declined to detail them. However, he said PS Vue updates its apps every two to three weeks.  

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Despite this being the “Golden Age of Television,” Benefield also expects there to be a winnowing of some channels that are unable to put in the investment to continue creating enough high quality content to sustain a 24/7 offering.

He also pointed out that MVPDs, including OTT-delivered ones, are also benefiting from stacking rights of TV show that are continuing to pivot more toward the pay TV ecosystem and away, to some degree, from SVOD services. 

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Dwayne Benefield, VP and head of PlayStation Vue, says the rollout of the pay-TV service has "far exceeded expectations."

He spoke Thursday to Jeff Baumgartner, technology editor ofMultichannel News, during a keynote session at NewBay Media's Next TV Summit, offering rare insight into the ongoing Vue rollout. The "skinny bundle" offering has just added Los Angeles and San Francisco, and is now available in several major markets.

Benefield did not divulge subscription numbers but said median viewer engagement has averaged five hours a day, more than an hour longer than traditional TV watched by 18-34-year-olds, according to Nielsen. About 75% of the subscriber base is in that age demo, he noted.

Those users are also watching an average of 25 channels offered in the PlayStation bundle, which costs $50 to $70 a month.

"If you try to extrapolate that to the OTT world" of stand-alone pay services, he said, "it's probably not any cheaper for consumers than in the package. For the bulk of our users, the package makes a lot of sense."

In addition to the new markets, Vue announced this week a suite of OTT offerings, including Showtime and Fox Soccer Plus, available to Vue bundle subscribers but also nationwide a la carte to any PlayStation 3 or 4 owner.