After securing a $75 million funding round in April, its second major cash infusion, start-up virtual pay TV operator fuboTV is about to launch its second national TV ad campaign.

The first in the series of four 30-second spots under the don’t “Don’t Compromise” campaign banner will begin running in September during national TV coverage of the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball games, as well as on regional sports networks.

Related: fuboTV Raises $75M More

The broadly targeted spots will feature adults enduring the silly consequences of modern-life compromises, but who ostensibly eschewed giving up ground on their TV package.

As is often the case, the video market share of cable companies is a major target. 

“Last year's campaign targeted male sports fans who wanted the most sports for the least money. Today, we're leading with sports but, with the addition of premium entertainment and news networks to the lineup, we’ve built a true cable replacement for the whole family. More value means no compromise.” said Alberto Horihuela, co-founder and chief marketing officer, fuboTV, in a statement.

fuboTV hasn’t released an official subscriber count, but Strategy analytics put out an estimate for all major vMVPD operators last week that pegged fubo’s customer base at around 325,000. MCN ran that by a fuboTV rep last week, who didn’t confirm the figure … but didn’t challenge it, either. 

You can watch fuboTV's latest spots below:

"Yoga"

"Cat"

Sanford Bernstein media analyst Todd Juenger held his fourth focus group aimed at determining the appetite for “skinny bundles” and found the segment hungriest to reduce their pay TV diet were consumers that already were eating too much.

Juenger’s latest focus group was held in Boston on June 7, asking a group of young consumers (under 40 years of age, living independently, and a mixture of cord-cutters and pay TV subscribers) to explore their interest in OTT packages like Sling TV, DirecTV Now, and YouTube TV. The analyst has conducted three similar focus groups in San Francisco, Chicago and New York and plans to conduct similar groups on stage at its upcoming Future of Media Summit in New York on June 28 and 29.

As in past focus groups, the samples are small – about 17 people, nine female and eight male – and are not supposed to be considered all encompassing. But they do provide anecdotal insight into young consumer behavior.

What Juenger found was basically what was determined in the earlier groups – the customers most likely to opt for skinny bundles were existing pay TV customers, many with the top level of service, which “aren’t exactly the incremental, cord-cutting audience we've heard network executives describe,” he wrote. “If they can trade down, save money, and still get the content that's most important to them, they're willing to consider switching. Cord-nevers/cord-cutters, on the other hand, once again expressed almost no interest.”

Specific shows, not networks or channels, seem to be driving most young consumers’ buying habits, with several of those surveyed adding that if they see a show they like, they’ll buy it. Young millennials who don’t have pay TV subscriptions aren’t likely to be compelled to start paying for a “skinny” video package, mainly because it doesn’t include all the shows they watch.

“My whole thing is just there’s so many different services, and they don’t have—they’re all missing something. My question is, why?," noted one participant who pays $200 per month for five different services.

Juenger asked the participants what channels they would pay $5 per month for and ESPN topped the list, followed by Food Network, FX, HGTV, Logo, NBCSN, Syfy and VH1.

Of the consumers that did stick with their full video packages, DVR service was the service most feared losing if they downgraded, according to the report.

One difference from the other studies was that local news seemed to fall from the list of reasons why consumers balked at cutting the cord. Most participants said the availability of local news on the internet made it easier to do without those channels.

One service the participants seemed to be unable to do without was Netflix. While most were focused on cutting their costs when it came to TV entertainment, ost participants said they would keep their Netflix subscriptions even if the monthly charge rose to $15 per month. Netflix is currently priced at about $10 per month.

Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said the country’s largest cable operator is preparing to launch a wireless product by the middle of next year, integrating its WiFi service with Verizon Wireless mobile technology.

Roberts, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference in New York didn’t offer many details on the wireless offering, adding that it will be targeted at Comcast’s best customers – those that take at least two services from the cable operator.

“The concept would be that our very best customers, of which we have 28 million, and well over 70%- to -80% bought some sort of multi-package from us, we can sell them more products,” Roberts said. “And if that product can be the Verizon wireless product, maybe improved with our 15 million WiFi hotspots where its more seamless, and we are able to give you a good value proposition, we believe there will be a big payback, with red churn, with more stickiness, with better satisfaction, more product purchasing from us. We’re excited to be working toward that.”

Comcast exercised its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement with Verizon – part of its 2011 sale of wireless spectrum to the company – last year. In July, Comcast created Comcast Mobile, headed by former EVP of sales and marketing operations Greg Butz, to investigate the wireless opportunity.

Comcast has ventured into the wireless business in the past with mixed results. But the company says this time it is taking a cautious approach.

“We want to do it right and we want to do it well,” Roberts said.

Comcast also is taking its time regarding offering smaller video packages, so-called skinny bundles,  that several other pay TV and over-the-top providers have embraced.

At the conference, Roberts wasn’t convinced that smaller is necessarily better.

“I don’t know if that’s really what people want,” Roberts said of skinny bundles. “There’s certainly some who want to pay less, but I don’t know too many programmers who are saying ‘I want to go a la carte and it works for my business.' But we’re experimenting and there are clearly some customers who are saying therefore I won’t buy at all.”

Roberts added that about 30% of Comcast customers that take smaller video packages eventually upsell to a fuller offering. He noted that Comcast has begun adding video customers in the past 12 months, “We’re not going backwards,” Roberts said. “Our focus is to continue to make the bundle more valuable.”

Dish Network hopped on the skinny bundle train Thursday, offering a slimmed-down package of 50 channels for $39.99 per month, an attempt to attract cost-conscious younger consumers who are consistently resisting buying the standard bundle of programming.

With the Flex Pack, customers will get more than 50 channels – including AMC, TNT, USA, HGTV, E!, Cartoon Network, History, A&E, CNN, Discovery, TBS, Food Network, FX and TV Land. In addition, they also can choose one of eight separate themed channel packages including local broadcast networks, kids, national and regional channels for between $4 and $10 per month.

“Our customers are frustrated with having to pay for hundreds of channels, most of which they never watch,” said Dish exective vice president of marketing, programming and media sales Warren Schlichting in a statement. “Flex Pack provides a level of flexibility and control that brings our customers closer to the ideal of fully tailoring their channel lineup.”

The channel packs include:

Locals Pack ($10 per month): CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, as well as Univision and others based on the local market.

Variety Pack ($6 per month): Investigation Discovery, Lifetime Movie Network, Freeform, Bravo, BET, Crime & Investigation.

Kids Pack ($10 per month): Disney Channel, Disney Jr., Animal Planet, Nick Jr., Disney XD, Nicktoons, Boomerang, Baby TV.

National Action Pack ($10 per month): ESPN, ESPN2, FS1, Velocity, AXS TV, Fuse, TV Games Network, TVG2, Universal HD.

News Pack ($10 per month): FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Weather Channel, CNBC, FOX Business Network, BBC World News, Bloomberg, TheBlaze.

Heartland Pack ($6 per month): Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, GSN, OWN, Uplifting Entertainment, Discovery Family, Baby TV, PIXL, RFD-TV, Ride TV, FamilyNet.

Regional Action Pack ($10 per month): In-market regional sports network(s), Big Ten Network, FS2, Longhorn Network, Outside TV, Pac-12 Network, SEC Network, World Fishing Network, ESPN Buzzer Beater.

Outdoor Pack ($4 per month): Outdoor Channel, Outside TV, Sportsman Channel, World Fishing Network.

Customers who choose not to add any channel packs can receive the Flex Pack core programming for $29.99. Premium channels like HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and Starz are also available as add-ons for an additional fee. A complete channel lineup can be found at www.dish.com.

Flex Pack includes a standard DISH receiver, free installation and a two-year price guarantee for new customers. For an additional $10 per month, new customers can upgrade their equipment to the Hopper 3. Customers must enroll in eBill and AutoPay to be eligible to receive these offers.

RELATED:Disney Earnings Growth Falls Short of Wall Street Targets

Walt Disney Co., chairman and CEO Bob Iger backed Hulu’s plans to offer a bundle of pay TV channels through its own live streaming service, adding the online pioneer could be an attractive alternative for consumers.

Hulu unveiled plans to offer its own skinny bundle of live sports, news and events last week. Disney is a partner in Hulu along with 21st Century Fox and Comcast.

Iger said Hulu had the potential to become a formidable multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) by offer a “best of cable” package to consumers. Hulu hasn’t said how much that package will cost or when it would be released and Iger wasn’t offering any further insight. But he said that Hulu’s moves shouldn’t upset Disney’s current distribution partners, many of whom – like Comcast’s NBC Universal – have their own programming assets.

“We don’t think there will be any negative impact whatsoever to us going into the business of distributing our channels,” Iger said.

Iger said that Disney has had talks with several other distributors about its content, including Sling TV, which introduced a multi-stream package last month that included Fox sports channels but no ESPN. Iger said that Disney had had talks with Sling about the multi-stream product but was not able to reach an agreement by the launch date. However, Iger said he met with Dish Network chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen last week (Dish owns Sling) and has had discussions about being included in the multi-stream product.  

The Disney chief had little to say about the abrupt departure of chief operating officer Tom Staggs, who many believed was Iger’s heir apparent. Staggs announced his resignation in April. His last day at Disney was May 6 but he will remain as an advisor to Iger through the end of fiscal 2016.

Iger said he was sorry that Staggs decided to leave, calling him a “colleague and friend,” but said the Disney board had ample time to find a new successor. Iger’s current employment deal with Disney has another two years left and the chairman and CEO said he has no current plans to extend it. That could leave the door open to him staying on past that date, but at least for now, Iger said he has no plans to stay beyond his agreed upon term.

ESPN and Verizon have formally settled a lawsuit the programmer brought against the telco in April 2015 after it launched a “skinny bundle” package – Custom TV – that placed the Worldwide Leader in a separate Sports package. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

"We have a long-standing relationship with Verizon," said Disney and ESPN Media Networks senior vice president, affiliate sales, Sean Breen in a statement.  "We look forward to working with them to provide great content to consumers for years to come."

 The two seemed to make up later when Verizon revamped the Custom TV package with an offering that included the sports channels at the same price as those without those networks.

"ESPN is an important partner of ours," said Verizon vice president, content strategy and acquisition,Terry Denson in a statement. "We look forward to further collaborating with them to deliver customers content across all of our platforms."

New York -- During a keynote appearance at Wednesday's Next TV Summit at NYC Television Week, Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch said the Dish-owned "skinny bundle" service expects to add broadcast networks to its lineup, but not in the short term. "It's a complicated market," he said during a wide-ranging discussion. "To some extent, [networks] aren't ready."

Lynch noted that they hoped to eventually have the local stations but stressed they didn’t want to create a bundle that was too expensive by paying too much for them and that in many ways the broadcast community wasn’t ready to negotiate those kinds of deals.

“ABC can’t do it,” meaning negotiate a national agreement because of all the local affiliate agreements, Lynch said. “Over time, local is something we will offer. But to a certain extent they are not ready”

He also stressed that the deal with broadcasters or any other programmer would have to be priced appropriately. “We are not going to create a bundle that will cause us to miss market,” by paying too much for channels, he said. “We could have launched the service a few years ago but it would have been a big pay TV bundle” and that would have missed the market they were targeting.

Lynch made the comments during a keynote at the Next TV event during NYC Television Week hosted by Multichannel News and B&C that was moderated by Jeff Baumgartner, Editor, Next TV, and Technology Editor at Multichannel News.

During the session, Lynch noted that “pay TV is at a tipping point,” and discussed the experience since the service launched, making a number of important points about how “skinny bundles” and OTT subscription services like Sling TV were moving into the market.

Lynch explained that the pay TV industry was mature but had not seen a segmentation of its services and that were was very little difference in services between major providers. “A lot of that is driven by programming agreements,” he said. “They are required to offer the same channels” and “there is very little difference in term of how it is packaged and priced.”

Services like Sling TV were starting to segment the market to “reach a growing segment of viewers” who found traditional pay TV service too expensive or not mobile enough.

“Over the air is growing and the growth in antenna sales is correlated with cord cutting,” he said.

Lynch provided no subscriber numbers but said Sling TV was very happy with the growth. “When we created the service a year ago we weren’t sure how much demand there would be for a service that didn’t have the major broadcasters, but we now know there is a lot of demand,” he said.

Since launch, Lynch noted that the subscriber profile had remained generally consistent, attracting cord cutters, cord nevers and a surprising number of people who already have a pay TV service. “Why they do it I don’t know….but it is not an insignificant segment,” he said.

The service over-indexed among millennials but it was mostly gaining traction among those in the 23 or 24 year group and older. “Before 22, they are not interested in pay TV,” he said.

Since launch, Lynch noted that one of the key priorities has been to expand the on demand portion of the offering and that this content was likely to become more important in the future. “We now have tens of thousands of on-demand titles,” he said, adding that live viewing would increasingly be on sports and other important live events.

One of the other priorities continued to be on the technical infrastructure and on improving addressable-advertising capabilities. “It is a big opportunity,” he said, noting the higher CPMs for targeted advertising.

The initial focus, however has been a created a good experience for dynamically inserted adds. “We are really at beginning,” he said. “It has been one of toughest things technically” they’ve faced.

When asked about the FCC proposal to classify over-the-top providers as MVPDs so they would have better access to content, Lynch expressed mixed feelings. “It could be a benefit but I worry about unintended consequences.”

Lynch noted that he joined Dish and EchoStar six years ago and that the Sling TV services has been in the works for some time. After being able to negotiate deals with programmers, the company switched its focus and launched an OTT service of international channels about three and a half years ago.

NEWPORT, RI – While the rest of the industry frets about the addition of more than 3million Netflix subscriptions in the second quarter, Comcast senior executive vice president David Cohen said the streaming service has actually helped drive two of cable’s most profitable business lines – broadband and content licensing.

“Netflix is the ultimate frenemy,” Cohen said at a panel session at the New England Cable & Telecommunications Association annual conference here. Cohen added while some fear that more Netflix customers means less cable customers, he reminded the audience that reliable broadband is a crucial element of the streaming service.

“Remember, you can’t get Netflix without broadband service,” Cohen said. “Those are 3 million customers of our broadband service.”

He added that Netflix also has contributed to the content side of the business, providing another significant stream of revenue for library content for both television series and films.

While Cohen sees Netflix as a complement to Comcast’s cable offering, he acknowledges that streaming services, especially those that offer slimmer video packages like Sling TV and Sony PlayStation Vue, could potentially be more attractive to price-conscious consumers.

“Part of this is a self-inflicted wound,” Cohen said. “We have made video too expensive.”

Harron Communications chairman and CEO Jim Bruder said that for most operators, sports and retransmission consent fees are their biggest costs. Being able to offer slimmer bundles, especially minus sports channels, could allow operators to offer less channels at lower prices and still maintain healthy profit margins.

Although other companies, including Comcast, have experimented with smaller bundles, Cohen said that taking the concept to the extreme could result in a loss of diverse programming.

“Name a diverse network you think will survive?” Cohen asked, adding services like Sling TV and PlayStation Vue have no diverse networks in their lineups.

“Ethnically diverse and politically diverse programming is all but eradicated in a slimmed-down bundle world."

Cohen added that a better solution could be for networks, especially regional sports networks, to allow distributors to offer channels to 75% to 80% of their customers rather than 100%. That, he said would go a long way toward easing the pressure on price-sensitive customers while still maintaining the programming business model.   

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.