With the U.S. pay TV business collectively shedding another 1.62 million customers in the second quarter, a trend seems to have emerged.

The industry's biggest remaining growth engine, YouTube TV, has become a seasonal business, expanding when the NFL season is in full swing, and retreating amid other parts of the calendar year. 

The latest MoffettNathanson quarterly Cord-Cutting Monitor report illustrates this seasonality, estimating that Google's virtual MVPD only added 50,000 subscribers in the second quarter, after for the first time ever losing customers in a quarter — an estimated 150,000 of them — back in January through March. 

This all comes after YouTube TV — freshly infused at the time with new rights to NFL Sunday Ticket — added an estimated 1 million customers in the fourth quarter of last year. (Note these figures are all MoffettNathanson estimates; Google/Alphabet rarely breaks out YouTube TV data in quarterly earnings reports.)

With Hulu Plus Live TV and Fubo also reporting customer declines in Q2, analyst Craig Moffett noted the seasonality of the vMPVD business. 

“The first quarter sees the largest number of disconnects — reflecting the end of the NFL season — and those customers generally don’t return until Q3, when the season resumes,” Moffett wrote. “That leaves the second quarter stranded in the middle, with little or no bounce back from the Q1 losses. (Recall also that the Olympics were a third-quarter event as well.) All of which is a long-winded way of saying that we’ll have to wait until Q3 to gauge the growth of the vMVPD segment.“

For rivals of DirecTV, it could be robust. DirecTV stream added around 86,000 customers in the second quarter, Moffett estimates, with DirecTV phasing out satellite and marketing its all-IP platform heavily. 

However, with ABC and ESPN currently blacked out on DirecTV because of a fee dispute with Disney, DirecTV customers are undoubtedly seeking refuge in platforms including YouTube TV to find their NFL and college football access. 

For its part, Dish’s vMVPD, Sling TV, is being understandably opportunistic on the marketing end. We received this email come-on on Tuesday:

Some misguided NBA enthusiasts on the social internet reveled Wednesday at the possibility of future NBA Finals telecasts no longer festooned with the omnipresent YouTube TV logo, perhaps assuming the ascendance of Comcast’s Xfinity pay TV platform as the league’s “Official TV Service” meant that the Google/Alphabet-owned vMVPD's marketing role had somehow been replaced. 

But that's not what's happening, a league source told Next TV Thursday. 

It is true that as part of the NBA’s new $2.5 billion-a-season deal with Comcast's NBCUniversal unit, Comcast Cable’s Xfinity brand will become the “official TV service” of the NBA, WNBA and USA Basketball (despite the fact that more than 2 million users bolted the platform in 2023 alone).

Also Read: NBA Says Warner ‘Didn’t Match the Terms’ of Amazon’s Proposal, Enters Long-Term TV Deal With Online Retail Giant

“The partnership includes collaboration on marketing and storytelling opportunities, virtual signage during game telecasts and activations at marquee NBA, WNBA and USA Basketball events,” the league said in an announcement about the broader deal. 

YouTube TV has paid to occupy the role of "presenting sponsor" of the NBA Finals since 2018, and that role is not changing, our source told us, noting that the Google and NBCU deals “are not in conflict.” 

That won’t be welcome news to everyone. 

After watching the 2023 NBA Finals featuring the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat, Awful Announcing writer Devin Raab noted: “The degree to which these ads are omnipresent is breathtaking even by modern sports standards. For starters, the NBA Finals logo itself has ‘Presented by YouTube TV’ officially attached underneath it, meaning that every time you see that logo in branding either throughout the stadium or in graphics, you are also seeing the gaudy, red YouTube TV logo. There are also, throughout these broadcasts, commercial spots for YouTube TV and narrated voiceovers explaining that these games are sponsored by YouTube TV. You would think this would be sufficient, that this alone would represent so much product placement that any more would be overkill; after all, by tethering the YouTube TV logo to the Finals logo, you’re seeing it almost everywhere you look throughout the stadium, including the stanchion of the hoop and the chairs the players are sitting on. But oh no, this is merely the tip of the iceberg.”

YouTube TV, the fast-growing virtual multichannel video programming distributor, is expected to post a profit for the first time in 2024, according to analyst Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson.

Nathanson sees YouTube TV having operating income of $200 million in 2024, following a loss of $300 million in 2023. He sees net income continuing to rise, hitting $600 million in 2026.

In February, parent company Alphabet reported that YouTube TV grew to 8 million subscribers, making it the third-biggest pay-TV distributor, following cable giants Charter Communications and Comcast.

“Going forward, we expect YouTube TV to grow subscribers at a similar pace of roughly 1.5 million per year, reaching 12 million subscribers in 2026 and generating nearly $11 billion in revenues,” Nathanson said Thursday in a research report.

“Given the rapid growth of YouTube TV – especially in the context of the accelerating decline of traditional Pay TV providers – it is quickly becoming a crucial player in the linear TV ecosystem,” Nathanson said. "At the current levels of decline [of cable and satellite subs], YouTube TV is on a clear path to becoming the largest pay-TV provider in the United States. “

Also read: For What It's Worth: Charter Is the New Pay TV King, Narrowly Surpasses Comcast By 17,000 Subscribers

Nathanson expects YouTube TV core revenues to increase to $7.5 billion in 2024 from $5.8 billion in 2023. Core revenue are forecast to hit $10.1 billion in 2026.

Virtual MVPDs have faced a profit squeeze as they try to price their services lower than cable, but still have pay carriage feels at least as high as cable’s.

Nathanson estimates YouTube TV’s costs for its vMVPD iat $6.3 billion in 2024 and increasing to $8.6 billion by 2026.

YouTube also has revenue from the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package. Nathanson estimates Sunday Ticket revenues doubling to $400 million in 2024, rising to $700 million by 2026. Sunday Ticket costs YouTube a pricey $1 billion annually.

Nathanson notes that while YouTube TV was originally offered at a bargain price, subscribing to YouTube TV has become more costly over time.

“With traditional MVPD packages now fetching prices in excess of $100, we would argue the ease of YouTube TV (mobile viewing, no cable boxes or satellites, etc.) still presents a great value to those still watching linear television and a great entry point for younger consumers not conditioned for the traditional distribution models,” Nathanson said.

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan recently revealed that the company’s YouTube TV vMVPD service has surpassed 8 million subscribers, supplanting Dish as the fourth largest pay-TV platform in the U.S., behind Charter, Comcast and DirecTV. 

YouTube TV long ago cemented its place as the largest virtual MVPD (vMVPD), well ahead of second place Hulu Plus Live TV, which touted around 4.6 million subscribers as of the end of 2023. 

A Feb. 6 letter to investors from equity research company MoffettNathanson admits that, after touting YouTube TV’s success over the past couple of years “in coming to dominate the vMVPD business… Now it’s clear that the growth at YouTube TV is even stronger than we had anticipated.” 

It All Started as Just a Super-Cheap Skinny Bundle

Launched in 2017, at a time when “skinny bundles” were the big craze as viewers sought to shed some of the pay-TV bundle bloat in favor of smaller cheaper packages, YouTube TV was priced to fill that demand. For $35 a month, users got a package of about 60 channels, including the major broadcast networks, as well a respectable serving of over 40 cable channels. 

But alas, creeping bloat inevitably set in. And in 2019, the company hiked the price to $50 per month after adding Discovery’s lineup of networks to the platform.

Then in June 2022, the company upped its monthly fee again, from $50 to $64.99 after adding ViacomCBS channels.

YouTube TV’s last big price increase in March 2023 brought upped the monthly bill  to $72.99.

YouTube TV offers a base tier of more than 110 channels, along with numerous optional add-on packages, including 4K Plus, Spanish Plus and Sports Plus as well as third-party add-ons like Max, Starz, CuriosityStream or AMC Plus. 

Subscribers have the flexibility to cancel at any time and they can watch on just about any device with a web browser or any of the popular platforms, including Google Chromecast, Apple TV, Fire TV and Roku players and TVs.

Fast Growth

YouTube TV's rise through the vMVPD ranks has been somewhat dramatic as traditional pay-TV operators have been shedding subscribers at an accelerating rate.

Parent company Alphabet doesn't typically break out subscriber metrics for the Google operating unit pay TV service.  

Before releasing the 8 million figure in February 2024, Alphabet said in July 2022 that YouTube TV had amassed 5 million subscribers after about five years in operation. 

So, within a span of about 19 months -- as Comcast, Charter and DirecTV collectively bled millions of subscribers -- YouTube TV added around 3 million paying customers. 

In its February 2024 report, MoffettNathanson noted that the growth of YouTube TV is perhaps the only thing keeping cord cutting from accelerating further. 

Longtime Pay TV Incumbents Are Just Handing Over the Keys

Remarkably, the pay tv business has gotten so untenable for small-to-midsized cable operators that they’ve been willing to just point their customers to a vMVPDs like YouTube TV under a marketing partnership agreement, wash their hands of it and stick to selling broadband. 

In fact, this has become a business driver for YouTube TV. Smaller cable operators, who lack the bargaining clout of Comcast or Charter, can get eaten alive in the crazy world of pay TV carriage rights and many of them are happy to hand over their customers, wholesale, and maybe just work out a joint-billing arrangement or bundle it with broadband for a year to keep their customers happy. 

In March, Frontier Communications, which has bundled third-party virtual pay-TV services with its fiber-based high-speed internet service tiers for several years, started integrating its customers’ monthly fees for YouTube TV with their main broadband bill. 

Customers are showing a definite preference for this type of bundling of their communications services, especially when it comes with a bit of a discount. 

Last summer, Englewood, Colorado-based midsized cable operator WideOpenWest (aka “WOW!”) officially shuttered its own IPTV service, WOW! TV Plus, and made YouTube TV its go-to video platform, transitioning its remaining 117,000 customers to YouTube TV.

In August, WOW! began offering YouTube TV to new customers at a $10-a-month discount for one year, with the virtual pay TV's billing integrated into their monthly high-speed internet and/or mobile statement. 

In November, the company reported that more than 13% of its new customers are signing up for the YouTube TV bundle.

WOW! CEO Theresa Elder told analysts during her company's third-quarter earnings call that the relationship was mutually beneficial. "One of the things we're also seeing is we have new customers who perhaps wouldn't have considered us before, [they] are considering us now because of the YouTube TV offering,” she said.

Even Charter, now the biggest pay-tv operator in the U.S., seemed quite willing to walk away from the whole pay-TV business during a recent two-week standoff with Disney that saw a blackout of ESPN’s fall football coverage. Throughout that time, Charter directed football hungry fans to sign up for YouTube Live TV or Fubo.

It was enough to make Disney blink in a carriage negotiation.

In the end, Disney relaxed its notoriously stringent bundling demands, letting Charter jettison a few less popular channels, including Baby TV, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FXM, FXX, Nat Geo Wild and Nat Geo Mundo. 

But more importantly, Disney conceded wholesale discounts for Charter to resell Disney Plus and ESPN Plus bundled with its own Spectrum TV Select programming package.

Those concessions were enough to keep Charter from throwing its hands in the air and walking away from the video business altogether, at least for now. 

Integrating NFL Sunday Ticket

In late 2022, YouTube TV won a bidding war, beating out other deep-pocketed competitors like Apple, Amazon and Disney, for the highly prized NFL Sunday Ticket package of out-of-market games football games. 

Since 1994, NFL Sunday Ticket had been a crown jewel for satellite operator DirecTV, which had been paying about $1 billion per year in recent years, but the satellite operator was forced to walk away from the table when the stakes got too high.  

YouTube TV is reportedly paying the NFL as much as $2.5 billion annually for Sunday Ticket, which offers Sunday-afternoon NFL telecasts in markets where the games aren’t available locally.

With Sunday Ticket in its back pocket, YouTube TV signed on as a presenting sponsor of the NBA Finals in June and blitzed ABC’s live broadcast with so much promotional content, that even seasoned sports pundits thought its omnipresent ads were overbearing, calling them “breathtaking even by modern sports standards."

As the NFL season kicked off, YouTube TV parent Google flexed some of its “vertical integration” muscle when it integrated NFL Sunday Ticket natively on the Google TV, promoting the package to millions of Americans on their TV’s home screen. In the U.S., Google TV powers not only the popular Chromecast With Google TV CTV device, but also smart TVs made by Hisense, Sony and TCL, among other brands. 

The service kicked off in September with the start of the NFL season. Aside from some pre-season promo offers, the service was priced at $299 for existing YouTube TV subscribers, or $349 for non-subscribers.

As the season progressed, the company lowered the price. By Thanksgiving it was down to $174 and in December, as the season entered its 15th week, the price dropped to as low as $79 for the remainder of the season. 

The company hasn’t revealed how many subscribers have taken the package, but in October, Morgan Stanley Research estimated that YouTube TV had around 1.5 million NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers and that it would take around 3.18 million subscribers for Google/YouTube to break even. As a result, NFL Sunday Ticket probably generated a loss of around $1.2 billion in its first season, according to Morgan Stanley. 

This has sparked discussion about how NFL Sunday Ticket may just be a loss leader for Google or YouTube TV, but what business doesn’t lose money in its first year? 

For a company like Google, $1.2 billion a year is just petty cash. To put things in perspective, in its most recent quarterly report, YouTube reported a 15.5% year-over-year increase in Q4 ad revenue, which reached $9.2 billion, but that includes its wildly popular streaming website alongside the vMVPD service. The company does little to break down the numbers for its media business beyond that, but overall, the internet company reported Q4 revenue of $86.31 billion. 

In that context, a $1.2 billion bet on NFL football’s popularity in the U.S. seems like a bit of a no-brainer. 

Pay TV Blackouts and Other Kerfuffles

YouTube TV has had its share of business disputes along the way. In 2021, the company had a small carriage dispute with Disney that resulted in a 36-hour blackout that kept ABC, ESPN, FX, Disney Channel and other Disney-owned networks off YouTube TV. At the time, the company offered a $15 credit for customers who were impacted by the blackout. 

Perhaps the company’s largest dispute was a ruckus brawl with Roku in 2021 that spilled over quite publicly when Roku dropped the YouTube TV app from its app store. Roku said Google was demanding that it manipulate search results to favor YouTube TV. The dispute wasn’t resolved until eight months later, when Google reached an agreement with Roku.  

In 2022, a group of YouTube TV subscribers across four states filed an antitrust lawsuit against Disney, accusing the company of using its market power to unfairly jack up prices on their virtual pay TV service. The antitrust filed in a San Francisco alleges that Disney uses the most-coveted asset in the pay tv ecosystem, ESPN, as well as its leverage over Hulu, to dictate pricing in the virtual pay-TV market. (A judge recently allowed the case to proceed). 

In February of 2023, MLB Network went dark on YouTube TV amid a high-profile carriage dispute, just as the league was getting ready for spring training. 

YouTube TV also got a slap on the wrist last summer from the National Advertising Division saying that the company’s marketing department went to far when it claimed that YouTube TV is "$600 cheaper than cable" and that YouTube TV should abandon those long-standing apples-to-oranges claims. 

New Features

In December, YouTube TV started testing a new feature that lets users easily toggle back and forth between two channels with the push of the "OK" or "select" button on their remote. YouTube TV's app-based experience, which doesn't assign numbers to channels, is perhaps the most un-linear-like among all vMVPDs.

But since many of its customers are linear pay TV refugees, sent to YouTube TV after their small or midsized cable company abandoned traditional video, adopting a few of the old-school popular features might not be a bad idea. 

Other recent updates include experimental “Decreased Delay” and “Build Your Own Multiview” features.

The Decreased Delay feature allows users to reduce the kind of broadcast delay latency issues that plague live sports. Of course, the trade off is that less buffering means more room for errors and glitches that can impact service quality. Users run the risk of more frequent interruptions in order to avoid sports spoilers. 

YouTube TV’s Build Your Own Multiview feature lets viewer select up to four live sports streams for their own Multiview screen. (Previously, Multiview users were limited to preset selection of games). 

The Big Picture

YouTube TV is one of a handful of vMVPDs positioned to actually fill the void as legacy pay-TV operators retreat. 

In fact, analysts at MoffettNathanson have recently wondered if YouTube TV’s rapid growth could be enough to flatten the fast-accelerating rate of cord-cutting. 

On the other hand, there are a whole new generation of FAST services that are creeping up from behind and it’s unclear what constraints, limitations and growth pains they may face in future. 

Watch this space. We’ll be updating with major developments. 

YouTube TV now has more than 8 million subscribers, according to a company disclosure Tuesday, making it the fourth largest pay TV operator in the U.S. 

The revelation came in the annual letter that YouTube CEO Neal Mohan sends out to the platform's content-making community. In that missive, Mohan also said that more than 3 million YouTube channels are now generating advertising revenue, and that more than 1 billion hours of YouTube content are being viewed worldwide each day. 

"We’re bringing everything viewers love about YouTube to the living room experience. And that includes sports. We just wrapped our first season of NFL Sunday Ticket, and it really shows the future of YouTube," Mohan wrote. 

Also read: For What It's Worth: Charter Is the New Pay TV King, Narrowly Surpasses Comcast By 17,000 Subscribers

The NFL's out-of-market games package, which YouTube paid around $2 billion a season to wrestle away from DirecTV, does appear to have been a growth catalyst. 

YouTube TV last reported a subscriber count in mid-2022, registering around 5 million paid users. 

Now, only Charter (14.122 million pay TV subscribers), Comcast (14.106 million) and DirecTV (with just under 12 million subscribers across its combined platforms) have more scale. 

As of the end of September, Dish Network reported 6.72 million remaining satellite TV customers and 2.12 million Sling TV vMVPD users. A count of "more than 8 million" subscribers renders YouTube TV , priced at $73 a month, larger in scale than any individual DirecTV or Dish pay TV platform ... and right around Dish's combined count. 

Dish, which will report Q4 earnings later this month, lost 268,000 pay subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2022. 

YouTube TV is far and away the largest virtual MVPD. No. 2 vMVPD Hulu + Live TV touted only around 4.6 million subscribers as of the end of September. 

The horserace does matter -- with increased scale comes improved economics on content. 

"We have long highlighted the success of YouTube TV in gradually coming to dominate the vMVPD business. Now it’s clear that the growth at YouTube TV is even stronger than we had anticipated," reads a letter sent Tuesday to investors from equity research company MoffettNathanson. 

YouTube TV has benefitted from "spill-off," with connectivity-focused cable operators exiting less-profitable pay TV sending business the Google unit's way. 

WideOpenWest, for example, said in November that 13% of its new customers are signing for YouTube TV, as well. And during its much-discussed two-week carriage war with Disney, Charter Communications sent football-bereft pay TV customers to YouTube TV, as well. 

For their part, the analysts at MoffettNathanson wonder if the quickened growth of YouTube TV is enough to flatten the fast-accelerating rate of cord-cutting. This graphic suggests it might be. 

The linear pay TV business had its worst third-quarter ever with about 889,000 subscribers cutting the cord, according to an analysis by MoffettNathanson.

Traditional cable, satellite and telco distributors lost 11.7% of their subscribers compared to a year ago.

The new virtual multichannel video programming distributors — such as YouTube TV — are not picking up all of the customers dropping traditional subscriptions, MoffettNathanson found. Only 21.7% of cord cutters signed up for a vMVPD in the third quarter, down from 31% a share ago, the equity research firm said.

That left total linear TV down 7.3% in the quarter, compared to a 5.6% dip a year ago.

“The picture is not one that suggests that a plateau in the rate of decline is coming anytime soon,” MoffettNathanson said.

The cord-cutting dropped pay TV penetration — including vMVPDs — to just 54.8% of occupied households, the lowest since 1989.

MoffettNathanson estimates that YouTube TV is the biggest of the vMVPDs with nearly 7 million subscribers, or about 40% of all 17.999 million vMVPD customers. That total is up from 16.910 million at the end of Q2 and 16.419 a year ago. 

In the third quarter, YouTube TV added 350,000 subscribers, boosted by its acquisition of the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market package.

YouTube TV has deployed on a limited basis a new feature that lets users easily toggle back and forth between two channels with the push of the "OK" or "select" button on their remote.

According to 9to5Google, some Google TV and Apple TV platform users have noticed the emergence of the new "switch to last channel" feature, although the rollout seems to be limited. 

Next TV tested YouTube TV on Roku Monday morning and it wasn't there. 

Google hasn't officially announced the new trick, which has long been a popular shortcut among linear pay TV services. 

YouTube TV's app-based experience, which doesn't assign numbers to channels, is perhaps the most un-linear-like among all vMVPDs.

But since many of its 6 million - 7 million customers (depending on whose estimate you believe) are linear refugees, sent to YouTube TV after their small or midsized cable company abandoned traditional video, adopting a few of the old-school popular features might now be a bad idea. 

After bolting regional sports network Bally Sports over the spring, the NBA's Phoenix Suns are about to see their new local TV home, KTVK Arizona's Family, pulled off YouTube TV amid a dispute between the vMVPD and station owner Gray Television. 

"As of November 18th, 2023, YouTube TV will no longer carry Arizona’s Family 3TV. This means that YouTube TV subscribers will lose access to live sports, our market-leading local news, and your favorite programs like Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune," reads warnings sent to KTVK viewers that started late last week. 

"We are disappointed that YouTube TV has come to this decision, as we have done everything in our power to reach a market-based agreement," the station warning added. The good news is that you have options. Arizona’s Family is available on providers like Cox, Fubo, DirecTV, and Dish, as well as free over-the-air with an antenna." (The Gray warning did not mention the Suns' new DTC streaming channel, Suns Live.)

The dispute between Gray and the virtual MVPD involves only Gray-owned independent stations. For example, Gray's KPHO-TV (aka "Arizona’s Family CBS 5") will remain on YouTube TV, with Paramount Global negotiating carriage of the CBS affiliate directly with the vMVPD. 

As an independent operating under existing retrans rules that differ or virtual MVPDs vs. linear ones, KTVK has very little leverage in any kind of fee negotiation with YouTube TV. 

In April, mortgage mogul Mat Ishbia announced that his pro hoops teams, the Suns and the WBNA's Phoenix Mercury, would not renew their deals with Bally Sports and instead enter deals to air regular season games on Gray's KTVK -- agreements that ostensibly expanded the teams' reach to the entire Arizona region. 

YouTube TV added an industry-leading 600,000 subscribers in the third quarter, according to an estimate released by Leichtman Research Group on Tuesday. The virtual service is closing in on Dish satellite TV to become the fourth largest pay TV service in the U.S., with between 6.5 million - 7.3 million subscribers.  

WideOpenWest (aka “WOW!”) said Thursday that more than 13% of its new customers are signing up for YouTube TV since the Englewood, Colorado-based midsized cable operator began offering Google’s vMVPD as its primary video offering back on August 12.

"One of the things we're also seeing is we have new customers who perhaps wouldn't have considered us before, [they] are considering us now because of the YouTube TV offering,” WOW! CEO Theresa Elder told analysts during her company's third-quarter earnings call. (Investing.com has a full transcript of Thursday's call here.)

Also read: WOW! Makes YouTube TV Its Go-To Bundled Video Service, Officially Ends WOW! tv+

WOW! reported the loss of around 9,000 more traditional pay TV subscribers in the third quarter and finished September with only around 100,800 of these endangered birds left. (You can read WOW!'s Q3 earnings release here.)

WOW! is among a number of tier 2 and 3 cable operators that are exiting the low-margin linear video bundling business and are marketing third-party vMVPDs as a means of enticing broadband customers and reducing churn for that segment. 

In August, WOW! began offering YouTube TV to new customers at a $10-a-month discount for one year, with the virtual pay TV's billing integrated into their monthly high-speed internet and/or mobile statement. 

“YouTube TV allows us to transition away from higher-cost, low-margin video to a higher-margin service with an even greater mix of channels for our customers,” Elder said. “What we are doing is unique among cable operators and is giving customers more of what they really want at a much better price.”

“In addition to the benefits to our customers we will be able to accelerate the reclamation of bandwidth previously used for our legacy video service,“ she added. “This allows WOW! to efficiently transition our network for DOCSIS 4.0 and serve the growing demand for customer usage without having to overbuild their own network.”

Elder said the company isn't necessarily pushing its dwindling linear video customers to leave … but soon they won't be able to stay here. 

“We definitely are encouraging customers who take our traditional video to either subscribe to YouTube TV or a streaming service,” she said. “We have not forced customers off of video to date, and we are really trying to manage churn on that to continue to support that. With that said, we know that over the next year, 1.5 years, we want to completely get [video] off of our QAM network.”

Like most cable companies operating at the dawn of the low-priced fixed wireless access home internet age, WOW! is losing customers in high-speed internet — it bled 4,400 broadband customers in Q3. But with customers upgrading their plans — over 80% of WOW! subscribers are now on tiers of 500 Megabits per second or higher — and paying or more bandwidth, high-speed data revenue increased 7% year over year to record levels. 

As for YouTube TV, Google hasn't disclosed a customer metric for the vMVPD since it revealed last spring that it had surpassed 6 million users. But with the cable industry redirecting increasingly making it the default platform or video, customer growth would seem to be quickening. 

Back in July, the equity analysts at LightShed Partners published an interesting analysis of what will happen to network licensing rates negotiations once YouTube TV cements itself as a top-4 pay TV distributor. That seems to be already happening. 

“NFL Sunday Ticket” customers who get the pricey out-of-market games package via YouTube TV took to social media Sunday to voice their frustration after buffering and pixelization issues on the virtual pay TV platform impacted the first round of games.

The issues persisted into the second half of games that started at 1 p.m. EST. Google responded by diverting users to the NFL app, which would let them authenticate via their YouTube TV subscription. 

It's unclear as to how many of the estimated 1.5 million NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers were impacted. But it was enough to fully populate a few Reddit threads. 

YouTube parent Google/Alphabet assumed control of NFL Sunday Ticket late last year, after DirecTV — which had sold the package exclusively since its launch in 1995 — passed on an opportunity to pay $2 billion a season for licensing rights.

Also read: YouTube Has Around 1.5 Million ‘NFL Sunday Ticket’ Subscribers, Will Lose Over $1.2 Billion This Season: Morgan Stanley

Media watchers had suspected that YouTube and YouTube TV would immediately have some kind of tech meltdown with the now live-streamed package, but that never transpired through the first seven weeks of the NFL regular season. 

Google hasn't said anything about a refund. But YouTube TV subscribers who have to pay $73 a month for their vMVPD plan in addition to $300 a year for Sunday Ticket were, by our back-of-the-napkin math, out about $33 Sunday. 

Media business watchers always assumed that with Google/Alphabet's YouTube paying around $2 billion a season to license NFL Sunday Ticket, the out-of-market games package would serve as a loss leader. 

Alphabet didn't reveal much Tuesday during its Q3 earnings call about how its Sunday Ticket business was going in season 1, but Morgan Stanley Research released projections suggesting the aforementioned loss-leader assumptions are correct. 

Morgan Stanley's estimates were tweeted out Wednesday by Forbes Media assistant managing editor Mike Ozanian, and they are compelling. 

Morgan Stanley estimates that Google has sold around 1.5 million NFL Sunday Ticket subscriptions so far through YouTube and its YouTube TV virtual pay TV platform, generating revenue of $569 million. (Notably, 80% of subscribers, the equity research outfit suggests, are not choosing the bundled YouTube TV option and are paying full $399-a-season freight.)

Projecting a first-year rights cost of $1.773 billion, Morgan Stanley projects that Google will lose $1.204 billion in its first year. It would take 3.18 million subscribers for Google/YouTube to break even. 

By 2029, the research outfit predicts, Google will have 2.5 million NFL Sunday Ticket customers, generating around $835 million in revenue. But rights costs will rise to $2.243 billion, Morgan Stanley projects, and losses will reach $1.408 billion. 

By 2029, however, it's projected that 65% of Sunday Ticket subscribers are getting it as a bundled option via YouTube, suggesting that the package is driving subscriber growth for the vMVPD. 

The Morgan Stanley math comes after Rob Thun, chief content officer for NFL Sunday Ticket’s ancestral home, DirecTV, told Sports Business Journal that the satellite pay TV company isn't having any residual regrets from letting Google take over the package. 

“Well, let me ask you a question: Do you like losing a billion dollars a year?” Thun responded when asked if DirecTV missed Sunday Ticket. 

“That was the old deal. The new deal, it’d be a billion and a half,” he added. “It didn’t make sense for our platform because … We’re losing subs because we’re a pure-play video provider and the price of content continues to escalate beyond what people are willing to pay.”

Google said it will cease making advertising claims that its $73-a-month YouTube TV virtual pay TV service is “$600 cheaper than cable” on an annual basis, after losing its appeal to an advertising review board complaint. 

In August, the the BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division said it sided with a complaint filed by Charter Communications, which questioned the claim's validity. And on Wednesday, the group announced that it had rejected Google’s subsequent appeal. 

The NARB said that Google’s price calculations — which accounted for two leased proprietary cable set-tops — were based on obsolete linear pay-TV models.

“The NARB panel determined that the commercial disclosures were not clear and conspicuous,” the group added, noting that many of Charter’s Spectrum video customers no longer even use proprietary set-top boxes. 

Next TV actually kicked the tires on these YouTube TV claims independently in May 2022, back when Google was claiming the vMVPD was “$750 cheaper than cable.” 

In the fine print, Google said it based the claim on a 2022 study by SmithGeiger, evaluating “comparable services over 24 months, including hidden fees, promotion pricing, DVR box rental and service fee, and second cable box for the home, if applicable.” 

Daniel Frankel: David, glad you're back from your summer trip to Europe ... and I know you're jacked up like I am about the start of pro and college football ... not that there's any amateur football left. As an, er, avid reader of Next TV, you know that I weighed in myself over the weekend on YouTube and NFL Sunday Ticket. It doesn't take much back-of-the napkin math to quickly figure out that Google's goals are somewhat diffuse for NFL ST. But I took your advice and read Richard Greenfield's recent blog post about the topic. He surmises that YouTube TV scale is what Goog is really in it for. Why oh why would anyone still care about linear TV scale?

David Bloom: Yes, thanks, good to be back. Linear may be fading, but it ain’t gone. And delivering a bundle of entertainment that includes, for more subscriber cash, the most-watched programming on linear TV for tens of millions of NFL fans seems like not a terrible idea, even if it’s costing a couple of billion a year (chump change in AlphabetLand). The key, as always for the tech firms, is engagement, and there’s nothing more engaging than the NFL for all those fans. Just look at the Nielsen ratings for the NFL Draft (which the Roku Channel is also counting on with a new and pretty engaging documentary coming this weekend, The Pick Is In).  Remember, when we trash linear, we do so at the risk of trashing the things 60 million households apparently still like about it: access to a broad range of content for a reasonable cost (at least at one time).

Daniel: Just weird to see a digital company race into the same bundled business companies like Comcast can't seem to run away fast enough from. But my therapist says there's a lot about people I don't understand. I’ll tell you one thing — I don't get the studio chiefs and this strike. From what I hear, Tuesday's approach from the AMPTP was pretty lame -- coming from folks who should know the psychology of negotiation better than that. Sounds like they really set this whole strike process back. 

David: That reiteration aside, this whole summer has featured curious decisions by the studio chiefs, in terms of their usually buttoned-up appearances in front of the media, especially with delicate moments like the end of the streaming wars, Netflix’s now largely-in-place correction to its future shape, and the first actor-writer strikes since the momentous labor battles of 1960. The last time both unions went out, they secured important things like residuals and pensions, and restructured the economic relationships in an industry already starting to be transformed by television’s vast opportunities. This time, the studios are in a less secure place than back then. This time, their old standbys are fading (and they’re not helping by strip-mining content for streaming). And the new thing isn’t looking as easily sustainable for all of them as was hoped back in 2019. Pretty much all of them were in the room in the recent meeting with writers reps. The studios and AMPTP also released their proposal publicly, in an unusual and possibly improper attempt to bypass the negotiating committee. All it did was fire up the other side, and make them dig in more. Those moves, it’s safe to say, did not achieve whatever goals the studio chiefs sought. Who’s advising these guys these days? 

Daniel: It all harkens back to that wonderful bygone era, where a handsome, charismatic champion of labor unions, Ronald Reagan, as head of SAG led Hollywood actors to controlling their rightful share of the revenue pie! Of course, as any suddenly unemployed air-traffic controller from the early 1980s can tell you, a lot of transformative things happened to Hollywood -- and Ronny -- since that time. I guess I have Reagan trickling down my subconscious today because, 40 years after his presidency, his name still hyper-reverentially comes up over and over again every time the Republicans have a presidential primary debate. And regardless of your political orientation, Wednesday night's Fox News presentation was pretty darned compelling television. But here's what's puzzling -- Fox News is boasting only 12.8 million viewers. That's the biggest non-sports, cable TV audience of the year, beating even Yellowstone. But it's nowhere near the 24 million viewers who tuned into Fox's 2015 Republican debate. What's going on here? Is it Trump? I see his Tucker Carlson Twitter appearance has more than 238 million views as of Thursday afternoon and still climbing. What do we make of that?

David: As someone who’s covered both politics and entertainment for a very long time, I can say with some experience that the relatively low viewership of the Fox GOP debate is probably due to two things: 1) Relatively low interest beyond the deep reaches of the current Republican Party in the people who will finish second, other than perhaps vetting whether Trump should name as his VP candidate Nikki Haley, Tim Scott or the relentlessly annoying high school debate team champ Vivek Ramaswamy; 2) the continued decline of the legacy cable and broadcast outlets. Not everyone is into politics in late summer, 16 months before the election. Odd to ponder, but what are you going to do? Also, Trump’s effort to counter-program seemed at least moderately successful, even if Carlson’s fixations on issues such as UFOs and whether Trump thinks he’ll be killed by “them” made for odd conversation. (Even Trump seemed unsure quite how to respond.) But Trump is a far better TV personality than anyone on the debate stage. That said, if you’re consuming any numbers coming out of Twitter/X these days, do so with a large block of salt. What’s a “view” in ElonWorld these days? Does that mean a viewer watched 40 seconds? Or the whole 40-something minutes? How many concurrents? How many are watching a replay after it initially ran, which they really can’t do with the debate in the same way? How many bots were used to goose up viewership? 

Daniel: Yeah, there's a lot of questions on just how Elon Musk is making that metric sausage. Speaking of questionable meat byproducts, Nielsen has acquiesced to Amazon and will include the digital giant's first-party audience data in its own metrics for the upcoming season of "NFL Thursday Night Football." The more I learn about Nielsen, the more sketchy it gets. But they seem more powerful than ever these days. Take that highly compromised pie chart they publish every month. Smart people treat it like it's not just a collection of graphical dealmaking between the research company and its clients. I mean, all this disruption. All this IP-world addressability. We can't figure out a better measurement means to replace these dithering grifters? 

David: Oh, we absolutely could figure out a better way to measure your “dithering grifters,” but you may recall that said DGs are not excited about disclosing any more data than they absolutely must. Even if, somehow, the striking unions get the streaming services to agree to disclose more information, one key issue will be what third-party metric provider gets the awesome opportunity to actually track where the business is. If it’s any consolation, Ampere Analysis says there’s already 100 million subscribers to ad-supported subscription services and that they have higher ARPUs than the customers in classic ad-free tiers. As those ad-supported tiers become more of the norm (especially for second-level streamers), there’ll be more pressure for fuller disclosure from the people paying the bills, the advertisers. That’s likely to have far more impact than any strike demands.  

Daniel: Well, it's finally Friday. Another fun weekend planned. Gonna watch my Trojans play their penultimate game on the Pac-12 Network Saturday ... which is a topic for another day. 

David: The great thing about the media business is there’s always something to talk about in the middle of brain-melting technological transformation. I’ll actually be at the game on Saturday, missing out on that Pac-12 Network experience like, hmmm, 98% of the country. But turns out IRL games are pretty fun, too. Fight on!

Daniel: Oh, shit, before we get out of here, I almost forgot -- CNN on Max. How oh how do pubs like The New Yorker still write about David Zaslav as a respectable captain of media business, when he does things like dismantle a fully built CNN streaming platform (cost to build: $300 million) in May of 2022 ... then decides he actually does want one just 15 months later. In the words of Burgess Meredith's Mickey Goldmill, "This guy is a wreckin' machine!" And for the record, I think Clubber Lang might actually do a better job of managing a legacy cable news organization than David Zaslav has. 

David: Zaslav has made lots of missteps with CNN, beginning with hiring a well-respected guy who’d never run an entire news organization, to run an entire news organization in an era of secular decline and vast economic challenges for the parent company. CNN is one of those hallowed cable properties like ESPN, with a global brand and a crackerjack staff, but also great big questions about how it continues to pay for itself. It’s not just a Discovery reality show that Chris Licht was being asked to manage.  But I’d also say timing is everything. Launching CNN+ 16 months ago, as part of a brand new company staggering under $55 billion of debt, so it could stack up even more losses than HBO Max, was bad timing. The people who developed the project had no skin in the game when it finally was launched, because they were either already fired (Jeff Zucker) or about to leave because of the merger (Jason Kilar). Some sort of streaming future was absolutely imperative but maybe CNN+ was the wrong idea for the wrong company at the wrong time.. Zaslav and Licht then went on to make a lot of other bad decisions, but this one, I think, was defensible. Fast forward 16 months later, and WBD has indeed paid down a significant chunk of its debt, maybe $10 billion. CNN+ still wouldn’t make much sense, even if Max allegedly is now generating a pittance of free cash flow. But also understand that what’s proposed now is a lot cheaper than a stand-alone service like CNN+. It’s part of the Max mothership, and mostly is taking the feed of shows from CNN linear, plus some subset of original programming to enhance what’s on offer. That’s likely to be both far more compelling than CNN+’s lame show concepts, and far less costly to distribute. And it gives them a chance to learn what streaming audiences want from their globe-girdling 24-hour news organizations. 

Over the weekend, Next TV examined the lofty bar (we estimate around 6 million subscribers) that Google and YouTube need to reach in order to make their $2 billion+ investment in the NFL Sunday Ticket license profitable ... and whether the broader Alphabet has more diffuse goals (a loss leader?) for the out-of-market games package than mere bottom line. 

But already, we're seeing Google's potential to expand the reach of NFL Sunday Ticket far beyond what longtime incumbent stakeholder DirecTV was ever capable of imagining. 

On Wednesday, Google TV product managers Nick Staubach and Sal Altayyar published a company blog post, outlining how NFL Sunday Ticket will be natively integrated into the Google TV streaming operating system in the U.S. 

"This means you can now access live out-of-market Sunday afternoon games, see top highlights and get recommendations for top games of the week, all right on your Google TV home screen," the post said. "And if you’re a YouTube TV subscriber with NFL Sunday Ticket as part of your membership, the content will be available in the channel guide on your Live tab, so you can quickly find any game you’re looking for."

So right off the bat, Google can promote the package to millions of Americans on the home screens of their TVs. 

In the U.S., Google TV powers not only the popular Chromecast With Google TV CTV device, but also smart TVs made by Hisense, Sony and TCL, among other brands. 

Google said in January that there are now more than 150 million devices globally powered by Google TV and its predecessor, Android TV. 

Responding to a complaint from Charter Communications, the National Advertising Division has recommended to Google that it "discontinue" its claim that YouTube TV is "$600 cheaper than cable." 

"The price calculation underlying the challenged claim includes the cost of two set-top boxes per household for 'standalone cable' services. The NAD found, however, that this comparison is not a good fit for the challenged claim comparing YouTube TV’s pricing to 'cable' generally since cable providers like Charter offer streaming options that may not require a set-top box," NAD said in a statement. 

The NAD's action comes 15 months after Next TV also kicked the tires on Google's claims. In May 2022, as YouTube TV ads festooned the NBA playoffs, Google declared that its virtual MVPD service -- which hadn't bumped its price yet to the current $72.99 a month -- was a full $750 cheaper than cable TV on a yearly basis. 

We also determined that Google's claims were made based on outdated, monolithic data and didn't take into account migration of cable TV services from pricey leased set-tops to over-the-counter OTT devices. 

For its part, NAD said Google also isn't taking into account the "dynamic and competitive" of the current pay TV market, one in which its vMVPD might not have, say, the necessary regional sports networks available to make it so directly "comparable" with whatever cable TV service it's being sized up against in various regions.

In short, yes, there are still millions of U.S. customers overpaying for cable TV subscriptions laden with hidden fees and bloated equipment lease charges. But operators including Charter are now offering cheaper, skinnier alternatives that rely on BYO devices ... that certainly don't cost $50 more a month than YouTube TV. 

In any event, Google said it “unequivocally disagrees” with NAD’s decision and its “interpretation of ‘comparable’ offerings." Google said it will appeal the NAD decision because it “believes that consumers broadly understand the difference between traditional cable and streaming and that they do not interpret ‘cable’ or ‘standalone cable’ offered via a ‘cable box’ as encompassing streaming services, regardless of who provides them.”  

Frontier Communications has partnered with YouTube on a limited-time “NFL Sunday Ticket” promo that will give users access to every out-of-market Sunday afternoon game and over 100 live TV channels at a discounted rate.

Frontier internet customers who are subscribed to YouTube TV and sign up for NFL Sunday Ticket can save $100 through Aug. 21. New subscribers to both Frontier and YouTube TV can save up to $500 their first year vs. cable plus, get $100 off NFL Sunday Ticket through Aug. 21.

Earlier this year, Frontier partnered with YouTube TV to offer integrated billing for internet and YouTube’s live TV vMVPD.

Google-owned YouTube TV will drop SNY, the last remaining New York City-area regional sports network on its lineup, as of July 1, the virtual MVPD said Thursday.

In an email  to subscribers, YouTube TV said that SNY — which televises New York Mets baseball games and offers coverage of the NFL’s New York Jets, among other programming — “will no longer be available on YouTube TV.” The move also eliminates all library content recorded from SNY. 

YouTube TV also said its subscribers will be able to continue watching select national Mets games on other networks such as Fox, ESPN, and TBS.

SNY on Thursday confirmed the move in a Tweet, stating that “despite our good faith efforts, YouTube TV is preparing to drop SNY and our exclusive live Mets games on July 1.” 

YouTube TV’s removal of SNY comes after the service dropped New York-based YES Network in 2020. Earlier this year the service also dropped MLB Network from its lineup.

YouTube TV will add the NFL Sunday Ticket package this fall to its offerings after Google in December purchased the distribution rights to the out-of-market package formerly distributed by DirecTV.

Averaging over 11.9 million viewers on ABC Sunday evening, the NBA Finals delivered a better-than-expected matchup, with consistently underrated underdogs the Miami Heat once again rising up in the fourth quarter to surprisingly and dramatically steal Game 2 from the heavily favored Denver Nuggets. 

But the pundits behind popular sports media business blog Awful Announcing remained transfixed -- and highly annoyed by -- the advertising bombardment put forth by the official "presenting sponsor" of the NBA Finals, YouTube TV. 

The blog concedes the Finals have been competitive and fun through the first two games (Game 3 is Wednesday evening). "Unfortunately," it notes, "the series also promises to be a hellacious eyesore to actually sit down and watch, because ABC and the NBA have allowed so many obtrusive YouTube TV ads to smother it through the first two games that the Finals have come off more as a tacky YouTube TV infomercial than a prominent, significant sporting event.

In Devin Raab's compelling analysis, headlined "YouTube TV ads are ruining the look of the NBA Finals," the writer also makes this bold claim: "The degree to which these ads are omnipresent is breathtaking even by modern sports standards."

There is no official tally, but there do seem to be a lot of expressions of the "NBA Finals Presented By YouTube TV" logo. That's starts with a heartstrings-tugging 30-second spot, titled "We Are All in The NBA Finals," produced by the league, promoting itself and its keynote sponsor (see below).

This year's NBA Finals spot is narrated by John Malkovich and includes cameos from Tony Hawk, Jimmy Kimmel, Payton Manning, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, among others. (Next TV likes this ad, but nearly tossed its TCL out the window a few weeks ago after it ran, for like the 12th time during Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals on ABC, just as Nuggets guard Jamal Murray was going absolutely off on our Lakers in the third quarter. Someone guard him!) 

Of course, the NBA puts some annual iteration of this self-reverential Finals spot in heavy rotation via its broadcast TV partner every postseason, but what Awful Announcing astutely notes is the sheer extreme volume of YouTube brand messaging beyond the commercials. 

This starts at the beginning of each Finals game, the site says, when "you first have to see a colossal YouTube TV logo ident, complete with a loud, space-aged sound effect and play-by-play man Mike Breen announcing to everyone that the event is presented by YouTube TV, just in case that wasn’t abundantly clear already."

Then there's the visual three-point logo barrage on the playing floor itself. At the Nuggets' Ball Arena for Games 1 and 2, not only were two YouTube TV logos prominently positioned on the floor of each half-court area, the branding "NBA Finals Presented by YouTube" TV was also festooned on each side of the court. 

There was also YouTube TV branding on the press/announcer's desk. 

As this screen shot captured by Awful Announcing shows, you can be perpetually  bombarded with three or more YouTube TV logos as the game unfurls. 

"When all the table ads are promoting YouTube TV, it briefly creates one of the most hideous images you’ll ever see in an American sporting event -- an equinox in which three different gargantuan, impossible-to-miss ads for the same product are not just on the same side of the court at the same time, but are so close to one another other that they’re practically touching," Raab wrote. 

OK, so Awful Announcing has called a flagrant foul penalty 2 -- the serious kind -- on the league and its sponsor. We're going to say it's at least a common foul. 

Of course, to the league and its sponsor, none of this is necessarily surprising, or even disturbing. YouTube signed a multiyear deal with the league back in 2018 to be its first ever "presenting sponsor" for the Finals.

Notably, the NBA has a similar deal with YouTube and Google parent company Alphabet that makes Google Pixel the presenting sponsor of NBA playoff games leading into the Finals. 

We couldn't find monetary figures for these sponsorship deals, but they undoubtedly don't come cheap. 

By the time Leichtman Research Group published its Q1 pay TV report Tuesday, the drama had already leaked out in numerous previous reports about record cord cutting during the January-March period. 

But we did notice a few interesting tidbits from today's LRG report.

One is LRG's estimate for DirecTV, which the research company believes lost around 350,000 customers in the first quarter. LRG also projects that DirecTV has about 12.75 million remaining customers across DirecTV satellite TV, DirecTV Stream and U-verse. 

This estimate might actually be on the low side -- an earlier guestimate from equity research firm MoffettNathanson suggests DirecTV is losing customers at a clip of nearly 17% a year. Doing the math on that reveals losses of over half a million customers each quarter. 

DirecTV was spun off by private equity in 2021 and no longer publicly discloses data for what is, collectively, the third largest pay TV platform.

Meanwhile, publicly traded Alphabet doesn't drill down on subscriber numbers for the top virtual MVPD, YouTube TV, either. 

LRG estimates that YouTube TV was the only major pay TV platform that grew in Q1 adding a projected 100,000 customers to reach 5.7 million. That would rank the Google live streaming platform No. 5 among all U.S. pay TV operators ... and climbing, as traditional incumbents bleed out subscribers at an accelerating rate. 

Englewood, Colo.-based cable operator WideOpenWest (aka WOW!) codified what has looked like its obvious video strategy moving forward, officially ending its own IPTV service, WOW! tv+, and making YouTube TV its go-to video platform for bundling with high-speed internet service. 

WOW! ended Q1 with 117,100 remaining customers on the video side, and the company said the process of migrating this group over to YouTube TV will begin this summer. 

No promotional enticements for YouTube TV were specifically described in WOW!'s press release Monday, although the cable operator did hint at “special promotional offers with the potential for significant savings.” Google is offering the virtual pay TV service, which has more than 100 channels, for $64.99 for the first three months, then $72.99 thereafter. 

WideOpenWest stopped marketing WOW! tv+ back in June 2020, while offering its customers at the time a selection of YouTube TV, FuboTV, Sling TV and Philo to bundle with high-speed internet. 

It took three years, but now WOW! has simplified the offering around YouTube TV, which is the biggest vMVPD with over 5 million subscribers. 

“We are very pleased to deliver a seamless TV experience to our customers with this new partnership while continuing to execute on our broadband-first strategy,” WOW! CEO Teresa Elder said. “This furthers our commitment to provide our customers with the highest quality services at the best value.”

Sinclair Broadcast Group said it reached a new carriage deal with YouTube TV that adds the broadcaster’s digital broadcast networks and Tennis Channel to YouTube TV’s lineup.

YouTube TV continues to not carry the Bally Sports regional sports networks, owned by Sinclair’s bankrupt Diamond Sports Group subsidiary.

The new YouTube TV agreement also extends the virtual multichannel video programming distributor’s existing carriage of Sinclair’s CBS and MyNetwork TV affiliates. CBS and its affiliates recently reached an agreement covering carriage of virtual multichannel video programming distributors like YouTube TV.

Carriage of Tennis Channel and its T2 free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel starts June 1 in time for the French Open.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

"We are pleased to reach an agreement that brings Tennis Channel, T2 and all three of our emerging networks to YouTube TV, a valued partner of ours,” Sinclair senior VP, head of distribution & network relations Will Bell said.  “As the media landscape continues to evolve, our goal remains the same — to bring our unrivaled content to people wherever they want to experience it. With Roland-Garros kicking off May 28th, the timing is perfect for YouTube TV customers.”

Sinclair’s digital networks are Comet, Charge! and TBD. YouTube already carried Comet and the new deal renews carriage of the sci-fi-focused network. Charge! and TBD are scheduled to launch on YouTube TV June 1.

Frontier Communications, which has bundled third-party virtual pay TV services with its fiber-based high-speed internet service tiers for several years, will now integrate its customers’ monthly fees for YouTube TV with their main broadband bill. 

Call it one small step for a telecom, but one giant step in the evolution of bundled telecom services, with operators aggressively moving out of the business of licensing their own channels and showing no sign of looking back. 

Spiraling content licensing costs and cord-cutting may have splintered the ties between broadband and TV/video, but here they are, once again, bundled together in one oversized bill. 

"This is an exciting rollout for both Frontier and YouTube TV, and highlights the continued move away from traditional pay TV," said entrepreneur Jason Cohen, whose startup, MyBundle TV, is pitching a similar bundled third-party video scheme to smaller telecom companies. 

"Broadband providers have the opportunity to play a major role in helping existing and prospective customers simplify the streaming TV world, from live TV/cable replacements to on-demand services. Bundling streaming with internet is where we see the world going and represents a big part of MyBundle’s focus."

Frontier, which ended 2022 with 1.7 million FTTH subscribers, still has deals to market DirecTV Stream and Dish Network satellite TV as third-party TV/video replacement options. 

But Google’s YouTube TV seems to get most of Frontier’s promotional water, with the operator offering $10 off the vMVPD’s just-hiked $72.99-a-month bill for one year. 

Cable operators are very much part of trend of pulling back from licensing their own content. But insomuch as Comcast and Charter are still in that business, Frontier is using its YouTube TV billing integration move as counter-marketing. 

“Our partnership with YouTube TV makes it easier for customers to ditch cable,” John Harrobin, Frontier’s executive VP of consumer, said in a statement. “We take our position as the un-cable provider seriously and are constantly listening to consumers. Many want one source for internet and TV, and that’s what this partnership is all about. With Frontier and YouTube TV, there’s no settling for anything but the best.”

Added Tony Archibong, managing director of global product partnerships at YouTube: “Frontier is a natural partner for YouTube TV, due to our shared dedication to customer choice and flexibility. With this next stage of our partnership, Frontier customers will be able to sign up and enjoy all the perks of YouTube TV such as unlimited DVR, the ability to watch on any screen, innovative features such as key plays and multiview, special pricing offers for NFL Sunday Ticket and the option to cancel the service at any time, all on the same bill as their Frontier internet.” ▪️

Google has informed its YouTube TV customers that the monthly price of the virtual pay TV service is going up by $8, or 12%, to $72.99, effective immediately for new subscribers and on April 18 for existing ones. 

“We are committed to offering a premium way for you to stream TV, but understand this new price may not work for you,” the company said in its note to customers. “We do hope YouTube TV continues to be your service of choice, but we want to give you the flexibility to cancel at any time.”

YouTube TV offers just one tier of more than 100 channels. Its previous price increase came in June 2022, when it upped its monthly fee from $50 to $64.99. 

Parent company Google/Alphabet said in June of last year that YouTube TV had surpassed 5 million subscribers. Some of them undoubtedly were around for the virtual MVPD’s launch in 2017, when it was priced at just $35 a month. 

The service shot up to $40 a month in February of 2018 and hasn't looked back. 

Today, if you add a couple of premium SVOD services to the bill, you’re looking at monthly fees that exceed traditional linear TV. 

And it's not necessarily like subscribers are getting a lot more lately. With Opening Day for baseball happening in just two weeks, the service recently stopped carrying MLB Network, for example. 

Meanwhile, in a better note for consumers, the platform did lower the price of its “4K Plus” add-on package from $19.99 a month to $9.99. ■

Nexstar Media Group said its The CW Network has reached a comprehensive multi-year retransmission agreement with streaming virtual multichannel video programming distributor YouTube TV, which will continue carrying The CW-affiliated stations nationwide.

Nexstar also got carriage for its MyNet affiliates, independent stations and its NewsNation cable network. 

The deal may indicate that major station groups have found a way to make deals they feel gives them appropriate value with vMVPDs.

Nexstar and other major broadcasters had rejected a deal the CBS negotiated for its affiliates with streaming vMVPD Fubo TV. 

On Friday, though, the CBS affiliate board said the network had come back with a better proposal covering FuboTV, Hulu Plus Live TV, YouTube TV and Paramount Plus. Nexstar said its CBS affiliates would take the new deal with YouTube TV. Other big station groups were also expected to opt in to the new CBS agreement.

"Both deals indicate vMVPDs are not indifferent to local content" in making deals for network programming, Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall said in a note on Monday. 

On Nexstar’s fourth-quarter earnings call, chief operating officer Tom Carter said ”we will not be accepting any deals that discount the value of the content our stations deliver to these platforms.” 

Financial terms of the YouTube TV deal with The CW were not disclosed. 

"These agreements with YouTube TV underscore the importance of Nexstar’s national and local content on its platform,” Carter said in a statement about the new deal with YouTube TV.

“We are extremely pleased to have reached agreement to continue carriage of its The CW-affiliated stations on YouTube TV, especially as we move forward with our plans to transform The CW with additional sports programming and a new slate of prime-time entertainment shows this fall,” said Dennis Miller, president of The CW Network. “YouTube TV is an important partner for our affiliates and us, and we look forward to expanding our relationship and growing our audience via this dynamic platform.

In addition to primetime programming, The CW said its new deal means YouTube TV will be streaming LIV Golf, the controversial Saudi-backed golf league. ■

Paying a reported $2.5 billion a season to take over NFL Sunday Ticket from longtime licensor DirecTV, Google plans to modernize the offense. 

“On YouTube TV, we’re building the ability for subscribers to watch multiple screens at once,“ Philipp Schindler, chief business officer for Google, said during parent company Alphabet's Q4 earnings call Thursday. “And on YouTube, we’ll be adding new features specific to the Sunday Ticket experience, like comments, chats, polls, and so on.”  

The new features will include things users can do with social video. 

“On the creator side, imagine all the creative ways they can create with exclusive NFL content, behind-the-scenes event access and so on,” Schindler added. "We’re really excited to see what they will do across long-form, short-form, livestreams and more.”

Google plans to make the NFL’s out-of-market games package an add-on component to its virtual pay TV service, YouTube TV. The company will also offer Sunday Ticket a la carte via YouTube Primetime Channels. 

The tech giant hasn’t disclosed pricing yet. 

“We think there are a lot of great opportunities to differentiate the user and creator experience with our unique capabilities,” Schindler added. 

With the value proposition for both the NFL and DirecTV waning in the latter years of their Sunday Ticket partnership, as the linear satellite-TV business eroded, the league sought out a streaming partner to take over the franchise ... and hopefully breathe some life back into it. 

For its part, Google continued to say that its YouTube subscriptions business, which is spearheaded by YouTube TV, is growing, although the company didn’t elaborate on the vMVPD’s subscriber expansion. The service is believed to have more than 5 million paid users at this point. 

In terms of advertising, YouTube’s recent position isn't as strong — its ad revenue declined 8% in 2022 to just under $8 billion. ■

As if Major League Baseball didn't have enough TV distribution problems to deal with as it gets ready for the Feb. 24 official start to Spring Training, its signature cable channel, the MLB Network, was pulled from the top virtual pay TV service, YouTube TV, earlier this week in a carriage dispute. 

With an unofficial mid-2022 tally of around 5 million subscribers, YouTube TV now ranks at the fifth largest pay TV service in America, so this is a meaningful carriage impasse.

“With Spring Training about to start, we regret that YouTube TV has been unwilling to negotiate a fair carriage agreement," Major League Baseball said in a statement. "MLB Network has offered terms consistent with what close to 300 other U.S. providers have agreed to for distribution.”

For MLB, the carriage battle comes as it gets ready for a major meltdown of its regional sports network ecosystem, with 16 teams impacted by what now appears to be an imminent bankruptcy filing by Sinclair's Diamond Sports Group subsidiary.

Debt-ridden Diamond operates 19 Bally Sports channels, which serve as the RSN home to 14 MLB teams. Additionally, Diamond co-owns RSNs with the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs. 

And at least in terms of subscriber growth, the loss of the MLB Network could represent a consequential loss for YouTube TV, too, if the matter isn't resolved soon. 

MLB Network, which carries live regular season MLB games and popular studio shows, isn't cheap to license. A pricing sheet leaked by a virtual MVPD to analyst Dan Rayburn four years ago pegged carriage of the network at $2 a subscriber. That ranks it in the upper tier of pay TV channels, price-wise, ahead of other signicant pro sports league-owned channels, including the NFL's coveted RedZone network. Renewal demands have almost certainly risen over the last four years. 

However, carriage of channels featuring live sports has become a differentiator amid the super-competitive vMVPD race. Notably, Sling TV made the pricy decision to add access to ABC owned stations in eight major markets this week, upping the price of the service by $5 in those areas, but also giving affected subscribers accesws to the NBA Finals, sans over-the-air antenna, when they air exclusively on ABC in about five months. 

YouTube TV still carries Turner Networks, FOX and ESPN, so the bulk of live MLB games shown in the pay TV ecosystem are still available. But competitors including DirecTV Stream and Hulu + Live TV carry those channels, too, in addition to the MLB Network. 

The real pain could be felt by sports fans, many of whom are growing tired of having their pay TV service suddenly enter into carriage disputes right before coveted events. 

This Reddit post, first uncovered by TheVerge, says it all:

YouTube TV on Tuesday pulled MLB Network from its programming lineup after failing to reach a new distribution deal, according to a notice sent to the distributor's subscribers.

Along with losing access to MLB Network on YouTube TV's basic tier, the distributor's subscribers will also lose any network-based recorded programming. Subscribers will still be able to watch live national baseball games via Fox, ESPN and TBS as part of the distributor’s $65 basic plan. 

“We have held good faith negotiations with MLB for several months to renew our deal to continue carrying their content on YouTube TV. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach a new agreement before our existing one expired,” a YouTube TV spokesperson said. “Starting today, January 31, 2023, the MLB Network will no longer be available on YouTube TV.”

The loss of MLB Network comes within weeks of the start of Major League Baseball’s spring training and less than two months before the start of its regular season. 

MLB said in a statement: “With Spring Training about to start, we regret that YouTube TV has been unwilling to negotiate a fair carriage agreement. MLB Network has offered terms consistent with what close to 300 other U.S. providers have agreed to for distribution. With the great demand and value for live baseball content, Major League Baseball’s commitment to MLB Network now and in the future is stronger than ever before, and we remain open and committed to reaching an agreement with YouTube TV as soon as possible. ■  

The E.W. Scripps Co. has reached a wide-ranging distribution deal that will put its national networks on Google video platforms including YouTube TV.

This week, Scripps Networks’ Scripps News, Ion and Bounce over-the-air channels are being launched on the basic tier of YouTube TV, Google’s virtual multichannel video programming distributor, which has about 6.5 million subscribers.

YouTube TV already carries Scripps’ Court TV.

Last this year, when Google is expected to launch YouTube FAST–its entry into the fast growing free ad-supported streaming television business-Scripps’ portfolio of FAST channels will be part of the package. 

Those channels are Ion, Ion Plus, Ion Mystery, Grit Xtra, Bounce XL, Scripps News and Court TV.

Google began testing a set of FAST channels earlier this year, working with programmers including A+E Networks, Cinedigm, Lionsgate and FilmRise.

Google TV will also be distributing Scripps’ subscription service Brown Sugar.

The Google deal is a big step in Scripps’ strategy of getting multiplatform distribution for its channels, Jeffrey Wolf, chief distribution officer at Scripps Networks, told Broadcasting+Cable.

Google recently bolstered its TV platform by buying rights to the National Football League's Sunday Ticket out-of-market game package for a reported $2.5 billion a year.

Scripps has been aiming to get its over-the-air channels on virtual MVPDs. Before YouTube TV, Scripps got a distribution deal with Fubo TV, which is carrying seven of the company’s networks.

“We felt this is a really growing part of the business,” Wolf said. YouTube TV is getting a direct, national feed of the over-the-air networks, not signals from individual stations, so there’s no retransmission payment or must-carry involved as there is with traditional MVPDs.

Wolf declined to describe other financial details. “Between the four networks, we figured out a way to make it interesting to YouTube TV,” he said.

The strong performance by Court TV on YouTube TV — particularly during the Johnny Depp trial last year — paved the way for the addition of more channels from Scripps, Wolf said. YouTube TV has an option to launch Scripps’ other over-the-air channels, Grit, Ion Mystery and Laff, in the future, possibly on a higher-priced tier.

Getting on DirecTV should give Bounce, the company’s network for African-American viewers a boost.

The deal also marks Scripps News continuing effort to get back into the pay TV business. Formerly known as Newsy, Scripps took it off cable and turned it into an over-the-air network. Now, “hopefully we’re going to be adding more pay-TV subscribers for Scripps News over the coming months,” Wolf said.

Scripps has also gotten its FAST channels on major platforms including Roku, Amazon’s FreeVee, Pluto TV, Xumo,Tubi, Samsung TV Plus and Vizio,

“We’ve so much success in the FAST world so quickly,” Wolf says. “When Google gets into this business, it’s really significant for us to be part of their launch and to have our networks showcased.”

Wolf noted that Scripps has focused on getting its FAST channels are on the biggest platforms.

“We’re focused on the distribution that will move our needle, increase our ratings, increase our viewership and therefore increase our revenue,” he said. “Being almost fully distributed on these major platforms is really exciting for these networks.”

In the first three months of 2022, Scripps Networks generated profits of $230.4 million (down 18.6% from the same period in 2021) on revenue of $713 million in revenue (up 5.1%).

Wolf added that with both the vMVPD business and the FAST business growing, distributors and programmers are working together to make the pie bigger.

“We believe our diversified portfolio of networks will help strengthen YouTube TV as a pay tv option for consumers and are excited to be part of their continued growth in the marketplace,” he said. “We look forward to growing our relationship with YouTube TV and their parent company Google.” ■

Moving  “NFL Sunday Ticket” to Google’s YouTube TV and YouTube Premium Channels may help the National Football League reach more consumers and enable more fans to subscribe to the out-of-market package.

The NFL announced its long-awaited decision on Wednesday. As football is the most popular programming on television, the move could have a seismic effect as sports migrate from traditional pay TV to streaming.

According to a recent survey by the National Research Group, 71% of NFL fans say they’d consider adding a subscription to a new streaming service in order to watch out-of-market Sunday Ticket games. That includes 19% who said they’d subscribe regardless of what other content is in the package.

About 60% of NFL fans said they’d watch Sunday Ticket games on a weekly basis if they had access.

The survey found that many fans are already streaming games, with 60% of fans under 35 years old streaming at least one game per week live on a TV screen.

In a survey of NFL fans by The Streamable, 35% said that YouTube was their preferred destination for NFL Sunday Ticket. More than twice as many fans preferred YouTube over Apple TV Plus as the new streaming home for NFL Sunday Ticket.

The Streamable surveyed 5,018 NFL fans.

Also: The NFL Gets a Shiny New Streaming Partner With Google for ‘Sunday Ticket,’ But Have We Hit Peak Sports Rights? (Bloom)

“There is a clear customer preference for Sunday Ticket to go to YouTube,” said Jason Gurwin, CEO of The Streamable. “For the NFL, bringing Sunday Ticket to YouTube gives them access to one of the largest streaming platforms, only behind Netflix for viewing hours on connected TV devices. If the NFL wants to have the widest distribution for Sunday Ticket on a single streamer, this is a huge opportunity for them.”

Sunday Ticket should bring more attention to Google-owned YouTube, which is reportedly paying $2 billion per year over seven years for the package. YouTube already has the biggest share of TV viewing among streamers, according to Nielsen.

“Sunday Ticket would give sports viewers a reason to open the app every Sunday. It also brings a unique property to YouTube TV that none of the other live TV streaming services can offer,” Gurwin said.

The NFL this season made Amazon Prime Video the exclusive national home of its Thursday Night Football games, a history-making first time for a streamer. Putting Sunday Ticket on another streaming package might be a two-minute warning for broadcast and cable.

“As with all of television, the future of live sports is undergoing a systemic shift away from pure legacy models to likely more lucrative streaming models where most of Americans now consume content,” Ashwin Navin, co-founder and CEO of Samba TV, said.

“YouTube’s move to take programming that has historically been exclusively available to traditional TV subscribers and make it available to its streaming viewers will only hasten the secular decline of linear television as it begins to lose more and more of its last major hold on household audiences,” Navin said. “The numbers speak for themselves as to the impact football’s continued exodus will have on cable — every single one of the top 10 linear television programs in November were NFL games, and we are now speeding towards a future where many of these games and those of other sports, including baseball and basketball, will be streaming-first.”

Other bidders for Sunday Ticket included Apple, Disney’s ESPN and Amazon’s Prime Video. 

In The Streamable’s survey 23% more fans wanted Sunday Ticket to go to YouTube than Amazon Prime Video, 73% more than ESPN Plus and 122% more than Apple TV Plus.

While the move to YouTube was popular with fans, the current $300 base price for Sunday Ticket is not. YouTube and the NFL did not disclose their plans for pricing Sunday Ticket as a streaming package.

In an earlier survey of 2,562 NFL fans, The Streamable found half said they definitely will or are likely to subscribe to Sunday Ticket, which offers telecasts from CBS and Fox that aren’t available in local markets, but only 26% of fans are willing to pay the current $300 base price.

Because the NFL has made contractual promises to preserve viewing of games on broadcast, the price tag on Sunday Ticket is expected to remain high. 

The Streamable found that a base price of $150 to $200 could increase potential subscribers by 1.67 to 1.94 times compared to the current $300 base price.

If it can’t drop the price, YouTube will have to get creative by providing other incentives for new subscribers that reduce the effective cost to the consumer, the Streamable said. This could include offering discounted subscriptions for new YouTube TV customers.

Losing Sunday Ticket can’t be good for DirecTV, which was losing money on the package at $1.5 billion annually and balked at a price hike. 

Also: DirecTV Lost 500,000 Subs in Third Quarter, Fitch Says

AT&T which spun off DirecTV in 2021, paid DirecTV $2.1 billion to cover losses stemming from the NFL Sunday Ticket contract.

DirecTV has been making it easier for non-satellite TV consumers to stream Sunday Ticket, but some subscribers may drop the service if they don’t need it to watch NFL games.

DirecTV has about 1.5 million Sunday Ticket subscribers. When Apple appeared to be the front-runner to take over Sunday Ticket, DirecTV offered to help retain current subscribers by offering to serve as a storefront for Apple, passing along subscriber fees paid by DirecTV customers. It was expected that DirecTV would offer similar assistance to YouTube. 

DirecTV has been marketing itself as a service where viewers can watch live sports as well as on-demand entertainment. It continues to offer the sports that are on the broadcast network affiliates, national sports channels like ESPN and regional sports networks.

It has also been looking to beat back the streaming tide by integrating services like Discovery Plus and Peacock, making it easier for its users to watch streaming content. ■

The National Football League announced a multi-year agreement with Google that will bring the “NFL Sunday Ticket” package of out-of-market games to YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels.

NFL Sunday Ticket has been available through DirecTV since 1994, but that deal expired. DirecTV, which had been paying about $1.5 billion per year, decided it wasn’t worth paying the higher price the league was demanding.

Financial terms and the price for the service were not disclosed. Google will reportedly be paying the NFL $2.5 billion annually for Sunday Ticket, which offers Sunday-afternoon telecasts from CBS and Fox in markets where the games aren’t available locally. The move indicates deep-pocketed tech companies are willing to spend to bring high-profile sports to their streaming platforms.

Sports was seen as the last bastion of traditional linear TV, but increasingly games are becoming available via streaming to cord-cutters no longer willing to buy pricey cable and satellite subscriptions.

NFL Thursday Night Football is on Amazon Prime Video and Major League Baseball games are on Apple TV Plus.

Apple had been the front-runner to win Sunday Ticket, but reportedly pulled out. The Walt Disney Co. and Amazon were also contenders.

“We’re excited to bring NFL Sunday Ticket to YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels and usher in a new era of how fans across the United States watch and follow the NFL,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said. “For a number of years we have been focused on increased digital distribution of our games and this partnership is yet another example of us looking towards the future and building the next generation of NFL fans.”

Starting next season, NFL Sunday Ticket will be available on two of YouTube's growing subscription businesses: as an add-on package on YouTube TV and as a standalone, a la carte offering on YouTube Primetime Channels.

“YouTube has long been a home for football fans, whether they're streaming live games, keeping up with their home team or watching the best plays in highlights,” YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said. “Through this expanded partnership with the NFL, viewers will now also be able to experience the game they love in compelling and innovative ways through YouTube TV or YouTube Primetime Channels. We're excited to continue our work with the NFL to make YouTube a great place for sports lovers everywhere.”

The NFL and YouTube said they will work together to determine additional ways to support distribution of NFL Sunday Ticket in commercial establishments, such as bars and restaurants.

As part of the agreement, YouTube and the NFL will facilitate exclusive access to official content and attendance opportunities for select YouTube Creators at key NFL tentpole events. YouTube is now also the presenting sponsor of both “Back Together Saturday” and “NFL Kickoff Weekend.” Back Together Saturday is the league’s official start to training camp, when all 32 NFL clubs hold practices with club-led fan events.

“As the ways fans enjoy NFL football evolve in a changing media landscape, partnerships with innovators like YouTube will ensure that more games are available to more fans,” Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots and chairman of the NFL’s Media Committee, said. “This partnership will grow our game for future generations and allow them to follow their favorite sport.” ■

A lawsuit filed on behalf of YouTube TV subscribers across four states accuses Disney of using its market power to unfairly jack up prices on their virtual pay TV service.

The proposed antitrust suit, filed in a San Francisco federal court on behalf of YouTube TV subscribers in California, Arizona, Indiana and Kentucky, alleges that Disney uses its control of virtual MVPD service Hulu+Live TV, along with its ownership of the most coveted asset in the pay TV ecosystem, ESPN, to dictate pricing in the virtual pay TV market.

Notably, the plaintiffs contend -- correctly -- that pricing for YouTube TV has shot up from $35 a month to $65 since Disney closed its purchase of Fox entertainment assets in 2019 and concurrently seized majority ownership and operational control of Hulu in the process.

The suit alleges that there are more than 5 million subscribers for the Google-owned YouTube TV who are paying "anticompetitive inflated" pricing on their live-streaming service.

According to these plaintiffs, control of Hulu and ESPN has enabled Disney to set its own "price floor" in the vMVPD market. As Disney has regularly and inexorably raised the price of Hulu+Live TV in $5 increments over the past three years, competitors have had to follow in "lock step," the suit contends.

The market power of ESPN, the suit adds, allows Disney to force rival vMVPDs to carry the pricey channel in their basic packages.

Not only that, controversial "most favorite nation" clauses in carriage agreements between vMVPD operators and Disney dictate that when the pocket-to-pocket carriage price of ESPN shoots up on Hulu+Live TV -- or elsewhere in the ecosystem -- it must also increase across all other platforms.

"Together, these two aspects allowed Disney to reliably collect a tax on every cable TV subscription in the United States and gave Disney/ESPN the ability to increase prices without a competitive check," the suit says.

The YouTube TV suit comes as an even bigger 2020 antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Dept. against the vMVPD's owner, Google, is beginning to heat up, with preliminary hearings beginning over the fall. ▪️

Nielsen said it is adding “always-on” measurement of ad campaigns running on YouTube and YouTube TV to its Digital Ad Ratings product.

Google offered advertisers its own measurement of the performance of campaigns on YouTube, but it has been deepening its relationship with Nielsen as a third-party provider. Nielsen also measures YouTube CTV, co-viewing and four-screen ad deduplication.

Continuous, “always-on” measurement on YouTube simplifies campaign measurement by eliminating the need for advertisers and agencies to manually tag campaigns. Marketers who enable “always-on” DAR will have more impressions data, which improves the ability to deliver ads to desired audiences, understand reach and manage frequency, and better understand the audience that sees the advertisement.

Nielsen considers its increasing ability to incorporate YouTube into its ratings a significant part of Nielsen One, the cross-platform measurement product expected to launch in December.

“By enabling continuous ‘always-on’ measurement on YouTube, we’re helping advertisers to get a better understanding of one of the leading and largest ad supported platforms,” Nielsen senior VP, product management Kim Gilberti said. “By achieving true cross-channel comparability, this marks an important milestone in Nielsen’s steady march toward delivering Nielsen One, which will provide a comparable, deduplicated view into the channels and platforms all audiences consume, across all screens.” ■

Global downloads of the Netflix app fell in September, while Disney Plus saw gains and Paramount Plus tallied records, according to a scorecard published by Evercore ISI media analyst Vijay Jayant.

Overall subscription video-on-demand downloads were up 13% from a year ago in September, with Netflix taking a 26% share, topping Disney’s 25% share. Ad-supported VOD downloads were up 30% in September, with Pluto TV having the largest share at 37%. Downloads of virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) were up 42% in the quarter, led by YouTube TV.

Netflix’s global downloads dropped 22% in September compared to a year ago and 6% in the third quarter, Jayant said. The analyst said Netflix faced a tough comparison with a year ago, when people were clamoring to watch Squid Game.

But despite the negative download trend, Jayant said he expects that when Netflix reports its third-quarter earnings, net subscriber additions will be up 1 million, in line with the company’s guidance to investors. He also said he expects subscriber growth to accelerate in the fourth quarter because of a strong content slate.

Jayant said he sees strong gains at Disney. Downloads for Disney Plus, minus the Hotstar service in India, were up 97% in September and 39% in the quarter. When adding in Hotstar, Disney set a record for its best month and quarter since losing the rights to Indian Premier League cricket.

For the third quarter, Jayant expects Disney to report 6 million net ads for Disney Plus without Hotstar, including 4 million new international subs and 2 million additional domestic subs. He noted enthusiasm for the content on display on the recent Disney Plus Day.

HBO Max downloads moderated in September after flying high in August thanks to the launch of House of the Dragon, the prequel to HBO’s Game of Thrones. Jayant said he still expects HBO Max to add 2 million subscribers in the quarter. 

Downloads of Warner Bros. Discovery’s other streaming service, Discovery Plus, were down 21% month over month and 41% year over year, hitting their lowest levels since that service launched in January 2021. Marketing spending is down as the company gets ready to launch a service that consolidates Discovery Plus and HBO Max.

Paramount Plus set a record for monthly and quarterly downloads in September and the third quarter. Paramount will have a stronger content offering in the fourth quarter, Jayant added, including NFL football, Tulsa King, Criminal Minds: Evolution and Top Gun: Maverick. ■

FuboTV ranked first among live TV streaming service providers and Dish Network topped cable and satellite companies in the latest J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey, as consumers picked price as the biggest driver in choosing a video offering.

FuboTV led live TV streamers with a score of 789 out of a possible 1,000 points, the first year that J.D. Power offered the category. FuboTV was followed by Sling TV (786), YouTube TV (779), Hulu + Live TV (775) and DirecTV Stream (751) in the J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Television Service Provider Satisfaction Study. Overall, streaming companies had an overall score of 774, far outpacing their cable and satellite competition, which had an overall showing of 699 points.

In a press release, J.D. Power said consumers picked price as the deciding factor in choosing a TV service provider. Cable and satellite video service providers charged an average of $110 per month while streamers charged an average of $68 per month, according to the survey.

“Delivering video to myriad devices both in-home and mobile is actually pretty difficult and yet the service providers in cable, satellite and streaming all make it look easy, creating ever higher customer expectations,” said J.D. Power managing director Ian Greenblatt in a press release. “Highest quality content is quite costly to produce or acquire for all providers. Operating the needed networks and equipment for cable and satellite TV from start to finish versus streamers who can use those networks for middle and last-mile delivery for hundreds of thousands of concurrent streams, are vastly different at a product level regarding cost.  Live TV streamers (and their customers) are therefore the beneficiaries of the imbalance and can be seen as providing more value for the subscription dollars spent.”

Dish was the top ranked cable and satellite service provider nationally for the fifth year in a row, with a score of 720. Comcast’s Xfinity service placed second with 706 points and DirecTV finished third with 699 points.

Dish took the cable and satellite regional crown in two other areas -- the South Region (comprising Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas) with a score of 736; and the West region (including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming) with a score of 716.

Midco (formerly Midcontinent Communications) was the highest ranked cable operator in the North Central Region (comprising Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin) with a score of 721. Comcast’s Xfinity placed second in that region with a 701 score and Dish finished third with a score of 701.

In the East Region, Verizon Fios grabbed the top spot among cable and satellite service providers with a score of 749, followed by Dish (713) and Xfinity (699). ■

After launching its virtual pay TV service, YouTube TV, in May 2017, Google signed a multiyear deal with Disney to become the premiere sponsor of the media company's live NBA broadcasts, an agreement that included packaging ABC's coverage of the pro hoops league's signature event as the "NBA Finals Presented by YouTube TV." 

Specific monetary figures were never announced, but it couldn't have been cheap for Google. According to Adweek, TV commercial time during Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals -- the first year of YouTube TV's sponsorship deal -- ran between $690,000 - $830,000, depending on placement.

Also: YouTube TV Claims It Has 5 Million Subscribers

We couldn't find a credible updated figure for the recently completed 2022 NBA Finals. But as Next TV noted back in May, YouTube TV definitely, er, played a lot of minutes during this year's playoffs, festooning them with bogusly supported ads that compared the vMVPD's monthly price to cable ... which really hasn't promoted its TV products on television since the Michael Jordan era. 

"Given our concerns about the economics of underlying virtual MVPD models, it is hard to argue that this was a great use of capital on the unique merits of the YT TV offering," MoffettNathanson principal analyst Michael Nathanson said to Next TV in a Wednesday email exchange. 

"If Google only wanted to be in the vMVPD biz, I doubt it would have made sense economically," noted LightShed Partners' Rich Greenfield, noting what might be a larger agenda for the parent company. 

YouTube TV's live-sports promotional largesse hasn't been confined to the NBA, evidenced by its big Super Bowl commercial in February. 

Certainly, in the subcategory of virtual MVPDs, Google's marketing spend is at least somewhat rivaled by Hulu, which also focuses its content agenda and advertising on expensive live sports. (Witness all those Hulu + Live TV ads during the playoffs featuring Memphis Grizzlies sensation Ja Morant.)

But as YouTube TV's rare subscriber disclosure on Tuesday revealed, the platform is now the vMVPD category leader, counting 5 million customers. Barring a highly unlikely explosive second quarter from Hulu + Live TV -- which is now $15 a month more expensive than YouTube TV, given the latter's ongoing first-three-month promotion -- YouTube TV has opened up a commanding lead in the race for vMVPD subscriber scale.

“When we launched YouTube TV five years ago, we wanted to make watching TV even more enjoyable — featuring a modern product experience without all the commitments, equipment fees and hassle,” said Christian Oestlien, VP of product management for YouTube TV and connected TV at Google, in a blog post Tuesday. “Today, we’re humbled that five million of you are currently on this journey with us.”

Hulu + Live TV ended Q1 with 4.1 million subscribers following a $5-a-month price increase in December and the bleeding of 200,000 customers. It's questionable if the JV's controlling stakeholder, Disney, will invest to rally the platform in the vMVPD market at a time when it's still haggling out its co-ownership situation with Comcast/NBCUniversal.

Meanwhile, bereft of two major broadcast networks (ABC and CBS), and serving a parent company (Dish Network) far more concerned with the buildout of a 5G wireless network, Sling TV hasn't grown meaningfully in years, losing another 234,000 customers in Q1.

So that leaves YouTube TV as the vMVPD leader, ranking as the No. 5 operator of bundled pay TV service overall, trailing only the linear likes of Comcast (just under 17.7 million traditional TV subscribers at the end of Q1), Charter Communications (15.72 million), DirecTV (14.3 million estimated remaining customers across satellite TV, legacy AT&T U-verse and DirecTV-branded virtual pay TV services) and Dish (just under 8 million satellite TV subs).

So what does this mean for Google? Is the investment worthwhile?

"As a way to build strong, new relationships with valuable consumers of premium content and the longer-term ability to monetize those relationships through advanced advertising and CTV hardware sales, I would say that the jury is still out," Nathanson said.

Noted TVREV analyst Alan Wolk: "If it was anyone other than Google, I’d say it was worth it to establish a sizable presence in the industry.

"But it’s unclear what Google’s end game is here," Wolk added. "Is it just to get more TV data for better ad targeting? Is it more to just say they could? Are they tracking web behavior and TV viewing behavior? Learning for a bigger launch overseas? Do they see it as a marketing tool for the main YouTube site?"

Beyond heavy marketing/promotion, Google has worked hard to establish YouTube TV as a bundled replacement for linear services, forging deals with tier 2 telecoms exiting the TV/video business to market the vMVPD to their customers. 

Certainly, bundling a sports-centric lineup of more than 85 channels, including all four major broadcast networks and their affiliates, remains a tough, low-margin business for YouTube TV.

But unlike some of Google's other video business dalliances over the years, Google seems determined to stay in this one, using the power of that $1.48 trillion Alphabet market capitalization to sustain itself.

"It’s interesting in that Google usually suffers from Shiny Object Syndrome, where they will roll something out, spend money on it and then quickly forget about it (YouTube Red, Google Plus) but they seem to actually be committed to YouTube TV," Wolk said. ■

YouTube TV said it now has 5 million subscribers, making it the biggest of the virtual multichannel video programming distributors.

“When we launched YouTube TV five years ago, we wanted to make watching TV even more enjoyable — featuring a modern product experience without all the commitments, equipment fees and hassle,” said Christian Oestlien, VP of product management for YouTube TV and Connected TV at Google, in a blog post Tuesday. “Today, we’re humbled that five million of you are currently on this journey with us.”

Also: Cord-Cutting Worsens For Linear Video In Q1 With 2.1 Million Subs Lost

Wall Street research company MoffettNathanson estimated that vMVPDs have 14.93 million subscribers altogether at the end of the first quarter. As a group, they lost 201,000 subscribers in the quarter, but were up 16.7% from a year ago. 

Disney reported that its Hulu Plus Live TV vMVPD had 4.1 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter, down from 4.3 million in Q4, but up from 3.8 million a year ago. Dish said that its Sling TV had 2.25 million subscribers in Q1, down from 2.49 million in the fourth quarter and 2.37 million in Q1 2021.

In the blog post, Oestlien said that when YouTube TV started out, a group of engineers climbed onto the roof of YouTube headquarters while holding an antenna in order to build a prototype. Based on this experience, the company almost settled on calling YouTube TV you “YouTube Air.” The  project codename was “Unplugged,” as in watching TV without a cable box.

She said the most DVRed shows on YouTube TV currently were Yellowstone, Saturday Night Live, This is US, 60 Minutes and Grey’s Anatomy. ■

Did YouTube TV just back off of an aggressive TV advertising campaign suggesting that cable TV subscribers could save as much as $750 per year by switching to the Google/Alphabet virtual MVPD provider?

Could be. 

On Wednesday, during ESPN's coverage of the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals NBA Playoffs, featuring the Boston Celtics winning a decisive Game 5 matchup against the Miami Heat (boo?), YouTube TV ran new a new 15-second spot suggesting that its service delivers "more than cable for less than cable." 

Gone was the very specific  -- and quite high --tally of 750 bucks in annual savings, which is probably for the best. 

Last week, Next TV kicked the tires on YouTube TV's specious claim. It was hard to find an average cost for cable TV/video, especially in an era in which cable operators are so much more focused on high-speed internet service.

Many small and midsized cable operators don't provide linear video at all anymore. And the larger ones offer affordable video service alternatives to their broadband-only customers, such as Comcast and its IP-based Xfinity Flex, which lets internet subscribers stream Netflix and many other OTT apps (including YouTube TV!) at no additional cost beyond the price of the third-party subscription.

But going along with YouTube TV's very 2015-era messaging claim, we could only come up with a savings of around $530 a year tops, based on what we determined was average cable TV/video service pricing.

One of YouTube TV's key points is that its service comes without hidden "sub fees" and other BS charges. That is true. But this clowning cable nonsense has to end. 

There are simply fewer consumers out there right now paying the Fully Monty of $130 or above for old-fashioned, high-fee linear video. And those that do are probably in a bundle that includes high-speed internet, from which TV/video pricing alone is hard to extract. 

In short, $750 was hard to defend. 

F*** Boston. Go Miami. 

If you've watched ESPN's ongoing NBA Playoffs coverage, you've probably seen this ad for YouTube TV -- the spot claims that the virtual pay TV service is "$750 per year cheaper than cable." 

In its fine print, the ad, produced by agency Essence and debuting May 16, says it bases the claim on a 2022 study by SmithGeiger, evaluating "comparable services over 24 months, including hidden fees, promotion pricing, DVR box rental and service fee, and second cable box for the home, if applicable." 

Forget for a moment that the broad term "cable" can also apply to the internet services pipe YouTube TV is using to get to its 4 million (give or take) customers. Save for the narrow segment of the population versed in the nuances of the telecom industry, on face value this commercial offers a vague, confusing apples and submarines comparison.

And the informed viewer also has to suspend disbelief on another key law of cable-industry physics: Many U.S. cable operators have shifted their priorities to broadband connectivity, blending their "DVR boxes" into all-purpose gateways, and replacing their own traditional linear video services with third-party streaming offerings like ... YouTube TV.  

So keeping this conversation manageable, we'll (try to) compare Google/Alphabet's virtual MVPD service, priced at $64.99 per month with no hidden fees or set-up costs of any kind, to what we think might be the average price of just cable video. 

Right off the bat, we can tell you that there's no unifying theory as to exactly what the latter is. Even in its own marketing, YouTube TV is conflicted. Visit the landing page for the vMVPD, and you'll see it price-compared to its biggest competitor, Hulu+ Live TV, which is now priced at $69.99 after a recent hike. 

YouTube TV also compares itself to cable TV, this time using data supplied by entertainment research company Screen Engine ... which pegs the total cable video bill after myriad fees at $109.30 per month. 

Doing the basic math, that puts it $531.72 per year higher than YouTube TV. 

We worked to find a scenario, beyond using SmithGeiger data, in which cable TV was $62.50 a month more expensive than YouTube TV. 

Last year, the FCC released a finding that said that the average U.S. household spends $116 per month on "cable/internet." However, finding the average cable video price -- with the ISP component extracted -- is more challenging. 

For Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, we divided the $5.536 billion in revenue the company yielded in the first quarter strictly off of selling video services by the nearly 17.7 million residential and business customers the cable operator had at the end of March. 

We then divided that number by three to come up with monthly ARPU of around $104.25. 

At that price, Comcast's Xfinity-branded video services are $471.12 more expensive than YouTube TV each year.

Of course, millions of Comcast customers only pay for broadband, choosing to receive services like YouTube TV via the free Xfinity Flex platform. 

But regardless. We are not getting to a $750 yearly price difference. Not even close. 

YouTube ad revenue grew by just 14% year over year in Q1 to $6.87 billion, a dramatic deceleration of growth considering the platform expanded its revenue by 49% during the same period of 2021. 

YouTube missed the consensus forecast of equity analysts by about $600 million in the first quarter.  

"The deceleration in the year-on-year growth rate primarily reflects lapping of the exceptional performance of direct response that we called out in the first quarter of 2021," said Ruth Porat, CEO of YouTube and Google parent Alphabet during Tuesday's first-quarter earnings call. 

YouTube ad revenue was also impacted by Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, with advertising slowing across Europe. 

More positively, Alphabet reported "substantial growth" for YouTube's subscription businesses, which include YouTube TV and YouTube Music, but it didn't offer numerical specifics. 

Meanwhile, citing Nielsen data, Alphabet noted that YouTube accounts for half of ad-supported viewing time in connected TV among viewers 18 and up. 

And YouTube Shorts, the platform focused on videos 60 seconds in length and, well, shorter is now up to 30 billion daily views, which is about five times as many as the same period a year ago when it launched. 

Alphabet reported total revenue of $68.01 billion, up 23% year over year. 

FreeWheel, Comcast’s ad tech company, said it plans to make new ad serving capabilities on YouTube and YouTube TV available to clients later this month.

The new features include frequency capping, improved ad personalization and measurement.

The integration is designed to help both companies’ clients manage their digital advertising across platforms with an interoperable system for automated video ad insertion.

Also: FreeWheel Launches New CTV Campaign Planning Technology

FreeWheel’s programmer clients will have access to cross-platform buys and deliveries, while deriving greater workflow efficiency and ease of use.

“At FreeWheel, we’re continually looking for ways to improve and advance the television ecosystem,” said Mark McKee, general manager, FreeWheel. “Many of our programmer clients rely on YouTube and YouTube TV to engage with their audiences, and so working with their core technology partner to monetize their inventory in these environments is critical.” ■

Xperi Holdings, marketer of the aspiring TiVo Stream 4K CTV device/platform, said it has taken support for YouTube TV to the next level, making it a core part of the Stream OS. 

Not only does live TV from Google's virtual pay TV service now surface in the Stream program guide, that content is now discoverable throughout the Stream user experience, and is now also integrated into main voice and text search functions. 

“The highly requested YouTube TV addition represents the largest content-related integration update since the launch of TiVo Stream 4K,” said Ben Maughan, general manager of the Stream platform, in a statement. 

The deeper embedding of Google’s live TV service seems curious, given that it was just 11 months ago that Xperi — which bought TiVo two years ago for $3 million — strongly signaled that it's moving away from Google's Android TV software, which is the foundation to the TiVo Stream 4K OS. 

Google’s pivot into its own devices powered by its OS, which it now calls Google TV, meant that Xperi, based on competitive imperative, would alter its core software away from Google as it migrates the Stream platform from merely a device on TiVo Stream 4K dongles into a full-fledged OS that powers smart TVs worldwide. 

The TiVo-Xperi merger was sold on the notion that Xperi’s established entry into the smart TV OEM business would pave the way for a TiVo OS to compete head-on in the global market with Roku, Amazon and Samsung for control of the connected TV home. 

But it remains unclear as to when those Stream-powered smart TVs will ever hit the market, and what the OS will look like once it does. It’s also unclear as to how many TiVo Stream 4K dongles are in the market 24 months after the product's introduction. 

For what it's worth, you can now pick one up off of Amazon for $29. ■

Google said it's begun testing Dolby 5.1 surround sound on devices powered by Roku, as well as Google TV and Android TV. 

"We know 5.1 audio is important to many of you, so we wanted to share an update. We’re currently testing 5.1 audio on Google TV, Android TV, and Roku, and if everything runs smoothly, we can expect 5.1 audio to launch on those devices next," reads a message published Monday from the YouTube TV Twitter handle. 

To take advantage of such a feature, of course, users would have to have a five-channel audio system, with subwoofer, supported by Dolby 5.1.

Google has already enabled support for the Dolby 5.1surround sound format on smart TVs made by Samsung, LG and Vizio. 

Dolby 5.1 support for Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV are is on the way, Google confirmed. 

"We’re still working internally and with partners to enable 5.1 on Apple TV, Fire TV, and game consoles. We don’t like keeping you waiting, but we’re excited for you to hear 5.1 audio soon. Our current compatible devices can be found here: http://yt.be/yttvsurround," YouTube TV added in a follow-up tweet. 

YouTube TV controls around 39% of the user base for U.S. virtual pay TV services, but only 26% of the 13.6 million vMVPD subscriptions, Omdia reports. 

According to Sarah Henschel, principal analyst for the London-based research company, vMVPDs tend to skew much younger than traditional pay TV services, and the users tend to watch a lot more content they don't pay for -- three times as much, Omdia said. 

And as this Omdia graphic indicates, there are, on average, around four users for each vMVPD subscription vs. only around two for each linear pay TV subscription. 

And among these "over-subscribed" services, YouTube TV appears to be the leader.

"This over-indexing highlights that these consumers are content-hungry and are able to find the content they need — through paid means or otherwise," Henschel added.

Also notable: Omdia reported the size of the total U.S. vMVPD market to be 13.6 million subscribers large, about 11% of the overall pay TV base. Controlling 26% of 13.6 million paid users would put YouTube TV at around 3.53 million subscribers.

Google/Alphabet last publicly hinted at a subscriber benchmark for YouTube TV back in October 2020, touting "more than 3 million." Since then, analysts have postulated guesses -- some as high as 4 million.

Omdia also said that average monthly pricing for a vMVPD service in the U.S. in 2021 was $58.89 per month compared to $99.44 for traditional pay TV and $8.75 for SVOD. 

The upward trajectory of vMVPD pricing continues to push consumers to cut the cord for good and seek only AVOD and SVOD replacements, the company said. 

Fox Weather, the free ad-supported weather service, has added distribution via YouTube TV, Amazon News and The Roku Channel, and will launch on fuboTV and Xumo later this month.

Fox Television stations will also be airing the full linear service on digital channels broadcast by Fox Television Stations in 17 markets.

Select simulcast hours will air on Fox Television Stations’ duopoly stations. 

Also: Fox Weather Generates More Than 1 Million Downloads

“Following our successful launch this past fall, we are excited to significantly expand our distribution footprint and deliver Fox Weather’s innovative coverage to millions of viewers on many of television’s most popular streaming services and devices,” said Sharri Berg, president of Fox Weather. ■

Anthem Sports & Entertainment said it reached a deal putting its Fight Network and Impact Wrestling on YouTube TV as part of the streaming TV service‘s Sports Plus add-on package.

The Sports Plus package costs $10.99 a month.

“Fight Network and Impact Wrestling have built a strong legacy delivering quality sports-based content to audiences around the world, and we are proud to join forces with YouTube TV’s Sports Plus package to reach even more viewers through this landmark deal,” said Jaime Pollack, chief revenue officer, sports group at Anthem. “YouTube TV is leading the way in the streaming landscape, and we are excited to join their lineup as we continue delivering the exclusive high-quality combat sports and professional wrestling programming that Fight Network and Impact Wrestling are known for.”

Fight Network offers combat sports 24/7, with live and classic MMA and boxing events from around the world. The network also offers original programs such as Retrospective, In 60, Diary and After the Fight.

Impact Wrestling offers a vast library of more than 4,000 hours of new and classic grappling content. Viewers can watch the current roster of athletes — including champions Moose, Mickie James, Trey Miguel, The Good Brothers, The Inspiration and Matt Cardona — in the rings, or watch icons of pro wrestling such as Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash or AJ Styles.

Other channels in YouTube’s Sports Plus package include BeIN Sports, Billiard TV, Fox Soccer Plus, Gol TV, MavTV Motorsports Network, NFL Redzone, Outside TV Plus, Poker Go Plus, Stadium, TVG and VSiN. ■ 

 As free streaming service Fox Soul closes in on its second anniversary in February, its strategy of providing an unapologetic platform for African-American voices has yielded major partnerships both on the distribution and programming side.

Fox Soul recently inked a carriage agreement with YouTube TV, extending its distribution footprint to more than 44 million viewers through deals that also include Samsung TV, Roku and Tubi. On the programming front, recent partnerships with faith-based content provider Stellar TV, iconic publisher Black Enterprise and prolific music entrepreneur Damon Dash’s Damon Dash Studios will continue to help build up a steady flow of original content that already includes such shows as nightly news/talk series Fox Soul’s Black Report, weekly talk show Cocktails with Queens and music/talk series The Mix. 

Fox Soul general manager & head of programming James DuBose recently talked to Multichannel News' R. Thomas Umstead about the challenges and opportunities the service has experienced during its nearly two-year run, which also coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic and racial protests over excessive police violence during the summer of 2020. An edited version of the interview appears below.      

MCN: With nearly two years under its belt, has Fox Soul’s evolution met or surpassed your expectations? 

James DuBose: I'm very happy. I feel like we are definitely still on the right path of what we set out to do in terms of growth. As a startup, and especially a startup network whose work is focused on a specific audience, I thought it may have been a little more difficult for the industry to get an opportunity to understand who we are and what our real purpose and mission was. But the pandemic actually allowed us to broaden our footprint a lot faster than I anticipated. We couldn’t be in the studio because of COVID, so we were able to have guests from around the world be a part of Fox Soul [via digital], which was a real blessing for us. Word of mouth for our brand has really taken off, and we’ve really learned how to produce our shows with the technology we had during COVID. We’ve really seen an uptick in terms of our viewership in terms of minutes watched as well as in the distribution partnership that we currently have, so I’m extremely happy where we are. I couldn’t have asked for more under the circumstances -- but we still have a long way to go.

MCN: Have you seen much change in the amount of African-American targeted content on screen, particularly after racial reckoning that we went through in 2020?

JD: I think quite honestly, it's the same from this perspective: you may be able to find more specific black content at various outlets, but the difference is there aren’t many outlets that can offer content that’s as raw and unapologetic as us. We don’t have to tell the same story or say things in the same way that they say in other places -- we can speak our emotions without fear of reprimand. In that regard it hasn’t changed much. We as a culture have a voice; we as a culture have a perspective and a truth that needs to be heard. Once it’s heard in its rawest and purest form, I think all cultures will come to respect that. I think our talent really loves the fact that they can speak the way they want to speak and they can react the way they need to react to certain things going around the world. I don’t see that on a lot of other platforms because they just can’t do it in the same way.

MCN: What is the 2022 programming strategy for Fox Soul as it operates in a competitive video streaming marketplace?

JD: One of the missions that we set when we started was to create a safe place where people could talk about things that we normally only discuss in the privacy of our own homes. We wanted to give that voice to our consumers so that they feel that they’re part of this network and it reflects their voice and their truth. I want to get back to that, which will continue to differentiate ourselves from the other outlets that do Black content. I want to get into more of the music genre, create scripted shows, documentaries and movies that continue to tell the story behind the story.

MCN: Having said that, what should audiences expect to see from Fox Soul onscreen?

JD: We have some great shows coming up, but I’m most excited about the strategic partnerships we’ve been able to create with the likes of Stella TV, Black Enterprise, Dame Dash and more that are coming. I’m so proud that Fox Soul’s audience can be their audience and their audience can be Fox Soul’s audience, but we’re all still speaking the way we want to speak to that audience. We also have our first big music competition show that’s coming out in the new year, and we’ll also get into the wealth and finance, and fashion space. We are going to have our first scripted series coming up after the new year as well. I eventually want to hit every genre we love as a culture, but we’re going to tell it in the Fox Soul way and not try to compete with things that people do really well on their end. 

Multicultural Perspectives is a monthly feature on Nexttv.com exploring issues and personalities in the multicultural TV space. ■ 

Growth slowed for virtual multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) in the third quarter of 2021, as the category added just under 1 million subscribers compared to 1.7 million new subscribers a year ago, according to a cord-cutting analysis by MoffettNathanson.

Including the modest gains for the vMVPDs, total pay TV distribution was down 5.2% in the third quarter, the biggest drop since the 5.5% decline in the second quarter of 2020. 

Losses for cable operators reached 6.2% in the third quarter, the fastest decline on record. Satellite distributors lost customers at nearly twice that rate at 12%, but that was an improvement from a year ago, when subscribers declined 14%.

The vMVPDs now have about 14.2 million subscribers, MoffettNathanson estimates.

MoffettNathanson blamed the vMVPD deceleration in part on price increases.

“Six years ago, everyone burst out of the gate with eye-popping low prices,” MoffettNathanson said in a report Tuesday (January 5). “That helped them get out of the gate, but it undermined their longer-term prospects in two ways.”

The first issue was that the vMVPDs attracted price-sensitive consumers. The second issue is that the vMVPDs would have to their raise prices faster than traditional distributors as content companies increased their license fees.

DirecTV Stream has already raised the price of its Choice and Premier tiers, effective January 23. And having reached a new deal with The Walt Disney Co. at the end of the year, a price increase for YouTube TV — the biggest of the vMVPDs — is just around the corner.

YouTube TV added 225,000 subscribers in the third quarter, MoffettNathanson estimated, down from 400,000 additions a year ago. Hulu Live added about 300,000 subs in the quarter, compared to a gain of 700,000 a year ago. A big gainer in the quarter was FuboTV, which added more subscribers in the quarter than a year ago and now has a total of 945,000 customers.

For media companies, growth of affiliate fees slowed to 3% in the third quarter. Retransmission fee growth dropped to 11% in the third quarter from 15% in the second quarter. Cable-network fees rose 2%, down from 3% in the second quarter.

Retrans fees rose more than 14% for Disney, NBCUniversal and Fox, but less than 4% for ViacomCBS. NBCU also rang up the biggest cable affiliates fee growth at 7.5%. AMC and Turner’s fee revenue dropped compared to a year ago.

“There was a time when cord-cutting statistics were avidly watched,” MoffettNathanson concluded. “Not anymore.” 

“The market seems resigned to a steady deterioration. Yes, the rate of decline (when one includes vMVPDs) at 5.2% is among the worst on record, and is undoubtedly worse than we and others had once over-optimistically projected. But it is still orderly, and as long as the decline is orderly, media investors have leave to focus on the upside promise of DTC platforms rather than the downside certainty of linear,” the report said. 

“But there is clearly a risk that the declines become disorderly. All it would take is one major player — ESPN is the obvious candidate — to decide that the future demands a bolder shift in their best programming to DTC, or, alternatively, that their entire suite of programming should be simultaneously available DTC … and the Jenga tower would collapse,” they said. ■

Google has announced a new carriage agreement with the Walt Disney Co., ending a 36-hour impasse that kept ABC, ESPN, FX, Disney Channel and other Disney-owned networks off YouTube TV since midnight Friday.

"We’re happy to share that we’ve reached an agreement with Disney to return their content to YouTube TV while preserving a $64.99/month price for our members," Google said in an email sent to YouTube TV's more than 4 million subscribers. "We have already started to restore access to Disney networks like ESPN and FX, including their live and on-demand content, as well as any recordings that were previously in your library. We will also be turning on the local ABC stations over the course of the day."

Also read: Is the Disney-YouTube TV Battle the First in a New Kind of Distribution War, Or the Last in an Old One?

"As we promised a $15 discount while the Disney content remained off platform, we will still honor a one-time credit for all impacted members," added Google, which immediately discounted its service by $15 a month from its regular $65 price when the channels were abruptly pulled at 12 a.m. Saturday. "For active members who have not yet received that $15 discount on their monthly bill, you will automatically receive a one-time credit on your next bill with no action needed. For members who were impacted and have initiated the cancellation process, we would love to welcome you back. Visit tv.youtube.com/membership and click ‘Add’ to return the Base Plan to your membership. If you resume your membership before you lose access, we will still honor the one-time $15 credit on your bill. We’ll update this website soon with more details."

ESPN, ABC and about a dozen other Disney-owned programming networks disappeared from YouTube TV's programming grid at 12 a.m. EST, with Google and Disney apparently unable to reach agreement on a new program licensing deal. 

Numerous YouTube TV customers began tweeting early Saturday morning that ESPN's coverage of the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves pro basketball game suddenly went dark for them on their pay TV service. 

Google said earlier this week that it was in negotiations with Disney over a new program licensing deal for YouTube TV, and if one wasn't reached by the end of the week, Disney channels including ABC and a dozen cable networks, FX also included,  would go dark on the live-streaming service. 

Also read: Is the Disney-YouTube TV Battle the First in a New Kind of Distribution War, Or the Last in an Old One?

YouTube TV is an OTT service that bundles more than 70 broadcast and cable networks in a live-streamed bundle for $65 a month. It's the largest of the so-called virtual MVPDs (vMVPDs), with analysts speculating that the service has more than 4 million customers. 

Google said earlier this week that it would cut the price of YouTube TV by $15 a month [from from $64.99 to $49.99] if a new programming deal with Disney couldn't be worked out by the deadline.  That includes on promotional pricing.

"Members, we worked hard to avoid this but were unable to reach a fair deal with Disney," YouTube TV tweeted from its account to let consumers know of the move and the price break. "We regret to share that as of December 17, all Disney-owned channels are unavailable on YouTube TV. While Disney content remains off our platform, we’ll decrease our price by $15/month."

In an e-mail notice to customers early Saturday morning, YouTube TV said that in addition to live and local content from Disney networks and local ABC-owned  stations, they also lose access to any library recordings from Disney channels, including 4K content as part of its 4K Plus service. 

The affected channels/networks are: ABC News Live, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FX, FXX, FXM, National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 (by authentication to the ESPN app), ESPNU, ESPNEWS, SEC Network, ACC Network.■

■

We’re getting down to the final hours of a looming deadline before Disney removes many of its networks from one of the most successful skinny bundles out there, YouTube TV. 

Will the two sides resolve the fight and keep 18 Disney networks – including ABC, the Disney Channel and ESPN – among the vMVPD’s offerings? Or will Disney make like HBO Max with Amazon, take the short-term hit to audience metrics, and claw back those consumers with a direct relationship to its own competing virtual MVPD? 

The carriage battle comes just days after Google finally settled another long-running dispute, with Roku, over terms for support of YouTube and YouTube TV on Roku’s platform. That was a big deal all by itself, given that YouTube is the second most popular connected TV app next to Netflix. 

It feels like we’re not quite at the place where Disney takes its toys and walks away, perhaps making the content a more exclusive part of Hulu Plus Live TV, which its built-in streaming  bundle of Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and Hulu. But that teeter is tottering, and may move to the other side soon. 

On the one hand, Google’s fights with Roku and Disney have that whiff of nostalgia, a slightly modernized variant of the frequent battles over carriage and retransmission fees between pay-TV providers and their network providers. The question has always been who’s carrying who, and at what price? 

But everything’s scrambled these days, and nothing illustrates it better than a company like Google, a massive tech company built on selling lots and lots of ads. Its YouTube division is a giant source of streaming programming, while YouTube TV is one of the two biggest skinny bundles, alongside Hulu Plus Live TV. And the Google TV/Android TV streaming video platforms deliver all kinds of video programming on pucks, dongles, and TVs from OEMs such as Sony. 

That array of interests within a single company further complicates getting deals done, especially with other companies that are crucial partners in some areas and competitors in others. Seemingly everyone’s a content provider, a bundle operator and a distribution platform, at the same time. 

“The battle for control of the consumer is going to get worse before it gets better,” said David Baron, a long-time studio executive straddling digital and traditional TV with Paramount and Fox. 

Baron recently became CEO of Scener, a co-viewing app trying to bridge the fractured profusion of streaming networks so friends can jointly watch and talk about shows wherever they run. The increasingly Balkanized video ecosystem means consumers are getting left behind while companies maneuver for advantage and market share. 

“The MVPD land, say what you will about it, was simple; every single MVPD had every single channel,” Baron said. “Now you don't have that anymore. With live TV, people are just trying to figure out how the dust is going to settle on that.”

The concern for consumers is that media companies will increasingly concentrate their programming assets within the outlets that they control. Should, for example, Disney continue to license all its networks to YouTube TV when it might be able to shift viewers to Hulu Plus Live TV, which now comes with its ESPN Plus and Disney Plus services built in (after a $5/month price hike). 

Google, in prepping YouTube TV customers for the possible Disney departures, this week said it would cut its subscription prices $15 a month (i.e., roughly what it costs to get Disney’s streaming bundle of Hulu, Disney Plus and ESPN Plus). If you’re a consumer, that might count as a win, particularly if you don’t care about sports and other differentiating channels on YouTube TV. 

As it is, Baron suggested half the TV dial doesn’t need to be shoehorned into a live and linear format, as happens on MVPDs, v and otherwise. 

“There’s no reason Discovery wants to be a live, linear channel,” Baron said. “You could do that  (reality TV programming) without having to through (the traditional distribution process). I think the live experience has a lot of shaking out to do. How am I going to make it easier?”

Scener, which has yet to go through even a Series A fundraising round, may not be the ultimate answer to that question, but it does make life easier for vexed consumers to jointly watch live content, and unlike all the streamers now, talk about it in a social way.  

Scener has had some notable wins over the past 18 months, fueled by locked-down fans trying to connect with each other. The company helped stage large live virtual events for 2020’s San Diego Comic-Con and Alamo Drafthouse’s Fantastic Fest, along with a Zack Snyder-led premiere party for the online debut of his recut of Warner Bros.’ Justice League.  

Snyder, who interacted with 30,000 fans on Scener before and during his film’s four-hour unspooling, represents an even bigger unbundling happening right now, as creators talk directly with fans rather than being mediated by distributors of their films and TV shows. The same cut-out-the-middleman experience is happening, on a larger scale, with musicians and even book authors. 

But even video, the ultimate collaborative art, is facing shifts far beyond the grappling between YouTube TV and Disney. 

Among the notables joining Scener’s advisory board in recent weeks is filmmaker J.J. Abrams, along with former WME music chief Marc Geiger and Tinder founder Sean Rad. Abrams said he already plans to host multiple watch parties for his ardent fan base, sharing streams and conversations that may not focus strictly on his own TV shows and movies. 

As media companies continue to bicker and pull back their content from partly competing outlets, fans likely will grow even more frustrated trying to find their favorite shows, as well as places to talk about those shows before, during and afterward. 

Media companies, their various networks, bundles and platforms are in danger of forgetting how to take care of their fans as they sort out who gets what shows and networks where. 

The Disney-YouTube TV dispute may settle – just like a hundred carriage fights in the past – on the brink of blackout. Or it could mark one of the first battles in the next generation of TV distribution.