Viacom wants to leave sports in the dust with future $20 “skinny” TV bundle

(credit: Photograph by Aurich Lawson)

In efforts to compete with streaming TV services, some networks are looking to make their own "skinny" TV bundles. At the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media, and Telecom conference in Boston this week, Viacom CEO Bob Bakish explained that the company is in talks with at least one multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) to be part of an entertainment-only, slimmed-down TV bundle that would cost between $10 and $20 per month.

This type of package would include entertainment channels only and exclude sports entirely, gearing it toward customers who want a cheaper TV bundle and don't care about sports programming. Bakish criticized current TV streaming offerings for not being "transformational" since they still require customers to pay for content they don't want, namely sports networks. According to Bakish, the true transformational plan will be one that provides customers with "a new entry segment at a much lower price point" with optional sports programming.

Live sports is a huge deal for most over-the-top streaming services, as it is for social media outlets that have been focusing more on live video. Services like YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV highlight the number of sports networks included in their $35 to $40 price tags, while Twitter and Facebook have obtained rights to stream various sports broadcasts over social media in the past couple years.

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