'Cord-Kindas': Cable Subs Without the Cable

As the recent NewFront presentations emphasized Streaming Video will continue to shape the media economy and culture at large making now a good time to evaluate its impact on bothFirst came the cordcutters General dissatisfaction and belttightening drove their defection from traditional cable and Roku and AppleTV devices made it feasible Cutters begat shavers stackers and nevers millions of lost Cable and Satellite subscribers have permanently altered the industryWithin cordcutters however there are substrata that don39t yet have a cool quotcordquot name Viewers who want to drop their cable companies but not the cable experience Let39s call them cordkindasThey can subscribe to all of the quotPlusquot services that keep emerging but the individual monthly fees would quickly add up and having to switch between apps to go from Chopped to SportsCenter is inconvenient especially for habitual channelsurfersA solution vMVPDs or virtual multichannel video programming distributors They don39t get the attention that Peacock Discovery Plus et al do but vMVPDs offer cable without the cable In a recent eMarketer survey of vMVPD subscribers 49 of respondents cited quotAccess to live content through a guidequot as a benefit edging out cost and leaving quotNo contractsquot and ease of cancellation in the dust Ultimately kindas don39t want the end product to changePer Antenna Analytics vMVPDs have grown 24 between Q4 2019 and Q4 2020 driven largely by live sports an offering of the more comprehensive and pricier providers Costs range from free to 65 per month with the more expensive options more closely recreating quotrealquot cable As you move toward free things get less and less cablelike Here39s how they all shake outCable Without the CableRecreating the cable experienceHulu Plus Live TV65month YouTube TV 65month FuboTV 65month ATampampT TV 6595monthHulu Plus Live TV offers 65plus live channels in addition to Hulu39s adsupported streaming tier YouTube TV has 85plus channels plus unlimited DVR an upcharge on HLTV FuboTV began its life as a soccercentric outlet the name is short for quotfutbolquot but has evolved into a broaderbased vMPVD with a strong sports offering amongst its 100 live channelsATampampT TV offers three different tiers Entertainment 65 for 65plus channels Choice 85 for 90plus channels and Ultimate 95 for 130plus channels with corporate sibling HBOHBO Max included free for one year at the two highest tiers As with traditional Cable and Satellite premium channels are available for an additional fee on each of the servicesStill Pretty CableyLive TV with Scalable OfferingsSlingTV Starts at 35monthamp160 Philo Starts at 20monthA service of Dish Network SlingTV has two available packages Blue which focuses on news and entertainment programming and Orange with an emphasis on sports and family ampgtAdditional channel clusters add sports to Blue add news to Orange etc will run 6month Premium selections and DVR services can also be addedPhilo is a joint venture among ViacomCBS AampampE Networks AMC Networks and Discovery Inc For its relatively low price tag Philo has a nice basic network roster with upcharges for premium channels It doesn39t hurt that Philo is owned by a consortium of four media giants however as each establishes its own streaming brand they may start selling off their stakes in the company How that would affect programming is yet to be seenIt39s Good But It Ain39t CableNoCost OptionsPlutoTV Free Tubi FreeEach of these services offers a lot of content It39s just that most of it isn39t live Cable Pluto has taken a lot from its owner ViacomCBS but it39s all on specialty quotBET Plutoquot quotSmithsonian Channel Selectsquot etc The rest are channels devoted to one show ie Family Ties or genre ie quotBlack CinemaquotTubi is even less like linear Cable and almost entirely VOD A wide array of movies and television episodes is available with some top networks Tubi has been owned by Fox since 2020 and most movie studios represented It39s not a reasonable facsimile of Cable in its offerings or interfaceCord Kindas Are HighValue ImpressionsTogether these vMVPDs reach 115 million subscribers paid providers and 61 million monthly users free servicesServiceSubscribersHuluLive TV4000000YouTube TV3000000Sling TV250000Phil800000ATampampT TV680000FuboTV550000Total11530000ServiceMonthly UsersTubi33000000Pluto28000000Total61000000Hulu notwithstanding they may not benefit from the attention or marketing budgets of shiny new AVODs but advertisers should not ignore these providers True they may already see the national spots that each network airs but they can additionally be reached through addressable advertisingBottom LineWith strong numbers and the potential for granular targeting cordkindas are an audience that won39t get lost in the shuffle by attentive marketersArticle written by Carl Mayer is Director Integrated MediaActive Entertainment at Active InternationalClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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'Cord-Kindas': Cable Subs Without the Cable

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"About That with Carl Mayer": Involved Media Connected Audience Fall 2024 Report (Episode 5) - By Carl Mayer

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"About That with Carl Mayer": Involved Media Connected Audience Fall 2024 Report (Episode 5) - By Carl Mayer

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