TV-Network Groups' 'Strict Bundling' Demands Must Change: DirecTV
- by Wayne Friedman , August 21, 2024
The recent court
decision to temporarily stop Venu Sports -- a joint venture among Walt Disney, Fox Corp., and Warner Bros. Discovery -- has prompted one major legacy pay TV executive to call for a reexamination
for the broader TV “bundling.”
“While DTC [direct to consumer] offerings have evolved, pay …
The problem with offering consumers "skinnier" packages---meaning that consumers can largely pick only those services or channels that they want----is that most consumers will select only 5, 10 or, maybe 20 ---not the far larger numbers now included in many bundles.To make that work the subscription prices for individual selections will have to rise tremendously and many channels will not survive long at such high prices as their audience and ad revenue bases will be severely reduced. Obviously, as the great shakeout of lesser cable channels---to be followed by their streaming counterparts-----unfolds, bundling of some magnitude will still be needed to create the essential business plan efficiencies that most program content supplier require .