Latest in skinny bundle

Hulu + Live TV, which launched in 2017 and steadily become the No. 1 “skinny bundle” service, is about to cost a lot more soon. The company has announced a $10-a-month price hike of its basic monthly rate to $54.99 a month, from $44.99 a month, a 22% increase. “The new price better reflects the substantial value of…

Sony said Tuesday it plans to shut down its PlayStation Vue skinny-bundle TV service in order to refocus on its core videogame business. The end of the line will come next January 30. Viewers of films and TV programming can continue to access them via the PlayStation Store and through partner apps. Sony is getting set…

Discovery and FuboTV have announced a new, multi-year carriage agreement that will bring 13 Discovery networks to Fubo’s streaming service in the coming weeks. The deal extends the relationship between the companies that dates back before the 2018 acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive by Discovery. The prior…

YouTube and Verizon have minted a distribution deal that will cross-promote both the telecom giant’s offerings, including 5G and broadband, and the internet-delivered pay-TV service. Under the deal, Verizon will offer promotions on YouTube TV to customers regardless of the service they get. A Verizon spokesperson…

FuboTV, a smaller but growing player in the virtual MVPD (aka skinny bundle) space, has set price increases that make its base subscription package $54.99 a month, $10 more than before. The company cited “the addition of popular channels over the past year,” including AMC, Cartoon Network, CNN, TBS and TNT, noting it…

Sony’s PlayStation Vue is expanding its “multi-view” feature, which already available on PlayStation 4, to Apple TV subscribers of the streaming service. The Vue skinny bundle, which was among the first lower-cost, internet-delivered TV players when it launched in 2015. Multi-view which was added two years ago on the…

UPDATED with closing stock prices. The stocks of cable programmers Discovery, AMC Networks and Viacom have all dropped between 3%-4% today despite broader-market gains as investors process the news that their networks are caught in the shuffle at DirecTV Now. After reports in recent days pointed to changes, AT&T’s…

With TV antenna use booming, skinny bundles gaining traction and subscription streaming still on the upswing, new findings from Nielsen offer some eye-opening statistics showing how viewers are getting TV programming outside of the traditional pay bundle. While about 89 million U.S. households still subscribe to…

The pace of cord-cutting accelerated in 2018, with the largest pay-TV providers shedding about 2.9 million video subscribers, nearly double the 1.5 million subscriber losses in 2017, according to the latest study by Leichtman Research Group. The research firm, which tracks providers covering about 95% of the market…

With competition growing in the internet-delivered pay-TV market, one of its pioneers is offering a sizable price cut for new subscribers during their first three months. The company has rolled out a 40% discount on monthly plans, making the cost $15 a month for basic plans, or $25 a month for higher-tier plans with…

Viacom and FuboTV have set a carriage deal that will put nine of the programmer’s networks on the virtual MVPD’s basic tier. The networks covered by the deal include BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Paramount Network, TV Land and VH1. Other Viacom networks will also be available in a higher Fubo…

Hulu is phasing in a significant rate hike for its skinny-bundle live TV service, to $44.99 a month from $39.99, but at the same time will lower the price of its signature SVOD offering to $5.99 from $7.99. The ad-free version of Hulu’s SVOD service will remain $11.99 a month. The new pricing scheme will go into…