The biggest news had to be Dish Network’s Sling TV announcement at CES in January, the $20/month OTT service is likely to influence its competitors and assist in a structural alteration to the traditional cable bundle.
But even more companies have been rolling out OTT apps and programs at an incredible rate of speed.
Also in January, online retailer Overstock.com revealed plans for streaming VOD at NATPE. Scheduled to launch with 30,000 titles in the middle of the year, CEO Patrick Byrne hopes the offering will go head-to-head with Amazon.com.
“We think our loyalty program is better,” Byrne said. “We give you five to 25 percent back on what you spend. So we pay people back for their digital downloads.”
Then in February, MTV debuted its own OTT app, “MTV Play,” which will appear in Europe on March 5. The VOD service will feature many of the music network’s most popular television shows, and is intended for Millennials.
“The young audience doesn’t see the TV at the centre of the
household. Our mobile first approach is where we see any screen as a window,” Ramon
Duivenvoorden, co-founder and CEO at Vigour told
Broadband TV News.
Shortly thereafter, Popcornflix, a free streaming film and television app, proclaimed that it would now be available on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in the U.S., with a further strategy for deployment in Latin America.
And to round things out, Nickelodeon made known that it was bringing back defunct children’s station Noggin in OTT app form, with a $5.99 platform geared towards preschoolers which will include educational TV series and videos.
That’s major OTT movement from five companies, which doesn’t even include HBO’s standalone service, and is alleged to be launching in April, just in time for the new season of “Game of Thrones.”
The larger question is how will all of this affect cord-cutting?
According to a January survey from Parks Associates, 91 percent of broadband users with pay-TV subscriptions will utilize HBO’s new OTT service, and half of that group will cancel their pay-TV as a result. Re/Code projects that to be “7 percent of the industry’s base.”
“Now the idea that because [pay-TV subscribers] also can get HBO, that maybe they’re going to disconnect the hundreds of channels that they have obviously decided to buy? I don’t think so,” Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes told MultiChannel News back in December.
Shortly thereafter, Popcornflix, a free streaming film and television app, proclaimed that it would now be available on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in the U.S., with a further strategy for deployment in Latin America.
And to round things out, Nickelodeon made known that it was bringing back defunct children’s station Noggin in OTT app form, with a $5.99 platform geared towards preschoolers which will include educational TV series and videos.
That’s major OTT movement from five companies, which doesn’t even include HBO’s standalone service, and is alleged to be launching in April, just in time for the new season of “Game of Thrones.”
The larger question is how will all of this affect cord-cutting?
According to a January survey from Parks Associates, 91 percent of broadband users with pay-TV subscriptions will utilize HBO’s new OTT service, and half of that group will cancel their pay-TV as a result. Re/Code projects that to be “7 percent of the industry’s base.”
“Now the idea that because [pay-TV subscribers] also can get HBO, that maybe they’re going to disconnect the hundreds of channels that they have obviously decided to buy? I don’t think so,” Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes told MultiChannel News back in December.
The Parks research directly contradicts that statement.
How many more will cut the cord as these OTT services continue to emerge? And will the digital packaging and bundling of OTT services become an industry in and of itself?
Author: Brian Cameron
Image via Flickr.
Follow @FYITV
How many more will cut the cord as these OTT services continue to emerge? And will the digital packaging and bundling of OTT services become an industry in and of itself?
Author: Brian Cameron
Image via Flickr.
Everyone discusses the physical aspect of cord-cutting but not the business repercussion. Affiliate Fees will they be maintained so that content can be created? Will they sufferand will that kill off the content as the pot shrinks?
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