Millennials Might Not Care for Sports-Free Bundle, nScreenMedia Analyst Says

A sports-free bundle would let the pay-TV universe finally have a low-cost offering, but Viacom's pursuit of the idea may not fly because its content might not be optimal for such an offering, said nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon in a blog post Monday. Pointing to comments by CEO Bob Bakish that Viacom is putting together a $20 sports-less and news-less bundle offering for MVPDs, it said pay-TV operators should "shake up the unhealthy dynamic driving the cost of pay TV inexorably upwards," with sports being the biggest driver of content cost escalations: Since traditional linear TV viewing is dropping among millennials, Viacom could find that such a bundle "is just not what the young viewer is looking for at any price."