2019 to Have Faster MVPD Sub Losses, First vMVPD Failure, nScreenMedia Says

Expect 2019 to bring accelerated MVPD subscriber losses, deeper rather than broader subscription VOD adoption, the initial big launch of Disney+ to quickly taper off and the first vMVPD service shutdown, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Tuesday. He said with Disney and Time Warner increasingly focused on direct-to-consumer distribution instead of pay-TV providers, they'll have even less motivation to rein in pricing demand of pay TV. He said the Disney streaming service will undoubtedly get big adoption when it rolls out but lack of depth in its catalog will mean usage substantially below competitors. He said vMVPDs FuboTV and PlayStation Vue could be most vulnerable this year, given escalating channel license fees. Fubo emailed Wednesday that 2018 was its biggest year, surpassing a $100 million annual run rate, closing a $75 million fundraising round and more than doubling subscribers. "We were also the first vMVPD to expand outside of North America with the launch of fuboTV in Spain, and are better positioned than our competitors to bring fubo to even more markets in 2019," it said. Disney and PlayStation didn't comment.