Discovery’s DIY Network will get a new name in summer 2020 as part of a network overhaul by Discovery and Fixer Upper hosts Chip and Joanna Gaines to create a multiplatform company offering linear TV and a TV Everywhere app, they said Wednesday. Programming concepts in development focus on community, home, garden, food, wellness, entrepreneurialism and design for a long-form format. A new over-the-top video product will feature live and VOD programming including new short-form and long-form content. The Gainses will be chief creative officers of the yet-to-be-named company, and HGTV President Allison Page will be president. Also Wednesday, Discovery and YouTube announced a multiyear distribution agreement. Launching on YouTube Wednesday were Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Travel Channel and MotorTrend. The Oprah Winfrey Network, OWN, will launch by year end.
The T-Mobile-Viacom streaming video partnership (see 1904030046) is part of a trend of bundling TV content not only with services offered by mobile wireless but also with "stuff most would never even think of," FBN Securities analyst Robert Routh wrote investors Friday. Such bundling partnerships could grow premium channel subscribers and cut churn and marketing and retention costs, it said. It said potential bundling partners with programmers include premium credit cards. wholesale clubs and subscription-based music services. Of the premium channels, Starz might be best positioned for bundling opportunities, with the lowest wholesale rate and thus potentially representing the best value proposition for potential bundling partners.
Pandora Now, launched Thursday as a SiriusXM channel and Pandora interactive station and playlist, is the first cross-platform initiative since SiriusXM completed its $3.5 billion all-stock Pandora buyout Feb. 1 (see 1902010005). Pandora Now “harnesses the combined strength of Pandora's extensive listener data and SiriusXM's curatorial expertise,” said the company. Bundling the SiriusXM and Pandora platforms is “a great area for combination,” because Pandora lacks a good "position" in the car, and SiriusXM "would like to do" better in the home and in mobile, SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer said last month (see 1903120026).
Roku added HBO to its premium subscription offering, and Cinemax will follow soon, it said Thursday. Users of The Roku Channel can trial HBO for free for seven days; after the trial, subscriptions are $14.99 a month. It promoted its “one-click” signup process in the My Account section on the Roku website. Premium subscriptions are only viewable within the Roku channel, it said.
The set-top box video SoC market revenue will fall 5 percent to $2.4 billion this year, due to pressure growing video streaming services are putting on pay-TV services, ABI Research said Thursday, saying revenue is expected to dip to $2 billion annually by 2023. It said the STB market will be driven in coming years by the switch from standard definition to boxes supporting HD and Ultra HD.
Viacom content will be a cornerstone for a planned T-Mobile video offering to roll out later this year, the two companies said Wednesday, They said the video service will include live linear feeds of Viacom channels, plus on-demand content. T-Mobile said work on the service -- aimed at "replac[ing] cable" -- started with its 2018 acquisition of Layer3 (see 1801230009).
Samsung Electronics joined the Alliance for Open Media as a top-tier board member, said the nonprofit Wednesday. The alliance's aim is to "define and develop open standards for media compression" and content online, it said: "Streaming media consumption continues to grow, enticing new users to the internet and providing everyone with more ways to engage with online media services and content." Alliance members include Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Netflix. Samsung is the first TV brand to join.
Fifty-eight percent of U.S. broadband homes that "trial" an over-the-top video subscription service convert to a paid subscription, Parks Associates said Wednesday. Some OTT providers expressed concern that consumers are churning through trials to avoid paying for service, but the high rate of conversion suggests "most users are actively evaluating for genuine adoption,” said analyst Brett Sappington. Though some churn likely occurs, among users trying out three or more services, nearly 80 percent subscribe to at least one service they tested, he said.
Barclays outlined a strategic road map it believes Disney should take before the company’s April 11 investor day webcast. Attention is focused on Disney’s upcoming over-the-top video product launch, but Barclays believes the company should focus on aggregation as much as stand-alone OTT services; technology as much as content; global total addressable market (TAM) and “wholesale tie ups”; rethinking company organizational structure; and committing to a “scaled pivot.” Disney stock, since the closing of the Fox transaction (see 1903120006), “is a story without a concrete financial anchor,” wrote analyst Kannan Venkateshwar in a Wednesday note to investors. Barclays pegs Disney’s global TAM at 455 million, and the company has a chance to add 170 million subscribers via Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus by 2025, making its OTT play comparable in scale to Netflix and Amazon. “Given the build-up in expectations, anything less (or silence on TAM) would be a disappointment,” said Venkateshwar.
Advertising-supported VOD service Tubi launched on Cox Contour, it said Friday. The deal with Cox is its second MVPD partnership, following one with Comcast Xfinity X1 announced in November. In January, Tubi announced it received $25 million in funding from Silicon Valley Bank to be used for content acquisition and marketing. In February, it said a deal with NBCUniversal would add nearly 400 TV episodes and movies.