Internet TV: Dish Exploring OTT Service with Viacom and Others
By Rob Scott
September 28, 2012
September 28, 2012
- Dish Network is in discussions with Viacom, Univision and Scripps regarding an over-the-top service that would deliver live cable TV via the Internet.
- “Dish Network’s service would change the dynamics of the pay television business, breaking up the bundles that force customers to pay for channels they don’t watch,” reports Businessweek.
- With a smaller bundle, the service would be priced lower than what consumers pay for cable TV. Dish would also be able to bypass sports, its biggest programming expense.
- Sources suggest that Viacom might be willing to sell a smaller bundle of channels at a higher rate-per-channel than it does for full packages it offers to cable and satellite operators. The bundle would include Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.
- “The effort would mark the biggest attempt to create an online service with live cable channels, a break from the approach taken by Netflix Inc. and Hulu LLC,” notes the article.
- “For Dish, the move would decrease its reliance on its satellite-TV service, which ranks second to DirecTV in U.S. customers. It also gives it a way to undercut pay TV competitors on price.”
- It’s worth noting that pay TV operators including Dish and Time Warner Cable currently offer cheaper packages without sports, but they are not typically popular with consumers.
2 Comments
In a related story, AllThingsD reports that Dish is the “unnamed strategic investor” in a $45 million investment round raised by Roku in July. “If Dish ever did go forward with a Web TV service, there would be an obvious benefit in a tie-up with Roku, which competes head-to-head with Apple’s Apple TV box.”
http://allthingsd.com/20120927/dish-networks-eyes-web-tv-and-invests-in-rokus-web-tv-box/
In a related story, AllThingsD reports that Dish is the “unnamed strategic investor” in a $45 million investment round raised by Roku in July. “If Dish ever did go forward with a Web TV service, there would be an obvious benefit in a tie-up with Roku, which competes head-to-head with Apple’s Apple TV box.”
http://allthingsd.com/20120927/dish-networks-eyes-web-tv-and-invests-in-rokus-web-tv-box/
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.