More streaming choices on way for cord cutters in 2018
Subscribers continue to flee pay-TV providers
The streaming video binge-fest shows no sign of slowing down.
Expect plenty of developments in 2018 as more viewers turn to the Internet for entertainment and more subscription services try to woo them.
Two trends power the ongoing TV transformation: the growing number of U.S. homes with high-speed broadband and the slow decline in homes with traditional pay-TV service.
About 82% of all U.S. homes get broadband now, up from 76% in 2012, according to the Leichtman Research Group. And broadband homes (94.5 million) now eclipse the number of homes with traditional pay TV (about 92.2 million), the research firm says.
Meanwhile, pay-TV providers continue to lose subscribers. About 405,000 signed off in the third quarter alone. However, the growth in broadband-delivered live TV services such as Sling TV and DirecTV Now is helping offset those losses. More than 2.5 million now subscribe to them, Leichtman Research says.
What else can streaming video devotees expect in 2018?
Rise of the skinny bundles: The virtual-TV competition truly heated up in 2017. In March, Google joined the fray with its $35 monthly YouTube TV service, with more than 40 live TV channels. Two months later, Hulu began offering more than 50 live TV channels ($39.99 monthly) in addition to its subscription on-demand programming from major networks and its own originals (starting at $7.99 monthly with limited ads).
Also new on the scene: Philo, a $16 monthly entertainment-focused service launched last month with more than three dozen channels — notably absent are sports and news.
Sports-oriented fuboTV ($39.99 after two months at $19.99) has grown from a soccer-centric streaming service two years ago to offer more than 65 channels including Fox and NBC broadcast, news and sports channels.
Already up and running were Sling TV (starting at $20), launched by Dish Network in February 2015, and Sony’s PlayStation Vue ($39.99 and up), which debuted a month later. AT&T, which acquired DirecTV in May 2014, began offering DirecTV Now service ($35 and up) in November 2016.
Competition for content: Look for streaming services to try to lock down rights for coveted TV series and movies that will keep subscribers on board, with Disney planning its own subscription video offering sometime in 2019.
Netflix is the leader — Amazon, Hulu and MLB.tv. hold the next three spots — and to maintain its dominance, it plans to ramp up content spending to as much as $8 billion in 2018.
That will likely be needed as Disney’s CEO Bob Iger has said in the buildup to launching its own service that the entertainment powerhouse plans to be selfish in licensing its current content as well as fare it gained from the $52.4 billion bid for much of 21st Century Fox including its TV and movie studios.
Netflix has signed several creative deals, including one with Scandal and
Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes. Amazon Studios landed The Walking
Dead creator Robert Kirkman and Skybound Entertainment, the entertainment company he founded with producer David Alpert, to a two-year deal developing exclusive TV series.
And Hulu has become a force to be reckoned with, with its The Handmaid’s
Tale winning five Emmys in September.
Partnerships and, perhaps, attrition: With so many services available and more on the way — including ESPN Plus in ’18 — some smaller or niche offerings may need to team up to survive.