NY Yankees team up with Amazon
Full disclosure, I’m a Yankees fan. The cord cutting transition cost me in-market games last year when YES network, home to the NY Yankees was pulled from vMVPDs such as Sling TV. I was relegated to a handful of OTA broadcasts on PIX11. Thank you, old school broadcast antenna. Last year, Amazon and Sinclair, along with Yankee Global Enterprises, acquired 80 percent of YES Network. Amazon is now starting the process of leveraging their asset by broadcasting 17 games for free to Prime Video members. These are the same games that will be have an OTA broadcast. However, Amazon is priming viewers for sports’ transition to streaming. To do that, they are using new innovations, such as Amazon’s X-Ray technology feature, which will make in-game stats, team and player details, and play-by-play information readily accessible in real-time during the games on Prime Video.
The NPD Take:
- These were already free OTA games that all in-market fans could access through a digital antenna. As such, Amazon isn’t offering streaming viewers anything more than added features such as X-Ray.
- This is about the transition from broadcast and cable to streaming. Streaming companies such as Amazon, that own a share of the YES network, will begin to eat up regional sports streaming rights. Once the genie is out of the bottle it can’t be put back in. The core hook for subscribing to cable will be lost and cord cutting will run rampant.
Pluto TV Updates UI
Viacom is upping its free streaming game with user interface improvements for its AVOD service, Pluto TV. The bottom line is that it now looks and feels like a legit cable service. The channels have program descriptions and the visual layout is simply more appealing. Pluto TV also added a channel favorite feature and Watch List. The new Watch Now button lets viewers save select titles to on-demand later. The service now attracts 22 million monthly active users with expectations to reach 30 million by year end.
The NPD Take:
- A free streaming service component is now being looked as a way to draw viewer engagement and generate ad revenues. With services such as Peacock this is being integrated into the broader experience. Expect ViacomCBS to do something similar with its expanded All Access platform later this year.
- We’re starting to wonder what’s left for basic cable. AVOD services such as Pluto TV and Xumo are covering an expanded portion of what viewers used to expect from basic cable. That is being compounded by media companies producing new programming exclusive for their streaming services. At the end of this, will basic cable be relegated to late night classics such as I Love Lucy and the Honeymooners?
Tubi expands into hotels
Ad-supported on-demand service Tubi TV has expanded its reach by partnering with Enseo to get distributed in 30,000 hotel rooms. The service announced having expanded its monthly active user base to 25 million as of December ’19. Distribution partnerships such as this demonstrate that growth in the user base isn’t always viewers tuning into their home TV. Meanwhile, it’s rumored FOX is in talks to acquire the company for upwards of $500 million.
The NPD Take:
- Notably, the service does not have Disney content. A move depicting the value Disney sees in owning and distributing the vast majority of its own programming.
- It won’t be long before all of the viable streaming video aggregators get acquired and made part of larger offerings by mega media companies.