VMVPD Growth Faces Pay-TV Challenges

While growing, virtual MVPDs face some of the same challenges as their traditional pay-TV rivals, many of which are losing video subscribers, a Parks Associates webcast heard Wednesday. Rising content costs lead vMVPDs to raise prices, said Parks' Paul Erickson. By 2023, vMVPD subs will be higher than telco and satellite pay TV combined, behind cable TV, the analyst said. In a competitive sector, Erickson said vMVPDs are riding the popularity of over-the-top video services and need unique propositions amid a growing number of rivals. Churn is a major challenge for vMVPDs, which lack customer contracts, said Erickson: Subscription duration averaged a year to 15 months for Dish Network's Sling (16 months), AT&T Now (15), Alphabet's YouTubeTV (15), Disney's Hulu + Live TV (14), AT&T WatchTV (12) and T-Mobile TVision Home (8). Since Parks' survey, AT&T announced it's spinning off DirecTV (see 2103010046), and T-Mobile shut down its TVision OTT service this week, six months after launch, instead partnering with Google and making YouTubeTV its preferred live TV offering.