Comcast, Charter Rebuilding Video Bundling With Streaming TV: Analyst

Comcast's and Charter Communications' forays into over-the-top TV service with Spectrum TV Stream (see 2404160069) and Now TV aren't about competing with virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPD). Instead, their goal is maintaining broadband dominance, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon wrote Wednesday. Cable companies have bundled TV and broadband for decades because that cuts churn for both services, he said. The high cost of cable TV "broke the bundle's positive impact," but a low-cost TV service "could help remake it and keep those broadband competitors at bay," he said. Smaller vMVPDs such as Philo and Sling TV could be particularly vulnerable to the cablers' streaming TV competition, he said.