- We also got another hint that the new sports streamer's monthly fee will be around $50.
- The big question is, if a streamer doesn't broadcast every NFL game, who will subscribe?
- Lachlan Murdoch tried to answer that question on Monday, but it remains difficult.
It was further confirmed that the new sports streaming service launching this fall will cost around $50 per month. One of the girlfriends of the new service owner basically just said it out loud.
“Prices are going to be in a higher range than what people have been talking about,” Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said Monday at an investor conference.
That means Murdoch's company is one of three co-owners of the new service, along with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, which could cost up to $50 a month. I am saying that the report is correct.
Again, we already knew this.
After all, as we mentioned last month, the channels that make up this service will come with a wholesale price of at least $30 per month. Then there are the costs of actually building, marketing, and maintaining the service.
What we don't know yet: Why would someone pay $50 a month for this? And how many people do the service owners think will sign up?
There is also an answer to the second question. Murdoch predicted that within five years from the launch of this service he would have 5 million subscribers. Background: He has 14 million subscribers on his two largest pay TV services in the US, Charter and Comcast. YouTube TV is currently the fourth largest pay TV service with 8 million subscribers.
But back to the main question: Who on earth would want to pay for this?
After all, if you want to pay for streaming TV, you can pay $73 a month for YouTube TV. And unlike newer sports streaming services, YouTube TV lets you watch almost any sport on your TV. For new streamers, Several Sports broadcast on TV.
Most importantly, the new streamer won't have NFL games broadcast by CBS, which has a deal with the league's AFC games, or NBC, whose Sunday night NFL broadcasts are usually the most popular on TV. (Like YouTube TV and all other pay-TV services, there's also no Thursday Night Game, which is now owned by Amazon. It used to only have decent ratings, but now it's doing well, too.)
People often say that sports are the key to keeping the live TV business afloat, but what they really mean is NFL games. Other televised sports are a distant second at best.
Then again, if you're a big enough sports fan that you want to pay for streaming TV, wouldn't you? all Sports on streaming TV? Which one in particular is the most popular? Because that's what you get on regular TV. and Many other channels not included in this bundle.
This is a question that has puzzled me ever since this was announced. And when I talk to people in the industry about this, they're confused too. They always present different theories as to why this was put together, but none of them touch the point of “Seriously, who would buy this?” question.
Murdoch tried to answer Monday, but it was a difficult one.
Because Mr. Murdoch has to do two things. One is to remind yourself that there are a large number of people who used to watch pay TV but have disconnected, or who have never watched pay TV in the first place and are interested in paying for it. This is because investors need to be convinced. For this. And he also needs to convince that same audience about the service. I don't Appealing to people who already pay for TV that it won't eat into his existing business.
His answer boils down to this: It doesn't make sense to media consumers, analysts, and investors who live on the coasts, but there are plenty of people who live in Central America who want to watch sports on TV. They just don't want to spend too much money.
“A huge number of households “By outside the bundle, we mean people who can't watch a traditional pay TV package for reasons other than they don't like sports,” he said. They're still very strong, very passionate sports fans. ”
And so it is. Instead of spending $73 a month on something, it is meaningfully cheaper for him to spend $50 a month on something.
But you can also flip it. The consumers Murdoch claims to be targeting are theoretically not paying for TV at all at the moment. Now he's asking them to pay an extra $50 a month, but they don't get everything they want.
Tough sale.
