DirecTV offers skinny bundle sports package, “MySports”
Comes after Venu collapse
Just days after the planned Disney-Fox-Warner Bros. Discovery joint venture Venu fell through, one of the principals that helped bring down the effort is releasing its own “skinny bundle”.
DirecTV announced Tuesday it was launching MySports, a new sports streaming service available at launch in seventeen of the top twenty markets including Chicago, and includes local Fox, NBC, and ABC stations, starting with the network-owned outlets and would negotiate with other station groups to carry their signals, meaning for Chicago viewers, Nexstar’s WGN-TV and Weigel’s WCIU won’t be available at launch. Regional sports networks and CBS are also not in the lineup but according to the Chicago Tribune, regional sports networks Marquee and CHSN may soon become available as separate add-ons for an additional fee, as is other RSNs on a market-by-market basis. As for CBS and other Paramount Global channels (including CBS Chicago), DirecTV hopes for a carriage agreement soon.
MySports will be available in 24 markets, including Austin, Tex. and Gainesville, Fla., where Fox owns stations, and expand to other markets in the future.
The package includes ESPN’s family of networks; WBD’s TNT, TBS, and TruTV; Fox’s FS1, Fs2, and Big Ten Network; NBA TV; The MLB, NFL, and NHL Networks; plus Golf Channel and USA Network and numerous free advertised-supported television (FAST) channels including Fuel TV, Stadium, and Sports Grid. For some reason, the package also includes news and business channels including CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, and MSNBC, among others – something Venu lacked. Here’s the complete linear channel list for the Chicago area below:
“The introduction of MySports from DirecTV delivers consumers greater choice, flexibility, and control to select the type of content they want to watch at the right value,” DirecTV CEO Bill Morrow said. “This is the first of several genre-based options we plan to launch over the coming months on our path towards a brighter TV future for consumers.”
Earlier, DirecTV struck new carriage deals with Disney and WBD.
After a five-day free trial, subscribers would pay three installments of $49.99 for the first three months and then pay $70 a month. The price point is cheaper than YouTube TV, which recently increased its price by ten dollars to $83 a month.
Subscribers can access MySports through the DirecTV app and stream on numerous platforms, including smartphones, tablets, Amazon Fire, Roku, Apple TV devices, and Smart TV manufacturers including Samsung. Viewers can also receive game-time notifications, and an unlimited cloud DVR, where they can watch games live or whenever they please. For now, there are no plans to offer this package for DirecTV satellite subscribers.
This comes after DirecTV and Dish filed a legal brief with the courts to continue an injection granted to Fubo to keep Venu from launching last summer, signaling they could take legal action themselves after Fubo agreed to merge their service with Disney’s Hulu + Live TV and settle litigation against the principals behind Venu, clearing the way for its launch. But on Friday, Disney, Fox, and WBD announced they were abandoning the joint venture.