Weekly Rewind
PlayStation Vue price changes: On Thursday, Sony quietly eliminated all “Slim” plans from PlayStation Vue. That brings the starting price to $40 per month–$10 more than the corresponding Slim package–regardless of whether live, local channels are available in your area. Existing subscribers will get to hang onto their old plans for the next three months, according to Sony’s FAQ.
The upside is that Sony, like other streaming bundlers, has been steadily adding more live, local channels in more markets, and that’ll likely continue as networks make more deals on behalf of their affiliate stations. Still, I’m mourning the loss of what used to be an excellent option for antenna users–or at least those who didn’t mind jumping over to a separate app or input to watch those local channels.
Tough times for Disney channels: While the decline of Disney’s ESPN empire has been well-documented, the network’s channels for children are also struggling. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Disney Channel and Freeform have each shed roughly 4 million subscribers over the past few years. Ratings for Disney channels have also declined year-over-year in the first half of 2017.
The obvious culprits are streaming alternatives such as Netflix and YouTube, which offer troves of child-friendly TV without the burden of a big cable bundle. But it’s also worth noting how the fates of ESPN and Disney channels are currently intertwined. These channels are almost always packaged together, and so they both lose a viewer when someone opts for a service like Sling TV Blue (which lacks Disney-owned channels), or a sports-free skinny bundle from their internet provider. For Disney, whose young viewers translate into merchandise sales and Disney World tickets, that’s a liability.
As more sports-free streaming bundles become available, how long until Disney and ESPN channels split apart to stop the bleeding?
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