There’s never a dull moment on the sports media beat, and that’s true even immediately following the conclusion of a Super Bowl.
Following the Seattle Seahawks’ Super Bowl win on Sunday night, Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw reported a scoop about YouTube TV’s highly anticipated sports skinny bundle. Per Shaw, YouTube TV is prepared to launch its sports-focused package, which will include all of the broadcast networks, the sports networks available in YouTube TV’s base package, and “some programming that was previously exclusive to streaming,” which presumably means ESPN Unlimited content, at a price of $65 per month.
The price point marks a 22% discount from YouTube TV’s base package, which includes numerous entertainment and news channels in addition to sports content for $83 per month. Along with launching the sports-focused bundle, YouTube TV will debut 10 other genre-specific skinny bundles at varying price points.
Launching these skinny bundles marks the manifestation of a long-desired distribution strategy for YouTube TV. Throughout several acrimonious carriage battles last year, YouTube TV fought to secure the ability to package certain cable networks in slimmed-down bundles that can be offered at more competitive rates and targeted towards specific types of customers.
Until recently, content providers have typically forced distributors to package popular channels, like ESPN, with their less-popular channels, like Nat Geo. This was great for content providers like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, which could leverage their popular channels to compel distributors to pay above market rate for lesser-watched networks. These costs, of course, were ultimately passed onto consumers in the form of a bloated pay TV bundle filled with channels they never watch.
To be sure, YouTube TV’s skinny bundles won’t be the first on the market. Companies like DirecTV and Comcast have offered their own versions of skinny bundles for about a year now.
But now, consumers will have another option in YouTube TV.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.