The latest ‘skinny bundle’ has arrived, and this time it is from the leading streaming MVPD.
Google-owned YouTube TV announced Wednesday that it will launch a new sports-focused bundle early next year consisting of the ESPN networks — including ESPN Unlimited — the new NBCSN, FS1 and the “all the major broadcasters,” for an as-yet-undisclosed price.
Google won the right to include the ESPN networks in a skinny bundle as part of its recent, protracted negotiations with Disney. Its negotiations with NBCUniversal also resulted in the return of NBCSN, which features a lineup consisting primarily of events once exclusive to Peacock.
The largest of all the streaming MVPDs, and soon to be the largest distributor period, YouTube TV joins a growing list of providers offering sports-focused skinny bundles. DIRECTV launched its “MySports” plan in January for $70/mo, and Fubo debuted its “Fubo Sports” plan over the summer for $56/mo.
Those ‘skinny bundles’ are considerably cheaper than the base plans being offered by those providers, but also considerably more expensive than those services were at the outset of the streaming era in the late 2010s. For YouTube TV, which launched at $35/mo in 2017 and now costs more than twice as much ($83/mo), a price in the $55-70 range would be in line with that trend.
The new bundles must compete with direct-to-subscriber offerings from each of the networks. The ESPN Unlimited plan costs $30/mo and can be bundled with the Fox One streaming service (usually $20) for an additional $10. Between the ESPN-Fox bundle and the base plans of Paramount+ ($9), Peacock ($11), access to the to four major networks and their cable siblings costs $60/mo. Add in the TNT Sports networks on HBO Max — which are available as part of the $18.50/mo ‘standard’ tier — and the price rises to $78/mo.
It was of course the networks themselves that sparked the skinny bundle trend. The attempted launch of Venu, a joint venture of ESPN, Fox Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery, would have made all of those companies’ sports-related networks available as part of one $43/mo subscription. But the streamers cried foul as their contracts did not allow them to offer similar sport-specific plans, instead forcing them to bundle low-wattage cable networks like Freeform that drove up the prices of their plans.
