Another major distributor in Comcast is now offering its version of a skinny bundle.
Comcast will reportedly roll out its “Sports & News TV” package that is set to offer more than 50 broadcast, sports, and cable news channels to its subscribers for a price of $70 per month, per Front Office Sports. The offering comes just a week after DirecTV announced it would be debuting its “MySports” streaming package at a similar price point.
But like MySports, Comcast’s Sports & News TV package will have some key omissions. While the offering will include staples like the ESPN family of networks and Fox, it will not include Warner Bros. Discovery properties like TNT and TBS. The bundle will also not include regional sports networks.
Comcast will include its Peacock streaming service in the offering, which will be accessible both as a streaming service or inside the company’s X1 TV box.
Comcast’s move, of course, comes shortly after the Fox-Disney-Warner joint venture Venu Sports shuttered operations before launch. Venu, which similarly offered some-but-not-all of the sports one might want, was priced substantially lower at $42.99 per month.
Given the pricing of both Comcast’s and DirecTV’s offerings ($70), it’s unlikely that these packages will attract the number of subscribers that Venu would have at its price point. These skinny bundles are priced very similarly to fuller offerings like YouTube TV, which costs $82.99 per month and has everything.
Until companies can match price with content offerings, these skinny bundles seem to serve only a niche audience that may be interested in some sports and news content but not others.
