Popular Skinny Bundles Still Aren't Catering to Cord Cutters

When skinny bundles—or Virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (vMVPDs)—finally started appearing, 我知道我还没办法割断脐带. None of them offered DVR functionality, and I was completely in love with the DVR experience. 我已经好几年没看电视直播了. 瘦捆绑包都是关于直播内容的. It would take time for them to figure it out, I thought.

Then all of the skinny bundles offered cloud DVRs seemingly overnight. 云dvr甚至比硬件dvr更好, since you can tap into your recordings from any device.

But there’s still one area where bundles fall down, and that’s in local programming and live sports. While it’s important to offer a collection of popular basic cable channels, 拥有大型网络也很重要.

Getting access to local channels is a lot more complicated than getting access to cable channels. 不同的地方分支机构有不同的所有者, 而且交易往往只能一次敲定一个. 瘦捆在这里取得了很好的进展, with most of them offering most local channels in most markets.

当然, “most” isn’t good enough if your favorite show isn’t supported and you really want to watch it live. 我联系了DirecTV Now的代表, Hulu直播电视, 吊索的电视, and YouTube TV to ask how potential customers could learn what local channels were supported before they signed up. All four have areas on their sites where people can look up local channels, 通常使用邮政编码搜索. Hulu工具 tells me I’ll get local ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, plus a few smaller options. DirecTV Now工具也告诉我同样的情况. 吊索的电视在我的地区失去了CBS, and ABC isn’t available in either the company’s Orange or Blue packages, but it’s available as a “broadcast extra” in some markets. YouTube TV offers a list that explains how most of its networks are available in most areas, but then offers many exceptions where only on-demand network programming is supported.

Skinny bundle providers must know how unsatisfying this all is, but perhaps they don’t think it matters to many viewers. For households that keep their cable or satellite accounts, local channels are not an issue. The rep for 吊索的电视 suggested pairing its service with an over-the-air antenna. 奥运会期间, 吊索的电视 had a note on its site directing people to buy antennas if they live in an area where the service doesn’t provide NBC. To me, that takes all the simplicity out of over-the-top (OTT) delivery.

But at least skinny bundle providers offer some 信息 about local channels. There’s a deeper problem with live sports, and the providers don’t seem to be in any hurry to fix it. Just because subscribers can stream local channels is no guarantee they can watch all of the games those channels carry. Blackout rules and platform exclusives often prevent the bundles from streaming standard over-the-air games.

Worse, there’s no way to learn what games are supported before signing up. 唯一的选择就是注册，然后试着收听. 我甚至不是体育迷, and I find it galling that the skinny bundle providers don’t do more to help people learn what content they’ll get ahead of time.

When I posed this problem to reps from the top four skinny bundles, all said there wasn’t a way to monitor sports programming ahead of time. One suggested viewers take advantage of trial periods: Sign up for a trial account, 搜索最喜欢的球队和联赛, 如果你看不到你想要的，就取消审判.

That’s a pretty kludgy way to do it, and I’m shocked at how poor the experience is. One person connected to this industry told me that the networks are responsible for blackouts and often change online access with little or no notice. With that kind of uncertainly, the bundles don’t want to promise access they can’t guarantee.

I get that the skinny bundle companies are in a difficult position, but it’s one they’re going to have to solve—and fast—if they want to be a no-compromise alternative to pay TV.

[本文发表于2018年4月/ 5月号。 流媒体杂志 作为“迎合剪线者”."]