Lead-In AT&T Gives Skinny on Its New Bundle Directv Now Courts Cord-Cutters, but New Offering Has a Few Gaps to Close
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Lead-In AT&T Gives Skinny on Its New Bundle DirecTV Now courts cord-cutters, but new offering has a few gaps to close BY DADE HAYES month for 100 channels would equate to a negative operating AKING THE STAGE Nov. margin of more than 7%. 28 at DirecTV Now’s New Another risk factor is the TYork launch event, Brad company’s stated intention to Bentley, CMO of AT&T’s enter- address the roughly 20 million tainment and internet services households not currently in the unit, offered something of a man- bundled cable ecosystem. While tra for the unbundling world. that unto itself is not a wholly “The challenge with unusual strategy, execs spoke skinny bundles is that your throughout the launch event of skinny is different from my reaching the subset of customers skinny, which is differ- within that 20 million who resist Brad Bentley, CMO of AT&T’s ent than someone else’s entertainment and internet services unit, credit checks and two-year con- skinny,” Bentley said. talks up DirecTV Now in New York. tracts that are common among AT&T’s skinny launched traditional MVPDs. It is difficult Nov. 30, offering what the to know how reliable and viable company sees as another CBS and Showtime, with which such a base will prove. proof point for the value AT&T has yet to reach carriage Analysts Craig Moffett and Mi- of its pending merger with terms. Sports, too, is not overly chael Nathanson issued a report Time Warner. The service, with “It’s really important to under- abundant, notably the hallmark noting the potential for DirecTV monthly prices ranging from stand that this is the foundation NFL Sunday Ticket package that Now to shake up the market $35 to $70, puts DirecTV in the for how we are going to do things helped build DirectTV’s satellite even if it proves little more than skinny derby with PlayStation in the future,” Stankey said. With MVPD reputation. a loss leader for AT&T. “We don’t Vue, Dish Network’s Sling and the mobile-optimized platform on The pricing, especially the expect DirecTV Now to be such forthcoming offerings from Hulu which DirecTV Now will sit, “for offering of HBO and Cinemax a runaway hit that it wrecks the and Google. the first time in our history, we for $5 apiece, made many Wall market as we know it,” they John Stankey, CEO of AT&T’s have control of the whole stack.” Street analysts wonder how wrote. “But it would be a mistake entertainment division, declared The service has a few notable AT&T would make the service to dismiss it as a non-event at its the rollout to be bigger than the gaps in its content offering (leav- profitable. Tom Eagan of Telsey new pricing. It is still dangerous… debut of the company’s U-verse ing aside the tech glitches that Advisory Group calculated that both to the ecosystem and, most MVPD a decade ago. plagued its opening days). One is the promotional offer of $35 a of all, to AT&T itself.” mememe PwC Strategy & Consulting. “This makes a fourth BROADCASTERS PRICE SPECTRUM AT $40 BILLION stage of the auction a virtual certainty. Even more But key is whether wireless companies are willing to pay up disturbing is…the large gap between the forward and reverse auctions could THE THIRD STAGE of the FCC’s broadcast in- Dec. 5, with all eyes on whether persist, and perhaps be an early centive spectrum auction closed Dec. 1 after 52 those bidders, wireless companies indicator of a potential eventual rounds, with broadcasters’ new asking price now and others, will beat, meet, or at SPECTRUM failure to successfully complete $40.3 billion for 108 MHz of spectrum. That’s least approach that total. Beating the auction altogether.” less than half broadcasters’ original asking or meeting it means the auction can WATCH So far, forward auction bidders price, though it was for more spectrum. Preston close and the FCC can start the process (primarily wireless companies looking Padden, who formerly represented TV stations of repacking TV stations into smaller space. to use the spectrum for broadband) have failed eyeing the auction, called the price “a genuine One analyst had his doubts. “At $40.3B, we be- to come near broadcasters’ two asking pric- bargain for the carriers and other bidders.” lieve that the cost is still far beyond the appetite es—$86 billion for 126 MHz and $55 billion for 114 Stage three of the forward auction begins of mobile network operators,” said Dan Hays of MHz, offering $22B both times. —John Eggerton 4 BROADCASTING & CABLE DECEMBER 5, 2016 BROADCASTINGCABLE.COM 1201_LeadIn.indd 4 12/2/16 4:45 PM Lead-In Grant Tinker, Who Presaged Prestige TV Age, Dies at 90 OR ANYONE UNFAMILIAR with the black-and-white beginnings to a more ambi- visionary Brandon Tartikoff, cemented the rich legacy left by Grant Tinker, who tious cultural exponent, Tinker recognized concept in a network context. The power- Fdied last week at 90, perhaps the biggest the potency of talent. It is de rigueur now, in house NBC primetime schedules of those proof of his impact turned this current age of prestige shows years in the 1980s included Hill Street Blues, out to be this: Tributes poured and the notion of auteur-driven sto- The Cosby Show, Cheers and Family Ties. in from the creative com- rytelling, for companies to mouth “Grant Tinker was a great man who made munity. Showrunners, writers talking points about being friendly an indelible mark on NBC and the history and directors praised the to creators. But Tinker in many of television that continues to this day,” sensibility and story sense of ways popularized the concept Steve Burke, NBCUniversal CEO, said in a Tinker, known for creating within the executive suite. statement. “He loved creative people and MTM Enterprises with his MTM titles including The Mary protected them, while still expertly managing then-wife Mary Tyler Moore Ty l e r M o o r e S h o w and The Bob the business. Very few people have been able and running NBC as chair- Tinker Newhart Show to achieve such a balance.” man and CEO in the 1980s. established, along Added NBC entertain- The Tinker tributes came with Norman The Mary Tyler ment chief Bob Greenblatt: Moore Show from the very people who, by the industry’s Lear’s landmark titles in “His level of class set him nature, tend to clash with the business execs the 1970s, the capability of apart from everyone else in charged with turning a profit on art. Among network shows to be wryly our business and all of us them were Steven Bochco, James L. Brooks, thoughtful and interested at this company owe him Gary David Goldberg and Hugh Wilson. in much more than specta- a debt of gratitude. In fact, During a period when television as a cle. Tinker’s tenure at NBC, TV watchers everywhere medium was trying to progress from its raw teamed with programming do.” —Dade Hayes mememe THE WATCHMAN Deputy Editor Michael Malone’s weekly look at the programming scene Travel Channel Gets Wet, While Mozart Stays Dry YOU MAY HAVE already had winter,” says Courtney White, rafts. It must be a new season your fill of holiday programming, Travel Channel senior VP of of Mozart in the Jungle on Mozart in the Jungle even with Santa a few weeks programming. Amazon. Exec producer Paul away from touching down. How The stunt will air on Sun- Weitz says the scene was par- about something completely days throughout January. Top ticularly stressful to shoot. “I different from the snow-covered Secret Beaches, for one, shows was just hoping no one fell in December TV confections, like sandy oases in Hawaii, the Ca- the water, and that Placido did a trip to a tropical beach or a pic- ribbean and other places you’d not catch a cold that would turesque pool? After the success like to be right about now. prevent him from singing the of its “Dive Into Summer” stunt “If you venture a little bit off next day,” he says. “It was in August, Travel Channel next the beaten path—hike a little completely insane.” month is debuting “Dive Into further, kayak a bit more—you’ll Season 3, starting Dec. 9, trade reporters. It appears they Winter,” with original episodes have a beautiful beach all to also ventures to, of all places, don’t share the numbers with of Top Secret Swimming Holes, yourself,” says White. Rikers Island—New York’s own show chiefs either, leaving the Top Secret Waterfalls and Top Until, of course, Travel all-inclusive island getaway. producers to guesstimate. Secret Beaches. Channel tells everyone Roman Coppola directed that “Supposedly there’s 200 “We’ve seen about them. episode, which featured a full million people who watch on other Scripps And here’s another orchestra performing for the every episode [of Mozart],” networks—tropical warm, welcome image jail’s inmates. “It was fun to quips Weitz. beaches, pools, from Television Land: make something that will never “And all of Argentina!” those kinds of Gael Garcia Bernal, Mon- happen again,” Coppola says. adds fellow exec producer getaways—that ica Bellucci and Placido Our Cover Story (page 8) Will Graham. Bonus points really resonate White Domingo, floating down mentions how SVOD players if they are watching on a hidden in the dead of Venice’s Grand Canal on don’t share ratings with pesky beach there.