The death of cable TV has been slow and agonizing, but as the patient bleeds out on the operating table, both consumers and media companies have batted around an intriguing idea:
What if we just did cable TV again?
Wow, what an idea
That was the dream of Venu (as in “venue,” not “Venus”), a Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery alliance that combined all of their sports broadcast rights into one monster streaming service that would function like a cable subscription.
- A judge temporarily halted it after a lawsuit from Fubo, a sports-focused streaming service that already does that same basic thing.
But Disney still offers a bundle that gives you its Disney+ and Hulu services along with WBD’s Max, and Comcast offers a Peacock, Netflix, and Apple TV+ bundle.
- You may recognize this as the cable TV model, where you pay one price to get several channels.
So, what’s the latest regression?
Now, Comcast might be looking to offload its old TV networks (like MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, USA, and Syfy, but not NBC or its Peacock offshoot) so it can focus on streaming.
- It would create a new company focused on cable, which is what company president Mike Cavanagh implied their shareholders want.
- By freeing cable up to take care of itself, Comcast could restore some life to the old pay-TV model.
There’s a catch:
- The new company would be “well-capitalized,” meaning private equity would likely be involved.
- The Hollywood Reporter predicts that the future of cable networks resembles what happened to newspapers: VCs got involved, squeezed them dry, and they died.
Meanwhile…
… this seems to be exactly what consumers want?
In 2022, Nielsen reported that 64% of streaming subscribers wished they could just pay one bill to get everything.
Again: That’s how cable worked before it faded into cord-cutting obscurity, so maybe consumers don’t really know what they want.