Discovery +

Was about to comment on the press release, as a good chunk of the Discovery networks are missing from most/all of the 'cable replacement' streamers since the death of psvue (youtube tv etc.).

Of course the presser leads off not with a listing of the included channels but with "x thousands of whatever" statement; I would suggest those thinking of perhaps subscribing to any of the levels to scroll down to the actual channel list, and tick off not the included channels but the missing ones. I won't drag folks through that but suffice it to say that once I reached at least three channels that were missing (that I might add are in Philo's lineup) I scratched their new offering off my list of maybe.

So why are they missing? I'll wait until this truncated 'service' is launched and confirm those channels/content is missing, and try and figure out if adding Philo fits my budget to get those channels. Nice try, Discovery. Interesting fail.

 

Archives of past and present series episodes of Science and History channels are not mentioned. After their glossy focus on reality, daytime shows and various actors, there's only a mention of, "and more across documentaries, science, tech,...".

Those 3 are the ONLY ones of interest to me. But I do recall execs' blurbs in the past about not wanting to disrupt what Discovery has with their TV providers.

I honestly don't know what this service has to offer without disrupting current TV providers. Unless it offers an avenue to avoid DVR and on-demand without ads, I'm not interested.

If the focus is reality tv and daytime TV, I'm not interested. Discovery already has part ownership of Philo. How will this differ? Exclusivity? Try again, Discovery! It's what they don't say that discourages me.

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Bingo. There are so many channels in their total Discovery lineup and so much content, everyone needs to go through it and decide what gives. There's really no other way, sorry for folks who think that there's some golden nugget that tells you all you need to know. I was simply hoping for a streaming package of all the channels, with maybe some add-on content from wherever to sweeten the deal, for low cost. It appears it's trying to be a sweets with minimal meat.

 

I wonder who the next company to throw their hat into the let’s put all our content online and charge for it is gonna be.

 

It looks to me as though Discovery is throwing content from all their underlying brands, even second-tier ones like Science, DIY and The Dodo, into their new discovery+ service. I knew that Discovery had struck a deal to be the exclusive US streamer of BBC natural history docs (e.g. Planet Earth) but I was surprised to see that they're also licensing content from A+E Networks too (A&E, History, Lifetime) for inclusion in discovery+. (That makes sense, though, since A+E has no streaming outlet of its own. In fact, I've said before that Discovery ought to buy A+E and then spin off Lifetime to ViacomCBS, keeping just the factual/reality content that fits in with the Discovery library.)

The question I have is whether Discovery is being bold here and cannibalizing their linear cable nets by putting all of those channels' current, fresh content on d+ at the same time it premieres on the linear channels or if they're only going to put past seasons of those channels' shows on d+. I haven't seen anything specifically stating that new seasons will stream on d+ concurrent with their linear broadcasts, so I bet they won't.

If that's the case, then I think d+ will have a rough go of it. Because it won't serve as a replacement for the linear channels but as more of a complement to it with its line of d+ Originals exclusive to the service.

IMO, they should include their live linear channels inside the app, plus current and past seasons of those channels' shows -- in other words, all the stuff that can now be found in their various TV everywhere apps for their different channels, but all combined in one app. And then add to that some additional content exclusive to d+: the new d+ Originals, plus BBC/Planet Earth stuff, and library content from A+E Networks.

The target audience would be cord-cutters plus Discovery super-fans who already have cable TV. Additionally, Discovery could try to get cable operators to include a subscription to d+ as part of their standard channel bundle (as part of their carriage agreement for the Discovery linear channels), in which case the app would simply replace all the individual TV everywhere apps for cable TV subscribers via that operator.

 

All true, I'd be a target audience, Nash. And the announcement would be just a fail touting reality, do it yourself and daytime TV; maybe that's where most of their ad revenue comes from. But I have doubts based on what they've said in the past and the lack of clarity on the announcement.

Philo is basically already a rehash of linear channels and TV everywhere for much of those services, if not all, as I understand it. But for a paid service, it fails badly with forced ads So maybe there's hope that is something many cord cutters would want.

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Again, bingo; when they first announced this (over a year ago?) That's what I thought they were talking about, bundle things all together linear+everywhere plus throw in some icing.

Okay, this as spelled out in the presser is a non-starter.

 

They own part of Philo which has all their networks plus the A+E Networks. Most likely they will promote Philo & discovery+ as the best bundle in da world.

I'm waiting to see if there will be 4K HDR content and if it doesn't wait to see people criticize it just because it lacks 4K HDR. Although I rarely watch Discovery's networks (if I do it is usually Science) I do like the BBC content and some A&E and History content. Just my first thoughts but I foresee I may subscribe to the $4.99 ad-supported tier for one or two months out of a year. Until we see what is actually on this thing it is hard for me to get excited. I only try to keep their linear channels like HGTV & Food Network for when grandma comes to visit.

 

Yeah. Well, that's what I had *hoped* it might be. And Discovery's CEO has repeatedly talked about the need for distributing his content/channels via super-skinny, sub-$10 bundles. So there was reason to believe that whatever they ultimately rolled out would offer all of the company's fresh, new content (regardless whether it was only on-demand or maybe also included the live linear channels).

But it looks like they've chickened out. Who knows, maybe they can't due to their various carriage contracts with cable distributors? Or maybe they could but they know that when it comes time for them to renew those cable carriage contracts, distributors would insist on putting all the Discovery channels into their own separate a la carte bundle, i.e. simply reselling Discovery's streaming service as an optional add-on to the bundle as they do now with HBO Max. And that would obviously be a very risky proposition for Discovery because a good chunk of cable TV subscribers -- maybe half? -- wouldn't opt to take their content if it was optional.

I think we can all see where TV is heading: a la carte bundles/services offered by each of the major media groups (Disney's Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+; Warner's HBO Max; ViacomCBS's Paramount+ and Showtime; NBCU's Peacock; Discovery's discovery+) rather than bundles of channels that commingle content from all of them. But it's taking awhile to get there because, to an extent, these media groups are afraid to jump off the sinking ship of cable TV and fully commit to their streaming lifeboats.

 

Yeah. I expect that eventually Peacock's $5/mo Premium tier will automatically include live local NBC stations and Hulu's $6/mo base tier will automatically include live local ABC stations.

 

Don't forget the standalone Showtime streaming service includes the East and West feeds of the main Showtime channel at least. And you can get Apple TV+, CBS All Access (No Commericals) & Showtime for $14.98/mo which is cheaper than getting CBS All Access & Showtime as standalones.

HBO Max doesn't even have linear feeds of HBO channels.

 

I imagine that conversations went like this:
Pay TV Companies: You want a $10 skinny bundle eh? We want a price reduction!
Discovery CEO: Say no more we won't offer a $10 skinny bundle. We like cash.

Although seriously if AMC+ is able to have linear AMC, AMC+, BBC America, IFC & SundanceTV channels along with Shudder, IFC Films Unlimited & SundanceNow at $8.99/mo then they could have made a $11.99/mo Discovery+ tier with all their linear channels.

 

I'd say the convo went more like this:

Pay TV Companies: "You want to sell your bundle of linear channels plus all their new content on-demand in a $5 OTT service? OK, we'd love to yank all your channels out of our main bundles so we can lower their prices and then give our customers the option of whether or not to add them back via your new $5 service."
Discovery CEO: "Never mind, we'd lose a ton of lucrative cable subscribers and make less money that way."

Does AMC+ contain those linear channels though? Maybe it does but nothing on their website indicates that. It looks to me like AMC+ is just an on-demand library along with a new AMC+ linear channel that features "the best from AMC, BBC America, IFC and SundanceTV." Although I doubt you're really missing out on anything but not having the actual full linear channels for AMC, BBC America, IFC and SundanceTV.

 

Yeah. Although I expect that we'll see at least the main HBO linear channel included in the HBO Max app next year when they begin offering add-on packages of linear cable channels (as Hulu does now). Because it would be really odd for the HBO Max app to offer a way to watch linear NBC, ESPN and CNN but not linear HBO.

I also think we'll see some of those HBO linear channels fall by the wayside in the next few years as the overall service shifts more and more toward streaming via the HBO Max app. With everything available on-demand, is there a need for HBO 2 or HBO Signature or HBO Zone to exist?

Beyond that, I also expect we'll see the HBO OnDemand platform disappear from MVPD devices, such as Comcast's X1, once they also host the HBO Max app. It's duplicative and maybe a bit confusing for viewers to have the choice to watch the same HBO title from both HBO OnDemand and the HBO Max app on the same TV box. So when you say "The Undoing" in your X1 remote, the results page may come up in the native X1 UI but if you click to watch, it will probably take you directly into the HBO Max app.

AT&T's desire is going to be for an increasing amount of HBO viewing to happen inside their own HBO Max app, not via linear channels or on-demand platforms that exist in their distributors' native UIs. Perhaps eventually whatever HBO linear channels that still exist won't even be able to be recorded to MVPDs' cloud DVRs.

 

Yup when you subscribe to AMC+ on Apple TV Channels, Prime Video Channels or The Roku Channel (for $8.99/mo) you get the linear AMC, AMC+ [commercial free], BBC America, IFC & Sundance TV in addition to all VOD/SVOD content from AMC [commercial-free], IFC Films Unlimited, Shudder & SundanceNow. It is a very cheap bundle for AMC's channels and seperate streaming services.

Wouldn't hurt to have at least HBO East & West feeds inside the HBO Max app since some HBO Originals are added to HBO Max a few hours after their linear premiere. You don't need linear Showtime East & West in a standalone Showtime subscription and the TVE version Showtime Anytime but it is nice to know you can watch Showtime Originals as they air instead of waiting for them to be added to the app hours later. The main linear channel included is like an added useful benefit.

 

Yes, having the live linear Showtime channel inside their apps is nice. Always wondered why the HBO Now app didn't do the same. That said, both Showtime and HBO typically add new content to their apps for on-demand streaming at exactly the same time they premiere on linear. The few exceptions would be live shows (e.g. Bill Mahr) and maybe The Circus (which I think is sometimes still in editing right up until it airs).