Good morning, Marketer, TV audiences are responding positively to choice. With all the new options for TV viewing on streaming, more consumers are watching than ever.
But growing popularity has been accompanied by strained negotiations that shut consumers out. This week, a stalemate between Charter Communications and Disney left nearly 15 million Spectrum cable subscribers without ESPN. They’re caught in the middle of the kerfuffle, because ESPN+ carries some but not all games that ESPN carries.
The headaches aren’t limited to cable stalwarts. Last year, OTT service Sling TV lost ESPN for a weekend while the parties hammered out an agreement. Rising subscription prices and password sharing crackdowns are also buzz kills for cord-cutters. If streaming services want to continue their win streak, they can’t forget about consumers.
Chris Wood,
Editors
