DirecTV, which was among the pay TV operators who successfully pushed back on the now shuttered Venu Sports joint venture from Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery to launch a sports-only DTC service, has announced the launch of its own sports-centric, genre-based skinny pay TV bundle, MySports.
Initially available to DirecTV Stream customers in 24 “metro areas” including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and the San Francisco Bay Area (a full summary of available regions can be found here), MySports will offer 40 linear sports-centric networks for $49.99 a month for the first three months, $69.99 thereafter. Included is a full suite of ESPN channels, Fox Sports 1 and 2, TNT, TBS and TruTV, MLB Network, NBA TV, NFL Network and NHL Network, as well as the regional sports networks for the ACC, Big Ten and Southeastern Conference.
Notable is the inclusion of local broadcast stations, and not just those operated by Venu Sports partners Disney (ABC) and Fox — Comcast/NBCUniversal is also contributing local NBC stations to the bundle, as well as USA Network.
Also notable: ESPN+ will be added in the near-term future at no additional cost, with the big ESPN “Flagship” platform arriving further down the road. Discussions to add content from Paramount Global/CBS are also said to be ongoing.
Within its DirecTV Stream app, MySports will be augmented by free sports channels that are included in MyFree DirecTV, the free ad-supported streaming service (FAST) launched by DirecTV over the fall. Those channels include ACC Digital Network, Big 12, Fight Network, Fuel TV, Origin Sports, Pickleball TV, Players TV, Sports Grid, Stadium Stream, Surfer TV, Swerve Combat, T2, The Jim Rome Show, TNA, Torque by History, Waypoint TV and Women’s Sports Network.
According to a source close to the launch, DirecTV has also thrown in cable news networks including Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC. With the $70-a-month MySports priced just $13 less a month versus 200-channel YouTube TV, DirecTV seems to have wisely surmised that subscribers can’t live by sports ball alone.
Lightshed Partners principal analyst Rich Greenfield told StreamTV Insider that the addition of CBS local stations will be essential to MySports’ “cost-value” equation.
“I think it’ll be competitive,” Greenfield said. “It just means the big bundle is in more and more jeopardy, which is good for consumers.”
DirecTV is selling its MySports bundle on this landing page. Subscribers can access it via the DirecTV App on iOS and Android mobile devices, as well as Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV connected TV platforms.
“This is the first of several genre-based options we plan to launch over the coming months on our path towards a brighter TV future for consumers,” said Bill Morrow, CEO of DirecTV, in a statement.
The announcement comes after a whirlwind week during which Disney, Fox and WBD settled an antitrust lawsuit with virtual pay TV company Fubo, which had last summer successfully litigated for a preliminary injunction against the media companies’ $43-a-month Venu Sports DTC service. Two days later, DirecTV and satellite rival Echostar petitioned the New York federal judge overseeing the suit, noting that Venu’s antitrust behavior didn’t abate with the settlement.
The week ended with the JV partners making a surprise decision to scuttle Venu Sports without ever launching the service.
DirecTV, which backed Fubo’s antitrust claim, largely with affidavits, claimed that it was unfair for Disney, Fox and WBD to offer themselves the flexibility for genre-based skinny bundles when pay TV companies had been denied this ability for decades.
Article updated to add information on MyFree FAST service and the inclusion of cable news networks in the offering. Further updated to denote the offering is available to customers of DirecTV's virtual MVPD pay TV service DirecTV Stream.