Week In Review: The LiveFronts Are Next Week; CBS Signs Up With Google’s New Skinny Bundle TV Service

1. CBS Signs Up With Google’s New Skinny Bundle TV Service“What Google skinny bundle TV service?” is likely to have been the first question most people asked themselves when they heard about the CBS deal. That’s because while many observers had heard about Google’s plans to launch a skinny bundle service, no one was taking it very seriously—Google is notorious for starting and stopping projects or starting them and forgetting about them. Call it the “Magpie Effect.”While the CBS deal is apparantly not signed yet, deals with Fox and Disney are (allegedly) not far behind either, giving Google a shot at a viable service. If they can convince Comcast (NBCU). And Time Warner. And a few hundred thousand viewers. Why It MattersWhat the Google Unplugged service will look like is anyone’s guess—details are unsurprisingly scarce, but it’s yet another option in the increasingly crowded “skinny bundle” market.That’s a problem (for Google) because the whole skinny bundle market is based on the desire to chase a mythical beast called the Millennial Cord Never. There’s not a whole lot of proof that this beast exists (most alleged Cord Nevers seem to have access to Mom and Dad’s pay-TV log-in and password) but even if it does, it’s not a particularly giant sized audience. Which means that the new Google Unplugged package will be competing for a few million people against Sling and Sony Vue and AT&T’s DirectNow as well as Hulu’s new service. That’s not a market maker position by any means.What’s interesting to us is what’s in it for CBS, and that seems to be a much higher per-viewer carriage fee, almost twice what they are getting from the traditional MVPDs. That number is enticing on its own, even more enticing when they’re able to use it the next time they’re negotiating with Comcast. What You Need To Do About ItIf you’re a network, you might want to think about talking to Google, they seem to be serious this time. If you’re a network group, it’s time to think about which of your children you’d give up to be part of a skinny bundle. If you’re an MVPD, you might want to look into how you can offer a skinny bundle of your own without getting sued by one of the network groups. Just don’t spend too much time on it, because the market’s getting pretty crowded.    2. The LiveFronts Are Next Week Live streaming seemed to spring up from out of nowhere last year, with apps like Periscope, YouNow and Facebook Live entering the popular imagination. But it’s growing up, getting real and actual professionally-produced programming is cropping up on live streams, along with the popular #CreatedWith fare.  And now there are the LiveFronts on Tuesday October 25th to celebrate it all and let the advertising community learn more about it. Why It MattersCo-hosted by Roker Media and BRaVe Ventures, the LiveFronts are a great way to learn about all the cool stuff that’s happening with live streaming and meet the people who are making it happen. It’s an area a lot of people are still unfamiliar with, and face it: if one year ago someone told you there would be something called the LiveFronts, you’d have thought they were a little addled. What You Need To Do About ItHead over to the LiveFronts website and register for the (wait for it…) live stream of the event. It’s this Tuesday, there’s a great line-up of speakers— people like Al Roker, Gary Vaynerchuk, Rich Greenfield, Jeanine Poggi, Mike Shields and Marc Debevoise, and you can watch in your pajamas.  

TV[R]EV is written, curated and incubated by the BRaVe Ventures team. Find TV[R]EV on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for the newsletter to stay up to date on the TV[R]EVOLUTION.