Dish Network is in talks with Viacom about offering its cable TV programming over the internet, according to a report published by Bloomberg Thursday. The goal of these talks would be to offer TV networks like Comedy Central and MTV as a live stream to subscribers without forcing them to also buy into a traditional cable or satellite TV subscription package. Dish is apparently also talking to Univision and Food Networks owner Scripps about teaming up for such an offering.
An internet-only TV subscription with smaller, more customized bundles would be great news for cord cutters. However, one of the biggest issues that needs to be resolved seems to be the pricing. From the article:
“Dish wants to reach consumers around 18 to 28 who would rather pay $ 20 a month for a smaller package of channels to watch on computers or mobile devices, CEO Joseph Clayton said in an interview this month… Negotiations bog down because programmers aren’t willing to sell Dish the rights for a low enough price to make a service viable, he said.”
It makes sense that the price of any such offering would be a stumbling block. If it’s too low, Viacom won’t sign on. if it’s too high, consumers won’t bite. Of course, the question is: how much is too much? We figured we should ask our readers to find out.
Let’s assume, for now, that Dish would sell this type of internet-only offering with a much smaller bundle, which would mainly consist of Viacom channels. You’d pay $ 10, $ 20 or $ 30 a month in return get the ability to stream new episodes of the Daily Show, the Colbert Report and the MTV Music Awards live, when they air on traditional TV. How much would you pay for it? Please let us know by answering the poll below, and feel free to elaborate in the comments!
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