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86% of Skinny Bundle Subscribers See Value in Their Services

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While skinny bundles—also known as vMVPDs or virtual multichannel video programming distributors—are a fairly new offering, consumers are positive about them. Data released today the TDG Research shows that 49 percent of subscribers to services such as Sling TV or DirecTV Now rate them as a very good value, and another 37 rate them as good, showing 86 percent have positive feelings about their service. Of the rest, 11 percent are neutral, 1 percent rate them as poor, and 2 percent say very poor.

Skinny bundle adoption is still low. When TDG conducted its Q2 research by surveying 2,000 adult broadband customers in the United States, under 5 percent subscribed to one of the services.

"Given that virtual pay TV services are for the most part a value play, one premised on skinny channel bundles at lower-than-cable prices, user value perception is a critical metric," says Michael Greeson, president and principal analyst for TDG. "Early evidence suggests vMVPD providers are doing well in this regard. Users seem okay without the full Monty of legacy pay TV channels, and to be fairly tolerant of the shortcomings that haunt live streaming video, such as buffering, pixilation, and screen freezing."

TDG announced it will devote continued research to understanding the purchase decisions and preferences of skinny bundle customers.

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