Bally Sports has a white knight, and this may end up being a good thing for cord cutters?
That’s the biggest headline in an action-packed week that also saw Comcast’s price increase hit and Tubi getting the rights to a hot international show.
As always, there was a lot going on in the world of cord cutting. But that’s why The Recap exists, to catch you up on the biggest stories and why you should care about them.
Here’s what you need to know from this past week.
Amazon Bails Bally Sports Out
Bally has been taking its sweet time figuring out its plans to emerge out of bankruptcy. It turns out, it was just waiting for a savior. One emerged in Amazon, which is taking a minor investment in Bally Sports in exchange for its local sports content likely jumping onto Prime Video.
It’s a deal that makes sense for Amazon, especially as its ramped up live sports offerings, notably with the NFL’s Thursday Night Football.
The deal also answers a lot of questions for Bally Sports – namely how it would actually survive beyond this year. Even its former parent, Sinclair, and the MLB expressed doubts about that.
The deal still needs to be approved, so Bally Sports isn’t out of the woods yet. But things look a lot brighter than a week ago.
Comcast Price Hikes Hit
Last month, the nation’s largest cable provider warned that prices for some of its plans would go up.Those price hikes started to take effect for customers this week. Some folks could see price hikes as high as $15 a month.
It’s a sad reality that watching any content – streaming or cable – has gotten more expensive than ever, and that prices keep going up.
Once again, Comcast blamed programming costs as the culprit.
YouTube TV’s New Library
YouTube TV introduced a new easier to find library for your DVR programs and on-demand shows. There’s also a new shows tab called “series.” Rather than sort the titles alphabetically, it will present them to you based on what you’re most likely to watch.
The new guide is live on Apple TV devices, and is expected to roll out elsewhere in the near future.
Tubi Gets Rights to Hit International Show
Tubi, the free, ad-supported streaming service from Fox, secured the rights to a South African limited series called Devil’s Peak.
The series takes place in Cape Town, South Africa, and follows Detective Benny Griessel, played by Hilton Pelser, tasked with tracking a vigilante killer whose crimes capture the city’s attention. As he closes in on his mark, Griessel is drawn into a dark and dangerous world where nothing is as it seems.
Cable Channels Most Likely to Go Away
My colleague Luke Bouma has a breakdown of the cable channels most likely to disappear this year. With Charter striking a deal with Walt Disney that punted out several channels, a precedent has been set that leaves lower rated cable networks vulnerable.
For the record, Luke predicts Universal Kids, FXX, Boomerang, the secondary MTV networks (like MTV 2 and MTV Classic), and the secondary BET channels (BET Her, BET Hip-Hop, and BET Soul), will disappear this year.