Pay-TV Companies are offering “skinny budles”

On-demand video services like YouTube, Netflix and Hulu have been disrupting the TV viewing marketplace, making it easy for younger consumers to “cut the cord,” but pay-TV providers are increasingly trying to offer services to get them as subscribers, according to US Telecom.

So-called “skinny bundles,” slimmed down packages of sports, news or entertainment channels targeted at specific consumer segments, could soon shake up the pay-TV marketplace.

A recent Nielsen study found that viewers overall watched about 20 channels a month, even though they were receiving about 206 channels.

Nearly 5.5 million of the118,4 million TV households in the US have “cut the cord,” choosing over-the-air TV stations and internet TV providers as their source of video entertainment. Just under 17 million households have never subscribed to pay-TV. They now account for 19 percent of all TV homes.

Pay-TV providers are hoping skinny bundles might reverse this trend. Creating a less expensive skinny bundle, like Sling TV’s $20 a month service, could help appeal to those viewers.

Three out of four 18-34 year olds watch online video from Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu making them prime prospects for IP-based skinny bundles.