Viacom is preparing to launch its own direct-to-consumer streaming service later this year that will include more than 10,000 hours of on-demand programming from Viacom’s extensive library of content going back several decades.

Bob Bakish told investors at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco last week that Viacom’s plans to launch a service at least as large as CBS’ All Access Pass began in 2016 when the company quietly started to pull back on licensing its content to third party streaming services to build an attractive menu of options for its own streaming service.

Viacom has extensive media and cable holdings, including Paramount Pictures and Paramount Television, which has been in the television show production business since 1967. Viacom’s cable networks are also household names, including BET, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV, and TV Land. The service is expected to contain a deep catalog of shows from these and other cable networks under the Viacom umbrella.

“It’s going to be significant, and it’s going to also be differentiated from what’s in the marketplace today,” said Viacom chief financial officer Wade Davis, adding that it was only possible because “we kind of built and husbanded [our] library to be able to use for our own strategic purposes.”

Analysts expect the service will include a mobile app and desktop viewing options and will be ad-supported. Similar services generally sell for around $5-6 a month, but Viacom has been purposely vague about the exact terms and pricing of the service.

The news did not seem to interest investors as much as recent developments about a possible merger between Viacom and CBS, which theoretically could mean a merger of the future Viacom streaming service into the CBS All Access Pass.

As Discovery Communications completes its $11.9 billion acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., the newly supersized basic cable network powerhouse will lay the foundation to launch its own online video mini-bundle of all 18 Discovery and Scripps networks, along with on-demand options, for as little as $6 a month.

The new service, to be branded collectively as “Discovery” will include programming from:

Discovery

Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Oprah Winfrey Network, Velocity, Science, Discovery Family, American Heroes Channel, Destination America, Discovery Life, Discovery en Español (Spanish), and Discovery Familia (Spanish).

Scripps

Cooking Channel, DIY Network, Food Network, Great American Country, HGTV, and Travel Channel.

The package is being developed as a defensive move to fight the ongoing erosion of subscribers that are cord-cutting traditional cable television. Discovery has lost 5% of its viewers in the U.S. in the last quarter alone, because many customers are moving to on-demand services like Netflix combined with over-the-air stations.

The newly enlarged Discovery is now the largest provider of non-fiction basic cable programming in the country. A combination of instructional programming popular on Scripps’ networks is expected to fit well with the reality and documentary programming popular on most Discovery networks. Although frequently bundled with alternative cable television streaming services, those services typically lack a deep on-demand library of content.

In order to drive subscriptions, Discovery’s streaming service is expected to be budget priced and include a large library of on-demand content, possibly including programming from other networks not owned by Discovery down the road.

The combined company also hopes to leverage as much savings out of the merger as possible. That will likely mean extensive job cuts at both companies. Discovery and Scripps together have more than 11,000 employees, including 600 ad sales people working for Discovery and 500 ad sales people working for Scripps.

Discovery will shut down its headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., and open a new headquarters in New York for both Discovery and Scripps employees. But Discovery will maintain Scripps’ headquarters in Knoxville, Tenn., as an “operations headquarters” for back-office work.

The two companies also have a significant international presence with more than three billion viewers worldwide, but the company plans to downsize international studios and consolidate production facilities in the United States and Poland, where Scripps owns  TVN, a Polish broadcast television network that favors reality TV programming and is seen in 90% of the country.

At some point, some of the 18 networks may be consolidated. Discovery executives note it now has two channels devoted to food and cooking — Food Network and the Cooking Channel.

Discovery’s niche will continue to be non-fiction programming, even as much of the rest of the industry is rapidly moving towards scripted series. Discovery executives point out that an hour of a scripted TV series now costs an average of $5 million, while an hour of reality programming produced in-house costs about $400,000. Scripps’ networks have managed to produce their shows for even less, recorded in pre-constructed studios that do not require remote location filming.” As far as Discovery is concerned, sticking with nonfiction programming is the right choice.

“We look at that [scripted] side and we say, ‘Good luck with that,’” said Discovery CEO David M. Zaslav. “That’s not what we do. We don’t do red carpet.”

Discovery Communications and Scripps Networks promote their merger and their global networks in this company-produced spot. (2:47)

Netflix viewers will have around 700 Netflix-produced or acquired original TV series and movies to choose from this year — an astounding amount of in-house content several times greater than the network output of the four major American commercial television networks combined.

The streaming service plans to spend $8 billion on content this year, according to its chief financial officer David Wells, speaking Tuesday at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference.

“Let’s continue to add content — it’s working, it’s driving growth,” Wells said.

Netflix has already tapped North American producers for new show ideas and has launched a number of innovative series that would likely never been approved at ABC, CBS, NBC, or FOX. In fact, the streaming service has had to seek 80 original productions conceived and produced outside of the United States, just to meet its insatiable appetite for more content. Wells signaled Netflix is just getting started and plans even more new series and movies next year.

Wells

As long as Netflix continues to have 117.6 million streaming customers worldwide, the sky is practically the limit as far as its annual programming budget is concerned.

“There’s no magic line where you know exactly where you are” in terms of striking a balance between the right amount of programming and spending too much money.

Netflix is a service in transition, gradually moving away from just licensing other studios’ content and moving towards producing its own content. Like its competitors Amazon and Hulu, Netflix is improving on its ability to create quality entertainment as it gains experience in the business and attracts new talent away from other studios and networks. But the service has no plans to ignore independently produced content if it is attractive to subscribers.

“People don’t care where the stories come from,” Wells said. “We’re about having the best content. We don’t necessarily have to do it ourselves.”

In addition to spending more on content than ever before, Netflix will also boost its marketing budget more than 50% this year, from $1.3 billion last year to $2 billion this year. Netflix will target a lot of money signing up more subscribers outside North America, where Netflix is less familiar. The service hopes to attract more subscribers so it can invest in even more original programming.

In the next year or two, expect Netflix to start releasing new series developed by Ryan Murphy, who produced 9-1-1 for FOX, and FX’s American Crime Story, American Horror Story, and Feud. It also has a similar deal with ABC producer Shonda Rhimes, who produced Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, and Scandal for ABC.

Charter Communications has introduced internet-delivered cable television packages that its cable TV subscribers have requested for years, including one offering a true a-la-carte lineup of network TV channels and the customer’s choice of 10 cable channels for $25 a month.

Spectrum Choice was soft-launched this week and is a companion to a larger internet-delivered package of TV services targeting cord-cutters called Spectrum Stream, which is also available in many areas.

Although Spectrum customers can visit the order page to sign up for Spectrum Choice immediately, when we tested it this afternoon we found the website was not able to complete an order. It turns out Spectrum is initially “hand-selecting” about 100,000 customers in selected areas for Spectrum Choice, but won’t disclose exactly where those areas are. We know from some reviews, it is available in parts of Ohio.

For now, would-be customers can try building their own package from at least 65 cable networks, including several networks Spectrum usually bundles into higher cost Silver and Gold packages. For example, Turner Classic Movies, Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, and FX Movie Channel are all available to choose. Spectrum Choice also offers all three major cable news networks as well as Spectrum News (where available). ESPN, ESPN II, FOX Sports, NBC Sports Network, and NFL Network are also available for sports fans. Even Music Choice is included.

Spectrum Choice customers are not tied down with a bloated package of channels, except for the included large bundle of local stations, which includes ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW, MyNetworkTV, PBS, and independent/foreign language over the air stations. The availability of public television is a rarity among online cable TV alternatives. In most areas, digital subchannels like Grit and MeTV are also included, depending on what networks are provided by stations in your area. You will also get several shopping channels, C-SPAN I, II, and III, and local Public, Educational, and Government Access channels as seen on your local cable system.

If you visit their website can complete an order online, you are qualified to receive their service. If there is no option to move forward to complete an order, you are not qualified to sign up at this time, but check back later or call Spectrum and ask.

The service relies on the Spectrum TV app (available on iOS, Android, Roku, and Xbox One) and the Spectrum website to stream video programming to customers, and no set-top box is required. DVR service is not worth the effort or cost. It requires a traditional DVR set top box and you can only watch recorded shows on the television connected to the DVR. Be aware there are also restrictions viewing some channels outside of the home, just as Spectrum’s cable TV customers already understand:

Linear OOH: Watching a live channel while away from home
VOD OOH: Watching on-demand content while away from home
TVE App Name: TV Everywhere App Name – Independent apps used by programmers or viewing on their websites
VOD Parity: Cable TV and Spectrum Choice customers get access to the same on-demand programming options.

Details (click the name of the package for more information):

Spectrum Choice TV

If you don’t mind Charter/Spectrum choosing your channel lineup, a second option offers more channels for about the same price.

• 7-day money back guarantee/trial, then $15 for the first month
• To get the service, you must have an internet-only plan or an internet + voice plan from Spectrum. You cannot be a current traditional cable TV subscriber
• After the first month, the service costs $25 per month for the first two years, including the Broadcast TV Surcharge, but excluding tax
• After 24 months, price increases to $30 a month
• Your assigned Spectrum TV username and password will also work on websites that authenticate you as a qualified cable TV customer
• Premium channels are $7.50 each for HBO, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Starz, and Starz Encore or bundle all-five for $15 a month for two years. Epix is also available a-la-carte.

Spectrum Stream TV

• $21.99 a month (not including $3 Broadcast TV Surcharge) for 25+ pre-selected channels including local stations and major basic cable networks
• All features included with Choice TV work similarly except the lineup is not a-la-carte. But you may get more channels at a comparable price.
• After two years, the price increases to $26.99. Starting in year three, the price rises again to $34.99.
• The same $15 promotion for five premium movie networks noted above applies, if interested.

Spectrum’s promotion of Stream TV. (1:00)

Allegedly independent Cunningham Broadcasting’s headquarters are located at 2000 West 41st Street in Baltimore, coincidentally the same address as Sinclair-owned WBFF-TV, the city’s FOX affiliate.

An analyst warns Sinclair Broadcasting’s willingness to part with WPIX-TV in New York and WGN-TV in Chicago may amount to transferring control of the stations on paper from one hand to the other.

Broadcasting & Cable reports an unnamed source told the trade publication Sinclair is considering “selling” the stations to Cunningham Broadcasting, which is effectively Sinclair in all but name.

Cunningham and Sinclair are more than a little close. The majority of Cunningham-owned stations are run by Sinclair under local marketing agreements, and Sinclair’s founding family controls more than 90% of Cunningham’s stock. That has led to repeated accusations Cunningham is nothing more than a shell corporation used by Sinclair to circumvent the FCC’s TV station ownership caps, something both companies strenuously deny. But observers note some remarkable coincidences, starting with the Cunningham name itself. Cunningham Farms, on a 200-acre estate, Cunningham Manor, are both owned by Sinclair executive chairman David Smith.

Cunningham Broadcasting’s corporate headquarters are inside the studios of WBFF-TV, Sinclair’s FOX affiliate in Baltimore. Cunningham owns WNUV, Baltimore’s CW affiliate, which is also run from the same building as WBFF.

WNUV was originally planned to be a direct Sinclair acquisition, but FCC rules prohibited that. So Sinclair guaranteed loans allowing Glencairn Ltd., (later to be renamed Cunningham Broadcasting), to acquire WNUV instead. At the time, Carolyn Cunningham Smith, the mother of Sinclair’s current executive chairman David Smith, had voting control of Cunningham. That control has since passed to a trust run for the benefit of Smith’s children after Carolyn died in 2012.

After Glencairn/Cunningham won control of the station, it immediately signed a local marketing agreement with Sinclair. That agreement merged WNUV’s operations under the control of Sinclair-owned WBFF. Most employees at WNUV report to Sinclair management. Many of the Cunningham-owned stations also offer options to Sinclair to acquire the stations outright should deregulation of ownership limits permit.

A shell corporation is essentially an entity in name only, usually quietly controlled by someone else seeking to keep their true identity secret.

Should WPIX-TV and WGN-TV end up in the hands of Cunningham, it would be unprecedented for a company its own president admitted in 2013 was dependent on Sinclair to help program their stations, noting Sinclair is “a smart company, and they certainly have a lot more experience.” WPIX is in the nation’s number one television market, WGN is in the third largest market. The majority of Cunningham’s 20 stations are FOX, CW, or MyNetworkTV affiliates in small and medium-sized markets. A few are so small, they don’t even have websites.

Craig Aaron, president and CEO of Free Press, suspects Sinclair could once again be thumbing its nose at the FCC’s ownership caps, and the planned divestiture may be in name only.

“It’s not clear to me who the new owner is going to be from the documents filed, but it sure looks like business as usual for Sinclair, which has long specialized in propping up shell companies to evade FCC rules,” Aaron told The Baltimore Sun. “The idea that Armstrong Williams [owner of another side entity that also owns stations that Sinclair runs] or Cunningham or whoever they are setting up as the ‘owner’ of these stations is independent from Sinclair, at least if the past is any guide, is a complete fiction. Sinclair should not be allowed to set up shady front companies to evade the congressionally mandated ownership caps. But Ajit Pai’s FCC is aiding and abetting this ruse in every way.”

The FCC’s inspector general is reportedly now investigating whether Pai improperly pushed through ownership cap rule changes to directly benefit Sinclair’s efforts to grow even larger.

Should Sinclair successfully acquire Tribune Media’s television stations, Sinclair will control 233 television stations that reach 72 percent of U.S. households. The FCC’s media ownership cap now limits an single owner’s reach to 39% of the nation’s audience.

While the FCC has shown little interest in slowing down Sinclair, the Justice Department has previously blocked some of Sinclair’s moves. When Sinclair was forced to divest WSYT-TV, the FOX affiliate in Syracuse, N.Y., it first hoped to sell the station to Howard Stirk Holdings, owned by conservative commentator Armstrong Williams.

Williams coincidentally has served as a longtime commentator for Sinclair, which forces its owned and operated stations to carry conservative messages in local newscasts. Sinclair believed so much in Armstrong, it guaranteed his company’s acquisition loans in similar deals. Sinclair may also benefit from the fact that Armstrong, a minority, gets extra consideration and relaxed rules from the FCC to promote minority station ownership. In other deals, after taking ownership, Armstrong promptly signed contracts with Sinclair to run the stations for him.

The Justice Department was not convinced by explanations of the close relationship between Armstrong and Sinclair. It objected to the sale, writing “it wouldn’t work” because “it would still be like a duopoly.” Sinclair also couldn’t persuade the Justice Department to believe Sinclair and Cunningham were completely independent companies either, eventually forcing Sinclair to abandon efforts to sell WSYT to Cunningham. Today WSYT is owned by Northwest Broadcasting, which owns a handful of stations in the rural Rocky Mountain west and has no ties to Sinclair.

Anderson admitted what was behind the maneuvering to sell WSYT in a 2013 Wall Street Journal story.

“They [The Justice Department] were not comfortable yet,” Anderson said, “and in the interest of time, Sinclair went to Plan B [selling the station to Northwest Broadcasting].”

“It’s a scandal,” Aaron told CNN in 2017. “Trump-favoring mega-chain [Sinclair] gets rules changed — and expects others to be erased — so it can put its cookie-cutter newscasts in nearly 70 percent of local markets across the country. I feel terrible for the local journalists who will be forced to set aside their news judgment to air Trump administration talking points and reactionary commentaries from headquarters. This deal would have been DOA in any other administration, but the Trump FCC isn’t just approving it; they’re practically arranging it.”