NBCU’s Burke: vMVPD Growth Appears to Be ‘Flattening’

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A day after AT&T reported steep deceleration for DirecTV Now, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke confirmed that growth for upstart virtual pay TV services is indeed “flattening.”

Burke made his remarks during the third quarter earnings call for parent company Comcast, when pressed by analysts to talk about subscriber growth for NBCU cable channels.

With DirecTV Now adding 342,000 users in the second quarter, subscriber growth for programmers had been largely driven of late by vMVPDs, a category of live streaming services that also includes Dish Network’s Sling TV, Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV, Sony PlayStation Vue and fuboTV.

In fact, DirecTV Now had been the category’s fastest growing service. But with AT&T ending most of the aggressive promotions it used to sell the platform, subscriber additions fell to 49,000 in the third quarter.

AT&T said it is now in the process of reviewing the service’s skinny bundle offering. 

Daniel Frankel
Daniel Frankel

Daniel Frankel is the managing editor of Next TV, an internet publishing vertical focused on the business of video streaming. A Los Angeles-based writer and editor who has covered the media and technology industries for more than two decades, Daniel has worked on staff for publications including E! Online, Electronic Media, Mediaweek, Variety, paidContent and GigaOm. You can start living a healthier life with greater wealth and prosperity by following Daniel on Twitter today!