T-Mobile’s TVision debuted today with two monthly plans under $50 designed to appeal to cord-cutters. Well, some cord-cutters.
The streaming service, which also offers monthly plans for $50 and $60, is now only available to T-Mobile postpaid customers with up to 12 wireless voice lines. T-Mobile is expected to expand eligibility to non-customers in the coming months.
“We expect high demand so we’re rolling this out in waves to ensure everyone gets the best possible experience,” T-Mobile says. “We’ll launch nationwide for legacy Sprint customers later in November.”
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TVision’s $10-a-month package, called Vibe, features 34 basic cable (but non-sports) channels such as AMC, Animal Planet, BBC America, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, BET, CMT, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., OWN, VH1, IFC and the Food Network, among others.
The $40 plan also has 34 channels, but they include higher-rated networks such as ESPN, FS1, local networks (but no CBS), the major cable news networks, TBS and TNT, and the Disney channel, among others.
For $50 a month, you get a 58-channel lineup that also includes regional sports networks, and some niche sports channels such as ACC Network, NFL Network, Big Ten Network and the Golf Channel. And for $60 a month, TVision offers a 68-channel lineup which is basically the $50 plan with 10 niche channels thrown in.
You can also add premium channels: Showtime for $10.99 a month, Starz for $8.99 a month and Epix for $5.99 a month. (Nope, not HBO, which is owned by T-Mobile rival AT&T.)
Is TVision worth your money? Assuming you’re a T-Mobile customer, that is?
The $10 plan is generating the most media coverage, but the lineup is more notable for what it doesn’t have than what it does. There’s no sports, no cable news, no TBS or TNT, But if you’re just interested in watching a smattering of shows, $10 a month is a good deal.
The $40-$60 plans are less than what some live streaming services are charging (For instance, YouTube TV’s monthly cost is $64.99), but T-Mobile says non-customers will likely have to pay more when it’s available. So if you’re not a T-Mobile customer, there’s not much to get excited about here.
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And TVision is not only unavailable to non T-Mobile customers now, but it’s also not on Roku. Supported devices include iOS, Android and Android TV, Amazon’s Fire TV and Apple TV.
Conclusion: Despite the company line that TVision will revolutionize the industry, it will likely struggle for customers outside its base audience.
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvpredictions.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
I wonder how many NON sports customers there are ?
There are a Lot who do NOT want to pay for
sports channels they Never watch.
But would like a package with
ALL Local and ALL NON sports channels.
Including: ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, MSNBC,
CNN, and The REAL Weather Channel
Local channels, although are free using an over-the-air antenna, are part of the reason why pay-television bills are so expensive. They charge extremely high retransmission fees to pay-television companies. Remember, the most expensive sports television programming, the NFL, is on CBS, FOX, and ABC, therefore they have to charge very high fees for a pay-television operator to retransmit their broadcasts.
ABC is part of Disney and ESPN, so a provider must take those channels if they want ABC. NBC is a part of Comcast/NBCU, which operates NBCSN and NBC Regional Sports Networks, so a provider must take those channels if they want NBC. CBS is part of Viacom, which operates CBS Sports Network, so a provider must take that channel if they want CBS. FOX is the operator of FS1, FS2, and Big Ten Network, so a provider must take those channels if they want FOX.
Keep in mind FOX also forces pay-television operators to carry moderately expensive news channels like FOX News Channel and FOX Business Network. NBC also forces pay-television operators to carry moderately expensive news channels like MSNBC, CNBC, and CNBC World.
You can understand why the cost of pay-television skyrockets very quickly when a small number of conglomerates control about 75% of the channels that are currently in operation. This is why independent networks, like The Weather Channel, get shut out of many streaming services. Although The Wether Channel is very low cost, because the majority of customers want the channels included in the “fat bundles”, small networks like them get shut out to keep costs as low as possible, even if their channel is only 16¢ per subscriber, per month.
If you’re looking for the best combination of entertainment-focused channels, you would want to check out the streaming service Philo, which is only $20 per month and (generally) carries all of the cable channels which are not owned by big companies with sports interests. WarnerMedia’s TNT and TBS (along with truTV) are categorized as sports channels inside many of the pay-television operators, due to their expensive agreements with NBA and MLB, so they are not carried on Philo.
What you say is correct.
I should have mentioned,
“Sports” on any network
Needs be be in a SEPARATE Package.
Wish I could get a package with all news channels only, like Fox News,Newsmax,Newsy,and OAN,.Plus all Four of the major local news all for fifty bucks!..One can all dream!!
A quick look and it seems to offer the same as Philo for half the price. Philo plays nice with my fire tv’s live tv functions so I’ll stick with paying more for now.
Tvision is loosing conservative news viewers, Johnny Mac
Its that easy:
the nearly 80 Mil. Conservative voters in the last presidential election are potentially 80 Mil. subscribers, if tvision has OAN.
One Anerica news network is a must have.
oann.com