The cable TV replacement service Philo has announced the launch of nine additional FAST channels that are joining the “free” section of its guide. 

The new channels include InFast, InTrouble, InWonder,, Vevo 80s, Vevo 90s, Vevo Country, Vevo Hip-Hop, Vevo Pop, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. 

All nine new free channels have been added to Philo’s base package, a line up of 70+ channels, and can be found in the Philo Guide. These channels join Philo’s existing free channels, including USA Today, RetroCrush, Crackle, Cowboy Way, Drag Race Universe, Screambox TV, Bob Ross Channel, Fail Army, etc. 

Philo describes as follows: 

• InFast shares the stories, perspectives, and adventures from the disruptors who are challenging the status quo. Lifestyle, entertainment, and action sports turbocharged in high definition
• InTrouble: Test your nerve with InTrouble,  a whirlwind of action, excitement and thrilling experiences right on your screen. Adventure across all the seasons, bringing action sports and adventures from all corners of the world. Off-road action, quests for glory, nail biting races, defy the status quo in the chase of thrills. 
• InWonder: Trailblazing new take on science and tech, that discovers nature’s super-stars, extraordinary engineering, and should-be impossible feats to make you wonder. From the smallest, the tallest, the strangest, and all things IN-between, IINWONDER is bursting with mysteries and adventures that STEM from our world and beyond
• Vevo ’80s: Totally awesome videos from the decade’s biggest artists. Whitney Houston, Guns N’ Roses, Culture Club, Run-DMC and more.
• Vevo ’90s: From grunge to gangsta, the decade’s biggest videos are all here. From Nirvana, Mariah Carey, 2Pac, Britney Spears and more. 
• Vevo Pop: The latest hit music videos from the biggest artists! From Lady Gaga to Billie Eilish, all your faves are right here!
• Vevo Country: Nothing but hit videos from the biggest country artists. From Luke Combs to Miranda Lambert, all your faves are right here.
• Vevo Hip-Hop: The latest and biggest videos from rap to trap. From Baby Keem to Lil Baby, all the most lit artists are here.
• Chicken Soup for the Soul is a lifestyle destination for women featuring inspiring content, hit movies, TV series, and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment’s original programming. Viewers will find stories that inspire, entertain and change the world one story at a time. 

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.—Dish Network has once again reported heavy pay TV sub losses with its total pay TV subs falling by 552,000 to 9.198 million, as satellite subs fell by 318,000 to 7.098 million and its streaming Sling TV subs fell by 234,000 to 2.1 million. 

The Sling TV streaming sub losses were the worst since the 234,000 sub losses reported in Q1 2022 and mark a steep decline in the virtual MVPD’s subscribers from 2.252 million in Q1 2022 and 2.439 million in Q1 2021. 

The losses raise doubts about Dish’s ability to fund its transition into a 5G wireless company as it reported revenue totaling $3.96 billion for the quarter ending March 31, 2023, compared to $4.33 billion for the corresponding period in 2022.

Net income attributable to Dish Network totaled $223 million for the first quarter 2023, compared to $433 million for the year-ago quarter.

Diluted earnings per share were $0.35 for the first quarter, compared to $0.68 per share during the same period in 2022. 

Retail wireless net subscribers decreased by approximately 81,000 in the first quarter, compared to a net decrease of 343,000 in the year-ago quarter. The company closed the quarter with 7.91 million retail wireless subscribers.

Cord-cutting continues to get worse, with the linear video industry suffering its biggest quarterly losses since COVID knocked out live sports and scripted programming, according to new figures from MoffettNathanson.

Traditional pay-TV distributors lost 9% of their subscribers year over year in the first quarter of 2022. The 9% rate of decline compared to 8.9% in the fourth quarter of 2021 and ties the worst level ever, set in Q1 2021.

Virtual MVPDs aren’t picking up lapsed pay-TV subscribers the way they used to either, contributing to a worsening picture for the traditional pay-TV bundle. In the first quarter, the conversion rate fell to 32.8% from 35.6% in the fourth quarter. 

When looking at traditional and virtual pay-TV distributors combined, subscribers were down 5.1% year over year, close to the all-time worst of 5.5% set in the second quarter of 2020, when COVID knocked out new scripted shows and most live sports.

In all, the linear video industry lost 2.1 million subscribers in the first quarter, the worst since Q1 2020.

Looking at company reports, MoffetNathanson said the biggest losers of subscribers in the first quarter were Comcast, down 511,00 and DirecTV down 496,000. DirecTV, spun off from AT&T last year, reported its latest subscriber numbers to bondholders and debt analysts.

Including estimates for some outfits that don’t publicly report numbers, MoffettNathanson said the Q1 performance left the linear TV business with 81.048 million subscribers.

Cable had 41.661 million subscribers, down 6.9%, satellite had 18.5 million subscribers, down 12%  and the telcos had 5.829 million subscribers, down 13.5%. 

Total traditional subscribers were 66.118 million, down 9% and the virtual MVPDs had 14.930 million subscribers, up 16.7%.

Separately YouTube TV reported on Tuesday that it now has more than 5 million subscribers.

“The rate of decline of the linear business is not something that ‘just happens.’ Many of the media companies have made conscious decisions to strip-mine their cable networks, shifting their best content to their streaming platforms,” note the research firm’s principals, Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson.

“At the same time, they have raised prices relentlessly to offset declining viewership. Both strategies have alienated distributors, who are now more ambivalent than ever about trying to retain video subscribers who are themselves increasingly ambivalent about lower and lower quality video services for which they are asked to pay higher and higher prices,” Moffett and Nathanson said..

Several sports leagues have started to put games on streaming platforms, a trend that may accelerate, further hurting the linear TV business, which was expected to be supported by live programming including news as well as sports.

“Including vMVPDs, the rate of decline for linear video is hovering near its all-time worst levels. And the rate of decline for traditional distributors is the worst it has ever been. That’s not what one would expect if we were gliding towards a stable sports-and-news floor.”  

This article originally appeared on B+C.

PASADENA, CALIF.— PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger said Saturday that the public broadcaster is speaking with virtual MVPDs about offering PBS content.

"We've been in discussions with them,” Kerger said during PBS’s Winter TCA executive session. “I’m not making any announcements today. But stay tuned. We definitely are in discussions. We think that's certainly a place that our viewers would appreciate."

Kerger also addressed PBS’s place among streaming giants, such as Netflix and Amazon, saying that the content PBS produces is different.

“I think that part of the challenge that we have is making sure that we're punching through the fray so that people are aware of the programs that are on public television, that are available through their local stations,” said Kerger. “I mean there are a lot of people that go to the Netflixes and then just get lost in the jukebox effect of scrolling through lots of stuff...We look for ways to bring them into their local station.”

She added that Netflix and Amazon are not in every community but PBS stations are.

“The more that we can continue to focus on that unique aspect of the fact that we are a media service that lives and breathes at the community level and that there's stuff there that they can't find on Netflix, that is going to be of great value,” she said.

PBS does have content on both Netflix and Amazon as well as the public broadcaster’s own digital app. At the station level there is Passport, a service for station patrons.

"We have tried lots of different possibilities with what we've done in the streaming space and we'll continue to do so,” said Kerger. “And we'll also continue to look at the new platforms as they continue to roll out."

PBS is funded largely through Congress and has at times become a political pawn.

"I never assume that that money is just going to come,” said Kerger. “Even though we have this long legacy of work that we have done and I think we can point to some extraordinary work that we do at the community level, it really requires each and every day for our stations to make sure that their elected officials know that this is important."

"I think we should be asked to prove each and every year that this is important and this is where the money is invested, she added. “And we'll continue to do that."

Kerger also fielded a question on the broadcaster’s commitment to American dramas in light of the glut of content. "If a really great project came in the door, we certainly would look at it very carefully,” she said.

PLANO, TEXAS—While there is an expectation that virtual operators like SlingTV and DirecTV Now will continue to eat into traditional pay-TV services share of the market, The Diffusion Group projects that there will be less to go around by the time 2030 arrives. This comes from a new TDG report, “The Rise of the Virtual Pay-TV Provider – Analysis & Forecast,” which focused on the evolving residential pay-TV space, with both long-term forecasts for virtual and legacy subscribers.

By 2030, TDG expects that the penetration of live multi-channel pay-TV services will decline from 85 percent of U.S. households in 2017 to 79 percent. Overall, 30 million U.S. households will live without an MVPD service of any kind, whether its virtual or legacy.

Legacy MVPDs and legacy pay-TV penetration are expected to see significant declines over the forecasted time period, with TDG predicting pay-TV penetration to fall from 81 percent of U.S. households in 2017 to 60 percent in 2030, a decline of 26 percent. Meanwhile, virtual pay-TV penetration might be looking at a growth of up to 350 percent, with TDG projections seeing it grow from 4 percent to 14 percent of households.

“TDG said early on that the future of TV was an app,” said Joel Espelien, TDG senior analyst. “The question is no longer if the future of TV is an app, but how quickly and economically incumbents can adapt to this truth and transition to an all-broadband app-based live multi-channel system.”

The full report can be viewed here.