NBCUniversal and its owner, cable and Internet giant Comcast, have been trying different ways to get young people's attention as live TV viewing declines. If Seeso had been born 15 years ago, it would have launched as a cable channel, said Evan Shapiro, Executive Vice-President of NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises. But online viewing today is "clearly part of the mainstream," and to reach comedy nerds, Comcast is launching Seeso as an online subscription service.
Comcast has also launched a YouTube-like video service, Watchable; is trying out an Internet-based basic cable TV alternative that doesn't require a cable box in some markets; and invested in new media outlets like BuzzFeed and Vox.
But Seeso will have to compete for attention in a crowded market.
"In the past year we keep seeing more and more services coming up, more niche services," said Glenn Hower, an analyst with market research firm Parks Associates.
From the article "Joining a crowded market, NBCUniversal launches $4-a-month online comedy service in January" by Tali Arbel.
The adoption of over-the-top (OTT) video services among US broadband households has increased by 12% since the third quarter of 2014, according to Parks Associates. The research firm said that both...
Some 73% of US broadband homes now connect one or more TV entertainment devices to the web, according to Parks Associates. The research firm said this marked an 11% increase, compared to the beginn...
“Importantly, all of these services have increased their subscriber base over the past year. The top five OTT services have stayed consistent, primarily through maintaining or growing the massive user...
This is according to Parks Associates’ latest ‘OTT Video Market Tracker’ stats, which said that overall churn rate for OTT services has been roughly stable for the past year. At the end of 2015, 20...
