T-Mobile Gives Up On Live TV Service TVision, Will Promote YouTube TV Instead

That was quick. Really quick, as it was merely last November 2020 that T-Mobile launched their live TV service TVision (see: T-Mobile TVision Launch Packages May Change Due To Possible Contract Violations) and are already throwing in the towel, opting to promote YouTube TV instead.

The cellphone carrier said Monday it will wind down the service, called TVision, on April 29 and steer its wireless customers toward Google’s YouTube TV instead. Rival online video packages from Sony Corp. and others have shut operations or raised prices on live-TV service to keep up with programmers that continue to raise their fees.

T-Mobile to wind down live TV services, offer YouTube TV | Fox Business

Live TV on streaming is an ever-changing landscape and prices are moving. Just speculating here, but T-Mobile probably jumped in before realizing that the bottom is falling out of the Live TV marketplace. I saw another article recently that focused on just how many people are getting rid of Live TV for streaming options. That’s the market TVision was looking to get into, but there are a boatload of options there already, the strongest that might be those that are ad-supported (Tubi, Philo, Xumo, the list goes on).

In the pay Live TV space there’s Hulu and YouTube TV, among others. We don’t pay for any Live TV. None. With a bunch of paid streaming channels we subscribe to, AMC A-List Stubs for watching new movies in theaters, plus an active interest in playing videogames, sleep and work — ahh, yes, the biggest devil in the details of time spent — there’s just not much left for watching Live TV. The occasional live sports event might be our only time to turn anything live.

How much Live TV are you watching these days? No change? Some, none, less, more (that would be interesting!)?

T-Mobile TVision Launch Packages May Change Due To Possible Contract Violations

We haven’t commented on TVision (https://www.t-mobile.com/tvision), the new live TV service that launched last week yet, despite being T-Mobile customers.

Live TV, for those who know us, isn’t much of a priority in our lives. The only live TV we watch is through channels offered through existing streaming channels and sometimes local TV networks through Locast.

Alas, there appear to be rumblings afoot involving T-Mobile’s TVision launch packages. If you’re one of their new subscribers, you might want to pay a little more attention to this post. If you’re like us and don’t really care that much about live TV, then there’s nothing more to see in this post.

Sources confirmed that NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS have conveyed objections to T-Mobile similar to those raised by Zaslav, as previously reported by CNET. A source familiar with WarnerMedia said its team is in the process of looking into T-Mobile’s TVision bundles — and that the media conglom does believe there’s a case to be made that the wireless carrier is in breach of contract. Reps for those media companies, as well as AMC Networks, Fox Corp., and Disney, declined to comment. A Discovery rep declined to provide additional info beyond Zaslav’s comments.

T-Mobile Faces Having to Rejigger TVision After Programmers Object – Variety

It is a bit odd that a cell phone carrier familiar with contracts has possibly decided to ignore them. Breach of contract is expensive. Not sure what’s going to become of all this, but it sounds expensive all around, even if T-Mobile works it out. As a customer for their cell service, that worries us to some degree as bad business decisions in one department have a way of negatively impacting others.

This is what concerns us, albeit slightly, with XFinity. We all know that cable is on the downward slide with subscribers as they move over to streaming. We are hoping this doesn’t drive up the price of high speed internet. Got a sinking feeling it will.

Are you subscribed to T-Mobile TVision? Not interested? Let us know in the comments.