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Talking the future of media with Northzone’s Pär-Jörgen Pärson
We live in the subscription streaming era of media. Across film, TV, music, and audiobooks, subscription streaming platforms now shape the market. Gaming and podcasting could be next. Where are the startup opportunities in this shift, and in the next shift that will occur?
I sat down with Pär-Jörgen “PJ” Pärson, a partner at European venture firm Northzone, to discuss this at SLUSH this past winter. Pärson – a Swede who now runs Northzone’s office in NYC – led the top early-stage investor in Spotify and led the $35 million Series C in $45/month sports streaming service fuboTV (which has roughly 250,000 subscribers).
In the transcript below, we dive into the core investment thesis that has guided him for 20 years, how he went from running a fish distribution to running a VC firm, his best practices for effective board meetings and VC-entrepreneur relationships, and his assessment of the big social platforms, AR/VR, voice interfaces, blockchain, and the frontier of media. It has been edited for length and clarity.
From Fish to VC
Eric Peckham:
Northzone isn’t your first VC firm — Back in 1998, you created Cell Ventures, which was more of a holding company or studio model. What was your playbook then?
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AT&T launches a low-cost live TV streaming service, WatchTV
AT&T this morning announced the launch of a second TV streaming service, called WatchTV, days after its merger with Time Warner. The lower-cost alternative to AT&T’s DirecTV Now will offer anyone the ability to join WatchTV for only $15 per month, but the service will also be bundled into AT&T wireless plans. This $15 per month price point undercuts newcomer Philo, which in November had introduced the cheapest over-the-top TV service at just $16 per month.
The service will arrive for everyone next week, including both wireless subscribers and the general public.
With WatchTV, customers gain access to over 30 live TV channels from top cable networks including A&E, AMC, Animal Planet, CNN, Discovery, Food Network, Hallmark, HGTV, History, IFC, Lifetime, Sundance TV, TBS, TLC, TNT, VICELAND, and several others. (Full list below).
Shortly after launch, it will add BET, Comedy Central, MTV2, Nicktoons, Teen Nick, and VH1.
There are also over 15,000 TV shows and movies on demand, along with premium channels and music streaming options as add-ons.
While the new WatchTV service is open to anyone, AT&T is also bundling it into two new unlimited plans for no additional cost.
These plans are the AT&T Unlimited & More Premium plan and the AT&T Unlimited & More plan.
The Premium plan customers will have all the same features of the existing AT&T Unlimited Plus Enhanced Plan, including 15 GB of high-speed tethering, high-quality video and a $15 monthly credit towards DirecTV, U-verse TV, or, AT&T’s other streaming service, DirecTV Now. They can also choose to add one other option, like HBO, Showtime, Starz, Amazon Music Unlimited, Pandora Premium and VRV, for no additional fee. Add-ons can only be swapped out once per year.
The regular plan (AT&T Unlimited & More) only offers SD video streams when on AT&T’s network, including when customers are viewing WatchTV. It also includes the $15 monthly credit towards other AT&T video services and up to 4G LTE unlimited data.
The Premium plan costs $80 for a single line after the AutoPay billing credit; or $190 for 4 lines. The regular plan is $70 with the AutoPay billing credit and paperless billing. It’s $5 more per line per month then the current Unlimited Choice Enhanced plan, but when you go up to 4 lines, it works out to the same price as before, $40 per line per month.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson had previously revealed the carrier’s plans for the new low-cost streaming TV service while in court defending the Time Warner merger against anti-trust claims. He used its launch as a point of rebuttal against comments about the ever-higher prices for AT&T’s DirecTV satellite service.
The Justice Department was concerned that following the merger, AT&T would raise prices on Time Warner’s HBO and Turner networks, like TNT, TBS and CNN, in order to prop up its own offerings. For now, it seems AT&T will just come up with a million different ways to generate revenue from its networks, by offering different bundles and packages to AT&T customers and other consumers.
The company also touted the merger, when announcing today’s news:
Our merger brings together the elements to fulfill our vision for the future of media and entertainment. We’ll bring a fresh approach to how media and entertainment works for you—including new offerings that integrate content and connectivity.
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AT&T makes DirecTV Now a $10 add-on to its Unlimited Choice plan
Recent reports have indicated that AT&T’s new streaming service, DirecTV Now, may be seeing slowing growth. But don’t count it out just yet. This week, AT&T announced it’s expanding its distribution strategy for the service by bundling in with the wireless carrier’s Unlimited Choice plan for only $10 more per month. The move is largely meant to entice customers… Read More
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Comcast rolls out a new Stream TV app for its cable and internet TV customers
Comcast is launching a new app called Xfinity Stream, which will replace its older Xfinity TV app on mobile devices, as well as deliver a host of features for cable subscribers, including access to live TV, on-demand programming, DVR recordings and more. But the app serves another purpose, as well: Like the TV app it replaces, it will also be home to Comcast’s internet TV service… Read More
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Hulu launches user profiles on mobile
In December, Hulu announced the debut of user profiles in order to make its streaming TV service more personalized to end users, offering each user their own Watchlist, viewing history and recommendations based on their activity and interests. At the time of launch, the feature wasn’t broadly available, however. That’s now changing, as Hulu has just rolled out user profiles to… Read More
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