How Big is the Market for Dish Network Streaming Serivce?

With the caveat that competitors always have an interest in "spinning" a new competitive offer, especially when those offers threaten to undermine an incumbent's business, Time Warner Cable CO Jeff Bewkes says the audience for a new Dish Network streaming TV service could be two million to five million customers.



“They limited the volume that would go through this over-the-top thing to two million subs with one distributor, fiv e million overall,” Bewkes said. 



In other words, the Dish Network streaming service, which aims to provide a streaming linear video service at far lower costs than currently is available, is a niche, Bewkes argues. 



Dish Network is thought to be creating a service offering 20 to 30 linear channels, sold for perhaps $20 to $30 a month. 



Specifically, Bewkes argues the offer will appeal to single-viewer households, not families. That is a rational thought, and likely resembles Dish Network thinking about the core audience. 



What makes the offer unusual is the focus on linear TV channels, rather than pre-recorded material such as movies or archived TV series. 



Verizon, also developing and selling over the top video, seems to prefer the Netflix-Prime-Hulu model anchored in pre-recorded content, not live streaming. 



Many likely believe Time Warner Cable vastly underestimates the potential audience for a streaming linear video service. We should know soon enough.