Charter Communications and its Spectrum brand has spent the last couple of years reimagining its pay-TV product for a streaming era. The strategy shift, which began with last year’s high-profile carriage dispute with Disney, now sees most of the company’s TV plans include access to streaming services, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, Paramount+, Peacock, Fox One, HBO Max and AMC+, among others.
So Spectrum now wants to encourage its customers to take advantage of those subscriptions, which the company says provides more than $125 per month in value, by launching a new Spectrum app store in its mobile app and on its website, which is meant to streamline that process.
Customers can also pay to upgrade to premium versions of the streaming services, while non-video internet customers will also be able to subscribe to the services through the store.
“Our new Spectrum App Store delivers what our customers want most – real savings with consumer choice and a simpler way to enjoy the up to $125 per month worth of streaming apps that our Seamless Entertainment experience provides,” said Rich DiGeronimo, president of product & technology for Spectrum. “At the same time, we’re also creating new opportunities for our programming partners to reach more households and connect with our large base of non-video customers. In today’s fragmented video landscape, Spectrum is combining value, choice and convenience, creating an experience that benefits both our customers and our partners.”
The company announced the app store at an event in New York City Thursday afternoon, which included panels featuring Charter president and CEO Chris Winfrey, AMC Networks CEO Kristin Dolan, and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro.
Spectrum also announced a plan to bring live Los Angeles Lakers games to the Apple Vision Pro device, and will be accessible to authenticated Spectrum SportsNet subscribers, as well as Spectrum Internet customers.
The move is significant as the Lakers games will be the first live sports to be accessible to the spatial headset device from the tech giant. Apple Vision Pro has presented immersive video from sporting evens before, but those have all ben prerecorded. The live version will make viewers feel as though they are sitting courtside during the games, providing an experience unlike anything currently offered in the marketplace.
The announcements also come as Charter is seeking to complete a $34.5 billion cable mega-deal for Cox Communications.
