Wednesday Notes

CW logoMichael Malone at Broadcasting & Cable wrote this afternoon that the CW will expand its programming to six nights a week including Sunday evenings. At 12 hours a week, it’s still not a full-fledged network, but at least we’ll get a couple more hours of fresh programming broadcast over the air.

YouTube TV looks a lot more attractive to me now that it has added the Turner networks, as reported by FierceCable’s Ben Munson. Beginning March 13, the price will rise from $35/month to $40, but before then subscribers can lock in that $35 rate. There are also reports that MLB Network will become available. Now if it can add Comedy Central, then I might think about switching.

Finally, Alan Wolk at Decider wrote yesterday that over-the-top services such as Sling and YouTube TV, though not exactly “cord-cutting” according to his strict definition, are “poised to take over the world.” Jeff Baumgartner of Multichannel News had estimates of all the OTT providers, with Sling leading at 2.3 million subscribers and DirecTV Now second at 1.2 million. However, Netflix has about 55 million subscribers in the US alone, so we might need to wait a while before OTT completes that world takeover.