T-Mobile has gotten pretty good at taking on the U.S. wireless giants over the last eight years, and it has effectively become one of them following its $26.5 billion merger with Sprint.
Now the Bellevue, Wash.-based company is expanding its ambitions. With the launch of its revamped TVision platform, it’s competing against not only the cable and telecom giants but also live TV and streaming services such as Google’s YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, Dish Network’s Sling TV, and AT&T’s TV Now, to name a few.
That’s some pretty tough competition. Can the company be as much of an industry disruptor in this larger world as it has been against AT&T and Verizon in cellular wireless services? I put that question to Mike Sievert, the T-Mobile CEO, during the GeekWire Summit last week, pressing him for details on how T-Mobile expects to compete against such a ferocious lineup.
“All those companies you mentioned are trying to make money in this space,” Sievert responded. “And I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
That’s not something you hear very often from the CEO of a company trying to make a splash in new market. However, Sievert said, it’s important to understand T-Mobile’s core mission. “We’re a pure play wireless and connections company. We’re a network company, we’re not confused about that. You won’t see us investing tens of billions of dollars anytime soon trying to own content and media or other types of businesses. We’re not a conglomerate.”
The new TVision service, he said, follows the company’s pattern of identifying and solving customer pain points.
“We’re not out to establish a big new profit pool for T Mobile here. We certainly don’t want a loss leader. But the profit pool in our company, as I said, is about being a great wireless company, a great network company, a great broadband company. That’s what we do.”
Announced last week, TVision launched over the weekend. It’s available initially to T-Mobile postpaid wireless customers, and will become generally available next year. Packages include a collection of live news and sports channels for $40/month, including ESPN, Fox, Disney and others, with additional content at higher tiers, up to $60/month total. A package of 30 entertainment channels such as AMC, BET, HGTV and others starts at $10/month.
T-Mobile compares its $50/month TVision Live TV+ service to the standard $65/month YouTube TV plan. However, YouTube TV offers additional perks such as unlimited cloud DVR storage, while T-Mobile limits cloud DVR storage to 100 hours.
The company is also selling a TVision HUB device and remote control for $50. I’ve been testing out a review unit of the TVision device on loan from the company. I’ve found it relatively easy to set up and intuitive to use in the relatively limited amount of time I’ve had to spend with it.
As a T-Mobile wireless customer and YouTube TV subscriber, I happen to be a perfect candidate for switching to TVision. However, as I pointed out to Sievert, I also appreciate YouTube TV’s family sharing features, and the unlimited DVR. Because of that I’m reluctant to leave the Google service, even at a higher price.
This seemed like another example of the difficult competition T-Mobile faces in this larger world. But again, Sievert surprised me, reiterating that he doesn’t look at it that way.
“Yeah, you know, we’re not really taking on all those guys,” he said. “If you like YouTube, that’s great. We’re happy, especially if you’re a happy T Mobile customer.”
However, he couldn’t help but take some competitive jabs. “But other people find there are shortcomings,” he said, pointing to the increase in the base price of YouTube TV this year to $65/month from $50 previously. “What we’re finding is people don’t want these bundles. … What we’re finding is people don’t want these bundles to get bigger and bigger, they actually want them to get smaller and smaller. … What we’re trying to do is take out things not everybody values, and take it out of the price.”
T-Mobile, which is approaching 100 million subscribers following the Sprint merger, posted $3.5 billion in profits last year on annual revenue of $45 billion, prior to the Sprint merger. The company will give the next glimpse into its financial position when it reports its third-quarter earnings on Thursday afternoon, its second quarterly earnings report since the completion of the Sprint merger.
Watch a clip from the GeekWire Summit conversation with Sievert above. The full conversation and other sessions from the 2020 GeekWire Summit will be available on-demand through Dec. 15, exclusively to registered attendees. You can still register at geekwire.com/summit.
(Note: T-Mobile’s 2019 annual revenue corrected since publication.)
