Here's How You Could Get Most Of Your Favorite TV Channels For $15 A Month

There are two challenges to putting together an over-the-top TV package for people unhappy with the current cable/satellite TV duoply: content and cost.

The challenge of acquiring content is a big enough issue that it's stymied all previous attempts to put together an alternative TV service. Even assuming that the various networks agree to sell you the rights to stream their channels, you can't get them at a cheaper price than what the cable/satellite companies are paying. Not only because the networks don't want to alienate their current content partners. But because nearly all current contracts include a clause that forces networks to lower their price to every other partner if they sign a deal that offers a below-market price to someone else.

And those contract challenges bring us to the cost issue. If a fledgling over-the-top service can't offer a cheaper price, then why would anyone consider moving away from their current cable/satellite service?

Bernstein Research's Todd Juenger took a look at the proposed Dish Network web TV service, and he put together a couple of possible scenarios for what customers might be able to get when the service launches later this year.

One possible lineup includes the local broadcast networks, along with channels from AMC, Comcast, Disney, Viacom and Fox. He suspects that package would cost about $22 a month for content and would sell for at least $30. But at that price point, is the price attractive enough to encourage cord-cutters and unhappy cable and satellite customers to switch over?

More intriguing is a second scenario, where Dish could drop the broadcast networks, along with the Disney and ESPN channels (since Disney has refused to split their sports channels from the rest of their holdings). That would give a package that would cost Dish about $11 a month and one they could make a bit of money selling for $15. This package would include about 50 channels, including most of the Viacom and Comcast channels, as well as channels from Discovery, Scripps and AMC. Adding the Turner networks (CNN, TNT & TBS) would add a couple of bucks to the package.

For that cost, viewers would get a lineup that is essentially the old "expanded basic" lineup that used to be the standard package for most cable TV customers (except for sports). The local broadcast channels could be viewed with a traditional antenna, or with a service such as Aereo (assuming they win their current case in the Supreme Court).

There are a lot of hurdles to jump before this could happen, but it gives you an idea of what the TV landscape could look like in a year or two.