The epiphany

The industry told you TV was dead. They were wrong, and it's costing you every month.

For a decade, "cut the cord" was the loudest story in real estate operations. Bulk video went invisible. Bulk internet became the default. And somewhere along the way, a $100+/month/unit line of resident spend quietly stopped showing up in anyone's underwriting.

It never left the household. It just left your ledger and with it, the balance-sheet lift that recurring NOI at a 6% cap would have produced.

the pressure

NOI compression is at a record. Every basis point matters.

You already know the story on the operating side. Insurance premiums up double digits. Property taxes reassessed. Labor tight. Interest coverage under pressure. The playbook of the last cycle: RUBS, tech fees, parking, storage, has been fully harvested at most Class-A and Class-B assets.

Meanwhile, on the resident side, the picture is worse than most owners appreciate. The average multifamily household now runs 4.0 paid streaming subscriptions at $69/month, on top of traditional pay-TV where it's still held. Total household video spend routinely crosses $100/month, and in Class-A

urban markets we regularly model households at $177+/month. Every dollar of it leaves the property.

Then 2025 happened. Streaming inflation hit 19.5% (BLS CPI) — versus 1.1% for traditional pay-TV. Netflix +16%. Disney+ +19%. Hulu standalone +50%. Peacock +75%. YouTube TV +14%.

73% of subscribers say they are frustrated by the price hikes. 61% say they would cancel a service over a $5 increase. That's not a churn signal. That's a search for an off-ramp. Your residents are already shopping and today they're shopping alone.

Streamflation, 2025 · Year-over-year price change

service

2024 price

2025 price

YOY change

Netflix (Standard, ads-free)

$15.49

$17.99

+16%

Disney+ (Premium)

$13.99

$16.65

+19%

Apple TV+

$9.99

$12.99

+30%

Peacock (Premium)

$5.99

$10.49

+75%

Hulu (No ads, standalone)

$17.99

$26.99

+50%

HBO Max (Standard)

$15.49

$18.55

+16%

Hulu + Live TV

$76.99

$83.15

+8%

YouTube TV

$72.99

$83.20

+14%

Streaming CPI blend

+19.5%

Pay-TV CPI (for comparison)

+1.1%

Source: BLS CPI 2025 · DIRECTV MDU Owner Deck, April 2026

The misread

Bulk TV didn't fail.

Standard bulk did.

You already wholesale internet. In the last five years, owners have used bulk internet contracts to pay off the capex on smart-tech deployments and quietly booked meaningful NOI. It works because the resident wants the product, the wholesale rate is real, and the delivery is invisible.

Bulk video should have followed the same playbook. It didn't, because the old model made it impossible. Under standard bulk, the owner is billed on 100% of units regardless of take rate. You pay for every door whether the resident wants the service or not. Combine that with satellite-era five- to ten-year commitments, dishes on the roof, hard-wired STBs, and the cord-cutting narrative — and the whole category became uninvestable.

DIRECTV changed the paradigm. Launched the only nationwide bulk streaming service in the US, moved 300,000+ units onto it in three years, and re-priced the wholesale rate so the owner can be billed only on subscribing units. The category that couldn't be wholesaled, suddenly can.

The epiphany

What if you paid the wholesale rate only on residents who signed up, and could walk away in year one if they didn't?

This is the piece of the market almost nobody outside the MDU channel sees. DIRECTV, the same DIRECTV your residents grew up with, now operates the only nationwide bulk streaming program in the US, built specifically for multifamily. The offer to your residents is one they can’t buy anywhere else for $45/month, no contracts, no price hikes. Live TV, 90+ channels, locals, sports, news, plus deep integrations with Netflix, Disney+, Peacock, and Prime, all delivered through the Emmy-winning Gemini device or the DIRECTV app on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Google TV, and Samsung.

Sky Connect contracts at a wholesale rate that guarantees the owner a $10/unit minimum NOI per subscribing resident, with room for $20+ at mid-range packages. Under standard bulk you’d pay for every door regardless of take rate. Under this offer, you only pay when a resident signs up. And if the program doesn’t perform in year one, either party can walk away. That’s the trial.

Then the second thing happens, the thing that turns an operating win into a balance-sheet win. Recurring NOI capitalizes.

At a 6% cap · ×16.7 multiple every $1 of that NOI translates into roughly $16.67 of property value at the next appraisal or refinance.

This is the piece nobody at the property level talks about, and the piece every asset manager should.

$6M

the number the pricing manth produces · risk-free

A modeled 10,000-unit portfolio at 30% opt-in, $10 owner minimum NOI, and a 6% cap rate produces $360,000 of new annual NOI and $6,000,000 of capitalized property value — one time, recognized at the next mark-to-market. At 50% penetration (achievable with the $45 no-contract offer) the same portfolio models to $10M. Interactive calculator on the next page.

$360,000 ÷ 6.00% = $6,000,000 · at 50% penetration: $10M · per door: $600

The math, in one table

Component

retail (resident pays today)

sky connect bulk offer

DIRECTV Entertainment (Live TV, 90+ channels, DVR, locals)

$86.99

included

HBO Max (Standard)

$18.55

included

Paramount+ (Premium)

$12.99

included

Netflix / Disney+ / Peacock / Prime integration

separate subs

integrated in UI

Emmy-winning Gemini device

$14.99 lease

included

Resident price / retail equivalent

$115.47

$45.00/mo

Owner minimum NOI per subscriber

$10-$20/Unit/mo

Owner billed on non-subscribing units?

No. Zero.

Sky Connect contracts DIRECTV at a wholesale rate that guarantees a $10/unit minimum NOI to the owner · No contracts, no price hikes for residents · Risk-free 1-year trial

The proof it works at scale

This isn't a pilot. It's the only nationwide bulk streaming service in the US; deployed, scaled, proven.

Contracted scale · 3 years

300,000+

bulk units already signed nationally under the DIRECTV MDU program. Scaled, deployed, not a pilot.

historical benchmark

91%

peak cable penetration achieved historically when Live TV was priced at today’s bulk rates. Near-universal demand exists at the right price.

interface

2 Emmys

for the Gemini streaming device UI/UX. The resident-facing experience is premium, not a downgrade.

modeled valuation lift - 10,000 units

$6M

$360K of new annual NOI at 30% opt-in, capitalized at a 6% cap rate. At 50% penetration: $10M.

Balance-sheet impact, not just operating.

$360,000 ÷ 6.00% = $6,000,000 · at 50%: $10,000,000

the risk profile

1yr

Risk-free trial partnership. Owner only pays on subscribing units. If it doesn’t perform in year one, either party walks away, no penalty, no lookback.

Owner commitment

$0

upfront. No dish. No wiring. No install fee. No long-term contract. Sky will even take on recurring opex under a rev-share structure if that de-risks it further.

the next step

You've seen the market.

Now run the valuation lift

against your own portfolio.

Next page: the full offer stack, the head-to-head value comparison, an interactive NOI + cap-rate calculator you can dial to your own unit count and cap rate, and answers to the four objections every owner raises before their strategy call.