Dish is not the first cable distributor to sell a smaller basic cable bundle without ESPN, however. Verizon has said the smaller Custom TV cable bundles make up about 40% of Fios TV sales. Schlichting said that the new Dish bundle is not aimed at cord cutters, or people who have canceled traditional TV. Verizon also made ESPN (and lots of other channels) add-ons to a smaller cable bundle. There are eight groups of channels customers can add that cost extra.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 04, 2016 15:58 UTC