Legal battle will not stop slimmed-down TV plans for cord cutters

Cable and satellite television companies fighting to retain customers in the face of online competition say a high-profile legal battle will not stop them from experimenting with ways to attract younger viewers. Walt Disney Co's ESPN has sued to stop Verizon from making its sports channel part of an add-on option for customers of its new Custom TV package, a legal fight that has been the talk of industry conferences and discussions with investors and analysts. Distributors say their contracts give them room to test other types of packages for a portion of their customers and that they will continue rolling out so-called "skinny" bundles of channels with fewer options at lower prices. Defections by younger viewers are threatening the future of traditional pay TV. Distributors see slimmer plans as a lifeline to a generation that watches online services such as Netflix and Google's YouTube. If they can entice viewers with cheaper plans, the hope is that they can later move them to the more expensive subscriptions with hundreds of channels. That could help preserve their subscriber base of roughly 100 million customers.