Discovery CEO David Zaslav spilled the beans on virtual pay-TV subscriber numbers: both PlayStation Vue and DirecTV Now are approaching half a million subscribers.

Dish Network’s Sling TV reportedly reached 1 million subscribers in the second half of last year.

Together, that’s about 2 million subs for virtual pay-TV services already, with Hulu and YouTube set to join the party in coming months.

In record time, these web-based “skinny bundles” have become a part of the new TV landscape.

Here are some observations:

Virtual Pay-TV vs. SVOD

While most cord-cutters remain more familiar with big SVOD services like Netflix and Hulu, Sling TV is also on their radar, boasting more subscribers than the much-hyped HBO Now.

Individual network services like those from CBS, HBO, Showtime, and others would seem to be in competition with virtual pay-TV apps, each one offering a unique skinny bundle of channels.

If you like the channels in the bundle, then virtual pay-TV is a great deal. Otherwise, it may make more sense to choose services form individual networks à la carte.

Forgive and Forget

Over 400,000 subscribers for DirecTV Now is an impressive figure. Only launched 4 months ago, DirectTV Now got off to about as rough a start as possible.

Error messages, outages, technical problems, and more marred the service for its first few months, while rightfully unhappy consumers were denied refunds for a product that was largely non-functional.

A frequent DirecTV Now error message

Given that the number came from a network CEO’s comments, there could be a big asterisk attached to that number. How it accounts for users who signed up and promptly canceled is a key unknown.

If it holds true however, that would suggest that consumers continued signing up for the service despite all the problems.

Either consumers have become unusually forgiving with the telco and satellite giant or they’re so unhappy with traditional pay-TV options that the bar is abyssmally low.

A Slow Start

Despite DirecTV Now’s early struggles, Sony’s PlayStation Vue, which launched over a year earlier, squandered its head start.

As the name suggested, Vue was first available only on Sony’s PlayStation game consoles. But even as it expanded to new platforms, due to the PlayStation branding, consumers may have failed to notice.

Sling TV and DirecTV Now have also been more heavily advertised, helping to erode any advantage that Vue’s longevity may have afforded.

On the Horizon… Maybe

Virtual pay-TV won’t stay a three-horse race for long. Online video giants YouTube and Hulu have both announced plans for skinny bundles of their own.

Verizon too, after experimenting with flexible pricing on its FiOS TV service and dabbling in OTT with its forgettable Go90 service, has long been rumored to have had a virtual pay-TV play in the works, and now seems poised to make it a reality.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki

But negotiations are still underway and not all of the desired networks are onboard.

By now, if there’s a lesson to learn, it’s that these negotations don’t always go smoothly. Another big tech company, Apple, was once reported on the verge of launching a TV service too.

That service never materialized, and was eventually given up on. If negotiations with the networks go south for Hulu or YouTube, it’s not impossible that they cancel their projects in similar fashion.

After all, in this hyper-competitive space, if they can’t come in at the right price point or offer compelling advantage over other services, it may make more financial sense not to move forward, at least in the short term.