Sorry, I should have said have live Sports and a News like how they do ESPN+ and CBSN.
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AT&T TV Launches Nationwide February 2020
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AT&T's Plan to Fix Its Entertainment Segment in 2020 | The Motley Fool
Management's focusing on premium products with lower capital intensity.
www.fool.com
A cleaner and simpler product lineup
Speaking at a recent investor conference, AT&T Communications CEO Jeff McElfresh said the product offering will become much cleaner and simpler next year.
Specifically, the company wants to focus on markets where it can offer three of the best-in-class products across wireless, home internet, and television. Those would be its top-tier unlimited wireless data service on its 5G Evolution network, its fiber internet service, and AT&T TV. The latter is currently in beta testing, but will launch nationwide in February.
My area is available now. On the local channels list it appears they only stream the big network affiliates. Here there are a couple of independent stations along with PBS. With satellite those are available but if AT&T wants to migrate people to AT&T Now why would they not include all the local channels currently they offer via satellite?.
Maybe they are waiting until February 2020 to launch AT&T TV because they don’t have a lot of the local channel streaming rights yet? It was supposed to launch nationwide in November.
Hmm. Well, define "successful". As I see it, AT&T has a bad situation on their hands with DirecTV for a variety of reasons, including the two that you cite. IMO, AT&T TV looks like a step in the right direction and should help the company stanch the bleeding of cable TV subs that they're experiencing. If that happens, then I'd say it would be a success. But I don't think that the total number of cable TV subs that the company will have between AT&T TV, DirecTV and Uverse TV will actually *increase* in the coming years because linear-channel cable TV service is in long-term secular decline.
That's why the company seems much more excited about HBO Max than about AT&T TV. Of course, they'd love for customers to sign up for both (and I strongly suspect that anyone who signs up for an AT&T TV channel package will be paying for HBO Max as a non-optional part of it come mid-2020). But they know that pay TV is shifting towards direct-to-consumer streaming services like HBO Max, Netflix, Hulu, Peacock, etc., so that's why HBO Max is the brand that they'll really be pushing, selling at a cost of $15 per month, far lower than any cable channel package.
Linear-channel cable TV isn't going any anytime soon. It's dying, but it'll still be around for years to come. AT&T can't just walk away from that business, especially given that they're a broadband provider and need a modern cable TV service to bundle in there. So that's why they had to launch AT&T TV, which addresses at least some of the shortcomings that both DirecTV and Uverse TV have, including the ability to watch all live and recorded TV in or out of home across all kinds of devices, including phones, regardless of whether or not AT&T is your broadband provider (or even whether you live in one of the ~15 states served by AT&T broadband).
The big questions I have about the service that I'll want to see answered before I shepherd my parents onto AT&T TV are:
1) What are the channel packages and pricing, both in the first year and the regular prices thereafter (if they differ)?
2) How reliable is it, both for live TV and cloud DVR recordings, if you're on AT&T Fiber?
They'd be OK with the packages and pricing that AT&T TV is using so far in the pilot cities, although I'm still not sure that those are the packages we'll see when the service launches nationwide, supposedly in February.
As for reliability/performance, I've read bad things from folks who beta tested the AT&T streaming box on DirecTV Now but then I've read encouraging reports from a few actual AT&T TV subscribers in the pilot cities so far. So the jury is still out. Although, IMO, AT&T will have no choice but to spend the resources to make the service work well because, at this point, what other good options do they have?
Not sure why anyone would think disputes will go away. The retransmission method has nothing to do with the cost of retransmission rights. The content provider doesn't care how you send the content to your customers, he only cares about how much you're going to pay him for the rights to do it so there's little, if any, reason to think disputes will go away.
We've been a test market for awhile for ATT TV. I just signed up to try it out especially since I've had their Fiber internet in the area for 2 years now. The 2nd year price is brutal and chances are I'll break the contract at that point and re-evaluate our options. Having said that, the first year is much cheaper than what I currently have with Xfinity under contract. Haven't received their streaming box yet for ATT TV but been using the app on the apple tv. Picture blows comcast away for sure. Not a fan of the cloud dvr but will have to get used to it. Years and years of being with Dish, Directv and Comcast with a Tivo makes this transition uncomfortable but over the weekend didn't have any issues and enjoy the picture when compared to Xfinity's down rez and over compressed video quality. Also having internet without caps is a plus. In a year from now chances are if it all worked out I will just stay with their Internet 1000 and move on to a different streaming service. Not having NFL Network or the option for RedZone stinks but will not worry about that for now.
I'll post updates on my experience with their service and the at&t osprey box in case anyone is interested.
I'll post updates on my experience with their service and the at&t osprey box in case anyone is interested.
It's what made me hesitate but to break the contract after year one would be $180. Between what I'll save monthly and the visa cards for signing up I come out on top. Still, I'll make sure during the 14 days this is what I want. In a year if all has gone well I'd just be staying with their internet which is competitively priced.
Yeah, the first year pricing is a fair price and is competitive with other streamers. But that 2nd year pricing is not even in the ballpark of worst case scenarios with combos of other streamers.
And when you consider that the trend is for smaller channel bundles at lower prices and no contract, you just have to wonder how this will succeed. May not be DOA because a good salesman can make a pitch and downplay that 2nd year and how you are locked into it.
Agreed. I think they'll have to readjust or it will not make it. Had the discounts been throughout the entire contract it would make things a lot better.
Yeah, in spite of ATT not wanting to be compared to other streamers, their competition is YTTV and Hulu+Live and both offer more for less with no commitment. Even assuming both of those services raise prices this year, they would still be a better buy.
ATT’s service sole plus IMO, is the box assuming they fix some of the glitches I’ve seen reported, and add a few more streaming apps to it. Kind of like a Tivo for streaming but with more flexibility. Something that Tivo pioneered and then dropped the ball.
Starlink has limits on total bandwidth in a given geographic area - kind of like cellular where if you have too many heavy users on a cell then performance suffers for everyone. The early adopters will give it rave reviews because they won't be competing with others, but the true test will be once all your neighbors sign up for it and start streaming, gaming, doing P2P etc...
