Why I'm All In With AT&T/DirecTV

[schneid]

First DirecTV satellite is an original "cord-cutter". Never had one. I posted this on the DirecTV forum:

Leaving my 3mbs down DSL connection in Nevada five years ago I was an AT&T hater but hung as a loyal 21 yr DirecTV subscriber. For the past two years I've fooled around with "cord-cutting", a misnomer, but despite having OTA attic antennas and GB fiber, DirecTV satellite, to me, just does it all better. The last few months we've had glimpses of Internet delivery (merger with Now), revived OTA tuning and recording (now active), and a proposed new Android box that would add "streaming" apps.

Today, I am doubling down and ditching my 2-line T-Mobile 70 buck/mo unlimited plan and my coop's 1GB fiber. AT&T's new military and veteran's incentives have enticed me to go all in with their Unlimited Premium, GB fiber, bundled with my DirecTV satellite.

Another incentive is that I was overrun by Florence. T-Mobile was severely degraded, my fiber Internet failed, but my DirecTV sat survived after the deluge stopped. Neighbors with AT&T fiber, if they had power, had Internet. I do have a natural gas Generac which was the real champ through that mess.

I'm all in with AT&T.

 

[harshness]

So will you still be singing their praises when AT&T migrates their DBS customers to their streaming model?

More than half of their current constellation of satellites will reach their projected end-of-life within 10 years. As an example, DIRECTV 11 was launched over 10 years ago with a 15+ year useful life. If I recall correctly, DIRECTV 10 has been at least partially abandoned due to a premature failure and DIRECTV 9S has been doing its thing for 12 years alongside DIRECTV 8 that has been serving CONUS for over 13 years at 101W.

 

[ncted]

I have AT&T Fiber, and we've had two multi-day outages due to weather in the past year. I was happy to have Satellite service during those times, although I have Dish because no LOS for DirecTV (and I actually like Dish a bit better), but the result is the same. Spectrum Internet/TV had outages too, but they were resolved more quickly. I actually recently switched to Verizon for wireless largely because AT&T (and T-Mobile and Sprint) coverage at my house is not good enough to make a phone call reliably, and their Microcell and Wi-Fi calling are poor substitutes while Verizon is.

Moral to my story is: if you can make bundling work for you, great. Somehow I never can.

 

[truedowneast]

First DirecTV satellite is an original "cord-cutter". Never had one. I posted this on the DirecTV forum:

Leaving my 3mbs down DSL connection in Nevada five years ago I was an AT&T hater but hung as a loyal 21 yr DirecTV subscriber. For the past two years I've fooled around with "cord-cutting", a misnomer, but despite having OTA attic antennas and GB fiber, DirecTV satellite, to me, just does it all better. The last few months we've had glimpses of Internet delivery (merger with Now), revived OTA tuning and recording (now active), and a proposed new Android box that would add "streaming" apps.

Today, I am doubling down and ditching my 2-line T-Mobile 70 buck/mo unlimited plan and my coop's 1GB fiber. AT&T's new military and veteran's incentives have enticed me to go all in with their Unlimited Premium, GB fiber, bundled with my DirecTV satellite.

Another incentive is that I was overrun by Florence. T-Mobile was severely degraded, my fiber Internet failed, but my DirecTV sat survived after the deluge stopped. Neighbors with AT&T fiber, if they had power, had Internet. I do have a natural gas Generac which was the real champ through that mess.

I'm all in with AT&T.

I had a little taste of Florence too


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[ncted]

I had a little taste of Florence too


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

Uh, yeah you did. Probably still do I imagine.

 

[schneid]

I had a little taste of Florence too


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

How did you like her? She let me down. Thought I was going to get eye over pass but she missed me by two miles.

 

[schneid]

Uh, yeah you did. Probably still do I imagine.

Yep, she is the one night stand that won't leave. Still lots of debris, blue tarps, and it still stinks, literally, near the Cape Fear River. Lots of dead pigs, turkeys, and hog waste pond water still flowing I guess. Might flush out some of GenX that infiltrated the water supply. She was nasty but nothing like the CS fires.

 

[SpaethCo]

So will you still be singing their praises when AT&T migrates their DBS customers to their streaming model?

“We have no plans to discontinue satellite service. Our video strategy involves offering our customers choices in how they want to receive their video service, including via satellite, our wireline service or streaming over home broadband, regardless of their provider,” AT&T said in a statement.

Source: Deeper Dive—DirecTV soldiering on despite drastic subscriber losses | FierceVideo

They're pushing streaming in calls with the analysts because they see it as their best avenue for subscriber growth, and growing the company is the only way to increase the stock price.

 

[harshness]

Not having plans for a few years ahead in a business where launching new or replacement bandwidth is typically measured in years is not a good sign. They can say they're going to keep it going but the gray hairs (thankfully not so many tin whiskers) in their satellite fleet tell a much different story. If you don't tell the analysts the truth, it will reveal itself at some point. DIRECTV has four satellites that should statistically make it to 2023 with one supposedly in the hopper (Gunter's Space Page says that nobody has actually seen a contract for DIRECTV 16).

Subscriber growth (retention, if we're being honest) based a business model that doesn't appear to be nearly as profitable (if not a decided loser as Sony has observed) is probably not a big plus for investors or potential investors.

When the pricing on streamed linear services demonstrates that it can grab more than half of the current DIRECTV DBS ARPU, then we might expect to hear some faint cheering from investors but will the tightwad subscribers keep coming or walk away? Do they really think they can charge equipment and technology fees on a par with the $30+ baseline that they charge now? Are they expecting to extract local channel and RSN fees with their streaming products?