AT&T Unveils Pricing for DirecTV Now Streaming Service -- Update
November 28 2016 - 6:24PM
Dow Jones News
By Thomas Gryta and Shalini Ramachandran
AT&T Inc. said its internet-based television service DirecTV
Now will go on sale this week and cost between $35 and $70 a month
based on the package of channels that customers select.
The service, which will be available Wednesday, offers four
tiers of channels that are delivered to web browsers, mobile phones
and streaming devices like Amazon's Fire TV stick or the Apple TV.
The smallest package will include more than 60 channels, while the
biggest will have more than 120.
"This is the foundation of how we are going to do things in the
future," said John Stankey, chief executive of AT&T's
entertainment group, at an event in New York Monday. The company
became the country's largest pay television provider last year with
its almost $50 billion acquisition of DirecTV. AT&T will also
continue to sell its traditional satellite DirecTV service.
For a limited time, AT&T is selling a DirecTV Now package of
more than 100 channels, usually priced $60 a month, for $35 a
month. AT&T said Monday that customers who sign up at the
promotional rate will be grandfathered in at that price for "as
long as they are a customer."
Customers can pay an extra $5 a month to add premium movie
channels HBO or Cinemax.
There are some limitations. The service won't have CBS Corp.
channels at launch and the other broadcast networks, like ABC and
NBC, are only streamed live in markets where the networks own the
local stations. The service also doesn't include a DVR function,
but the feature is expected to be added next year.
The details of the service have been a longtime coming. AT&T
said almost eight months ago that it would launch the over-the-top
version of DirecTV. AT&T said it is also launching an
ad-supported free version that samples some of the content of the
paid service.
Streaming video to televisions and mobile devices -- eliminating
the need for a satellite dish, cable box or annual contract -- is
attracting plenty of competition. But unlike Netflix or Hulu,
DirecTV Now is intended to provide a full cablelike lineup for
households.
AT&T reached
deals to include channels owned by 21st Century Fox Inc., Walt
Disney
Co., merger partner Time Warner Inc., Discovery Communications
Inc. and others. ( News Corp, publisher of The Wall Street Journal,
and 21st Century Fox share common ownership.)
Mr. Stankey said the company is "hopeful and optimistic" that it
will soon reach a deal with CBS. He also said the NFL Sunday Ticket
package, available on traditional DirecTV, isn't available on the
over-the-top service, but said the company is discussing with the
league whether it can be added.
AT&T isn't the first to market. Currently, customers can pay
as little as $20 a month to stream 31 channels from Dish Network
Corp.'s Sling TV service to as much as $75 a month for a bundle of
about 100 channels, including HBO and Showtime, from Sony Corp.'s
PlayStation Vue service.
AT&T said the launch is the first step of a bigger platform
that will allow it to deliver targeted advertising to viewers.
"This is how we are going to keep our pricing down," said Brad
Bentley, chief marketing officer at AT&T entertainment
division.
Write to Thomas Gryta at thomas.gryta@wsj.com and Shalini
Ramachandran at shalini.ramachandran@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 28, 2016 18:09 ET (23:09 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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