Today during a Reuters interview with AT&T’s Chief Operating Officer John Stankey, we got a new look at AT&T’s long term TV plans. According to AT&T’s COO, the plan is to move DIRECTV customers to a streaming service.
“We didn’t buy DIRECTV because we love satellite,” said Stankey. “We bought DIRECTV because we love the customer base and the customer base could be migrated into more on-demand-oriented products and services.” According to Reuters, there was also some talk of bundling HBO Max with AT&T wireless plans in the future.
We have heard rumors of this for years now but at the time, AT&T always said they are very dedicated to DIRECTV. Recently though it was reported that AT&T no longer plans to launch any additional satellites for DIRECTV. AT&T also announced during their 2nd quarter earnings call that AT&T TV would be the future of AT&T going forward.
AT&T TV is set to roll out nationwide by the end of 2019. (Subject to change.) AT&T TV starts at $59.99 for 12 months with a 24-month contract. After the first 12 months, the package goes up to $93 a month. (The high-end AT&T TV packages will start at $135 a month in the second year.) You will also have to pay a $19.95 activation fee plus an $8.49/mo regional sports fee if you have the $64.99 a month package that includes RSNs.
AT&T recently made it clear that AT&T TV is far more profitable for them than DIRECTV. Now it sounds like soon AT&T will be doing everything they can to move DIRECTV customers over to streaming services like AT&T TV and HBO MAX.
The only question now is how quickly will that move happen and how will AT&T try to push DIRECTV customers to streaming.
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