“As subscribership gains for the vMVPDs have slowed … the starry-eyed ambitions of their corporate parents that they would eventually monetize huge subscriber bases with addressable advertising and/or other ancillary revenue streams have taken a significant hit,” Craig Moffett wrote. “Witness AT&T’s dramatically different tone with respect to DirecTV Now, which was once a pillar of their ‘modern media company’ strategy and now, just 18 months later, looks to be slated for something close to elimination in favor of a completely different approach with HBO Max.”
Clearly AT&T has been changing direction as AT&T announced during their second quarter call that the new soon-to-be-released AT&T TV streaming service is now their focus.
There is a lot of truth to what Moffett said. Even as cord cutting is setting new records for growth, live TV streaming services like DIRECTV NOW, Sling TV, and PlayStation Vue have not been able to keep up. The vast majority of cord cutters have decided to skip these services in favor of antennas, on-demand, free ad-supported services, or just a collection of DVDs.
According to recent numbers, live TV streaming services have 8 million subscribers and reports put cord cutters between 35 and 40 million Americans. Clearly cord cutters have not flocked to services like DIRECTV NOW in the numbers many had hoped.
Now exactly what AT&T plans to do with DIRECTV NOW is not fully known. We do know it is being renamed AT&T TV NOW (not to be confused with AT&T TV, which is a completely different service) but beyond the name change nothing for now will be changing with DIRECTV NOW.
CNBC has reported that AT&T plans to “eventually” merge DIRECTV NOW into HBO Max. According to reports, AT&T hopes to offer a Hulu with live TV like option to add live TV to HBO Max at an additional cost.
We will have to wait and see what AT&T does in the long run with DIRECTV NOW.
What do you think AT&T plans for the future of DIRECTV NOW soon to be called AT&T TV NOW? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.
Source: Multichannel
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