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AT & T began recording its new streaming video service, AT & T TV, on Monday. The channel list and rates for this OTT offer are similar to those of its DirecTV satellite service, but with much narrower initial availability than this older product across the country.
AT & T TV's ten opening markets are covered by the residential broadband of the Dallas-based telecommunications giant: Orange and Riverside in California; West Palm Beach Florida; Topeka and Wichita, Kansas; St. Louis and Springfield, Missouri; and Corpus Christi, El Paso, and Odessa, Texas.
At the beginning of 2020, however, AT & T plans to offer AT & T TV nationwide.
The AT & T TV price starts at $ 59.99 a month – for the first year of a two-year contract – for an entertainment offering including typical rates for the expanded basic cable offering, but without regional sports networks.
Plusher offers combining RSN and other channels increase promotional costs to $ 79.99 per month. Premium channels such as Showtime and HBO cost an additional $ 11 to $ 15.
AT & T TV – not to be confused with AT & T TV Now, its new image of the DirecTV Now OTT service – includes 500 hours of cloud-based DVR and a required receiver based on Android TV. Extra boxes cost $ 10 per month per set.
RELATED: New AT & T TV streaming TV service will be available nationally in early 2020
An on-site audit at an address in Anaheim, Calif., Revealed that after 12 months, the entry-level entertainment package would reach $ 93 a month. By opting for an AT & T TV set and broadband at 50 Mbps, costs for the first year were $ 89.99 and rates for the second year at $ 133 per month. Both estimates cautioned against taxes and fees but did not reveal exact figures before entering billing information.
An AT & T publicist did not respond to a request for clarification.
The availability of local channels seems to have the same limitations as other OTT services. The AT & T TV website showed that NBC affiliates were not available in the Wichita, Topeka and El Paso postal code examples; Fox affiliates did not appear on the Topeka and Springfield postcodes menu; The subsidiary of ABC Odessa was also not registered with a postal code.
In an email, TV[R]Alan Wolk, senior analyst for EV, criticized the overlapping online video options.
"This seems to come from the legacy of their phone company where a variety of confusing and seemingly overlapping plans was the rule," he said. He noted that the simpler, easier-to-read offerings from Hulu and YouTube were a better model: "It underscores their commitment to providing a great user experience and quality customer service."
Wolk noted, however, that AT & T hardware could strengthen the prospects of its Xandr advertising subsidiary. "Having their own box seems to be a way for them to expand Xander's partnership with Comscore (Comscore collects data on set-top boxes) and use it to sell addressable advertising across all AT & T properties. T, "he writes.
The launch of AT & T TV follows a massive loss of video subscribers for the company, which announced losses of 778,000 in the second quarter of its traditional DirecTV and U-verse services and another 168,000 in DirecTV Now.
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