DirecTV Now, AT&T’s much-anticipated over-the-top streaming service that targets the legions of Americans who have fled their cable companies, is launching on Nov. 30 with four pricing plans starting at $35 a month, the company announced Monday.
The plans are: “Live a Little,” which costs $35 a month for more than 60 channels; “Just Right,” which is $50 a month for more than 80 channels; “Go Big,” $60 a month for more than 100 channels; and “Gotta Have it,” which costs $70 a month for more than 120 channels. AT&T is offering a promotional $35 monthly rate for its “Go Big” package for consumers who sign up for it now. They can be grandfathered into the rate as long as they keep the package (barring routine programming increases).
HBO and Cinemax can be had for an additional $5/month each. CBS and Showtime are not yet available on DirecTV Now, but AT&T representatives speaking at the launch event said the company is working on adding them soon. ABC, NBC and Fox local channels are only available in markets where they are owned and operated by the broadcast network itself, and there’s no DVR. Also, since Verizon holds NFL mobile rights, DirecTV’s popular Sunday Ticket package isn’t on DirecTV Now.
Cell phone customers of AT&T who sign up for DirecTV Now will get a major perk: data used by the service doesn’t count against what’s allocated in their plans, so they can stream video without worrying about the wi-fi.
AT&T unveiled some other promotional offers, such as giving out a free Apple TV for customers who pre-buy three months of the service. Customers can walk out with the Apple TV if they sign up at retail locations. They can also claim a free Amazon Fire TV stick with a one-month prepay. In addition, Chinese tech conglomerate LeEco is offering several months of DirecTV Now for free with the purchase of select models of its smart TVs and smartphones.
And to further tap into a younger customer base, AT&T unveiled a streaming content partnership with Taylor Swift, which will be available on DirecTV, DirecTV Now and U-verse, and one with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, set to debut in mid-2017.
AT&T announced two other video streaming services, FreeVIEW and Fullscreen. FreeVIEW has on-demand content from AT&T-backed ventures such as the Audience Network and Otter Media, and Fullscreen is a streaming video on demand service launched earlier this year that AT&T is now offering free for one year for wireless subscribers.
Last month, AT&T agreed to acquire Time Warner, which owns cable channels including CNN, HBO and TNT, for $85.4 billion in the biggest media deal in 16 years. In a conference call after the deal was announced, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes talked about the importance of bringing premium TV content to customers who increasingly want to take it with them — and increasingly balk at hefty cable fees, to the detriment of media networks like Disney’s ESPN. Company executives said they’re targeting exactly those customers.
“We developed it with the mindset that it has to be mobile,” AT&T Entertainment Group CEO John Stankey said on stage at the New York event, calling DirecTV Now “rules-free TV.”
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson revealed the introductory $35 price tag at a conference in Laguna Beach, California last month, which compares favorably with many of the other streaming options on the market. Dish Network’s Sling TV — which just announced a cloud DVR service — has a basic package that costs $20 a month, but it includes fewer than 30 channels. Sling’s premium tier carries about 50 channels and costs $40. Sony’s PlayStation Vue service also has a package with more than 100 channels, but it costs $54.99 a month. Hulu, which is partially owned by Time Warner, is launching its own live-TV streaming service next year, but a price has not been named.
14 Billion-Dollar Acquisitions Before AT&T-Time Warner (Photos)
Think $85 billion is a lot of cash? Take a tour through the lurid amounts of money dropped on American media and content machines over the years.
1999: Disney Buys ABC The alliance is such a potent brand that it's hard to imagine them as solo entities, but the $19.5 billion sale gave the Disney company an iconic TV brand to call its own.
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1999: Clear Channel buys AMFM Inc The radio giant paid $20.6 billion for its rival AMFM, their 830 radio stations, 425,000 billboards and 19 TV stations per Forbes.
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1999: Viacom Buys CBS Fifteen years ago, the media giant acquired the TV network for $34.1 billion. While the companies would split in 2006, always remember -- history repeats itself.
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2000: Time Warner and AOL Merge It's often referred to as one of the most disastrous mergers in history. The $186.2 billion price tag seemed visionary at the time, but quickly devolved into a corporate culture way... and the of the dot-com collapse.
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2006: Disney Buys Pixar In the first of a series of key moves from Disney CEO Bob Iger -- ones that would ensure long-term health and eventually see the company take record-breaking market share -- Steve Jobs was convinced to entrust the animation studio to them for a reported $7.4 billion.
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2009: Disney Buys Marvel Iger's $4 billion purchase of the comic book studio changed the industry, secured Robert Downey Jr. as the highest paid actor in Hollywood and made a new constellation of stars and film franchises.
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2012: Disney Buys Lucasfilm Bob Iger's hat trick was completed with a major coup in landing the "Star Wars" universe for $4 billion, which resulted in the No. 3 all-time top grossing film, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."
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2013: Comcast Buys Remaining Stake in NBC After purchasing a majority stake in 2011 for $30 billion, Comcast paid another $16.7 billion to wholly own the TV brand, film studio Universal and its California and Florida theme parks.
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2013: Yahoo Buys Tumblr It's a relatively small price for a media acquisition, but spend-happy Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer raised a lot of eyebrows by paying $1 billion for the blogging platform Tumblr.
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2014: Facebook Buys WhatApp While this is a straight-up tech acquisition, it's interesting to note that Facebook paid a staggering $22 billion for the European-based WhatsApp, a mobile application that lets users text for free over WiFi, to bolster their own messaging app. The company has repeatedly said it doesn't care to acquire content engines, but this signals a strong urge to level competition if they ever change their minds.
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2015: Activision Blizzard Buys King Mobile The video game company literally spent $5.9 billion on fun and games. Mobile game company King counts the most successful app of all time, Candy Crush, and legacy social games like Bubble Witch in its stable. Now Activision gets to develop properties like a just-sold CBS game show based on Candy Crush.
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2016: Comcast Buys Dreamworks After years of trying to offload his baby, Jeffrey Katzenberg fetched $3.8 billion for DWA and its respective franchises, like "Kung Fu Panda."
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2015: Dalian Wanda Buys Legendary Entertainment A production company fetching $3.5 billion in a sale was not just jaw-dropping, it was an airhorn that the Chinese invasion into Hollywood had begun. It's also currently the benchmark for what many call inflated valuation... but Wanda's pockets are as deep as their patience is long.
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2016: Verizon Buys Yahoo In a major deal that’s yet to formally close, Verizon is ponying up $4.83 billion for Yahoo’s core business, which includes advertising, content, search and mobile division.
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From Disney-ABC to Wanda and Legendary, a look back at major media deals with staggering price tags
Think $85 billion is a lot of cash? Take a tour through the lurid amounts of money dropped on American media and content machines over the years.