INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
ATT newly announced Watch TV, a low-cost live TV streaming service announced in the wake of the ATT / Time Warner merger, is now up and
The company already has one over-the-top streaming service with DirecTV Now, but this one is cheaper, has some restrictions, and doesn&t
include local channels or sports to keep costs down.
At $15 per month, the service undercuts the existing low-cost leader Philo by a dollar,
but offers a different lineup (Fomopop has a nice channel-by-channel comparison between the two, if you&re in the market.)
Both have 25 of
the same channels in their packages, including AE, AMC, Comedy Central, Food Network, Discovery, HGTV, History and others, but ATT Watch is
missing MTV, Nickelodeon, and Travel Channel.
In total, Watch TV has over 30 live TV channels, plus 15,000+ TV shows and movies on demand,
and allows you to subscribe by way of updated ATT Wireless plans
Non-ATT customers can subscribe for $15 per month directly.
ATT has been monkeying around with its wireless plans to best take advantage of
its Time Warner acquisition
With the new unlimited plans, it removed the previously free HBO perk and raised the entry-level plan by $5 per month, Ars Technica
reported, detailing the changes that coincided with the launch of Watch TV
(Existing customers were grandfathered in to free HBO.)
Instead, wireless customers on the top-tier ATT Unlimited More Premium plan can
choose to add on another option & like HBO & for free
Other services they can opt for instead include Showtime, Starz, Amazon Music Unlimited, Pandora Premium and VRV.
The company also quietly
raised its &administrative fee& for postpaid wireless customers from $0.76 to $1.99 per month, Ars noted as well, citing BTIG Research
This will bring in $800 million of incremental service revenue per year, the analyst firm said.
Despite the price hikes and valid concerns
over ATT behavior, there likely going to be a market for this low-cost live TV service
The company DirecTV Now streaming service, launched in December 2016, reached 1.46 million subscribers in April
It catching up to longtime leader, Dish Sling TV, which debuted at CES back in January 2015 and now has 2.3 million subscribers
Other newer arrivals, like Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV, have subscribers in the hundreds of thousands.
ATT Watch TV service will be
available across platforms, including iOS, Android, Apple TV, Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV/Fire TV Stick, according to the service website
However, it only streams in high-def on the Premium wireless plan
It also doesn&t offer perks common to other live TV services, like a cloud DVR or support for multiple simultaneous streams.
The Watch TV
Early reviews note there some similarity in the layout to DirecTV Now
There are no reports of crashing as of yet, which are common to new launches like this.
