AT&T Getting Ready to Offer Skinny TV Streaming Package for $15

DooKey

DooKey

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During his recent testimony in the AT&t/Time Warner antitrust trial, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson mentions a new skinny streaming TV option without sports is going to be offered for $15 a month. Wireless customers will get the best deal....free. Even though AT&T already offers a $35 per month service with DirecTV Now it appears they feel the need to tap into the low cost market and give everyone something for a pretty low price. Seeing is believing they say and once it's out I'll believe it.

Called AT&T Watch, it would ditch sports to keep the price low, and be available for free to the company's wireless subscribers. There's no word on exactly what channels would be included but it's apparently going to launch in the next few weeks. At that price it would be cheaper than AT&T's lowest-price DirecTV Now package ($35 for 60+ channels) and Sling TV's cheapest lineup ($20 for 25+ channels).
 
They have those in Canada and they are a fucking joke.

Be prepared to pay a lot for a little.

Edit: Whoops thought it was cable TV
 
step in the right direction finally offering things WITHOUT sports. sports is most of the reason TV is so expensive.
 
This might work for me, as I am already on ATT and on their max family plan, so a free streaming option might be pretty cool
 
Spidey329 said:
$15 and it's probably just the channels you'd get with free-OTA.
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Plus, OTA will most likely have better picture quality (PQ). PlayStation Vue has slightly better PQ form the streaming services I tried (DTV Now, PS Vue, and Sling TV) and OTA still looks appreciably better. I can stream live TV over my network with my HDHomerun connect to any device. The antenna is 4k ready (when that happens). If it wasn't for premium sports channels...
 
Two things I never watch and wish they got rid of on DirecTV, sports and shopping channels. As long as it has History, SyFy, Science Channel, some news and maybe FX or TNT or AMC then I would be happy at $15/month. Pretty much paying $100/month now for just those.
 
I think people are missing the point, when data took off on cell phones eventually carriers realized nothing would stop people from using data to achieve all phone features cheaper. Get it? So charging for texting or calling did not make any sense once critical mass is hit. So phone carriers realized that they had no play if people stopped using all calling and texting features. So they were forced to give that away free to keep people using it. Get it? Same thing is happening now to TV, now that video streaming has hit critical mass. So TV providers are going to have to give it away free or very cheap to keep you from cutting the cord.
 
rudy said:
I think people are missing the point, when data took off on cell phones eventually carriers realized nothing would stop people from using data to achieve all phone features cheaper. Get it? So charging for texting or calling did not make any sense once critical mass is hit. So phone carriers realized that they had no play if people stopped using all calling and texting features. So they were forced to give that away free to keep people using it. Get it? Same thing is happening now to TV, now that video streaming has hit critical mass. So TV providers are going to have to give it away free or very cheap to keep you from cutting the cord.
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and free it should be... should have been free years ago, with the horrendous amount of ads they place. cable is a freaking assault to the senses, and then an assault to the pocket on top of it. cable as it is, sports as they are have only one choice be free to be watched , and pass the cost to the advertisers, the era of double dipping is over.
 
opfreak said:
how long until you bitch a la carte is too expensive?
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I don't know. Until it's offered to customers, the "packages" are ridiculous. I've got several choices; a small local provider gives "basic" for $25. The next step? That's $100. Basic just repeats the OTA channels. Glad I cut the cable.

I was around when cable was rolled out. In exchange for paying for service, it was ad-free. Now? Yeah.
 
c3k said:
I don't know. Until it's offered to customers, the "packages" are ridiculous. I've got several choices; a small local provider gives "basic" for $25. The next step? That's $100. Basic just repeats the OTA channels. Glad I cut the cable.

I was around when cable was rolled out. In exchange for paying for service, it was ad-free. Now? Yeah.
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Cable was ad-free!?
Well I read this:
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/will-cable-tv-be-invaded-by-commercials.html
Wow.
Cable is so ad-laden... its worse than FM!
In fact if FM didn't repeat songs so much it would be borderline great!, free, cheap barrier of entry, and many station play big blocks of music (granted it gets a bit worse around X-mas but whatever)

Why, why, anyone pays for this cable shit!?, just why!?
 
Sports are the only reason to watch live tv, if i wanted a tv package the local provider will give me a bundle thats only 19$ more then just internet which is bullshit but my only option
 
JSumrall said:
Do not be surprised if they offer a $15 option, and then require you to have their most expensive unlimited cellular plans to qualify for it. This IS AT&T we're talking about.
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Clearly stated in the article it would be free for those users.
 
I don't suppose this will include those of us with data only plans? I could see one use for this (if free)...to check out a show I might be interested in buying on disc later as there is no OTA or cable here...and I'm assuming it wouldn't count against your data cap.
 
No sports?

15 channels? Can I assume they are 15 shitty networks that no one wants?

Lifetime? QVC? The Spanish soap opera network that has the same guy that narrates the intros and all the commercials?
 
I have been using Philo for a month and so far so good - they don't do sports channels. Only downside for me is the lack of SyFy
 
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