DIRECTV Now, the live streaming service from AT&T, has suffered another significant outage with dozens of channels blacked out this morning for unspecified technical reasons.
See update from AT&T below:
Throughout the day yesterday, DIRECTV Now subscribers complained that their on-screen guide was missing at least half of their channels, making it impossible to click on them to watch.
“@DIRECTVNowHelp , You’ve been saying, ‘this’ll clear up in a few hours’ for 12 hours. At what point do you admit you have no clue?’ @BrandonMettsKy asked on Twitter last night at 9:20 p.m. ET.
“Half of my channels aren’t showing up (in the guide). This is starting to get ridiculous,” said @LonniesLocks on Twitter at 1:55 p.m. ET yesterday.
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DIRECTV Now’s  Twitter customer service page acknowledged the issue yesterday, and this morning at 6:10 a.m. ET, said in response to a user’s question about whether there was an “outage.”
“Yes! We do apologize for this issue. The ETA is unknown per upper techs. Please stay tune for updates,” @DIRECTVNowHelp stated.
A few minutes later, the customer service team told subscribers to check back if the problem was not fixed in “six hours.”
At 5:01 a.m. ET today, the customer help team said: “Our network is currently working to restore the service. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.”
Update: AT&T confirmed Monday that roughly half the channels were unavailable on the guide. But the company said subscribers could still watch them if they scrolled through the channel list one by one. (Many DIRECTV Now customers were unaware of this option, according to their posts on social media sites. Therefore they could not watch the channels through their normal practice.) AT&T added that the problem has been fixed.
Here is the entire AT&T statement:
“On Friday and Saturday, DIRECTV NOW customers were unable to view program information for roughly half of channels. Customers were able to access those channels despite program information being unavailable.
Specifically, customers using iOS were able to access those channels by swiping from a nearby channel or accessing directly via the NETWORKS tab, as directed by our Care agents. They were unable to access affected channels directly via the Guide.”
— Phillip Swann
The outages and the continue lack of a roku app is making it harder and harder to subscribe. Hulu live will be looked into when it’s available
I canceled my subscription after the three-month commitment for the free Apple TV 4th Gen. It’s just a truly awful service. Poor UI, spotty VOD, and unreliable service. I switched to PSVue and I love it. It’s been great. I had multiple streams throughout the house during Super Bowl and quality did not suffer one bit. The cloud-based DVR works well for me, too. DirecTV Now just blows…
It wasn’t, technically, an outage. The service still came up and half the channels worked. Actually, all the channels worked if you didn’t use the guide and just swiped/surfed from one channel to the next. Only the guide was not functioning correctly. I wish people would use the proper words when writing articles like this. Malfunction? Sure. Technical issues? Okay. Outage? No.
@Directvnowhelp agreed that it was an “outage.”
Today, Feb. 23, 2017, is the 3rd consecutive day that my DirecTV service has been out on all of my iOS and Android devices. Please see my chat with their customer service department last night here: https://youtu.be/3UDRoRzVJVA
You will notice that they indicate the outage is widespread (i.e., “We have received the same complaint from many of our customers…”). Also, note their apparent unwillingness to address inquiries regarding credits for the outage.
I’m contacting them again now…
Hi Smort – To be clear, none of my channels on the Go Big package work, regardless of whether I use the guide or swipe. And, yes, I meticiculously swiped through (and back through) every channel to test this. Your experience, of course, might be different. But, for me, this is the quinntessential example of an outage. Malfunction? Yes. Technical issue? Oh, yeah. Outage? Definitely! Total outage (i.e., for all customers)? Apparently not.