Q. I remember an article you wrote a few years ago that said DIRECTV planned to be a totally streaming service by 2020. Is that still happening? What would become of all these dishes on roofs, etc.? — Carl, Milwaukee.
Carl, the article you refer to was based on a 2016 Bloomberg report that quoted AT&T sources as saying the company planned to replace the DIRECTV satellite service with a DIRECTV streaming service as early as 2020.
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At the time, I noted that this was not feasible because there were 20 million dishes in place and DIRECTV would lose a significant number of subscribers if it suddenly told all their owners to switch to streaming or else. The move to all-streaming would take several years, perhaps even a decade, I wrote.
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My view has not changed since then, but there is a related development that suggests AT&T wants to accelerate the transformation of DIRECTV from a satcaster to a streamcaster.
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Fierce Video reports that AT&T CFO John Stephens yesterday told a Morgan Stanley media conference that it planned next year to launch a set-top that will enable DIRECTV subscribers to stream their entire lineup over a Broadband network. (Stephens’ remarks echo a similar comment from AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson from last May. )
“It’s a device that allows us to, instead of rolling a truck to the home, we roll a UPS or FedEx truck to the home and deliver a self-install box,” Stephens told the industry conference. “This allows the customer to use their own broadband. We certainly hope it’s our own fiber but it could be on anybody’s broadband. And they get the full-service premium package that we would normally deliver off satellite or over our IP-based U-verse service.”
Back in May, Stephenson suggested that the streaming edition of DIRECTV would be less expensive to subscribers because it would require less investment by AT&T in infrastructure and other expenses.
“You (will) have the full DIRECTV experience over any broadband service that you might have in your home,” Stephenson said, according to a transcript supplied by Seeking Alpha. “So a premium video experience is going to be, rather than $110 to $200 (a month), it’s going to be in that $80 to $90 area because the cost structure (of delivering video over the Internet) comes way down.”
However, Stephens yesterday did not comment on whether the streaming DIRECTV would feature lower prices so we’ll see if Stephenson’s promise is kept.
The new streaming version of DIRECTV will be separate from DIRECTV Now and will carry the DIRECTV name. By delivering DIRECTV’s lineup over the Net, AT&T will be able to sell it to consumers who are unable to install a dish in their homes.
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I already have a device that can stream DirecTV Now or any other streaming service. It is called a Roku 😉 Seriously, though, I just dumped Direct after 19 years and now have two streaming services, HBO, and Showtime for less than I was paying for the lowest tier DirectV package. Plus I don’t have to mow around the dish in the back yard any more!
These cable companies are so out of touch its sad. But I guess that’s what happens when you have a group of old guys trying to reach out to a group of consumers who are their grand childrens age. No one wants contracts any more and they can make that right with streaming and even then they are screwing that up. They need to do what the music industry has done with streaming. Pay a flat rate per month and allow you to stream whatever you want, but hey why do I know?
When is AT&T going to live up to their promise to Wire their Footprint with FIBER, a condition AT&T had to agree to before they were allowed to buy DirecTV ?
That seemed to have got dropped. Except in a very few areas.
What do you think Comcast and Charter are going to say about DirecTV using their Network, when they are trying to sell Cable TV ?
I thought the reason AT&T Bought DirecTV was “U-Verse” did NOT work well for TV.
You are also right about EXISTING DirecTV “Satellite” Customers in the Sticks, They have NO other choice, except DISH
And the last problem with this Idea is: The Internet SPEED has to be good enough to accommodate Jillions of TV Customers, or it will not work or will Studder, Pixilate, have an inferior picture as compared to the “EXCELLENT Picture from a Satellite, or / and slow everyone’s Internet on a COAX Cable. ?
Don’t worry, 5G will solve all of this.