Updated

News and Analysis
AT&T, which owns DIRECTV Now, must be worried about the live streaming service’s recent subscriber defections. The telco just launched a new promotion that enables new DIRECTV Now customers to get $20 off during each of the first three months of the subscription.

After the three months are over, the new customer would pay the regular $50 a month rate for the Plus plan, and the regular $70 a month for the Max package. However, you can cancel prior to the start of the fourth month so you would only pay $30 a month or $50 a month for the three month promotional period. (You can also cancel anytime prior to the end of the three months.)

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DIRECTV Now, which amassed nearly two million subscribers thanks in part to a variety of promotional offers, lost a net of 267,000 subscribers in the 2018 fourth quarter after dropping the promotions. The live streamer also bumped the base price from $40 a month to $50 a month, which some cost-conscious consumers may have felt was too much. (Updated: AT&T revealed on April 24 that Directv Now lost a net of 83,000 subs in the first quarter.)

AT&T executives said they were eliminating the promo prices — and raising the regular price — because it was too difficult to generate a profit because of the escalating cost of acquiring programming. (AT&T also removed several channels from DIRECTV Now’s lineup, including the NFL Network, to reduce programming expenses.) But it would appear that the company is concerned that it could lose a much larger number of subscribers without some promotional offer.

To qualify for the $20 off offer, a new customer must enter the promo code, 20OFF3, when signing up for either the Plus or Max plans.

On its web site, DIRECTV Now says the ‘$20 off’ deal is available for a limited time, but it does not say when it will expire.

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— Phillip Swann